An international journalist is hosting a public speaking course in Twickenham for 10 to 14 year olds to boost their confidence.
Ayca Aydogdu’s course ‘Public Speaking Without Fear’, will run every Saturday from November 16 to December 14 at the Etna Centre and continue during school terms.
Using her 18 years of experience, Aydogdu has created the course filled with a range of activities to help kids.
She said: “If we are taught to speak without fear from a young age, it helps with personal and academic growth.”
According to many studies public speaking has been proven to be our top fear, the second being death.
Aydogdu was a reporter in Turkey, working for Turkish public broadcaster TRT World for seven years as a news anchor presenting a foreign news programme,
After being in the clinically extremely vulnerable group during the pandemic, Aydogdu continued to present programmes from home, but due to her health she couldn’t return to the newsroom.
She did an online course, ‘Communicating for influence and impact’ at the University of Cambridge, which inspired her to teach public speaking to kids.
Soon after, Aydogdu started working for Inspired Education, setting up a summer public speaking and debating course at Reddam House.
She said: “It was lovely to be able to set up the course and be leading it.”
Her experience working for TRT World in international news, alongside previous courses she had done, helped her prepare for this course.
Aydogdu spoke of how although public speaking is part of the school curriculum, it is still very underfunded.
This drove her further to start the course in order to give kids the confidence to do public speaking.
Although she does individual classes for adults, she has decided to focus on working with kids right now as she believes the younger they get over their fear, the easier it will be in their future.
She said: “We all have a fear of public speaking but they have less barriers, are more free in terms of expressing themselves.”
The course is divided into different parts, such as body language, speech types and critical thinking.
With these topics she was able to embed activities such as reporting to excite the children.
She said: “It gives them a little bit of fun and an edge and for them to enjoy what they’re doing.”
The course is being held at the Etna Centre as she can teach for longer as opposed to in a school being limited to stricter times.
She said: “ It’s a great centre, it’s lovely people who are running it.”
Alongside this course, Aydogdu is hosting an after school club at a primary school in Kingston.
In the future, she hopes to expand the age bracket and teach 14 to 18 year olds, as well as teaching courses in secondary schools and hosting adult classes.
Aydogdu believes introducing public speaking from an early age will help children develop their confidence in the future.
As the current generation are consumed by technology, Aydogdu explained that it is more than necessary to start at a young age.
She said: “Public speaking should be taught in schools, not only does it help children be comfortable in social situations, it develops a lifetime of confidence and improves physical and mental wellbeing.
“Communication is a form of art, and the earlier we start and help our children, actually we help them in their lives.”
Feature image courtesy of Ayca Aydogdu, with thanks
Join the discussion
Ayca is a fantastic journalist, speaker and teacher – and in theses times learning to use your voice without fear is so needed. This will be great.