Spoken English

11 Mar 2017

It goes without saying that if you want to improve your English listening comprehension, you need to listen to spoken English. But what’s the best way to do this, especially if you don’t live in an English-speaking country?

In this digital age, English learners have plenty of options. My students often mention Voice of America podcasts, BBC News, Ted Talks, and YouTube channels. These are all good, but there are drawbacks. Newscasts are helpful, but maybe you don’t want to hear about world events all the time (this can be pretty depressing these days!). Ted Talks are great, but they’re one-time deals. Sometimes you want to delve deeper into a subject that interests you. And, let’s face it, with respect to YouTube, you usually get what you pay for. YouTube channels are free (although not available in some countries), but they generally lack good production values and the speakers usually aren’t professionals. In my opinion, they can often be pretty boring.

What to listen to, then? Well, if you’re a high intermediate or advanced English student, I highly recommend Great Courses Plus.

Great Courses Plus is a service offered by The Teaching Company, which has been around a number of years. I taught my three children at home from kindergarten through high school, and we used Teaching Company lectures as CDs or DVDs a lot! The Teaching Company contracts with some of the most highly rated, distinguished, and professionally recognized academic professionals in the world. These professors prepare a series of classes (usually 12 – 24) on a particular subject and deliver them in lectures that generally last 30 minutes. The lectures are supported with a fantastic variety of graphics, maps, and photos that really helps illustrate the concepts.

In the past, you had to buy one series of lectures at a time, and they were pretty pricey. But with Great Courses Plus, you can stream ANY and ALL lectures whenever you want. If you start a lecture series and don’t like it, you can just stop and switch to another. You can listen to multiple lecture series at one time. And you can listen on your mobile phone, tablet, computer, or TV (provided you’re able to stream).

Why is Great Courses Plus a great option? First of all, the professors are just GOOD. Really good. Amazingly good. Second, you can choose from an exceptionally wide range of topics … science, history, psychology, philosophy, self-improvement, and even “lighter,” less academic subjects such as cooking, photography, and chess. Third, each course comes with a guidebook that makes it possible for you to preview course material beforehand (which helps to support your listening comprehension during the lecture) and review what you’ve heard afterwards. Some even have study questions at the end.

Yes, you have to pay for Great Courses Plus. The first month is free, so you don’t risk anything by trying it out … just be sure to cancel before the end of your trial month. After that, it’s about $20 a month. In my opinion, that’s a bargain for almost any English student. Many online teachers charge more than that for a single hour of lessons. And citizens of almost any country in the world can subscribe to Great Courses Plus.

Finally, as I said in the beginning, these lectures are most appropriate for high intermediate or advanced students. They are not targeted to non-native speakers. But then, once you get to a certain level of fluency, you will WANT to challenge yourself with authentic, “real” English material. My suggestion would be to sign up for a free trial month and try the lectures yourself. Put lots of different courses on your “Watchlist” and try them out. Find a subject that engages you and a lecturer who attracts you. Preview the content of a particular lecture using the guidebook. Then begin the lecture. You don’t need to listen for a whole 30 minutes. Great Courses Plus automatically bookmarks where you are in the lecture. Even if you switch to a different device, you can pick up the lecture where you left off. You have 30 days to figure out whether this is a service worth paying for.

How to make Great Courses Plus more accessible

Some of my intermediate students enjoy these lectures, but find them a little bit difficult to follow (remember, these lectures are NOT designed for non-native English speakers). Here are a couple of ways to make the lecturers easier to understand.

Activate closed-captioning on your lecture. When you start the lecture, there will be a bar at the bottom with the rewind, play, and fast-forward functions. There is also a “CC” … if you touch that, you’ll activate closed-captioning (or subtitles), which will display the lecturer’s words at the bottom of the screen.
Download the course guidebook. To do this, you need to go to the Great Courses website and find the course you’re listening to. Then click on “Guidebook” (circled in red below). The guidebook will download as a PDF … you can also transfer it to your phone or tablet. With the guidebook, you can familiarize yourself with the content of the lecture before you listen, and you can use it to follow along while you’re listening. The guidebook is an outline, not a transcript, so it doesn’t give you the lecture word-for-word. But it can help support your comprehension if you have difficulty following the lecturer, either throughout the lecture or just from time to time.

