Andrew Wright is an author, illustrator, teacher trainer and story teller. He has published with Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Pearson. As a teacher trainer and story teller he has worked in 55 countries. Email: andrew@ili.hu,

www.andrewarticlesandstories.wordpress.com

 

A summary of the focus of the article

Can people understand you?  The ideas below are particularly related to speaking a language which is a foreign language to the listener and perhaps to the speaker.  The focus of the article is on how a speaker can help their listeners understand what they are talking about!

Even a group of native speakers of the language used by the speaker will vary in what they understand and how they value what they understand.  English is often used as an international English by speakers and listeners who are not native speakers of English.  How people understand varies according to socio-cultural differences and to differences of personality. 

Clearly, an article about helping speakers who are potentially speaking English to such a wide range of listeners can only sensibly refer to general features of successful communication rather than listing specific communicative techniques.  The better you know and can relate to each individual listener the better!

However,  I believe the points made below apply to all speaking and listening situations, to a greater or lesser extent and especially beneficial when blended with relevant personal experiences.

The focus in these notes, is on speaking but the principles and idea also apply to writing and to other communicative forms from pictographs, to graphic design and body language, etc.

 

My relevant personal experiences

I am writing the article as someone who has lived and worked with people for 66 years who do not have English as their mother tongue.   I am not writing as an academic who has studied the subject at PhD level and can pass on a pertinent summary of findings based on careful research.

I have written books used in 200 countries by CUP and OUP and I have worked in schools as a story sharer and teller in 55 countries and I have written and illustrated stories for German television, BBC and ITV and I live in a bilingual family.  I was director of the British Council summer school of the University of Nottingham for 14 years with approximately 60 teachers from 30 countries for 3 weeks each year.  I am experienced, certainly, but that wide experience has opened my eyes to the potential complexity of producing guidelines for speaking clearly!

 

 

A summary of points relevant for a speaker wanting to help listeners to understand what he or she is saying.

You can follow up each point given in the summary by going to the number of the point in the notes which follow.

 

1 Invite the listeners to tell you if they don’t understand

At the beginning of your talk tell your listeners to tell you if they can’t understand.

 

2  A dialect of English familiar to the listener is easier for them to understand

Is your English dialect the same as the English dialect your listeners are familiar with?  For linguists each type of English is referred to as a dialect, including the King’s English!  Computer power has enabled useful generalisations to be made about the way English is used within the British and the American dialects.

In Britain you must drive on the left of the road and on the continent of Europe you must drive on the right.  The correct side depends on where you are and to some extent this applies to dialects of a language.

Most people can’t switch dialects but can endeavour to take into account that even good speakers of a different dialect may find your speaking of another dialect difficult to understand.

 

3  Take into account their level of words and syntax in the language you use. 

Is your English at a higher level than theirs?  Which is more important to you, impressing them with the strength of your English or helping them understand what you want to say?

 

4  Help them to focus their minds on the gist of what you want to talk about.

Helping them to focus their minds on the gist of what you are going to talk about may be preferable to beginning your talk with a vivid example.  You might reduce your key aims to a list which you can read out or have on a printed list visible to all your listeners as you speak.

 

5  Speak loudly enough for listeners at the back to hear! 

Some speakers feel it is being too self assertive of them if they speak loudly. and speak in their normal conversation volume.  Recently, a speaker, in a conference, I attended, spoke, in his normal speaking voice, to the first 3 or 4 rows and I was sitting on the eigth row!

 

6 Speak clearly

Of course, native speakers can ‘smudge’ the ends of some words into the next words they speak.  Elision is authentic native speaker behaviour but it makes intelligibility more difficult.

 

7 Speak slowly

Speaking slowly enough is an obvious help for listeners unfamiliar with the language in its spoken form:  an unfamiliar language, a new speaker, a new place, a new point of view or subject.  Help the listerners!  Slow down a bit!

 

8  Chunking meaning. 

‘Chunking meaning’ means the speaker dividing his or her sentences, into ‘sense chunks’.  These ‘chunks’ are large if the speaker believes the listeners have a very good level of English and a very good understanding of the subject.

The chunks will be shorter if the listeners have poor English and only a minimal grasp of the subject matter.

Chunk is a good word because ‘chunk’ is often used for food, eg cheese.  And we are used to the idea of feeding ourselves and particularly young children with small chunks of food rather than cramming food down their throats!9  Pitch

Pitch is the lowness or highness of the speaker’s words.  Pitch can emphasise importance or express feelings, together with volume.  The varying of pitch is part of intonation.  A monotone cannot contribute these meanings.

