Better Speaking Podcast 🗨️🗣️ How to hold people's attention

better speaking presented by Callum

Robertson and featuring interviews with

Richard Hallows

[Music]

try to imagine what globalization can

possibly mean

to half of humanity that has never made

or received a phone call the simple fact

of the matter is this

we cannot make globalization work for

all in the end it will work for none

Kofi Annan using English to talk about

globalization in the program today

Richard Hallows is with me again to look

at Kofi annan's use of English and give

us some more advice on becoming better

speakers is interacting with us try to

imagine he's asking us to do something

if you find it difficult to speak

English fluently and would like some

help to become more confident and maybe

one day use English as effectively as

Kofi Annan then this series better

speaking is for you

[Music]

Kofi Annan is from Ghana in West Africa

and as we've just heard he uses English

as an international language in a highly

effective way

in this excerpt from a speech on

globalization he's asking his listeners

to make sure that the process of

economic globalization helps everybody

in the world the poor as well as the

rich

it is a much tougher cell out there in a

world where half of our fellow human

beings

struggle to survive on less than two

dollars a day try to imagine what

globalization can possibly mean

to half of humanity that has never made

or received a phone call the simple fact

of the matter is this

if we cannot make globalization work for

all in the end it will work for none

even though he's making a speech which

is a style of English that is quite

formal and has been carefully prepared

he's still using his spoken language

skills to communicate with his audience

but what can we learn from him what's

his secret to better speaking

BBC learning english.com

and with me again in the studio is

teacher and teacher trainer Richard

Hallows hello Richard hello Callum and

you've been listening this week to Kofi

Annan let's hear him again

it is a much tougher cell out there in a

world where half of our fellow human

beings

struggle to survive on less than two

dollars a day try to imagine what

globalization can possibly mean

to half of humanity that has never made

or received a phone call the simple fact

of the matter is this

if we cannot make globalization work for

all in the end it will work for none so

Richard how successful do you think Kofi

Annan is as a speaker of English as an

international language of course he's

really successful isn't he I think

what's interesting here is the way that

he's I mean he's making a speech it's

very very interesting the language he

uses he uses language to make us want to

listen sometimes he uses alternative

words so maybe sometimes he refers to

people as human beings and then another

time rather than repeat that word he

says Humanity in a world where half of

our fellow human beings

struggle to survive on less than two

dollars a day try to imagine what

globalization can possibly mean

to half of humanity that has never made

or received a phone call so it's putting

variety into his vocabulary he's also um

he's interacting with us he's he's

asking us asking us to do something so

when he's speaking he says try to

imagine

so we're all like you know we start

thinking and oh yes it's something for

us to do try to imagine what

globalization can possibly mean

to half of humanity that has never made

or received a phone call so the listener

is being involved in the speech in this

case exactly he makes his speech

stronger there's one example he could

say the fact is but he doesn't he says

the simple fact of the matter is so he's

making it stronger the simple fact of

the matter is this

which is again a nice way of you know

making people listen and it's generally

quite a dramatic kind of way of speaking

it's contrasting words like all with non

and and things like that it's very

interesting if we cannot make

globalization work for all in the end it

will work for none this was probably a

scripted uh speech by Kofi Annan sure I

mean obviously you can't you can't

script a conversation but you can

predict things that you often talk about

with one particular person now I went to

uh Spain for the weekend the other day

that's all my my Spanish friend John and

I always talk to him about football he's

a big football fan now I needed to think

of the type of vocabulary I needed I

mean I know these words but I need to

review them in my head what kind of

words do you need to talk about football

what do you think Alan well I mean in

English tell me in English yes I mean I

mean there'll be footballing words for

example there's like goal uh draw shoot

result uh kick yeah I was you know

reviewing these words in my head so I'm

preparing so when I talk to him it's

much better it's much easier and I speak

much more fluently and I communicate

more effectively so certain subjects

will have like certain vocabulary that

you know is likely to be part of that

conversation that part of topic and if

