Speech Tips
Presentation Time of Day: Pitfalls & How to Prevent the Bad (English Communication Skills)
Blog 182 for Thursday, Sept. 10, 2020 – Title: Presentation Time of Day- Pitfalls and How to Prevent the Bad (English Communication Skills)
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These are COVID-19 times for now and for a while to come. Some say that this while to come will be lengthy in some sort. Some say COVID-19 just speeded up what was along the way, anyway. For example, using technology to do one-on-one or small group, or even large group meetings.
One thing stays constant or the same: human beings. Information gleaned about human beings in what we call the sciences of social psychology, sociology, psychology, anthropology, education, just to name a few, probably remain pretty much the same.
In that light, do the following. Yep—for face-to-face OR remote meetings OR remote teaching.
What time of day will you be speaking or doing a presentation or even teaching? Will it make a difference? Absolutely.
Here are some pitfalls. Know these, and you can prevent problems. For today’s blog we will discuss pitfalls for morning presentations.
Breakfast/early morning
- Listeners may be groggy. That means they are not alert. Choose a stimulating issue which could be something that the people you are talking to do not agree on. Or choose an anecdote to open with. That little story could be about you (that’s actually great!) or about someone else. Get audience involvement by having them raise their hand in agreement or disagreement. I think even Zoom or groups on Skype or Microsoft Teams Meeting allows for seeing people’s faces. The audience could raise one hand for No, or disagreement and two hands for yes, or agreement.
- EVEN better—is to ask your question in this manner- “Raise your hand if you or someone you know has this issue or problem. Yay—no embarressent
- People may be in a rush. So this is not the time for leisurely humor or drawn-out details. At breakfast or breakfast time, or early morning, more than any other time of day, it’s wise to heed the great US president Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s advice: “Be sincere, be brief, be seated.” He said that 80 years ago. Still true, you think?
- Listeners may be preoccupied with work tasks of the day. This, of course, will affect their receptivity or their willingness to listen to your point of view. Draw them into the topic with quick anecdotes or very little stories or thought provoking quotations.
- People attending your presentation whether in-person or virtual may be irritable. Why? Maybe because they had to change their morning commute to attend the meeting. Maybe because they sure are tired of “safer at home,” or social distancing, or wearing face-masks or sure do yearn and desire for the freedom of pre COVID-19. Lawdy… these days we ALL have lots of reasons to be irritable or grouchy or antagonistic. And honestly, some people have more reasons than other people.
Mid-morning
- Listeners may need a coffee break. If at all possible, provide coffee and tea. If you are remote, you can’t provide caffeine liquids. But you could announce at the beginning for everyone who can to get their cup of coffee or black or green tea or caffeine enhanced soda. Otherwise listeners may head to the nearest cafeteria if you are in-person, or head to the kitchen area if you are remote and miss a chunk of your presentation. That’s true for teaching too.
- Attendees may need to use the restrooms. A good rule of thumb, a good quick tip: If your listeners have been sitting for more than an hour – for whatever reason– give them a quick three-minute break before you talk. Otherwise, they’ll just leave in the middle anyway. That means if this is an in-person presentation, they will nterrupt other people in the audience and distract you. If this is a remote presentation, people leaving to use the restrooms have just deprived you of valuable time to impart or give your information.
- People may need to check in to their office for messages. These days, it is the mobile phone—for all sorts of messages. Again, a three minute break is a good remedy—it gives them a chance to make a quick check to their smart phone or even to text a message or make a call without bothering the whole room, if you are in person. Same thing is true for any remote or virtual meetings. But don’t give them too long, or they may get bogged down with expanded work or personal life details
Immediately before lunch
- Listeners are hungry and probably can’t concentrate well. Don’t be surprised if no one asks any questions before lunch. It doesn’t mean they are bored. It only means they’d rather go eat. Thus it is for in-person and remote or virtual meetings. Here’s a good alternative: Invite people to ask questions throughout your presentation. Be sure to keep questions and answers in check so you don’t run overtime. Audiences are very forgiving – except making them late for lunch.
- Listeners may well have been sitting all morning and may need to stretch. What’s an easy solution? Invite them to stand up and take a thirty-second “stretch break” right at their seats.