And please comment here, on my blog, if you like Great Courses Plus as much as I do. Let me know what you’re listening to! Maybe we can share our favorites.

5 Mar 2017

In my last post about writing, I talked about using the chained method of writing to help improve coherence and cohesion. I believe this method can also be used effectively in speaking tasks for tests such as TOEFL.

The speaking questions in TOEFL are rated on delivery, language use, and topic development. But what does topic development mean, exactly? According to the developers of the test, for the independent tasks (Tasks 1 and 2), topic development means your response is “sustained … well developed and coherent” with clear “relationships between ideas … (or clear progression of ideas).” This is essentially the same goal as the independent writing task.

Remember that chaining means that you begin with an initial topic in your subject and an idea about it in your predicate. Then the idea in the predicate becomes the subject of your next sentence and another new idea is presented in the predicate. And even though spoken English is very different from written English … much less formal, full of discourse markers, and not always strictly grammatical … you can still incorporate the principle of chaining.

So how can you actually use this method when you answer a prompt on TOEFL? Let’s take a typical Task 1 question, which is the most open-ended of the six.

What is an activity that you have never done but would be interested in doing in the future? Explain why you would like to do it. Use specific details in your response.

Here’s how you could chain your response:

Well, an activity I’ve never done but I’d be interested in doing would be sky-diving. I think sky-diving would be really good for me because I’m really afraid of heights. Actually, I’ve been afraid of heights since I was little, but it’s gotten worse and worse as I’ve gotten older. And I feel like that keeps me from enjoying things that my friends do, like mountain climbing or going up tall buildings. I can’t do the things they like to do. So maybe if I went sky-diving … well, it would be really hard for me … I know I’d be scared. But if I could do that, if I could overcome my fear, then I wouldn’t be afraid of anything else. I think that would totally help me face my fears. And then I could do all the things my friends do.

Notice that although I haven’t followed the chained method absolutely, I’m following the same pattern. The last idea that I mention in one sentence becomes the first idea of the subsequent sentence. There’s a coherent and logical progression in my ideas.

Now let’s look at a typical Task 2, which asks you to present and support your opinion about a topic. Many test-takers think that you need two reasons to support your ideas, but that’s a total myth. You need to give a well-developed, coherent, sustained response, and one reason, well-explained, is quite sufficient in a 45-second response. Let’s look at this question:

Your university is considering requiring students to take a class in financial management or in health and nutrition. Which course do you think is more important for students and why?

So here’s how you might answer with a chained response:

If my university was going to offer one of these courses, I think I’d choose a class in health and nutrition as more important for students. This is because when students go to university, they’re usually moving away from home for the first time. At home, their parents usually buy and cook the food and so they eat healthy meals. But at college, students tend to eat less healthy foods. They might eat junk food or go to fast food restaurants. Often, when they eat this way, they end up gaining weight. So a class in health and nutrition might help students avoid this weight gain. And they’d learn to eat healthier food. And I think that would help them for their whole lifetime, because when they leave college, they’ll probably be living on their own and they’ll still need to be making choices about what they eat.

Again, I’ve tried to present my ideas with chaining, moving from one idea to the next in a natural progression. A response like this is much more likely to gain a top score in topic development compared to a “two-reason” response with vague and undeveloped support.

1 Mar 2017

I’m going to consider several discourse markers in this final post. Remember, discourse markers are those often unnoticed words at the “margins” of our conversation. But as Anne Curzan, linguistics professor at the University of Michigan, points out, these little words are far from meaningless. Or, at least, most of the time. I’ll also discuss how we sometimes overuse them, and how to avoid that.

Now and OK, like so, are attention-getters and topic-shifters. We often use now and OK to start a new train of thought or draw attention to something important.

Lecturer: Now, let’s consider different ways we can use discourse markers in speech.

Teacher: OK, let’s turn to page 49 in the textbook.

