And. To provide students with an opportunity to develop the vital skills that enable them to speak with confidence in public.

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1 ESU Mauritius Public Speaking Competition 2018 And In collaboration with the British Council and Rotary Club Vacoas THE GRAND FINALS OF THE 2018 PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION FOR UPPER FORMS STUDENTS Venue : Town Hall of the Municipal Council of Vacoas-Phoenix Date : Friday 30th March 10:00 a.m. The Public Speaking Competition is one of the main activities organized by the English Speaking Union (Mauritius branch). It was first in 1994 with three objectives: To provide students with an opportunity to develop the vital skills that enable them to speak with confidence in public. To provide a focus for the learning of effective communication skills in English among young people. To give students the opportunity to meet, exchange and form friendship and understanding that will last a lifetime. Every year, the Public Speaking Competition is sponsored by the HSBC Mauritius, the British Council and the Rotary Club Vacoas. We also receive a donation of 500 pounds from ESU headquarters which is used towards the participation fee and pocket money remitted to our National Winner. The Public Speaking Competition acts as a platform for students to engage in an exchange of ideas and opinions, on a national and international scale. It enhances the participants public speaking and critical thinking skills and places them in situations requiring them to make spontaneous responses. Audibility, presence on the platform, spontaneity, rapport with the audience, a coherently presented argument and demonstration of the ability to think on one s feet are all key elements in this competition.

2 ESU offers training to participants at various stages of the competition - both in Mauritius and in Rodrigues - to help them gain confidence on stage and improve their performance at the competition. The competition starts in the third week of January and culminates in the Finals which are held at the end of March. Some 150 participants take part in ESU competition every year. However, a much larger number of students are involved in this activity as schools are encouraged to run an in-house competition to select their best speakers to take part in our competition. At the seven qualifying heats held across the island of Mauritius and at the heat held in Rodrigues island, participants were asked to deliver a speech related to the international theme Great artists have no country. Twenty-five students were selected to take part in the semi-finals. They were required to deliver an impromptu speech on a choice of 3 topics given to them 15 minutes in advance. The Finals were held on Friday 30 th March 2018 at the Town Hall of the Municipal Council of Vacoas-Phoenix. Our ten Finalists (including one from Rodrigues) delivered their speeches to an important audience, comprising H.E. Mr Barlen Vyapoory, Acting President of Mauritius, and other dignitaries. Their speeches were related to the National theme The best way to predict the future is to invent it. Mr Chris Murray, Chief Executive Officer of HSBC Mauritius, Mr Tris Bartlett, Director of the British Council and Prof Serge Rivière, Vice-President of ESU-Mauritius, were on the adjudicating panel to select a Winner and a Runner-Up. All finalists received prizes from the Director of the British Council. Our National winner, Ashwarya Devason represented ESU-Mauritius at the International Public Speaking Competition held in London in the month of May. She was offered an air ticket to London and some pocket money. ESU remitted certificates to all Finalists and the Winner & Runner-Up received a shield. Rotary Club provided us with the venue and refreshments at the Finals. 2

3 REPORT FROM PUBLIC SPEAKING COMPETITION We are happy to announce that this year we held the biggest PSC i ESU Chile s history! 58 participants from across the country met at the magnificent Teatro Municipal de Santiago i sear h of Chile s best young public speaker. With a place at the IPSC on offer, the competition was fierce. The inspiring testimony of last ear s i er ade us rethi k the atio al o petitio, with the aim of making this experience as valuable as possible for all of the participants. Please watch here 7 s i er, A a Ed ards, talki g a out her e perie e at the IPSC. For the first time, we held the competition across two days. The first day started with a guided tour of the theatre for participants and coaches. This was followed by an afternoon of workshops, which focused on delivery and tips for developing an impromptu speech. The orkshops also pro ided this ear s parti ipa ts ith the opportu it to spe d some valuable time with former PSC winners, who acted as mentors for the day. While the participants were being led through the workshops, their coaches and teachers enjoyed a wine and cheese event at a nearby restaurant, where we discussed how our different member schools go about supporting oracy. The competition itself was held on the following day. The students were divided into 6 heats, each of which was sent to a different room within the theatre. Each heat was judged by a team of 5 judges, comprising former winners, volunteers and public speaking experts.

4 After a morning of speeches, only nine students could progress to the semifinal. The selected students then had to prepare their impromptu speeches and convince the judges of their talent. While the semifinalists prepared their impromptu speeches, the audience was invited to participate in the Battle of the Impromptus. This is a short competition that was created in order to give students, teachers and family members the opportunity to try out their impromptu speaking skills and face their fears of speaking in front of a crowd. You can check out some of their speeches here. Four finalists were chosen to deliver their prepared speech in the final, with Paula Tuñon from La Maisonnette School eventually being named the winner of our 2018 National Competition. Thanks to the generous support from ESU and HSBC, we were able to organize the most successful ESU Chile event to date, with a total of over 200 students, teachers, judges and supporters present throughout the day. For a full review of the event, please check out the news story on

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