 

10 Quality of your voice: timbre

Timbre of the speaker’s voice,  (soft, lush, hard, brassy, tense, shaky, breathy etc.)  These qualities can be important in communicating some meanings.

 

11  Stress in a word and in a sentence etc.

Stress in a word and in a sentence communicates importance for the speaker.  In English, each part (syllable), within a word has a different stress or volume.

communicate

Placing the stress in a different part of the word may make the word unrecognisable.

Stress in a word and in a sentence etc. communicates importance.

Clearly, getting the stress right within the word AND within the sentence is an essential part of the successful communication of meaning.

12  Rhythm

Rhythm in language or the repetition of stress adds attraction to the sound of the sentence and may express meaning.

 

13  Poetry

In poetry the sounds of the words are important in communicating meaning but also in expressing the character of the sounds of the words together:  the words may sound attractive together or they may be chosen, by the poet, to jar against each other and produce a staccato effect.  Poetry can heighten meaning AND make the words memorable.

Poetry can be used as a mnemonic ie a way of learning and remembering.  I was taught the ‘saying’ below, eighty years ago.  And have it ready for you, today, as an example!

A red sky at night is the shepherd’s delight.

A red sky in the morning is the shepherd’s warning.

Public speakers and advertisers, very often, use the power of poetry in their texts.

 

14 Repeating a key point

Repeating a key point using the same words or in a different arrangement clearly draws the attention of the listener.  In writing we are taught not to repeat ourselves but sometimes it is more effective if we do!

 

15 Your body language

Your body language can support the listener’s understanding of your words.

A raised forefinger can mean, ‘this point is important’.  If the forefinger waves from side to side it probably means, No!

A sudden opening of both hands can mean, ‘it’s obvious’.

As in all these points there may be local alternative meanings associated with body language which the speaker may well not be familiar with.  Body language is not universal!

 

16 Sequencing ideas

Sequencing ideas to engage listeners and help understanding of your sequencing and steps of meaning.  Once more, the listeners might be used to a different sequencing of ideas for explaining.  However, a careful, clear progression from broad overview, highlighting of problems and a clear progression of developmental ‘answers’ might be safer, rather than, for example, plunging into instances, too quickly.

 

17  Storytelling

Describing individual examples of experience can be effective not only for children but for groups of very serious business people!  Essentially, in a story somebody has a ‘need’ or ‘want’ which is difficult to have.  The story gives this ‘want’ and ‘difficulty’ and then gives the steps taken to overcome that difficulty.  The end of the story is usually a success, the ‘need’ being achieved but it may be a tragedy and memorably, not achieved!

Stories help meaning and memorability and can be told in business about the launch of a new product and the struggle to establish it as well as to children about finding a lost dog in a cupboard.

 

A fuller set of notes on each of the seventeen points given in the summary

1 Invite your listeners to tell you if they don’t understand

Explicitly help the listener inviting them to say if they don’t understand something you have said or if they don’t understand anything you say.

For example, you might say:

’We haven’t met before and we are using a language which is not our mother tongue and you are not familiar with my way of talking...if you miss a point I am making please just raise your finger or interupt me...I obviously don’t want to be difficult!’

If you are the speaker, watch your listener’s face and body...a slight puckering of the eyebrows, a movement of the head suggest possibly not understanding.

If YOU are the listener, signal your understanding by nodding, smiling, or with hand movements, etc.

You might consider writing key words on a display nearby.

 

2 A dialect of English familiar to the listeners is easier for them to understand

For a linguist the King’s English is a dialect of English.  All forms of English are dialects. 

For students taking an exam use the dialect which the examiners believe is the correct dialect.  If you are using English partly to promote this notion of correctness then do so.

When I am unsure about my listener’s level of English I use the British International English.  If it is important for you to demonstrate that you are a good speaker of this dialect of English then use it.

Millions of mother tongue speakers of English use different dialects to a greater or lesser extent. My Nigerian friend pronounces ‘working’ as ‘woking’ which I hear as ‘walking’ and this causes significant misunderstanding on my part.  She is NOT wrong except in the way that she has failed to communicate her intended meaning.  As she is doing her PhD in a university in which British or American dialects are in use she must pronounce her words so that examiners can understand her meanings.

My business colleague who uses English world wide uses the British International English as a model but takes into account that it might be a different dialect of English to the one readily understood by his potential clients.  He keeps checking to make sure the are ‘still with him’.