Now also serves an important function by introducing warnings or a reversal of a previous position. For example:

Parent: Now, be sure not to talk to any strangers.

Speaker: Now, there’s a problem with that argument. Let’s see what this other author has to say.

Um, like well and now. is often used to introduce a new topic. On the TOEFL, you’ll often hear lecturers begin their remarks with um. And, like well, um is also used to begin what Curzan calls “a dispreferred response” … when we say something we’re not sure our listener will like. For example:

Speaker: Um, I’m not sure you’re correct about that.

I mean is often used to clarify or adjust a previous statement. For example:

Speaker: I usually don’t eat meat. I mean, I’ll have it on special occasions but not every day.

It can also be used to equalize our relationship with our listener … in a way, it lessens our authority.

Supervisor: I think your report needs some revision. I mean, it’s basically really good, but there are a few points you need to clarify.

Two discourse markers that are often overused are you know and like.

You know is a phrase that, by including you, invites our listener to participate with us. While I mean focuses on what you, the speaker are talking about, you know establishes your relationship with your listener. While this is generally a good thing in conversation, using you know too often can distract and even annoy your listener.

Like is another frequently (maybe too frequently) used discourse marker, especially by American young people. It can focus the listener’s attention on something we’re talking about, but it can also be a very repetitive filler word. Like is also being used more frequently to introduce reported speech (someone else’s words) in spoken English. For example:

Speaker: So my girlfriend was like you should have gotten me a birthday present. And I was like well I didn’t have the money. And she was like well at least you could’ve given me a card.

As a speaking rater of TOEFL, I’m also hearing actually being used more and more as a discourse marker. Speakers seem to be using it as a clarifier or an intensifier. It has the same general meaning of in fact (another discourse marker) and is sometimes used in combination with it.

Speaker: Actually, I think this is a really good idea.

Speaker: The man says he doesn’t agree with this plan, in fact, actually, he’s quite unhappy about it.

Again, actually is a discourse marker that can easily be overused. I have heard some speakers use it five or six times in the course of a minute, and that’s too much!

So when it comes to overusing discourse markers, how do we know how much is too much? I think the bottom line is … does your listener notice them? Discourse markers help shape our conversation and provide signals to our listeners, but they shouldn’t draw attention to themselves. When you use them properly, your listener won’t pay any attention to them.

As I said in a previous post, the best way to spot “discourse marker overuse” is to listen to a recording of your speech. Or you might ask someone who listens to you regularly. When I was a teenager, I used to overuse you know. Eventually, my mother started clearing her throat (ahhh-hem), every time I said you know. At the time, I was very annoyed with her, but it ended up being a very effective solution! 🙂

27 Feb 2017

Oh is a very common and very versatile discourse marker, which is often used in combination with other words or phrases.

By itself, oh is usually used to indicate surprise or a sudden realization in a number of different situations.

Speaker (who has just spilled some water on someone else): Oh, I’m so sorry!

Speaker (who has just been told he is wearing a nice suit): Oh, thank you so much!

Speaker (who has just been reminded she needs to turn in a report for work): Oh, you’re right! Thanks for reminding me.

Speaker (who has just remembered a question he wants to ask someone): Oh, did you remember to put out the trash?

Speaker (who has just realized she made a mistake): Oh, I didn’t mean Broadway. That restaurant is on Main Street.

Speaker (who has just been told something upsetting): Oh, that’s awful! You must be so upset.

To change the meaning of oh or to intensify it, we can use lots of variations or changes of intonation.

As a question, with a rising intonation, we can ask, Oh? Oh really? Oh yeah?

Or, with a lowering intonation, we can reply, Oh, as a way of expressing disapproval or disappointment.

Speaker 1: The hotel doesn’t have a record of our reservation.

Speaker 2: Oh. (Or, said with sarcasm: Oh, great.)

To intensify the surprise and sometimes indicate concern about the speaker or situation, you can say:

Oh my!

Oh my goodness!

Oh my gosh!

