How to speak clearly and confidently

1. Introduction: thank you for enrolling on my course. I imagine that you are here because you would like to speak more clearly with more confidence on sound. A bit more interesting than perhaps you do now. Perhaps you think you speak too quickly, perhaps to quietly. Perhaps you mumble, and people are always asking you to repeat what you say in this course we are going to cover the technical skills required. I've kept it, I think, quite basic, their arm or advanced sounds more advanced terms that I could have covered. But my main purpose here is to get you speaking and to get you speaking and have fun. So I didn't want to get too bogged down with details. So we will cover basic foul sounds, basic constant sounds on how to make each word clearer. Then, in the second part of the course, we will cover how to make what you're saying once you've got it clear how to make it sound more interesting so that people don't think that you are a boring speaker or that they find you really hard to listen to. We want you to become why I think we I want you to become a speaker where people want to listen where they really enjoy what you say really understand it where they get your enthusiasm when when you stop there thinking, Oh, that's a shame. I was really enjoying that. That's what we want. You want your listener to engage with you. That means you have to make their job easy so they can just sit back and listen. Onda, we want you to enjoy speaking. Enjoy the sounds. Enjoy talking about what you know about you're the expert on bond. If people can't understand you, if you're too quiet too fast to mumbly, I'm not sure that's word then People will never know how good you are. They will never know that deep inside you're really enthusiastic of actual topic. You're very knowledgeable. But if the basic communication skills are missing, they will never know that. So this course hopefully will improve all of that. And if you get to the end and you think Ah, yes, I've learned two or three really important things that will help me. Then it will have been worth me making this and it will have been worth you listening to it . Okay, let's get home with speaking 2. How to say the word 'something': a pet hate of mine the world Something quite simple. You would think something. I would guess that everybody that's listening to this lecture could write the word something S o m e T h i N g. But I have been teaching since 1994. Andi, I have come across more people than I should have done who cannot say the word. Something they may say. Some think there is no such word. They may say some. I think again, No such word. They may say something. No such word. Okay, it's 1/3 not a for it's an ng. Not think some thing it is, not some think some think or something. Some thing easy surely. 3. How to say the word 'our': the word our Oh, you are our house. Our garden, Our dog. Our chair It is not are our dog Archer all garden? Ah is a totally different word. A r a. It is not Oh, you are our It's a vowel sound. Your mouth needs to change shape. It is said exactly the same as our h o u r When we're talking about the time, come back in an hour's time. You wouldn't say Come back in ours time. Okay? Our house, our Children. It is not our please say it correctly. 4. Articulation: articulation. The dictionary definition of articulation is the art of speaking Andi. In order to speak clearly, we need to be able to use all the muscles around our mouth and lower jaw. Now the clearer weaken speaking, the better our articulation is, the easier it is for people to listen to us. There are three reasons for this. Firstly, if we can use the muscles effectively, then it actually makes the physical process off. Speaking more easy, it's the same as any sport you may do. If you usual muscles and you exercise your muscles, then the activity becomes easier. On speaking is no different if you can use your tongue, um, quickly and efficiently. The sounds are clearer, Andi less effort for you. Now, if your speech is clearer because you use your muscles well, then it is easier to listen to. People don't have to try and decipher what it is you're saying. You will be saying the sounds clearly and crisply. The third reason this is good is because if you are able to speak clearly and you know that you speak clearly, their new as the speaker don't have to worry about it, you know that you are clear. So you just have to think about what it is you are saying and you don't have to stop and think about how you are saying it now. This doesn't mean that we want over articulation. Somebody who tries to speak to clearly can be just as annoying and difficult or even more annoying and difficult to listen to somebody who, instead of saying the cat sat on the mat, says the cat sat on the mat is unnatural, difficult to listen to. They would lose any fluency they would need. But on the other hand, bad articulation is also irritating to listen to if somebody misses off the ends of the words. So instead of saying the cat sat on the mat, they say the cat sat on the mat or instead of saying walking that's a walking that is just is irritating. A lot of people think that is caused by sheer laziness, and in some cases it may be. But that could be a bit of a mean description because when I've corrected people, when I've had people read things out to me and I've said I couldn't hear the ends of the words. I didn't hear any eaters does. They are amazed they haven't done it on purpose. They aren't lazy. They just really didn't realize. They didn't realize that they were supposed to put the sound there. They didn't realize that you could put the sound there without it sounding over the top. Um so it is not really laziness. It's just being unaware. We want your speech to sound clear. We want you to be confident, but on top of everything else, it has to sound natural. 