[MUSIC] Hello everyone. Well, we have been informed that several of our hosts have had to take a leave of absence. So we have been asked to fill in as we play the game, What Makes Speaking Easy? Wow, sorry, some bright lights, [LAUGH] are you ready? Then let's play, What Makes Speaking Easy? >> Hi, my name is Vincent Lauder and I've been asked to moderate this discussion. Welcome everyone. >> Thanks. >> As you can see, we're going to have a small discussion panel again and invite you, our listener, into the discussion panel as well. First of all, let's talk about the learner and speaking in general. When I was learning a language, one of the last things I wanted to do was speak. Make mistakes and reveal how little I knew. I fell like people might think I was dumb. And so I had a strong desire to simply not open my mouth. And sometimes, I even avoided eye contact. And I'm not alone. Social linguists have referred to the concept called the silent period to denote how some learners simply don't speak at all. >> That's true. And many language professionals feel that it is okay to give learners a certain grace period. A certain amount of space to just listen, read, and learn English in a receptive rather than productive fashion. >> But with that said, most practitioners and learners know that eventually you're going to have to open your mouth and start saying stuff. So when that time comes, are there any techniques or ideas that might help? Are there any techniques for learners that might make speaking easy? >> Hey, let's phrase that as a question for our quiz. How about this? What techniques do learners use in order to speak a language? >> But aren't there hundreds of possible strategies? >> There sure are, and not all of them are pedagogically sound. You remember the story of Francois Guan? He spent one year in Germany and never learned to speak any German, even though he employed all kinds of strategies that he truly believed would help him. >> Well, one of his main problems is that he used grammar and reading strategies to help him develop speaking skill. In other words, even though his strategies may have helped him gain some amount of language proficiency, they were the wrong strategies for the wrong context. >> Context is definitely a key in choosing strategies. With that in mind, let's ask our viewers what they would do in a particular context. We'll do this by showcasing three scenes or situations that our learner might be in, and then we'll ask what the audience would do in each case. Situation one, imagine that you are going to give a presentation in a different language. It is five minutes of speaking, and some of the words you are going to use are a little more laborious and difficult to pronounce. On top of that, you really want people in the room to be interested in things you say. Of these four techniques what technique would you employ? Practice your speech in front of a mirror. Invite people over to pretend to be your audience, and have them give feedback. List all the difficult words and practice them in isolation. Or record yourself and watch your own performance. >> All right, those are four rather common strategies when preparing for a more formal speech or presentation. In terms of oral discourse, this situation presents what we generally refer to as a monologue. In a monologue you should plan carefully, practice with yourself or others, and even record yourself. These are all fabulous learner strategies that a wise teacher can encourage students to try. Let's go on to our second situation. Elizabeth, would you do the honors? >> Certainly. Situation number two, your teacher asks you to write and perform a dialogue in front of the class. You need to memorize the script, which involves three topics. What would you do? Create a mind palace. Memorize the dialogue by yourself through practice, practice, practice. Don't memorize, just practice some simple phrases and improvise later. Prepare six ideas just in case you forget some of the 3 required ideas. >> Any response from our panel? Jimmy? >> All right, some of you may not know what a mind palace is. And although it's becoming a rather commonplace technique that memory experts insist on, we'll give you more details on that later. I guess if I were to choose one technique, mine would be number two. I love just practicing until I have my speech down. Practice, practice, practice. There's no doubt that sometimes you just have to put the work in. >> But what do you guys think of the idea of not memorizing? And then simply improvising later? Good idea or bad idea? >> I would say it is a bad idea if the goal is to have a polished dialogue with key elements. If the focus is on structure and form, you're better off memorizing. >> But, maybe if you focus particularly on the forms that the teacher wants you to show, then you don't need to memorize every word. I think it is important to have some amount of flexibility, and memorizing every word can sometimes mess me up. I'd rather focus on the primary goals of the dialogue and then rely on my proficiency to help me out and fill in the blanks. If the teacher allows me to bring an outline of notes, that is the method I prefer. >> Sounds risky not to memorize, but hey, language is risk. What did you think of the last idea? Prepare six ideas, just in case you forget some of them. >> That reminds me a concept called overtraining. But sometimes a useful cognitive strategy. Overtraining means that you prepare more than the required amount. So that what you are required to do is, well, easy. But in this case, I don't think it would be appropriate to try learning more than just the dialogue. >> I agree. Overtraining tends to be a good strategy to use when you haven't decided on specific things to say. But on this assignment the speaker was given three very clearly assigned topics that needed to be covered. >> True enough. All right let's go onto situation three. Jimmy? >> Situation three, you are going out to dinner with a native language speaker. You want to be able to do small talk and speak on a variety of topics that the both of you share. What strategy would you use to prepare for the dinner? Write a pretend conversation in your native language and get it translated into your dinner partner's language. Think about what you want to say and look for vocabulary books in your dictionary. Find a partner who will role play with you and help you work on conversational topics. Look over small talk conversations on the web and make sure you know the language necessary. >> Those were all interesting strategies. I prefer looking for vocabulary words in a dictionary and gathering small talk conversations on the web myself. So for me, I would choose two and four. But maybe that is because I have a shy nature, and I don't want to embarrass myself, even in practice situations. >> I think several of these strategies use the concept of overtraining we were talking about. Pretend conversations, roleplays, and looking up small talk on the web all invite you to look at a whole range of possible topics that you can choose from. By having a whole range of topics that you may or may not use, you get comfortable with the actual event because you are over-prepared. >> True, and another thing. All of these techniques involve preparing ahead of time and coming up with topics or words that you might never use. And you are right, I always feel more comfortable if I have too much to say rather than not enough. If I were to choose only one of these four techniques however, I'd say that I loved to find a partner and just role play a dinner conversation with him or her. I think that is the most effective for me. >> But all of this talk about strategies and what we prefer has got me thinking. Are strategies something that people can just choose based on personal preference, or are there certain strategies that definitely work better than others? >> Wow, that sounds like a discussion for a whole nother video. Maybe Shane will discuss that idea with participants. It looks like we're out of time here, thanks for watching- >> What Makes Speaking Easy? [MUSIC]