Oh my God! (many Americans would consider this strong language and I would avoid using it unless you are sure it’s appropriate)

To indicate resignation or acceptance of something that’s not to your liking, you might use: Oh well.

Speaker 1: They just announced our flight is going to be delayed two hours.

Speaker 2: Oh well. I guess we’d better call the hotel and say we’re going to be late.

On the other hand, if something really bad happens, you might say: Oh no!

To agree with someone, you might say: Oh yeah! But with a different intonation, this same phrase could be used as a question, or even as a retort to a perceived insult.

Another common phrase is oh boy! Depending on your intonation, this can express pleasure, distress, or surprise.

Oh boy, I can’t wait to go!

Oh boy, we’re in trouble now!

Oh boy, I can’t believe she said that!

And, finally, when we remember something and want to catch someone’s attention, we often say: Oh, by the way …

Speaker: Oh, by the way, did you hear that Amal Clooney is expecting twins?

26 Feb 2017

Well is a very common word in English that can be used as an adverb, adjective, verb, or noun. For example:

She swims well. (adverb modifying verb)

This app is well designed. (adverb modifying adjective)

Now that my fever is gone, I feel quite well. (adjective)

Tears welled in her eyes. (verb)

He gets his water from a well. (noun)

But well is also commonly used as a discourse marker. Remember, discourse markers are little, barely noticeable words or phrases used in spoken English. We don’t use them the same way in written English unless we are trying to transcribe someone’s speech patterns.

Like so, well can introduce a new topic. In fact, I find in my own speech, I’m more likely to use well than so. For example:

Lecturer: Well, today I’d like to talk about phrasal verbs.

It can also connect two thoughts together, without the causality implied by so. For example:

Speaker: I took a shower and, well, then I went to bed.

It can also be used with a question, or even as a one-word question:

Speaker: Well, how did your doctor visit go?

Speaker: Well? (often with a rising intonation, and sometimes a bit impatiently)

But Anne Curzan, a linguistics professor at the University of Michigan, points out another interesting use of well. It is also used to preface responses that we think our listener may not want to hear. Well might be used when we contradict what the speaker has just said, or when we’re basically saying “No.” Well seems to help soften the negative impact of our response. Often, when we use well this way, we stretch the word out a bit (weeelllll). It’s almost as if we’re giving the listener a moment to prepare emotionally for what we have to say. For example:

Speaker: Well, I’ve got kind of bad news. The doctor thinks I might have high blood pressure.

Speaker: Well, I’m not so sure you’re right about that. I kind of think that …

Speaker: Well, I understand what you mean but …

Speaker 1: Would you be able to host the next Alumni Club dinner?

Speaker 2: Well, I’d like to, but I don’t think we’re going to be in town that weekend.

Finally, we often use “oh well” together to signal understanding or resignation. In this case, the intonation of well often falls.

Speaker: Oh well, you can’t get an A on every test. You’ll do better next time.

Speaker: Oh well, I guess since it’s raining, we can just go to the movies. We can always go hiking next week.

25 Feb 2017

Recently, I’ve been listening to a series of lectures given by Anne Curzan, a professor of linguistics at the University of Michigan. One of her lectures was on “discourse markers,” a special feature of spoken English. Discourse markers are those little words or phrases you may not even notice … so, oh, now, well, I mean … that play some very important roles in conversation. This topic was so interesting that I decided to write a series of blog posts about each of the words she discussed.

So, the first word we’ll look at is so.

“This topic was so interesting …” In this sentence, I’m using so as an adverb, to modify interesting. Beware, because I’ve heard speakers improperly use the adverb “so” instead of “too” — but they mean two different things. Too means “to an excess” (this soup is too hot); whereas so just means “really” (that movie was so good).

But how about so as a discourse marker, when it’s used in spoken English? What does it do there? Well, it can do different things.

First, it can signal an effect or logical consequence of what came before (and it does this in written English as well, as you can see in the second paragraph of this article).

Speaker: I was really focused on my work … I mean, I was tuning everything else out … and I really didn’t hear my phone … so my girlfriend is pretty mad cuz, you know, she thought it was on purpose, like I didn’t want to talk to her.