5. Organs of Speech: organs of speech. In order to create this clear speech, we need to use our organs of speech. And we have five main ones. These are our tongue, our lips. Our teeth are hard palate. Andi, our soft palate. Now, out of those, the tongue is the most important. It creates a nice clear sound and it can move in and out of our mouth. It could move up and down and it can move from side to side. So it is very flexible and is used in all sorts of sounds. Our lips can change shape. We can have oh o e So your lips also older The sound Andi, it's something that a lot of people are frightened to use. They try to speak is though they are training to become a ventriloquist on they don't like to move their lips to get nice, clear speech. They need to move. They need to change shape Now teeth are important. Teeth can't move home, but they are used in conjunction with other parts of our math. We used them without tongue to get a We also use them with our lips to get for teeth are important and we noticed this when we don't have them. Young Children who are losing their baby teeth often find it difficult to speak clearly with their teeth missing. Onda older people who may have found that their teeth didn't reach the ripe old age that they did. We also find that their speech voters, if they have some teeth missing so teeth are important Now the hard palate on the soft palate, that is the roof of our mouth. The hard palate is the roof of your mouth just behind your teeth. Very important. And it is used in conjunction with the tongue to make tough Uh, no. On DLA on those sounds are very important, as we will find out later. Now your soft palate is right at the back. It's almost like in your throat, and you use that for making cup. Oh, so the sound comes right back here and again. Very important sound. And we will cover these sounds, um, separately. So we have five main organs of speech on. They all need to be used correctly to get nice, clear speech 6. How to practice: in order to learn how to speak clearly, you need to practice on. Did you need to practice out loud? There is absolutely no point in reading all of this information reading through the exercises, Andi. Then just doing it in your head as though you were reading to yourself. It would be a bit like trying to learn to swim without getting in the water or learning to dance without actually getting off in trying it. The only way to improve is Toe. Actually, do it on to say these things out loud. You need to move your mouth. You may feel stupid. Um, it doesn't matter. Some of these exercises will be overemphasized in order to get you to get used to moving your mouth. If I want you to be able to open your life this wide when you're speaking, we may need to practice with open that white so that when you're not thinking about it, you were still open it quite wide. So you need to practice over the top When you are practicing speaking. Try to look at an object. Don't speak down because your voice just goes down. Don't mumble. Look at something in front of you. Andi, speak to it as though it were a person. So open your mouth. Say these things out loud. Andi, They remember they are exercises. They are not examples of good conversation. They are not examples off how you would speak at an event. They are purely exercises. And it would be like a footballer learning to dribble a ball around around some obstacles. But he would never do that in a football match. But he needs to be able to do it so he can control the ball. And this is the same. You need to be ableto open your mouth to make these sounds, but I wouldn't expect you necessarily to do that in everyday conversation, so practice out loud and really go for it. 7. How to say 't' and 'd': the thing that I correct the most when I am teaching people face to face is the ends of words on ditz words that end with or this really makes a huge difference to how you sound. The terp under are the sounds that can make you sound lazy. They are the sounds which, if they are missing, makes you sound mumbled on about hard to understand. Now the most important is unders are at the ends of the words or in the middle of a word. So we have examples, Andi not and little. So the 1st 1 Andi, a word we all use all of the time. If you were to write the word down, you would always spell it a N d. I'm sure you would always put the d on the end. Why wouldn't you? However, when people say it, they missed the D off quite often. So we get on the same with not we get no on with words with tea in the middle, we get little instead off a little. So these teas and days which make it tough and dust sound are incredibly important. They are very easy to correct your tongue has to touch the top of your mouth. Simple is that and as long as your tongue does touch the top of your mouth, you aren't bound to get a quiet. We don't want to overdo it. If we take a sentence like I lost my cat, right T on the end of lost T on the end of cat, I lost my cat. We don't want I lost my cat. It doesn't have to be that aggressive. So if your tongue touches the top of your mouth when you take your tongue away, you will get a quiet. I lost my cat. You try it. Okay. Andi, be conscious off your tongue. Touching the roof of your mouth. So once more I my good. This time we've got a t in the middle of words as well. So I absolutely love chocolate. We don't want I absolutely I looked leaders a t there. So you try it. I absolute please also notice that when I say chocolate there are three syllables. Chaka, let it is not chocolate. The middle syllable is very quick, but it should be there. So I absolutely love chocolate. You try it. Brilliant. Right? Let's go for something a bit longer this time. Bread and butter is a tasty addition to fish and chips. We have a day on the end of the word. And so fish and chips. Uh, but