you prepare yourself think about those

words then you know it's going to help

you in your conversation yeah exactly

Kofi Annan is obviously a very very

competent speaker and Communicator in

English but if we really wanted to be

picky is there anything that we could

say to improve his English okay there

may be maybe a small pronunciation point

we could look at

um he says uh at one point he says less

than two dollars a day but instead of

less he says Less in a world where half

of our fellow human beings

struggle to survive on less than two

dollars a day and there's an another

sentence he says has never made or

received a phone call but he doesn't say

has he says has half of humanity that

has never made or received a phone call

so there's a confusion here of sounds Z

at the end of words but is that really a

a big problem here well I mean no

usually the context makes it very clear

anyway I mean there could be a confusion

between peace and peace but I think I

think that the context is clear isn't it

um there are lots of other words where

one uh sound can change the meaning and

this example for example rice and rice

or um loose and lose or um advice and

advise

so in some circumstances that that

difference between that and that z sound

can make a completely new word which

which can alter alter the meaning and

there are times when you know we use

this sound quite a lot in English we

when we're talking about possession we

use the apostrophe s which is a z sound

like um John's car for example not

John's car and Richard's advice exactly

you can also extend this idea to think

about how one sound you know with it

within a word not necessarily at the end

can change the word from one meaning to

another meaning to another meaning it's

very it happens a lot in English

um bit bat but you know it's just one

small change or um C and she or boat and

vote yeah this can be cause problems of

communication so you know it's quite

important to recognize the the problems

that or the differences between your

language and English

so Richard on these points of

pronunciation do you have any advice

that you could pass on to our listeners

yeah um one uh important piece of advice

is that you need to be able to recognize

a sound before you can actually produce

it if you can't hear it then you can't

make it now to illustrate this point

I've brought along one of my students

this is Benjamin hello Benjamin hello

what we will do is Benjamin will listen

to me saying some words the words have

two different sounds either shh or ch

so Benjamin will listen to the words and

he will tell me number one if it's

shh and number two if it's you might

want to try this yourself at home

okay

are you ready Benjamin yes okay the

first one ship number one good

chip two

cherry

two

Sherry number one shoes number one

choose to

washing or one watching to

watching

oh Lily got you there very good okay so

we can do this kind of exercises and he

can now start to you know hear the

difference and he knows that he needs to

hear the difference now we can move him

from this and he can practice saying the

words to me so now here's Benjamin he

will read the words and I will say one

or two so we'll see if he can now

produce the words okay Benjamin ship one

watching

two shoes

one match

two

so

one

very good so you can see how you move

from recognition first of all you know

hearing the sound and then producing the

sound now there are other things you you

need to think about like

um the position of your tongue

uh the position of your lips seeing how

you how you make the sound physically

with your mouth those things are quite

uh difficult to tell how can you help

one thing you can do with the lips is to

use a mirror in it sounds a bit silly

but if you hold a mirror and you look at

yourself making the sound you can see

the shape the shape of your lips now

again you can get books which show you

the correct position and the correct

position of your tongue if you can't get

that it's better to you know work with

another person and see if you can

correct each other

so for for those pieces of advice

Richard thank you very much thank you

and Benjamin thank you very much for

coming in bye

[Music]

before we go today if you didn't quite

catch all those tips that Richard gave

us don't worry here's a chance to hear

them again

if you're speaking to a group of people

and you want to hold their attention try

to add variety to the language you use

and learn some useful phrases for

interacting with your listeners and

holding their attention

if you know that you'll be talking about

a particular subject or topic then

prepare and Advance some of the words

and phrases that you might need

if there are particular English sounds

that you find difficult to say listen

out for these sounds when you're

listening to good speakers of English

after you can recognize these difficult

sounds then you'll be able to make these

sounds yourself

mirror to watch your lips and help you

make the right sounds or work with a

partner and correct each other