Improve Your English Speaking Skills with Emphasis and Vocal Variety

Hey, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

I'm curious if you've ever heard the expression.

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

What that means is that yes,

of course the words you choose are important and your

accuracy with grammar structures is important as well,

but just as important or perhaps more so is the way

you use your voice to express what you want.

Your voice can carry meaning,

it can express emotion and depth.

Let me give you a quick example.

I'm going to say the same exact sentence two times.

Both sentences have precisely the same words,

but there is a difference in meaning because of how I say the sentence.

Sentence Number one, I love reading sentence two.

I love reading same exact words,

but I changed my volume, my pitch and tone and so on.

All of this is called vocal variety.

When you use vocal variety in your English communication,

your message has improved clarity.

Your audience is more engaged and your words are more

memorable. Again, it's not what you say,

it's how you say it.

One way to improve vocal variety is through emphasis on particular

words and in this Confident English lesson.

Today we're going to explore three specific ways you can

improve or incorporate emphasis in your English

communication.

But first, if you don't already know,

I am Annemarie with Speak Confident English.

I'm an English confidence and fluency coach,

and everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for

your life and work in English. So while you're here,

make sure you subscribe to my Speak Confident English Channel so you never miss

one of my Confident English lessons. Now,

before we take a look at the first of three specific ways to incorporate

emphasis in your speech,

I want to take a step back and review what exactly is

emphasis and why is it important.

Emphasis is the way we use our voice to stress or add

intensity to specific words,

either to communicate a particular message or to indicate

a words level of significance or importance.

Without emphasis in our speech,

our words might start to sound exactly the same.

We lose that vocal variety. For example,

the sentence I love reading,

that sentence sounds flat or monotonous.

It's a very monotone voice. Let me say it again.

I love reading.

The words I'm using indicate that I enjoy reading,

but it doesn't really sound like it. In fact,

you might not believe me because there's no emotion, no depth,

no emphasis in those words. However,

when I say I love reading,

now you might start to believe me,

I'm adding intensity and meaning to those words.

As you'll learn in this lesson,

there are three ways we can add emphasis to provide improved

clarity in our message,

capture our audience's attention and make our words

memorable.

The first way to do that is to have stressed words within a sentence.

Now, if you've been studying English for quite a while and if you've spent time

focused on pronunciation, you've likely heard of sentence stress.

I wanna talk a little bit about what sentence stress is and why it's important,

and then we'll also talk about words that we choose to

emphasize,

either to add an extra layer of meaning or perhaps even to

change the meaning of something. Let's start with a focus on sentence stress.

Sentence stress is a particular pronunciation pattern.

English speakers follow where we stress or say

particular words more clearly. This is usually nouns,

verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

We make sure that those words are clear because those words

carry the most meaning in a sentence.

Other words in a sentence might include articles A and in the prepositions

in at on. They may include conjunctions,

but yet so and these words may be

pronounced less clearly. We might use lower volume or we may contract them,

and so on. This pattern of making sure the nouns, verbs,

adjectives, and adverbs are clear or stressed, creates sentence stress.

It's what leads to the music of the English language. For example,

I'm going to share a sentence with you and I want you to listen really

carefully.

I want you to pay attention to the words that are particularly clear.

Those words will likely be the content words, the nouns,

verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Here's the sentence.

Yesterday I started watching a new show on Netflix. Let me say it again.

Yesterday I started watching a new show on Netflix.

What words did you hear most clearly yesterday started

watching new show Netflix. In fact,

if I sent you a text message and all I said was

yesterday started watching new show, Netflix,

you would totally understand what I meant. Of course,

it sounds a little strange. There are obviously some words missing,

but the meaning of what I want to say is clear and while

speaking I make sure that those words are also clear.

When you follow the patterns of sentence stress,

you'll naturally have more variety in your speech and that will help to

communicate your message clearly. In addition to that, while speaking,

there may be words that you choose to add extra

emphasis either because there're particularly important or you want to change

the meaning of a sentence. To help illustrate this, let me give you an example.

I'm going to use the sentence I spoke to Julia yesterday.

Now following sentence stress.

The words that would be most clear typically are spoke

Julia. Yesterday I spoke to Julia yesterday. However,

I might choose to make some adjustments in my vocal variety and add

particular emphasis on some key words. In doing so,

the meaning of the overall sentence shifts. For example,

I spoke to Julia yesterday. Do you notice where I put the emphasis,

the word I? I added volume and I also lengthened that vowel sound.

In doing so, I'm making it clear that I'm the one that spoke to her yesterday.

No one else did. It was me.

I'm indicating that that word is particularly important.

I'm drawing attention to it. As a result,

the message I'm trying to communicate to the listener is more accurate.