Also, so can introduce a summary or a rephrasing of something you just said.

Lecturer: So we’ve been discussing phrasal verbs … um … so those very common expressions in English that usually include a very common verb and those prepositions that really aren’t prepositions.

We can use so when we tell stories or narratives. Anne Curzan points out that they work almost like paragraph breaks in written English.

Speaker: So I was in English class and I was getting kind of sleepy and I guess I might have even drifted off a little bit. So my teacher suddenly called on me and everybody else started laughing at me because I didn’t know the answer. So, you know, I was upset and I ended up just walking out of the class. So now my teacher is mad and she says she’s going to mark me as absent.

Anne Curzan also notes that when someone interrupts our story, we often get it back on track with so or so anyway. For example:

Speaker: So anyway, I don’t know what to do because if I have another absence I’ll flunk this class.

We may also hear so used in response to questions; it can signal our willingness to answer a question and to make a connection with the person asking the question. For example, in an interview:

Interviewer: I’d be interested in knowing your opinions about the current political situation in China.

Expert: So that’s an interesting question. We probably need to look at several different aspects …

Finally so, asked in a questioning tone of voice (with a rising intonation) can be used to ask for a response from another person.

Speaker 1: I went to the doctor today.

Speaker 2: So? (with a rising intonation; in other words, “what happened?”)

22 Feb 2017

I must learn English.

He must get a 100 on the TOEFL.

We must go shopping tonight.

What’s wrong with these sentences?

Nothing … grammatically. But you aren’t likely to hear them in spoken English. The modal auxiliary verb must is less and less commonly used when people speak English.

What do we say instead?

I’ve gotta learn English.

He’s gotta get a 100 on the TOEFL.

We hafta go shopping tonight.

This is what you’ll hear, although the written words are have to and got to.

Have to is followed by the base form of a verb.

I have to learn English.

He has to take the bus.

We had to take a test yesterday.

I’ll have to study harder.

Got is the simple past and past participle forms of to get. So using it in the simple present isn’t grammatically correct (although you’ll often hear it). You may hear:

I got to go now.

But the correct grammatical form is:

I’ve got to go now.

And when we use it in the simple past tense, it means something different:

I got to meet Lady Gaga yesterday.

That means “I was lucky enough to meet Lady Gaga yesterday.”

If you want to express an obligation in the simple past, use have to instead.

I had to meet with my advisor yesterday.

1 Feb 2017

In my last blog post, I talked about “chunking.” Another very useful language chunk is the phrase:

Spoze-to

That’s the way it sounds, but it’s really spelled “supposed to.” And if you use it correctly, it can help you sound a lot more fluent.

Many English learners use should when a native speaker would use supposed to. For example:

The man should take a class on Shakespeare next semester, but he has a conflict in his schedule.

There’s nothing absolutely wrong with this sentence, but it’s not how native speakers would say it. Instead, they’d say:

The man’s supposed to take a class on Shakespeare next semester, but he has a conflict in his schedule.

What’s the difference?

Should is used to indicate a general requirement or obligation. For example:

Everyone should go to the dentist once a year.

You should brush your teeth twice a day.

Should I send an email or a letter?

Supposed to can be used in the same sense, but it’s often used when you’re talking about a more specific occasion OR, as in the example above, when there’s a conflict and you can’t do something you were planning to do. So, for example:

He’s supposed to come to my house tonight.

I’m supposed to go to the dentist tomorrow, but the bus isn’t running.

However, when you are using should and supposed to in negative terms, they are usually interchangeable.

I shouldn’t tell you this because it’s a secret. (I’m not supposed to tell you …)

You’re not supposed to smoke here in the restaurant. (You shouldn’t smoke …)

Finally, we often use supposed to for something that is believed in a general sense. For example:

Chinese is supposed to be the most difficult language to learn.

It’s not supposed to snow tonight.

26 Jan 2017

There have been lots of articles and studies about “chunking” as a good way of learning languages. Basically, a chunk is a whole piece. Here in the U.S., many people like ice cream with chocolate or peanut butter chunks. That means the chocolate or peanut butter is one piece, a chunk, mixed in with the ice cream. You can’t separate the chunk … it’s all in one solid, delicious piece of chocolate (or peanut butter).