- Listeners may get “information overload.” Supplement or expand out your speaking with handouts for gatherings in-person so people can review material later. For virtual or remote communication—have a link ready to release at the end of the presentation which has information. For gosh sake, most experts and seasoned or experienced presenters know to never give out the supplemental information or study guide or summary information at the beginning of the presentation. People, including me, cannot resist the temptation to be reading that while you are talking.
Coming in a future blog will be “What about lunch presentations.?”
Copyright 2020 Clear Talk Mastery, Inc.
Buy One, Get Three Free and the Human Brain
Buy One, Get Three Free and the Human Brain– Aarticle 12
It really is true, for mastering American English, you can “Buy one, get three free.” Every time you push the blade and tip of the tongue forward in your mouth for the accurate TH no voice speech sound, you are also deliberately practicing the TH with a voice, the L, and the American English Short Vowel A as in “hat.”
That’s because of how the human brain controls speech.
What Part of the Brain Controls Speech?
Control of speech is part of a complex network in the brain. The brain regions called lobes which control speech include the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes which formulate or put together what you want to say and are located usually in the left hemisphere (Cafasso, 2019). —– More later about the importance of “usually”—which is actually critically important for human brains.
The motor cortex in your frontal lobe enables you to speak words. The brain’s language regions work together as a coordinated network with some parts involved in multiple functions and redundancy in some processing pathways (Abbott, 2016).
To speak clearly, you must move the muscles of your mouth, tongue and throat. This is where the motor cortex participates. Located in the frontal lobe, the motor cortex takes information from the Broca area, in the front part of the left hemisphere, and tells the muscles of your face, mouth, tongue, lips, and throat how to move to form speech (Cafasso, 2019).
In particular, past studies have found that a part of the human brain called the ventral sensorimotor cortex, or vSMC, controls speech. Using electrical stimulation, researchers found which general areas of the vSMC controlled which parts of the face and mouth. But that kind of electrical stimulation couldn’t trigger meaningful utterances. That finding reveals that speech sounds are not being stored in discrete brain areas, but rather arise from coordinated motor patterns involving multiple areas (Wein, 2013).
Electrical patterns in the brain transitioned within tens of milliseconds between distinct and different representations or patterns for different consonants and vowels. (Wein, 2013)
Importantly, regions of brain activity during speech have a hierarchical, overlapping structure organized by phonetic feature. Examples of phonetic features for American English include whether the speech sound has a voice or no voice (like P vs D, F vs V), or for instance whether there is prolonged audible friction of air as in S, Sh, F, V or in contrast, the speech sound is quick ( such as J, CH, P, D). Also, scientists found that consonants that require similar tongue locations have overlapping areas of activity (for instance American English T, D, J, Ch for tip of tongue, and NG, K, G for back of the tongue). Notably, patterns of brain activity differ the most between consonants and vowels. (Wein, 2013).
Wein also emphasized that although the researchers used English, they found the key phonetic features observed were ones that linguists have observed in spoken languages around the world.
For acquisition of clear American English speech when it is a second or other language (ESL, English as a Second Language), a key skill to master is changing and making different the movement and positioning of the muscles, and the tension of muscles in the tongue, lips, jaw, and the muscles in the throat for the vocal folds or chords.
To reiterate because it is so important: speech sounds and spoken words require coordinated motor patterns, which are hierarchical and overlapping. An example of this coordinated motor or movement pattern is the coordinating of making a voice at the vocal folds in your throat with pushing out air from your lunghs and positioning of the top front teeth on the lower lip to make the American English speech sound V.
The research cited above gives physiological and brain insight for an important facet of learning or acquiring clear English pronunciation. That is, researchers have discovered that the brain is organized for speech according to movements of the face and mouth which includes tongue, lips, jaw and for phonetic features which include voicing or no voice, and audible air friction such as in S, Z, SH, ZH which is SH with a voice. You probably already know that positioning of muscles of the lips is a critical articulator difference which distinguishes the English speech sound of S from SH and Z from ZH.
Now to swing back to the “Buy one, get three free” proclamation. A practical application is that if you train your motor system in the brain for the accurate positioning of your tongue “forward” for TH with voice—such as “the”– you are also training the positioning of the tongue for TH with no voice – such as “think”–and also for the consonant L—as in “light” and “tall” and the tongue forward movement for the American English Short Vowel A as in “hat.” The same principle applies for the accurate pronunciation of English speech sounds K, G, and NG which uses the back of the tongue hitting the roof of the back of the mouth. Do one of those K, G, NG accurately and you are making stronger the neural connections in the motor cortex for two more speech sounds.