It is better not to make any mistakes BUT some mistakes really don’t affect understanding.   Some speakers are so worried about their mistakes that they speak too quietly AND don’t use the helpful techniques below!  You need volume.

I think it is reasonable to say that the world of language teaching mainly concentrates on correctness but correctness is only one of the many features which help listeners to understand as all the points in the Summary have shown.

 

3  Take into account their level of words and syntax in the language you use

You, as a speaker of English, may be at a much higher level of English than your listener.

Use the language they are likely to know and in sentences which are simple enough for them to follow.

There may be situations when you want to impress on the listener how good your own English is…but take into account that they may not understand you and this article is for speakers who want to help their listeners to understand.

 

4  Help them to focus their minds on the gist of what you are going to talk about.

IF possible prepare the listener, in any way you can, for the topic you are going to talk about or read to them.  For example, you can summarise the topic or remind them of something from their own experience which is similar, etc.

Or introduce your subject,  ‘I’m going to talk to you about…’  ‘We must talk about….’

If you can, you might even pick out key words you know are new for them and ‘teach’ them before starting.  This also enables you to summarise your subject so their minds are going in the right direction before you begin.

And, of couse, visuals depicting objects and situations referred to and graphic imagery helping listeners have overviews and other comparison of abstract principles have a well established role to play.

 

5 Speak loudly enough!

I have often heard speakers who speak much too quietly and tell me it is because they are worried about their mistakes in English !  Many minor mistakes in English may not affect understanding, for example, the famous third person ‘s’.  Speaking too quietly is much worse than making a few minor mistakes!

Some people say they want to sound normal and don’t want to sound as if they are haranguing their listeners.  Speakers using their normal speaking voice are heard by people on the front rows but not by those at the back.  Speaking publicly is NOT the same as informal private speaking.  Speakers MUST accept the responsibility of speaking so that all the listeners can hear EASILY.  It is difficult enough to be a listener.  Public speakers must project their voices to people sitting at the back.

 

6 Speak clearly

Pronounce and articulate the full sound of each word.   An actor from the Shakesperean Company in Stratford once advised me, as a professional storyteller, to ‘savour every word’.  Every word has such a rich individual character of sound. Help your words to be recognisable!

Say ‘every’ and ‘word’ out loud.  Savour the sounds of each of these familiar words as you do so.  ‘Every’ sounds like a little jig and ‘word’,  sounds like, ‘whirl’  Say them again and hear their duet!

Enjoy the special character of their sounds, just as you would your first taste of a wine, new to you. They are all words, wines and people all have their own character and are recognisable if their character is apparent. 

Don’t slide one word into another if your listeners are unfamiliar with spoken English.  ‘Don’tslideonewordintoanother’

Don’t omit the last syllable/letter/sound of a word. Say, ‘word’ and not ‘wor’.

a Small differences in pronounciation can lead to very different understandings

Small differences in pronunciation can lead to huge differences in meaning.  Consider this example from my own life in the last few hours.

 

Example

My interlocutor, talking about her friend, said, ’She went with her Austrian friends to Vienna.’

I heard, ’She went with her Austrian friend to Vienna.’  I didn’t hear the ’s’ on friends.

I understood this to mean that my interlocutor’s female friend had gone to Vienna with her Austrian boy friend.

Missing the sound of ’s’ from ’friends’ lead me to understad a very different story!

Did I hear, ’...at Putin’s reqest...’ or ’...at Putin’s behest...’  For me ’behest’ has a quality of ’command’ in it.

b Some concepts are readily understood

In recent years it has become common to use numbers in the titles of articles intended as quick summaries of complicated matters.

’10 ways of living longer’

’17 ways of helping people understand what you want to say’

Such concepts seem easy and easiness is attractive and may contribute a path through complexity.

 

7 Speak slowly enough

Give the listeners the time to hear and recognise the words.  They must recognise each word, turn this recognition into meaning and associations then join these meanings to the meanings of the other words you have been using!  And meanwhile you are continuing to speak!

Listening and trying to understand is a big job! Our minds are wonderful to cope with the speed of thought necessary but there is a limit!  The listener’s job is more difficult than the speaker’s job!

Reading is much easier in that the reader can keep reading the same bit of text again and again until he or she has got it!!!

 

8  Chunking meaning

Punctuation, in a written text, helps the reader to ‘chunk’ the meanings which make up the text and this allows the reader a moment to reflect on the meaning of each chunk of meaning.   Chunking, in speaking, goes beyond the chunking of written punctuation.  A reader can always go back over the text to reflect on the meanings but a listener cannot wind the speaker back!

