Beginning English students often don't have enough language to fully participate and students with developing English skills often lack the technical vocabulary needed to write a good quality speech. There are also those students (old Phase 2 and 3 students) who find it difficult to be succinct and end up circumventing the topic (talking around the topic rather than getting to the point).
As an EAL/D teacher it is often my job to help a student prepare for public speaking, usually this ends up being an assessable task. In order to make my EAL/D students feel comfortable with public speaking I attempt to warm up with a few 'no pressure' public speaking games.
One game I played this afternoon involved writing different nouns on a pieces of paper (words I know the student knows well) and placing them into a bag. The student then takes a piece of paper out of the bag and reads the word. They get one minute thinking time and then I put the timer on for one minute and they have to stand up and tell the group everything they know about that topic.
For example a student might pull out the word 'ice cream'. They then think for one minute and tell us everything they know about ice cream: "It is cold, it melts on hot days. It comes in lots of different flavours. I like chocolate ice cream. It is made from milk. You can buy it at the supermarket".
When the timer goes off it is the next persons turn.
As they become comfortable and confident with this activity I begin to add some rules.
1 point for speaking clearly, 2 points for making good eye contact, 3 points for talking without stopping and -1 point for saying 'ummm'.
As the students become familiar with this activity we do it as a warm up before writing speeches, practising speeches and delivering speeches. They seem to enjoy this activity. It is fast paced and the range of topics is fun.