Do you want motivation or a reason for doing a lot of accurate speaking (including reading words and sentences)? The “Buy one get two or three free” motivation is powerful reason.
Recall that the same kind of bonus to “Buy one get one free” motivates humans to buy products in grocery or other stores and online.
To add important actionable information: Evidence indicates that daily practice of 400 to 800 times leads to reorganization of the brain connections after a stroke, also called “brain attack” or CVA, Cerebrovascular Accident (Vearrier et al 2005; Flint Rehab 2023. If my arithmetic is accurate, to speak 400 speech sounds consecutively, as in connected speech, reading aloud, takes about 30 minutes. If you are using a recorded video lesson or recorded audio lesson to accurately imitate, then the practice time is longer because you must listen and perhaps watch before you imitate. With our more than 800 different student/learners for more than 20 years, most frequently they do 30 minutes of deliberate practice with their voice speaking Clear English (Careful Leveled-Up Mode or Work-Out Mode) and add minutes for the listening to audio recorded spoken English with or without video. For humans, listening and imitating accurately clear English words is quite efficient for learning and mastery for accurate American English pronunciation.
The take-home message is quite good! The good news is that accurate American English is not some random collection of phonetic or speech sound features – unknowable because they are random. Instead, systematic learning – which has been our mission for more than 20 years–which uses the scientific evidence of brain organization and function for English speaking can lead to excellent efficiency in learning. The systematic learning is the crux of the exercises and tasks for learning from video recorded lessons, different audio recorded lessons, and customized textbook with additional tasks for independent speech practice without imitation for deeper learning..
Yay for efficient and long lasting learning based on brain research and evidence and experience with student-learners. Yay today for “Buy one, get two or three free!” Way to go, human brain! Way to go for human being learning!
copyright 2023 Clear Talk Mastery Inc
P for “Priority” for Massed and Distributed Practice
This is Number 4 in our series of recommended sequence for fast, easy mastery of American English speech sounds. The directed instruction is for English consonant P and the word “priority.”
It’s estimated it takes 35 accurate repetitions of a new word to memorize it accurately. That’s called massed practice. That will get you in to the associative phase of procedural learning. Getting to the autonomous phase where the pronunciation is automatic and long term learning is gained through even more accurate pronunciation. That is best spread out in time, and is spaced learning or distributed learning or timing. More information? http://www.cleartalkmastery.com/blog/2023/05/10/the-endgame-is-procedural-memory/
By practicing different words, you are giving your motor system and motor memory variety so it can p for producing the P sound with the needed tension in the lips and pressing of the lips when the speech sounds preceding and following the target speech sound are different.
That’s why the words I, 3 and 4 in this series all have directed instruction on the video for the English speech sound p—“probably,” “anticipate,” and “priority. “
Copyright 2023 by Clear Talk Mastery
The Endgame is Procedural Memory
Accent Reduction: The Endgame is Procedural Memory Article 11
Happiness is neither virtue nor pleasures nor this thing nor that but simply growth. We are happy when we are growing. William Butler Yeats.
The endgame is to type on a keyboard without looking at the keys. Or to safely ride a bike, or safely drive a car, or accurate English speech!
All are procedural memory which end up as automatically retrieved. When needed procedural memories are automatically retrieved and used for execution of the bringing together of procedures involved in both cognitive and motor skills. These skills also range from tying shoes, to reading, to acquiring grammatical rules according to Koziol et al, 2012, Wikipedia, 2023, and Ullman et al, 2005.
Acquisition of clear and accurate English speech communication is procedural learning. Procedural memory is a type of long-term memory which aids the performance of particular types of tasks without ongoing conscious awareness of the previous experiences of learning.
Procedural memory is created through procedural learning, or repeating a complex activity over and over again, until all of the relevant neural systems work together to automatically produce the activity. Implicit procedural learning is essential for the development of any motor skill or cognitive activity. Procedural learning and memory are implicit because the actual learning is inferred from an individual’s improvement in performing the task.
Repeating the task over and over is critical. It is in the repetition that all the relevant and needed neural systems get connected to work together.