So, chunk (or divide) your spoken text into particular units of meaning and pause between each chunk as you speak.

Chunking gives time for the listener to put the ‘brick of meaning’ into the wall of the ‘house of meaning’ he or she is building, based on what you are saying!

(YOU, as the speaker, are the architect of meanings but the listener is a builder of the house of meanings has got a more difficult job…or, at least, a very big job to put all the bricks of meaning together.)

If you have a written text to read from you might find it useful to use an oblique stroke to prepare the text by chunking it.  (For notes on writing for speaking…later)

Example of preparing the spoken chunking of a text:

I don’t think grammarians have come up with rules for chunking!  I am guided by how easily I think my particular listeners might understand and by how much I want to add other kinds of language, eg, paralinguistics, body language and so on.  Am I a new speaker for the listeners?  Is the subject new, are the concepts new, is the implied value system different, is the relevant social experience different? 

 

9  Pitch

Pitch is how high or low you say each word and phrase.  There is no rule, as far as I know.  You must be guided by your instincts about the words and phrases to decide how low or high, how stressed or unstressed, and slow or quick you say them.

Examples of pitch contributing to meaning:

‘Hello’  (last syllable given a higher pitch)  (you might be greeting amicably someone you didn’t expect to see)

‘Hello’  (last syllable in a lower pitch)  (you might be greeting someone and expressing you are in low spirits)

‘Hello’  (speaking both syllables at the same pitch)  (you might be feeling depressed and ‘flat’ in your spirits)

Pitch affects the communication of feelings but can be SO powerful that it can be MORE meaningful than the meanings of the words you are saying!  See, ‘sorry’ in the next example!

Pitch CAN send out a stronger meaning than the word itself

‘Sorry!’  (first syllable high and second syllable clearly lower) (Saying that you don’t feel sorry, at all)  (Soreee!  This lengthening of the vowel increases the mockery of the idea that you feel you should feel sorry)

Imagine two scientists talking about the research they are doing and doing so reasonably BUT adding by their way of speaking, their feelings and opinions about the research using pitch, stress, volume, etc. Experiment with each example.

‘It was very difficult.’

‘It was very easy.’

‘I’ve done it a thousand times before.’

‘How can anyone doubt that it was the best way of doing it?’

‘I did what I was told to do but I knew it was a big mistake.’

 

10 Quality of your voice: timbre (soft, hard, tense, shaky, etc.)

If you speak with a harsh voice the listener might feel you are tense, angry, etc.

Warm voice, harsh voice, hesitant voice, deep voice etc.  how do you interpret these qualities? 

Aren’t listeners affected by these qualities of voice and aren’t their understandings affected by the way the speaker says the words?

 

11  Stress in a word and in a sentence

Stress in a word

There is no rule in English about where the most stressed syllable should be, as far as I know.  Indeed there might not be full consensus in some cases.

The syllable normally stressed is determined by custom.  As I understand it, in Hungarian, the first syllable is always the one to be stressed.

A wrongly stressed syllable, in English, can make the word unrecognisable.

Stress on the first syllable: Syllable. English. Hesitant. Listener.

Stress on the second syllable: Important.  Communication. 

Stress on the third syllable: University.

 

Stress of a word or phrase in a sentence

Stress of a word or phrase can help the listener or viewer know what is important and might indicate a separate set of ideas.  Stress is close to chunking in its usefulness.

Note that there is a way of emphasising a word or phrase in writing.  We can use a larger typeface and bold.

 

12  Rhythm

Rhythm, generally, means a movement marked by the regulated succession of stressed and weak sounds.

Your voice can emphasise the rhythms you find in a text and ’chunk’ them:

Your voice

can emphasise

the rhythms you find in a text.

We humans seem to respond to and even need rhythm.  In the example above, lines one and two contrast nicely with the third line which ’really rocks’.

 

13  Poetry

Heightening the rhythm in a sentence in the above idea is well on the way to being poetry!

Most people have no desire or time to write poetry, of course!

But you can be sure that there are people working in your industry, like the marketing people and in advertising  and promotional work who make very deliberate use of the characterful sounds of words, not only their meanings.

HEINZ MEANZ BEANZ

A poetic way of thinking and communicating has been common in daily life from the beginning of time: proverbs and sayings!

1. A bad workman blames his tools.

This proverb is used when someone blames the quality of their equipment or other external factors when they perform a task poorly.

Poetry: in the alliteration of ’bad’ and ’blames’ and the contrast of the short ’a’ in bad and workman and the longer ’a’ in blames.