it isn't fish on day trips, Bread and butter. Andi is not the important word, but it needs to be said correctly, but you can still say it with no stress and still put the duck on the end. Bread, butter So D on the end of bread D on the end of on and t in the middle of butter, bread and butter, Not bread and butter, bread and butter. So just try the 1st 3 words. Good is a tasty addition to fish and chips. So try the whole sentence. Bread and butter is a tasty addition to fish and chips. Be aware of that, but don't overdo it. You have a go good. So be aware. Off the and the remember, If you write it, then say it, please. Okay. I spend most of my teaching life, and I have done over the last 20 odd years saying to people, Don't forget that, and, uh 8. How to say the 'th' sound: a sound that doesn't appear in a lot of languages is the foot sound. Andi people often have trouble with it. In fact, people who have the first sound in their language often have trouble with it. You need to use your tongue and you use it with your teeth. Your tongue has to go between your teeth. It has to come out of your mouth a little way because it is the process of taking it back into your mouth. That makes the sound so so. The tongue has to be out before you say sound. So things like this that the tongue has to be there before you make the sound. You can't. You just can't start the sound without your tongue being there. So this that then we have it in the middle of words, Brother. Another Andi. I would always suggest to people if they have trouble, split the word brother. The bruh. Put your tongue out. So, brother, and not the Andi. Then we have it on the end of the word, both with youth. So as you finish the word both with the okay, both with youth, your tongue has to be able to move quickly to make this sound again. It is an incredibly important sound in English on If you don't say it properly, you get a very lazy sounding speech so the can become Duh 33 can become for free. So you're substituting the thug with over. So now you have a goat, some of thes, so we just do simple words to start with. So this that brother another both with youth, you have a go. Good. Now I suggest that you practiced these words looking in the mirror and to make sure you can see the tip of your tongue. Four. Practice. I would suggest sticking your tongue right out. Obviously in conversation. You are not going to do that. It just needs to see the tip of it. This So we're going to try a new exercise I used to have to do when I was about 10 or 11 years old. This is my finger. This is my thumb. Keep your three thers this now in order conversation, I would just say this is my finger. This is my thumb and I'm not thinking about it. But you can see the tip of my tongue. Take so practice. This is my finger. This is my thumb. Try it. Brilliant. Let's try another one. The weather on my birthday is often very thundery. Okay, Dried is up day often very sudden jury. So we've got first of all over the place there. Never both off. My brothers are singing with me this afternoon. So again first at the end, authors in the middle, thirst at the beginning, Every single time your tongue needs to come out of your mouth for both off. My brothers are singing with me this afternoon You have a go good While we are talking about the thirst sound Just a quick mention about the difference between the on and the both spelt exactly the same way. However, in English, If the next word begins with a vowel, we say the so would be the banana, the apple, the chair, the idea. Ah, lot of people do it without thinking in conversation. They would always say it correctly and they don't know why. But when I get them to read something, they are so busy concentrating on the words that they just see the and say the apple, the apple, It just helps with the flow off speech, and it is the correct way to do it. So the before continent, the before a vowel both spelt exactly the same way T h e the the okay, tongue out of your mouth for all of these sounds. 9. Vowel sounds: vowel sounds are the sounds that I think bring our speech to life. The vowel sounds give words a character, a life of their own. It is also the sound that will affect our accent in English. We have five vowels, a e i O and U Andi. Each one of those makes more than one sound. Remember, it is the sound we are interested in, not the letter name. So the letter a can make three sounds. It can be a in cat. It's can be our in car or it can be a in day. So we may have five letters, but we have in excess of 20 different sounds. The only thing that olders vowel sound is the shape of your mouth. Nothing in your mouth touches you open your mouth and outcomes the sound so r e o do nothing in my mouth is touching. The only thing that is altering is the shape of my mouth. My lips are moving, so just try a couple of these, so just say Ah, good. Oh, and oh, um, now, in all those signs, your your mouth was moving your e Ah oh, Sometimes you will notice that you open your mouth and the sound just comes straight out. Okay? I'll stop my mouth. Some of the sound your mouth changes shape, so I Okay, my mouth is closing. I they are made up of two sounds. And if you were to slow it right down, you would get I I I Okay, so just try it. I'm good. So these are fouls. Sounds are to say important. They I think they make words come alive. Andi, um, you have to exercise your mouth. You need toe. Open it. It can't change shape. If it's not open in the first place, we go back to our ventriloquist if you don't open your mouth. If you're trying to talk about this all the time, then it's not going to change shape on just features. Not going to be very clear. So we need toe, open it wide and get Aled these lovely shapes. And then we can get these lovely sounds 10. The 'i' sound: Let's try on exercise with a vowel sound. We're going to take the