Now,

I could change that and choose another word to emphasize and in doing

so, shift the message slightly. For example,

I spoke to Julia yesterday. Let me say that again.

I spoke to Julia yesterday. Not Samantha, not Sarah, not sue.

Julia, I'm making it clear who I spoke to.

I also draw attention to that word making it more memorable.

Let's try a third option. I spoke to Julia yesterday.

Do you notice which word was emphasized exactly right yesterday

in that sentence,

I'm shifting the meaning and making it clear that it was yesterday,

not today that I spoke to Julia by choosing particular words

to emphasize.

I'm making my message clearer and more memorable

before we move on to the second strategy on how to bring emphasis into your

speech and improve overall vocal variety. Let's do a quick check-in.

I have a sentence here and I want you to take a moment to identify

the words that I should say more clearly based on the rules of sentence stress,

so again, that would be nouns, verbs, adjectives,

and adverbs. Which words do you think should be said most clearly?

Hopefully you've identified mother owns largest

collection, roses and neighborhood.

Those are the content words.

Those are the words that bring real meaning to the sentence.

Let me try saying it aloud.

My mother owns the largest collection of roses in the neighborhood.

Listen again and listen for those content words.

My mother owns the largest collection of roses in the neighborhood. Now,

if I choose to add emphasis to the word my

in that sentence, how does it shift the meaning?

My mother owns the largest collection of roses in the neighborhood.

What do you think? That's right. I want to make it clear that it's my mom,

not the neighbor, not your mom who has the largest collection of roses.

I'm bringing focus or attention to that word and in doing

so, I'm increasing vocal variety,

making my message clear and my words more memorable.

Now to help us with emphasis, we can move on to this second strategy,

which is incorporating volume into your speech.

Volume indicates how loud you are or how quiet you are

when you speak.

Playing around with volume anytime you communicate in English can add energy

when you speak and help improve vocal variety.

This includes drawing attention to particular words or sentences by increasing

your volume or speaking more softly. For example,

raising your voice can draw the listener's attention and add

dramatic energy to a particular word or part of your sentence.

It can also help you emphasize a particular emotion,

whether you're trying to emphasize feeling excited, surprised,

angry, frustrated, rushed, and so on.

Let me give you an example sentence. If for example,

you're talking about climate change in a passionate way, you might say,

we must act soon if we hope to save the earth.

Let me say that again.

We must act soon if we hope to save the earth.

Do you notice my volume went up just a bit with the words must

act soon to draw attention and also help bring energy

focus to those words. It also gives a sense of urgency.

It's not just what I say, it's how I say it.

That helps communicate that urgent message to

alternatively softening or lowering your voice can also be a dynamic

way of communicating. In fact,

this can even cause the listener to lean in and listen carefully

to what you're saying. In fact,

you may have noticed that some public speakers or comedians will

often indicate that they're sharing some kind of secret with an audience

by lowering or softening their voice. Let me give you an example.

Let's say you're telling a story at work and while telling that story, you say,

Bob said his dog was a stray,

but we all know he stole his neighbor's dog. By lowering my voice,

I indicate to you that I'm sharing some kind of secret or inside knowledge and I

force you to lean in and listen more carefully. Overall,

increasing your volume indicates a particularly powerful or

emotional moment. It can help convey intensity,

conviction and passion.

A sudden increase or decrease in volume can immediately capture

an audience's attention because it's a significant shift in one's voice

and a deliberate decrease in volume can help create

intrigue or curiosity.

By incorporating variation in volume,

you introduce more dynamic speech patterns and help keep your

audience's attention.

You'll help avoid them tuning out or losing interest

due to a monotonous tone of voice that never changes as opposed to

using a monotonous tone of voice that never changes.

You can incorporate changes in volume going loud and going soft

to bring more dynamic variation to your speech,

grabbing your audience's attention and helping them stay focused and now the

third strategy you can use to add emphasis and improve overall vocal

variety is pauses.

I love to talk about and practice with my students.

The power of the pause pauses help us

naturally slow down our speech,

which is beneficial when we're feeling particularly nervous or when we want to

make sure our speech is smooth,

clear and fluid and pauses can be particularly

useful when we want to draw attention to keywords or

parts of our sentence without really changing volume. Instead,

we just pause before and after the words we want to highlight.

There are a few places where we can pause to draw attention. If for example,

we want to bring attention to a specific word,

we might pause between syllables or we could pause before

and after that particular word.

We can also pause before and after a particular phrase.

For example, a lengthier pause after an introductory phase,

and I'm going to illustrate each one of those examples. To do that,

I'm going to start with this basic sentence.

We need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled.

Now I could say that sentence like this,

we need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled when I do that,

there's really not any vocal variety and as a result you have no idea

how I really feel about this.

There's no sense of urgency or panic or fear or frustration.