And, for me, the first three words are said, slowly and deliberately and the next three words are said faster, at a lower pitch and with each word stressed.

2. Actions speak louder than words.

Action is a better reflection of one’s character than words because it’s easy to say things, but difficult to act on them and follow them through.

Poetry: rhythm...element of ’s’ repetition

3. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

However big a task is, it starts with a small step.

Poetry: rhythm and alliteration of ’s’.

How might two scientists make use of these proverbs in their discussion of their work?

 

14  Repeating a key point

As writers we are told not to repeat ideas but as speakers it is very common to do so.  Repeating helps us to make sure that the listener has not missed a key point and it helps us to emphasise a key point which may have been understood but not appreciated for its importance.

 

15  Your body language

Using body language is common in our daily life.  Some people do it more than others…some cultures more than others.  Body communication plays a significant role in communication with the deaf.

How you sit or stand as you are speaking can be interpreted as meaning something.  As an adult you know this.  An example: sitting or standing stiffly and having your arms folded can suggest that you feel negative and self protective about something.  Folded arms separate the speaker from being too involved.

Generally, I find I want to lean forwards to give my meanings to my listener,  and I might lean my head to one side and smile to express good will and desire to help.

Frowning, shaking or nodding your head might be used to communicate some difficult and negative idea or situation.

Raising your eyebrows and smiling might support a positive answer of some kind.

Making eye contact is so important in relating to someone or looking around when speaking to a group of people.  Trump, often points and smiles briefly to someone he pretends to have recognised in the crowd facing him to show his personal caring.

In one culture children are taught that it is disrespectful to look at a grown up who is talking to them.  They come to England and are chastised for disrespectfully looking away from the grown up talking to them.

Your hands can be used to show: doubt, double meanings, horror, delight, big and small quantities, complicated and simple concepts…subject to cultural difference.

Linguists call this ‘paralinguistic communication’!

 

16 Sequencing our ideas to engage our listeners and to make understanding clear

If we are taking part in an informal conversation or discussion we may have a few points we want to make but otherwise we don’t plan our speaking. However, if we are going to give a talk or presentation or if we are going to write a text then what we say first and next and so on is important: the sequencing of ideas.

Do we want to begin by impressing our listeners that we are qualified and worth listening to?  Or perhaps we want to impress on them how approachable we are or how we are ‘one of them’.

Do we need to help the listeners or readers to focus on a particular subject or aspect of a subject?

Do we need to motivate them to want to listen?

And how do we help them to follow our train of thoughts?

And how do we help the listeners to see our key points?

And how do we make the key points memorable?

And if we want action, how do we make the listeners WANT to take action?

 

17 Storytelling

Storytelling can so easily be dismissed as trivial entertainment, mainly for children, by academics and professionals engaged with fellow professionals.  And storytelling can so easily be unrecognised as fundamental to human thinking and communication. 
Given the subject of these notes about your listener’s ability to understand the many meanings in what you are saying it is important for me to choose some of those features of successful storytelling which have direct relevance to any thinking about ‘making speaking understandable’. 

In order to be achieved understanding must be engaging.  If we are engaged we normally devote our full attention.  (good example of the repetition of key ideas in two sentences.)

a Storytelling: the balance between summaries and particulars

In order to encourage understanding be interesting as well as informative.  If someone is interested they are likely to want to hear, and understand, more.

Story tellers find a good balance between telling their listeners some general information but also by giving them details which help their listeners to see or feel a particular moment, vividly.

b Here is an example of the power of engaging detail:

‘The man walked.’ (summary)

‘The old, bent man walked slowly, dragging his left foot behind him and stopping every few moments to take a deep breath.’ (particulars)

c Storytelling: the relationship between ‘wants’ and ‘solutions’

The relationship between problem, struggle to overcome problem and eventual result is perhaps a key thread in all stories?  By the way, within the text about the ‘struggle to overcome the problem’ there will be lots of other minor problems and struggles.

I have just been watching the Jurassic Park films and every few moments there is another, ‘problem, struggle, solution’ and this is so gripping!

But, is this dramatic triad not also central to daily experience of everyone and central to the reason to share experience and ideas and attitudes and values. Do not the toughest business people, the most rigorous of scientists and most demanding of academics experience, ‘problem, struggle and solution’, every day in their lives?

 

Conclusion

Surely, we all experience how difficult it sometimes can be to share understandings, perceptions and experiences, even with close friends and family in our mother tongue. I hope this collection of ideas which are part of everyone’s experience are useful to you when speaking English to someone else in your work place and in life, generally.

 

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