letter I on. It has to sounds in English. It could be I as in my or it could be a as in sit. We're going to work on the ice sound. It's a diff thong, which means it's made up of two sounds. I you need to open your mouth really wide, I would say for practice. Take your middle three fingers on, open your mouth and why did you can as though you were yawning that's high wide for practice. I wouldn't expect you to open your mouth that wide when you are talking normally. Perhaps, if you were giving a speech to a huge group of people and you're up on a stage, then you could. And it wouldn't look silly because you're so far away from people that they wouldn't really notice on the Why do you open your mouth, the easier it is for the sound to get out. I mean, that's just common sense, but an ordinary conversation, I would say two fingers. So about that void. But for practice, please, please practice with your mouth open as why did you possibly can. You may even find that your jaw here starts to ache because you are using muscles you haven't used before. So we're going to start with an easy one. High in the pine tree, so high is easy. You just open your mind for that comes inside high. Hi. Okay. High in the pine tree pines A bit more difficult because you start with your mouth closed to get that pup pine tree, so have a go. Good. Now I hope you opened your mouth really wide. Let's try another one. I tried to buy a kite last night. Now some of those air easier than others, right? I up zzz tried by kind night. Now some of the harder because of the constant sound before the I So night you to start with No. Nine. It's hard. So when you're practicing, make sure you get a really nice I sound. And by doing that, you may find you are distorting the word a bit. Night I would never say that my was in public. I would never say night, but I would practice like that so that when I'm just gambling away without thinking about it and I want to say the word night. My brain and my mouth work together night. It knows it has to open fairly wide. Okay, so I tried to buy a kite last night. You have a coach? Good. As with the first sound, I would suggest that when you practice this sound, you look in the mirror because quite often I have taught people on dive said open your mouth really wide, as though you were yawning to say hi and they go high. I said no, really wide on the sea. Hi. They think they are. So look in the mirror and make sure that you actually are opening your mouth as wide as you possibly can. Let's try another sentence. Smile when you see your child. Okay? My eyes smile. Make it sound like smile. Smile when you see your child. We got later eyes. We've also got a bit of a le le your tongue touching the top of your mouth. Make sure it does. It is possible to say smile without your tongue touching the top of your mouth and then you get a smile. Smile, Smile. Okay, child, smile. When you see your child, you try very good. There are two words that people often worry about pronouncing because they can be said to ways. I wouldn't say one is right, and I wouldn't say that one was wrong. But I was taught that one sounds better than the other, either. Well, either neither or neither. I was always taught that the I sound is a much fuller sound. It gives more life to a word, so I would always say either or neither. I wouldn't say to anybody that said neither or either that they were wrong. I would point out that there are two ways of saying it on. Then leave it up to them to choose which one they prefer. So I lovely, lovely sound in thousands of words. 11. Other sounds: Let's try some different vowel sounds, so Oh, nice round match. Oh, okay. Oh, your mind with closing as I'm saying, Oh, so let's try. He gave a groan and then Ammon groan, moan he gave a groan And then Ammon, you try. This is a sound that a lot of people who have English as an additional language I have trouble with The O's become a bit more like an awe. So don't becomes Don't Don't is a word we use all the time way. Don't even think about it. So I get people to practice on their fine. And then they will have a little conversation in between exercises. Andi, they will revert back to don't. Okay, so let's try. Oh, dear. Oh, my cake is all dough. You try. Oh, why, good. Now try dough. Don't. Those owes should be exactly the same dough. Don't try it. Good. Now, if you have a nice scent and I love accents, I have nothing against accents at all. But you need to be able to be understood. So if you say don't rather don't. Everybody will know what you mean. There is one word, however, where sometimes there can be confusion if you say won't and want the same way. I won't consigned like I want. So those are two words where you need to be able to get that. Oh, sound if possible. So won't. And then we have want, which is totally different Sound. Okay. Oh, let's try the a Another word where we need to open our mouth on the shape of our mouth Changes a The lady gave me a plate. The lady gave fate. The lady gave me a plate. You drive good. The A sound can sometimes become confused of the eye. So instead of paper we a piper Okay was in between Piper in paper Piper Day die So not a sound a electoral mouth change shape a one that can get confused is the A and the A So sit and seat, Phil and feel on one that really irritates me, I'm afraid has been on being I've been there. No, you haven't. I've bean there, ok e so for the longer e sound Your mouth is like a smile. Don't be fooled into thinking that they are the same sound in one is just shorter than the other. They are totally different sounds. OK, so let's just try a couple. I sit in the seat, you try. Brilliant. Um I have bean toe empty the bins. Okay. You know, in Britain we love our baked beans. They're not big bins. Okay, being another one is due in English. We tend to say you you again, our mouth is changing. Shape is very subtle, but it doesn't stop. It doesn't start off is due. You said new music. We don't say music as a lot of European languages would do. Music we say music you. So just try. Um I love the new music room. Try Good. Now these sows signs this homemaking these sounds signs that are made up of two sounds I could if films on there are six main ones. Andi, they are I Our oy you owe a in my mouth is changing shape that there's a sentence to remember those my house joins new roadway I our oy you o a. So when you make those vowel sounds are mouth needs to change shape. Um, don't worry about trying to remember all these technical details. Just open your mouth to get a really nice sound. 