Posts Tagged ‘ Rhythm and tone ’

Learning From Great Speakers

Recently, I have read a number of books on the life of Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill is famous for many things, but possibly he is most famous for his inspirational speaking.

Churchill never possessed the clear tones that President Barack Obama does, nor did his possess the easy conversational style of Tony Blair. Churchill actually had a speech impediment that left him with difficulty pronouncing “S’s”. However, what Churchill did possess was a remarkable ability to stress the important phrases and words within his speech. He spoke slowly and carefully and was able to put incredible emotion in to his speeches that made what he was saying believable and honest sounding – unlike most politicians today.

Churchill also memorised his speeches. Most advice given today is you should never memorise a presentation or a speech as it makes you sound robotic, however, Churchill compensated for this by the way he stressed his words and by dictating his speeches to his secretaries. He then practiced incessantly until he got his stress, intonation and naturalness perfect. That is something you must do if you have to memorise your speeches. Practice, practice and practice until you have the stress, tone and flow perfect.

Below is an excerpt transcript of Churchill’s famous “Never Surrender” speech given in 1940. I have highlighted the words that are stressed so that you can see how this famous speech was developed:

We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields, and in streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God’s good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old.

You can also listen to the speech by watching this little video:


Memorising your speech is dangerous if you do not practice enough, but it is possible to deliver a great speech using this method. When memorising your speech remember to stress words, use dramatic pause, and practice in the shower, bathroom and anywhere else you can get a few minutes.

2010
06/06
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Carl
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Speak Slowly

Having spent a number of years teaching business English to large numbers of students where English was not their native language, I very quickly learned that one of the key requisites for any speaker when speaking to an international audience is to speak slowly.

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Now, I am a native English speaker, most of you may not be. But the same rules apply to non-native English speakers. In fact, speaking slowly is probably more important for a non-native speaker than a native one because of possible pronunciation difficulties.

When you are presenting you are not in a race to finish. Your job is to communicate your message in a way that your audience a) understands and b) remembers. If you fail at these basic communication goals your whole presentation fails.  

When you are preparing your presentation, always practice your presentation in front of someone and get their feedback. They will tell you if you are speaking too fast. I always remember a very wise man who told me that when you are doing a presentation in front of a group of people, if you think you are speaking at a normal speed, then you are speaking too fast.

It is unlikely that you will ever speak too slowly when you present because your nerves will automatically speed you up. So focus on your words, think slow and try to relax a little. Focus on the stress and intonation of your words, pause before saying an important word, or an ‘action verb‘ to give it more impact. These little tips will help you to slow down.

I always find that when I feel very strongly about a subject, my passion speeds me up without me realising it. A tip here is to stop when you think you are going too fast and take a breath.

If you take a look at the Jamie Oliver speech at TED 2010, Jamie’s passion and enthusiasm floods out of him. It was a brilliant presentation, but at times he speaks too fast. But if you watch carefully, when he realised he was speaking too fast he stopped himself. He took a breath and started again more slowly.

I know there is a lot to think about when you are presenting in a foreign language, and having to worry about your speed is yet another thing to worry about. But most of the things you have to worry about can be dealt with before you begin your presentation, by proper planning and preparation, but speaking too fast is something you really do need to watch for during your presentation, and when you do find yourself speaking too fast be brave enough to slow down.

2010
03/10
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Carl
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The Importance of Stress

Quite often when you are presenting in English as a second language, you focus so much on being ‘correct’ that you forget about being ‘human’. I have sat though many presentations where the presenter was using good words, good sentences and being more grammatical correct than I am, yet their presentation failed in its objective.

You see, in English choosing the correct words, the perfect grammar and the best sentence structure is not going to win you any speaking awards. In English, you need to use tone, stress and the art of silence.

What do I mean? Well, try getting a friend of yours to read a paragraph from any English article, magazine or book. Ask then not to use any tone, and just read what they see. What you will notice is that although what you are hearing is perfect English, with the correct grammar and sentence stress, it will sound terrible. The reason for this is that English needs intonation and rhythm. Without intonation and rhythm English dies. And that is one of the biggest mistakes I see when I view a presentation done in English by a speaker who is not a native English speaker.

So, how do you improve this?

Well the simple thing to do is to use the punctuation. When I was very little, my teacher always taught us to use the punctuation to take a breath and to look at your audience (if you are reading – which of course you should not be doing when presenting) And we can take this advice and use it in our presentations. When we come up to a comma (,) we should take a breath, and when we reach a full stop / period (.) we should use this for a one second pause.

No try reading the paragraph you heard before and try taking a breath when you come to a comma and pausing for one second when you come to a full stop. Does it sound a little better now?

Another good way to improve the sound of your English is to put a pause before and after an important word or phrase. What I mean here is best demonstrated by Margaret Thatcher when giving a speech. The words that she wanted to stress she paused, slowed down and looked directly at her audience. You can view a great example here



What you will notice that Margaret Thatcher doesn’t feel like she’s rushing, she is flowing smoothly and using natural pause and stress to make her speech come alive. She also allows her audience to stop laughing before continuing.
Margaret Thatcher was not a natural speaker, but she used some simple techniques to improve her speaking which made many of her speeches very powerful indeed.
So next time you do a presentation in English, think about your pauses, your breathing and how you can use these to improve the impact of your presentation.

2010
02/16
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Carl
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The Importance of Intonation and Rhythm

Over the years I have attended many presentations where the speaker was not a native English speaker. Where the speaker was highly intelligent, the content of the talk was excellent and subject was highly informative, yet there was something that made the presentation just die. That something was the speaker sounding like he or she was reading their script. There was no emotion, no passion and it sounded like a robot was speaking.

You could write, and prepare the best presentation ever made, but destroy it in the first 30 seconds if you do not use rhythm, intonation and pausing in your presentation.

Let’s take a look at the 2007 launch of the iPhone. The beginning of the presentation, Steve Jobs talks about what Apple has been doing, how the iPod has been selling, and other updates. He then pauses. The screen behind him only has an Apple logo, he clears his throat and begins ” this is a day I’ve been looking forward to for 2 and a half years…” he then pauses again.

Watch the video below. Notice how Steve Jobs builds the excitement by using pauses, slow speech and intonation.

Now try reading the following out loud without pausing or changing the tone of your voice:

“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two and a half years. Every once in while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. Apple has been very fortunate. It’s been able to introduce a few of these in to the world. In 1984 we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple; it changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod. It didn’t just change we all listen to music; it changed the whole music industry. Well, today we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class…”

It just does not have the same excitement or passion.

What you have to do, is to practice your presentation over and over again, practice the pausing, practice the rising of your tone and the lowering of you tone. Speak loudly, then quietly.

I have been teaching business English for many years, and many of my students, whose vocabulary, listening skills and understanding of English is excellent, fall and fail when they stand up and give a presentation because they forget to use any kind of rhythm.

So, next time you give a presentation, remember to practice your speech. Remember to slow down, take you time and enjoy putting stress, emphasis and tone into your words. Not only will you enjoy the experience more, but your audience will too.

Good luck.

For more information on this, an excellent source is Carmine Gallo’s book The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs

2009
12/21
POSTED BY
Carl
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