We’re lucky to be living in 2023. Originally, Beaunieux and colleagues (2006) in empirical research confirmed the existence of three separate phases of procedural learning. They conceptualized the three phases as a combination of explicit and implicit contributions to the formation of procedural memory.
Specifically, during the repetition of the task, at the beginning of learning a task is where the effortful learning of the cognitive phase happens. Repeating of a task over and over at the beginning of learning is marked by a steep learning curve. Then with more repeating of a task, that is followed by gradual improvement and ends in high performance levels without further improvement. The gradual increases to higher or better performances characterize emerging automatization of the associative phase. Sustained highest performance characterizes autonomous procedures when procedural memory has formed (Hong et al, 2019).
Learning to drive is one of the most widely known examples of procedural learning among adults. The more you drive, the better you get at it. Just reading a manual on driving or observing your parents drive will not suffice, and hence you won’t be a good driver unless you put your foot to the pedals.
What does this have to do with acquisition of clear English speech communication? Typically nonnative-born adults who find that others are having difficulty (and likely frustrated) with understanding their English speech seek fixing their English speech communication. (Alternatively, their supervisors recommend instruction.) Since these adults have spent 18 or more years of speech production in their first language, the ground floor or core task is their learning how to produce the American English (AE) 25 consonants and 14 vowel sounds accurately so they are easily understood by native-born Americans and other internationally- born persons. There is cause for rejoicing for the first language consonant and vowel sounds which are the same as American English. Ground floor is thus focusing on acquiring the position and speed of the articulators of tongue, lips, teeth and jaw and making a voice or no voice for American English consonants and vowels which are different from the first language. This is the cognitive stage of learning for the procedural learning of accurate American English speech communication.
In order to go from the first phase of procedural learning which is the effortful phase and cognitive phase (steep curve of learning), through the associative phase (more gradual learning) and onto the final autonomous phase of learning for sustained high performance—all this takes practice over and over again for the speech articulators, vocal folds, and pushing of air from the lungs. The repeated practice must be accurate!
Again, good thing we live in the 21st century. Procedural memory is created by repetition of complex tasks until all the requisite neural systems work together to produce automatically the activity. We actually know a great deal about those required neural systems. More about those neural systems later.
Copyright 2023 by Clear Talk Mastery
How Many Words for English Proficiency
English Speaking Skills: How Many Words for English Fluency?
Here are some rough word counts according to Jakob Gibbon, 2023:
Advanced: With 4,000-10,000 words your communication goes beyond everyday conversation and into specialized vocabulary for talking about your professional field, current geo-political and local events and news, opinions and vocabulary for more complex abstract verbal vocabulary. This is also the C2 level in the Common European Framework for Reference (CEFR).
Fluent: 10,000+ words. At around 10,000 words is considered near-native level of vocabulary, with the requisite words for talking about a wide range of topics in detail. Most importantly, you recognize enough words in every utterance or sentence so that most frequently you understand the unfamiliar ones from context. That means you can easily add words to your vocabulary if you read English a lot.
And just so you know: Estimates of words known by the average native American English speaker vary from 10,000 to 65,000 words.
Don’t stop now deliberately adding to your vocabulary! It’s no wonder that proficiency in American English speech communication continues for native-born Americans throughout their life. They are adding vocabulary, along with accurate pronunciation for professional words, scientific words, geo-political words, necessary words (like pandemic, corona virus), and skill for persuasive and information giving speaking communication, and skill for stimulating social conversation and presentations.
Research suggests that the average American hears between 20,000 and 30,000 words during the course of a 24-hour period according to Rebecca Lake, 2014. That’s a major source of “continuing education” for English speech communication, a source for increasing vocabulary and honing or making better the skills for communicating information, emotion, doing presentations, even refining body language to emphasize ideas.
Relatedly, many (most?) professions in the education world, tech, medical, lawyers, etc. require continuing education. Got to keep up with the profession and improve communication within the organization. Such is lifelong learning.
In the human development of proficiency for English speech communication throughout the lifespan (that’s what native-born speakers of AE do), just remember that the best kind of practice for English speech communication skills is deliberate practice where the purpose is to get better.