12. Word pictures: in the first part of this course, we discussed the technical ways off, making the sounds, whether they were constant sounds that needed to Zander's first, or whether they were vowel sounds that needed on my foot wide ours ours owes and bring the words to life. Now, when I'm speaking, I am trying to get the listener to get pictures in their minds, to get images, to get feelings, to get emotions. Okay, I'm trying to make pictures with words. So if I was to say the sentence, my new car is shiny. If I made the word shiny stand out, you would in your mind get that picture. It may not be exactly the same as my picture, but it would be a picture of a shiny car. Mine may be a big, large, red, shiny car. Yours might be a little blue China car, but my new cars shiny I made that would stand out. I could make new standard. My new car is shiny straight away. You are picking out that it is new and it is shiny on because I've made the important word stand out. You haven't had to think about it too much straight away. Those words stood out. So I've made it easier for you, the listener, to understand what I've said, aunt, to get an image in your mind of what I've said. And to be quite honest by making those words stand out, I've made it more fun for me and speaking. I've enjoyed making those eyes and shiny. Okay, new. My new car is shiny. So in this next part of the course, we're going to see what methods we can use to make these words stand out to make what we say sound interesting. Andi, have expression. We could be technically brilliant, but very, very boring. 13. Inflection: one of the ways we can make what we say sound interesting is the use off inflection. This put quite simply, is the bending of your voice. It's even then I voice my foot. My voice went dying voice. If I spoke without using any inflection, my voice would be so monotonous. Onda boring that you would just turn off after two or three seconds. We use inflection all the time, so it's the most important way. If you are asking a question, then normally your voice goes up. So we would say, How much is that? The data? Okay, when you come to the end of a thought, your voice goes down. Then people know you have finished. If you are saying a list of something, perhaps it's your shopping list. You want butter cakes, bread, bananas, Andi chocolate. So they will go up part of the last one, which comes down so people know I've finished so we can use it in things like No, you could say No, no, no. My voice is going down up in states saying so inflection is incredibly important, and it's the bending of the voice from one pitch to another. Don't overdo it. Otherwise, you'll sound like trying to sing while you're speaking. But be aware of it. Don't be frightened of it, Onda. Um try not to make it too irritating. Sometimes people will lift their voice up along the time. So everything is a question. So be sensible. Listen to people on DSI what they do to then just try a few words, say yes. Yes. And then yes. And then perhaps yes. So old to that inflection. And you'll get a different meaning every time. 14. Stress: stress is important, and I don't mean the sort of stress you get when you worried about something that is totally unneeded, and I would do anything I could to avoid that sort of stress. But stress on a word can totally owe to the meaning of something. Let's just take the simple sentence. Chloe loves to go shopping. It stressed the first word. Chloe loves to go shopping, so that's implies that it's only Chloe. Nobody else that Chloe loves to go shopping. Okay, Chloe loves to go shopping. I mean, she really loves it. Doesn't hate it. She doesn't just like it. She loves it. Chloe loves to go shopping, implies she doesn't want to go horse riding. She doesn't like going to restaurants. She doesn't like going dancing. But Chloe loves shopping, so altering the stress. All a word in a sentence can alter that sentence. It can alter the meaning. So be very aware of this. If you want to make something stand out, stress the word, make it stand out 15. Power: power and pitch power. The volume. We always need to speak loud enough for people to be able to hear us. We don't want them to have to strain trying to trying to here at the same time, we don't want to be to lag. We don't want to frighten people. We don't want to a signed aggressive. Sometimes you will need to sign quieter. Other times you want to be louder. So variety is the key here. We want quiet, we want loud, but we also need to say to always be heard easily Now Page. We could be high. We could be low. Little Children's tend to speak for the higher pitch on. Older people tend to speak with a lower pitch. If I was to say Father Christmas, most people would think Ho, ho, ho if I was to talk about a little fairy or elf, people who think, Oh yes, with little high voice so altering the pitch of your voice can create images, and it creates feelings and emotion. Most people, when they are angry or anxious or excited, raise the pitch of their voice. We can't help it. We get all excited about something And so if we want to sign serious, try to keep the pitch lower. That gives you more a voice off authority, however, don't stay low all the time on purpose, just to sound serious, because that is boring, even serious topics. Even serious people need to sound exciting on interesting sometimes, so you need to alter it. It needs to be high sometimes, and sometimes it needs to be low on. If we can get a mix, then our speech will sound interesting. 