Languages work the same way. Think of words that belong together in a chunk … a single group of words that students learn all at once. For example, “How’s it going?” or “Nice to meet you.” We usually learn these expressions all in a piece; we don’t separate them into individual words. And the words belong in a particular order, which is why they’re often called set or fixed phrases.

So how can chunking help you on tests of English speaking? On tests like TOEFL, your biggest challenge is to say what you want to say naturally and fluently, without pausing and hesitating over the right wording.

To do this, I think it’s helpful to slowly acquire a versatile supply of phrases that can be used in many situations. But rather than learning first one chunk and then another chunk, with no relation between the chunks, I recommend a “chunk plus” method. With this method, you start with one group of words, one chunk, and then keep building on it by adding variations.

So, for example, start with the fixed phrase:

a lot of

Now think of some common verbs you can add to this:

waste a lot of

cost a lot of

spend a lot of

take a lot of

Then add some common nouns:

to waste a lot of time

to cost a lot of money

to spend a lot of energy

to take a lot of effort

Now practice using different subjects and tenses. Try putting your phrases in the negative.

I spend a lot of money

It took a lot of time

She doesn’t waste a lot of energy

Then, when these phrases roll off your tongue (which is just another way of saying they come naturally and fluently), refine and expand upon them. Add adverbs or adjectives or simple prepositional phrases:

It really doesn’t take a lot of money

I often waste a lot of my time at the mall

Now’s the time to pay attention to details. For example, should the verbs be followed by a gerund, infinitive, or both? What prepositions follow the verbs? It’s at this stage that a teacher is going to be the most helpful to make sure you get it right.

She spent a lot of time doing her homework. (not spent a lot of time to do …)

It takes a lot of time to learn English. (not takes a lot of time learning …)

You shouldn’t waste your money on new shoes (not waste your money for …)

With my “chunk plus” method, you start with a single chunk and, by building upon it, end up with an almost infinite number of useful phrases. The result, I hope, is that when you are face-to-face with the microphone in your testing room, you’ll be able to speak more fluently, fluidly, and confidently.

25 Jan 2017

When I was working on my graduate degree in teaching ESL, I had to videotape myself teaching in front of my classroom of students. And, upon first viewing these recordings, I was horrified at how many times I used the word okay. It seemed like I started every single sentence with Okay, so … !

The fact is, these filler words are very, very common in English speech. If used too often, they can be quite annoying, but using them in moderation can actually make you sound quite natural.

So, while you may think you should use more formal speech on a test like TOEFL, if a native English speaker were answering these questions, you would be far more likely to hear something like this:

Okay, so the woman has a problem and, um, she needs to move to a new apartment. But, uh, this apartment doesn’t have a place to study, so, um, she could, like, study in the library or, you know, she could study on her bed. Okay, but, you know, she might fall asleep on her bed, so, um, I think maybe she should go to the library, like, at least three times a week. Uh, maybe not on the weekend, okay? But I think, like, most of the time, she, uh, could go there.

So, how much is too much and how much is in moderation? How can you use filler words naturally, but without annoying your listener?

It really helps to have someone listen to and evaluate you. Raters of TOEFL don’t see your face; they just hear your speech. Thus, your filler words are likely to be more obvious, and too many can make you sound less fluent. So have the person evaluating you listen to a recording you’ve made, or listen without looking at you face-to-face. And, if you can’t find anyone to listen to you, make a recording. Then listen to it. What filler words do you use too often or too repetitively?

And how do you cure overuse? Well, from my own example of using okay, simply realizing that I had that annoying habit was half the battle. Once I was aware of it, it was easier to catch myself “in the act” and work on reducing the times I used it.

In addition, certain filler words (also known as discourse markers) such as so, well, oh, now, okay, um, I mean, you know, like, and actually serve important functions in English speech: follow the links to the specific articles for more tips on how to incorporate them into your day-to-day speech.