It's just words in a sentence. It's just a statement. However,

by adding in vocal variety and thinking about how to incorporate emphasis,

I can add that extra layer of meaning and make my message more clear

and I'm going to use pauses to help me do that. If for example,

I want to bring particular focus to the word canceled,

perhaps I'm nervous about this contract being canceled.

I can use a pause between the syllables to help me do that.

We need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled.

It sounds a little bit strange, but by adding that pause canceled,

I'm making that word abundantly clear, drawing attention to it.

It's almost like taking a yellow highlighter and circling that word.

I'm also communicating some fear or frustration.

I can go a step further adding more urgency to this particular

statement by adding pauses before and after the word need,

we need to meet this deadline or the contract will be

canceled. Listen again,

we need to meet this deadline or the contract will be

canceled. There are short little pauses before and after that word need.

I also added a bit more volume for added emphasis.

By incorporating those pauses,

there's a little bit of extra silence in the sentence.

It grabs attention and it brings focus to that word helping

to add to that level of urgency that I might feel,

and finally,

I could also add an introductory phrase to this particular sentence and

incorporate a pause after that phrase to draw attention to it. For example,

most importantly,

we need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled.

Let's pause for a moment and compare that final example with the first

way that I said that sentence.

I'm going to start with a monotonous tone of voice with no vocal

variety, so version number one,

we need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled, flat,

monotonous,

no real emphasis or vocal variety in version two.

Most importantly,

we need to meet this deadline or the contract will be canceled.

Of those two examples, which one has more power to it, more energy to it,

more urgency, which one communicates a stronger message?

Which one holds your attention?

The second one is definitely the winner.

Now that you have these three different ways of adding emphasis to your speech

to improve overall vocal variety, how can you practice this?

I want to give you a practical concrete way to do so, but before I do,

I want to highlight that incorporating emphasis and improving vocal variety

can take time.

It means getting used to particular speech patterns such as sentence stress.

It also means learning to make choices about how you

say particular words.

There isn't always a particular right or wrong way to do so.

It's all about the message that you want to communicate.

There may be a sentence that you want to express and there are words that you

would choose to emphasize to communicate a particular emotion or to communicate

a message. If I were to say the same sentence, I might make different choices.

There isn't necessarily a right or wrong.

It is knowing what you want to communicate and thinking about the

best way to do that.

You can do so with your word choices and with how you use your

voice. In practicing this,

I strongly recommend that you be patient with yourself.

Give yourself time to practice and adjust. Now,

the best way to do all of that is to start a speaking journal practice.

I love speaking journals. If you've joined me for Fluency School,

if you're part of my Confident Women Community,

you know that I love the practice of recording yourself

because you can first of all do it privately. Nobody needs to hear,

nobody needs to know.

That can reduce overall anxiety so you can record yourself speaking.

Then you listen to it and that's the key.

You can't change anything if you don't know what to change.

When you listen to yourself speaking, you start to notice particular patterns.

You can hear the things that you're doing well.

You can also hear the things that you want to change and you might listen to

yourself speak and realize, oh, I could have added some volume,

or I could have added a pause to that sentence,

and in doing so it would've made it more powerful.

The best thing about recording yourself is you can then record yourself again.

After you listen and evaluate,

you can do it again and make some comparisons.

Keep the first recording, do it a second time,

make some changes and compare the two,

evaluate them and see what changes you were able to make and how does that

change your overall message. Now,

if you've never heard of a speaking journal practice before,

if you've never thought about this, let me give you two recommendations.

Number one at my Speak Confident English website.

You can download a free in-depth training titled How to Say What You Want in

English. It's a two-part training series,

and in that training I do talk about the process of recording

yourself,

how you can begin that practice and why it's so useful for your overall

English skills, whether you're working to gain confidence,

fluency or accuracy or all of the above.

The second recommendation I have is an in-depth lesson at

my Speak Confident English website titled How to Create a Speaking Journal

Practice. With that particular lesson,

you can also download a free guide with 30 days of speaking

prompts,

so if you're not really sure what to talk about when recording yourself as part

of a speaking journal, you could use those prompts to help you. In doing so,

you'll have something specific and practical you can practice talking about.

You can record it, listen to it, evaluate it,

and then intentionally try to add

different forms of emphasis,

whether it's for a particular key word or particular parts of your sentence.

This might also include playing around with volume,

so making sudden changes to how loud or how soft

you're speaking, and finally,

you can also work with adding pauses into your speech. With that,

thank you so much for joining me in today's lesson.

I truly hope you found it useful to you. If you did, I would love to know.

You can tell me by sharing a comment below,

or you can give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube. While you do that,

don't forget to subscribe so you never miss one of my Confident English lessons.

Thank you again for being here, and I look forward to seeing you next time.