16. Pace: pace. Most people, at least some of the time, speak too quickly. Andi, I'm as guilty as anybody else. We have all this information in our heads on. We want to get it out before we forget it. Onda, We have important bits. And then as we're talking, we think of something that we think is more important. So we rushed to get to that bit. Um, we need to slow down. We need to give the listener time to take in what we have said. Their brain needs to work it out. They need time to think. Oh, yes. So slow down. Okay, Um, perhaps easier said than done. And it is probably one off the most common complaints people have. I speak too quickly. People are always asking me to repeat what I say. People can never understand me. My brain goes too quickly, so you need to slow down. The main thing I would say here is please don't just make the gaps between the words longer . That doesn't work. All you get then is, um, disjointed speech. If I waas to make the so just by making gaps, it makes your speech even harder to understand. you've lost all that fluency. An easier way is to try to make the words longer. Andi, That goes back to how we make our vow. Sounds long on how we can get the ends of the words on. So if we're putting all the tools and does, then physically is taking us longer because our tongue is having to move more. So if we make the vowel sounds longer and let's take the word longer. So instead of saying longer, longer that are longer, I'm talking a fraction of a second. But those little fractions of a second add up Andi, it slows you down. Um, I do speak too quickly. I know that. So when I start something, I almost have to tell my brain. Remember? Slow down. Make those words longer. Have fun with the sounds. Don't go too fast at the same time. Don't go too slow. I have come across people that just speaks slowly and you are sitting there thinking Just get on with it. Please, just get to the end. What you're trying to tell me, So don't be one of those irritating people either. Okay? Variety is king. Okay? Fast sometimes. If you want excitement and anger and I don't know, anguish, but slow sometimes as well. If you want to be more serious, more thoughtful, and we need variety, we always need variety in our speech. 17. Syllables: following on from pace. Andi not speaking too quickly, we come to a topic that is very relevant to that. And that is how many syllables are in a word, take a word like every Most people say every it actually has three syllables at vory The middle one is really, really quick. Every different. It isn't different. Different The middle bit is quick interest, not interest. Interesting, extra ordinary. It isn't extraordinary. Extraordinary one We've already covered chocolate can not chocolate chocolate. Putting these syllables in and saying the word correctly not only makes you sound better, but it slows you down Every takes longer to say that every people won't think that your mad they won't even notice. In a way, all they will notice is that you speak nicely. Person speaks very well. But if you said to them why what makes you say that? They wouldn't know. They would just know that it sounds good. They wouldn't be able to pinpoint that. It was because you've put the syllables in the words so interest, different, extraordinary chocolate. So there are lots of them. Make sure you say the words correctly and that will slow your speech down, make it sound really good. Andi will be much easier to listen to 18. Pausing: pausing is sort of tied up with pace. Really, it slows you down. It gives you a chance to think about what you're going to say. It gives you a chance to breathe, and it gives you a listener a chance to take in what you've said and perhaps think, Oh yes, I never thought of that before or if you said something funny to giggle to get the pause. Because if there laughing while you're still talking, they missed the bit that you you're saying now. So pause. We can pause before an important word. So then people anticipate what you are going to say. You can pause after an important word so they can think Yes, I have thought of that or you compose before and after on important word, and that really makes it stand out. But pausing is really, really important. We need to pause at the end of a thought. So if you were reading, you would pause when you got to a full stop at the end of a sentence. Don't just carry on. Children do that when they are learning to read, and they just keep going on, then your brains trying to think. Oh, well, that's That's a new thought. That doesn't That doesn't apply to the bit. They just said do the same when you're speaking. Stop. It is the sign of confidence. If a person has the has the confidence to stop, silence is very strong. Don't be frightened of it. OK, so stop, I think. And then carry on. See, I've just done a very bad thing there. I mean, um, try not to fill those spaces with words we don't need like Oh, like hmm, Right. If you know you have that habit, try to think the word instead. So I should think when I'm thinking what to say next, I will try to that future. So think it. Don't be frightened of the silence stopping help shore listener. They need that time to take in what it is you are saying. Remember, you may know what you're talking about. You may know what's coming next. The listener has no idea. So every thought everything you say is new to them on. They need time to take it in. So pause. There are lots of different sorts of pauses on die listed them