Along with expanding their spoken vocabulary, nonnative-born persons can experience “pronunciation drift.” Pronunciation drift is real and happens when AE pronunciation has gotten sloppy or inaccurate or the speaker has forgotten how to do American English speech sounds accurately or has forgotten the pronunciation rules. Most likely is drift to accented- English (Chinglish, Spanglish, Indian English, Arabic English, etc.) Most likely is also drift or movement of articulators (tongue, lips, jaw) to go lax and not tense, with decreased force or range of movement, and into difficult to understand consonants and slurring of words.
Fact is, the kind of work environment makes a difference for vocabulary development, pronunciation (and other English speech communication skills such a voice inflection or presentation skills).
Do you work in an organization where verbal English communication takes between 30 minutes and two hours or more? If so, then you can do deliberate practice of clear English speech daily.
Or does your profession call for less than 30 minutes or even less than 15 minutes of oral communication in English speech? A good number of professions call for extensive computer work (or other forms of solo-work) where hearing and speaking English may be very limited. Especially for the second circumstance, it’s not surprising that persons with English as a second language forget skills and may have very limited opportunity to deliberately practice American English speech skills in work and daily life. Deliberate practice of clear American English is the remedy. Take every opportunity to practice accurate and clear English speech by reading aloud anything from books to your children, online newspapers, several pages from a fiction book, or abstract or portions of a research article.
For English speech communication, deliberate practice strengthens the accurate motor or muscle memory—including adding to vocabulary. Deliberate practicc can be done no matter what stage in the lifecycle. Ack, you could be 99 years old and benefit from doing deliberate practice to improve your deficits or make your strengths even stronger. In other words, producing strong, vibrant, accurate English speaking for a vocabulary of 10,000 words to 65,000 benefits with deliberate practice, no matter the life circumstances or age.
Do native-born speakers deliberately practice pronouncing new vocabulary for work and social life? Absolutely! One strategy is to pronounce words after a news broadcaster or entertaining program while streaming or while viewing YouTube. Another strategy for native-borns is to enter vocabulary words to their smart phone, on the computer, or a notebook, and deliberately practice the pronunciation over and over until it is fluently and easily accurate.
Funny thing is, deliberate practice for the motor and muscle activity of English speech takes about the same amount of time as “mindless” practice. But the results are accuracy, proficiency, and long lasting… and deeper learning. More on “deeper learning” later.
Copyright 2023 by Clear Talk Mastery, Inc.
P for American English and Syllable Pronunciation for Clear Speech
This is our Number 3 in the series of recommended sequence for consonants and vowels.
Like Number 1 which has the word “probably,” this video also directly instructs for the American English (AE) consonant speech sound P.
Ninety, 90, sovereign and non-sovereign entities have English for their official language including India, South Africa, Nigeria, to name a few. (See For more information on “other” Englishes, see http://www.cleartalkmastery.com/blog/2023/03/17/assessment-why-bother/.) However, the pronunciation for the consonant speech sound P is different in other Englishes than American English. The consonant sound for P in American English has a puff of air after the lips are pressed together. If listeners cannot hear that puff of air, they cannot accurately identify it as an American English sound for P. Instead, they are likely to perceive the AE speech sound for F.
To do “clear English speech,” perceptually enhance or make it very easy to hear the puff of air for AE. Make the puff of air loud.
For deliberate pactice here for the consonant sound for P, press your lips together firmly. That tension or stiffness will make the fast twitch muscles grow bigger, stronger. For American English proficiency and mastery, you want the stronger fast twitch muscle fibers in your lips.
Advice for proficiency of AE– practice many times!
That’s why I (Antonia Johnson) am posting this recommended sequence of English speech pronunciation video tutorials (also on YouTube)—to help you get lots of deliberate practice.
English speech proficiency is accuracy in words. In the Accent Reduction Tip Number 71 below, you get video and audio and direct and guided instruction for the AE consonant sound P for the word “anticipate.” Plus, you get coached on syllable pronouncing syllables clearly and accurately. “Clear Speech” is a style or mode of talking where each spoken syllable is clear, not slurred together, so the listener can hear each syllable. All syllables in English have a meaning.
Consider doing this video tip speech instruction (about 2 minutes) multiple times. Aim for AE accuracy each time. Of course, you are getting accuracy on many speech sounds when you deliberately practice words. Deliberate practice means your goal is to get better!