on the resource that you can look at and download. Okay, so pause is important 19. Facial Expression: use your face. Communicating is about sharing ideas, sharing thoughts. So use your face. It's it's incredible what it can do. If you're saying something funny, smile. If you're saying something serious, look serious. If you confuse the two, if I start saying something really serious, but I'm smiling and laughing, then I'm going to confuse the listener on my joking. A my serious what? What am I trying to convey? So use your face. Um, you know, smile, use your eyes sparkle. You should eyebrows. Don't just sit there with, um, I don't know, just a boring look being too frightened to use it because then even if you're using expressive speech, you're giving over mixed messages. You know, you may sound excited with your voice, you know, but if you don't use your face, it'll then it just comes across as being very dull and people will switch off, so you should face trying not to use your hands too much. I think I have a tendency to do that, and I know it can be irritating because all people can see is, you know, hands everywhere. That doesn't mean to say you got to be frightened to move. Don't just sit thinking I mustn't move. I mustn't move my face. I mustn't move my body. I mustn't move my hands. I've just got to use my voice Because communication is more than just your voice. Your voice is important, but you need to be relaxed. I have to confess that when I'm recording these lectures, I often actually sit on my hands because I know I have a habit of doing this on. It's even worse on a video because it looks like they become large. Don't so I do try to sit on them, so be aware of it. If you know you have something irritating that you do, try to stop it. If you're standing and you are speaking, try not to rock side to side or backwards and forwards. Hum tried to stand fairly still, but says say don't be frightened to move. Um, but you should face a lot and your hands a little bit 20. More about practising: how to practice, I get asked a lot. What is the best way to practice? Well, obviously, it's very hard to do it in conversation because unless you get the person you're talking to , to stop you and to correct you, Andi, they have to know what they're listening for. But then you can't do it. You would lose all sense of what you were saying. If you try to correct yourself as you're speaking, you tend to be too busy thinking about how to say things on. Do you forget what you want to say? So I always say that the best way is to read aloud. Um, over the years, I have had pupils who disagreed with me to start with Oh, no, I don't want to read aloud. I can read aloud quite well. That's not the point. It's to do with getting your brain and your mouth working together. You need a way of breaking those bad habits and creating new habits on. The only way you're going to do that is to speak on. If you are reading, then you can see where the ends of the words are. You can see the tears and the dozen. The things you can see, the vowel sound. You can see the punctuation, you know where to pause. So it really is the best way to do it. It doesn't have to be a long winded process. If you're in the kitchen, Um, pick up a packet of biscuits, read what it says mine are in Portuguese because I've moved to Portugal and two starter. You can read out the ingredients, read the list, making sure you inflect your voice the right way, you know, up and then down. Make one of the ingredients stand out as though it's something really special. So, you know, in the kitchen, a tin of peas or carrots or I don't know anything you may have just pick it up, read it and put it down. Or what? You may have a leaflet come through the door. Um, just read it out loud, just not wholly fit. Just the first bit the magic circus dot com Um, featuring the incredible illusion. So making a featuring the incredible illusions go mad with it. Just a couple of sentences. That's all it needs. Um, so that's the way to do it. Then you get used to putting the ends of the words on things. You get used to the sound of your own voice as you hear it, not as other people hear it, which is one reason why I don't recommend particularly recording yourself, because everybody says, Oh, I hate the way I said, Oh, I don't sound like that die you do to other people But that's not what you hear. You need to be comfortable, Andi, confident in what you hear when you speak. And the only way you can do that is to keep speaking out loud, reading out loud, pausing, making important words stand out in the next lecture. I'm going to read out loud a poem. I know that hardly any of us sit down and read a poem out loud, huh? But it demonstrates how to practice. I'll read it out loud, and then I'll go through the different things you can do to make it sound interesting. I will also give you a few tips on how to present things. If you do have to give a speech or a talk, so practice out loud all the time. Read whatever you can. A paragraph in a newspaper a couple of sentences in a book, a poster in a shop window. So read out loud, Let's try the poem next. 21. Reading a poem: I'm going to read a poem out loud. It's quite short on. Then I will go over how you can practice your speech. This some of these tips will come in useful. If you ever have to give a speech or if you have Children, I have to give a talk at school. So first things first the poem I I'm reading this. I have cut a piece out and I stuck it onto a piece of card. This makes it seem a little bit more professional. I'm not just holding a flimsy piece of paper, so I would suggest if you have to give a talk or you have to give a speech, do that. Stick it onto a piece of card. Your card can be poor. Shit can be glittery. It could be shining. It could be very professional. Or it could just be no peace, A card like this. Um, the next thing I would do personally is I would underline certain bits of it because I want to make eye contact with you even though I'm reading. I don't want to sit here and look down like this along the time and the people I'm talking to Could have walked away for all I know. Okay, so I need to look up sometimes. So I would underlying just little bit find pen. And I just think that's how it looks at the moment. So I would underline that bit on underlying the end of it. All right, so I'm just underlined a few words. Um, I could underline more, but that will remind me to look up. I've tried to pick out important bits. You should always look up on the first few words on the last few words, but it doesn't matter, particularly I've underlined here, husband. If I don't look up on husband and I look up on the the words after, it doesn't really matter. But it's reminding me to look up. So I'm just going to read it. First of all, Okay, on old lady remembers on old lady sits by her new garden fence. She looks at her flowers and thinks it makes sense to plant some more tulips. Where once was a shed, it was the den off her husband, now sadly dead, she sits on. She smiles as she remembers the past how she and old Elbert would sit on the grass. They'd picnic on cake she'd made to save pence the money they saved sport the new garden fence. So that's the poem, right? So how did I do it? First of all, anything that ends with a T or D. So you got old. Old lady sits by her new garden fence. She looks at, looks at right toe at her flowers on and thinks it makes sense so you could go through and encircle every word without reading it. Just go through and every word that ends of the T or D put to circle around it. Okay, That will remind you to make sure you use your tongue. We've got old. We got that le old You could say old without the d l in it. Sorry. Without the l in it owned old we got smiles, But remember those eyes she smiles on. Got the luck smiles as she remembers the past on the end pause. We've got punctuation. We have commerce at the end of some of the lines. So stop on old lady sits by her new garden fence. Okay? And make those vowel sounds long new by her new garden fence not new garden fence we don't want. One old lady sits by her new garden fence. She looks at the flowers and thinks it makes sense to plants and more tulips. Where once was a shed, it was the den of her husband. Now, sadly, did she sits and she smiles that she remembers the past, how she and old Albert would sit on the grass, the picnic on cake she'd made to save pence, the money they saved. What? The new garden fence. Boring. Okay, Dull, No meaning, no emotions, No feelings. So she sits on. She smiles as she remembers the past. She's remembering. She's she's thinking about the past. To slow down is thoughtful. It's not a rush. Um, so pick something on Do all of these things put the ends of the words on. That's the most important thing. Pause. Stop when you get to punctuation, and if there isn't any punctuation, just stop where it makes common sense. Make the vowel sounds long on. Old lady sits. Okay, She's old Onda. Whilst it's not necessarily true. When we think of old people, we don't think of somebody charging around fast like we would if we were talking about a child, so we slow it down a bit and then the title, you know, an old lady remembers. So we know we're talking about the past. We're talking about thoughtfulness, thinking to slow down a bit. You know? She sits and she smiles. Smile. Um, they picnic on Kate. She'd made to save pence the money they saved for the new garden fence. So use everything you've learned. Pitch pausing power pace Don't go too fast, but I go to slowed variety speed some up. Slow some down. So I do it once more on this poem, by the way, is a download so you can follow me on Old lady remembers on old lady sits by her new garden fence. She looks at her flowers and thinks it makes sense to plants and more Jew lips. Where once was a shed, it was the den of her husband. Now, sadly dead. She sits and she smiles as she remembers the past How she on old Elbert would sit on the grass They picnic on case she'd made to save pence the money they saved. I bought the new garden fence, so I'm looking up. I'm not reading down into the grounds. If you have to give a speech any time we talk, look up. Hold this so that people can see your face. Okay, Well, about sharing ideas and communicating. And hopefully that's what this course has taught you. You should now know the basics of clear speech. 22. Conclusion: right? Well, we've come to the end of the course. As I said right at the beginning, this really has been like the first lesson I would give anybody if they were sitting here next to me or opposite me face to face, I would go over much the same things. The only difference really would be that I would use. I have two pieces that I news always for getting people to speak and read out loud, which I haven't been able to use because of copyright reasons. So I would use like something modern. But that's the only difference. I hope you've learned the basics of clear speech. You need to be heard. You need to be fairly slow. You need tohave expression on a variety on. Do you need to have clear articulation? Ends of words, long vowel sounds. If you can do all of that, you should sound interesting. We could have gone into a lot more detail with def thongs and trip thongs and monath ons. Different vowel sounds, how the different continents are classified, how to stand how to breathe. I didn't want to overwhelm you with everything in one go, so hopefully you will take these basic ideas and put them into practice. And then perhaps in the future, you'd like to come back on and do more advanced things. So enjoy talking. Enjoy speaking, Have fun with words and sounds. Thank you for getting this far.