Lesson video

Hello, Miss Howard here.

Welcome to Lesson 1 of our Rhetoric Motivation unit.

Now over the course of this unit, we're going to be looking at the different ways that speakers can motivate and win over an audience through that sense of motivation.

We're going to be looking at a couple of key figures within history who managed to do this really effectively.

And the person that we're going to be looking at today and over the course of the next few lessons, I find absolutely fascinating.

But he made quite a few iconic speeches that really did change history.

But I don't want to give too much away.

So close down any distractions or apps that you may have running in your background if you know how to do so.

For the lesson today you'll need a pen and something to write on.

Find yourself a quiet space where you know you won't be disturbed and then when you're ready Press play, and we'll get started.

In this lesson, we're going to learn all about Winston Churchill, prime Prime Minister of Great Britain, an iconic speaker of the We Shall Fight on the Beaches speech.

That was broadcast later on radio after being initially delivered in Parliament to motivate the British people and raise morale during the hardship of the Second World War.

We'll start by looking at the opening of Churchill's speech today.

And we'll look at how he convinces his audience to remain strong, despite the many difficulties that they were experiencing during the time.

So in today's lesson, we'll have a look a bit of a review to see how much rhetoric you understand so far, and your prior knowledge of that.

We'll have a look at who Winston Churchill was, what kind of man was Churchill and particularly within his capacity as a politician.

We'll explore the opening of the speech and how it was motivational.

And we'll consider why Churchill uses rhetoric within this particular speech to motivate? Why was that so important for this particular speech? To motivate, which is a verb means to be encouraged to act.

It comes from the Latin for movere, and then later on motivus, which means to move.

So it's the idea that by saying something to somebody, you can encourage them to move and figuratively as such.

So you can encourage them to do something to act on your words.

Therefore this unit, we also need to understand the word morale.

Morale, morale, can you say it? Lovely stuff, morale means the enthusiasm or confidence of an individual or a group.

For example, our team was winning and morale was high, which means they were feeling very confident or feeling very enthusiastic.

Morale.

The other thing I want us to have a go at today, and you may want to pause the video to make notes before you have a go at the tasks I'm going to set you, is appositives.

Now appositives describe or explain a noun within the sentence, which develops our understanding of whatever the sentence is about as a result.

And normally develops our understanding of whatever the noun is or what's happening to the noun.

So for example, Winston Churchill, a prior Prime Minister, used rhetoric in his speeches.

So I find out about Winston Churchill that he was a prior Prime Minister, rather than just the fact that he used rhetoric in his speeches.

Here's another example, Winston Churchill, a key figure in history, used rhetoric in his speeches.

Again, I'm finding out something additional about Winston Churchill within the sentence.

What I want you to do is pause the video here and have a go creating your own sentence with an appositive.

So you are going to be the noun, your name goes in the paper, then something additional about you and something you are fantastic at.

Have a go, pause here, press play when you're done.

Best of luck.

So how did you get on with your appositives? Brilliant, keep that in mind.

We're going to use these later on to expand and develop our sentences.

Now we'll be coming back to our Aristotelian Triad, we look at rhetoric.

Remember, we're looking at to what extent the speaker has created a strong sense of ethos, which is how trustworthy or credible they appear to be.

Do they seem like they genuinely care about the topic that they're talking about? Logos.

So to what extent their argument seems logical, well evidenced, proved.

So the proof of the argument to back themselves up.

And pathos, to what extent do they evoke an emotional reaction or at least try to from the audience.

Now, if we want to use rhetoric to persuade people, highlight injustice, encourage change, or motivate others, we have to ensure that we create a blend of these within our speaking or our writing.

It's just not going to work if we create a really strong sense of ethos.

So we get out crowd our audience to trust us or our reader to trust us, but then we don't necessarily prove why our argument is rational or reasonable with logos.

If we just however, use plenty of logos, so we incorporated lots of facts, figures, statistics into our argument, but we didn't necessarily start by building up trust between ourselves and the audience, then I just think that we're firing loads of information at them.

And they won't really understand why because we haven't given them any indication that we genuinely care.

If we also just include a great deal of pathos, so we're saying I understand where you're coming from, I understand that you might feel that way, I'm here to make the speech memorable or the piece of writing memorable.

Again, it's just not simply good enough, because they don't really understand why it's important to us.

And that's just as important.

So when we're looking at rhetoric, we are looking for speakers or writers.

And when we're discerning how effective it is, we are looking for speakers or writers to use a blend of these three aspects of rhetoric.

So, before we move on, let's see how you get on with this multiple choice quiz.

What is an appositive? How did you get on? Fantastic work if you've got option three.

An appositive is a clause which describes or explains a noun within a sentence.

Okay, next up.

Who created the art of rhetoric? Now, I didn't explicitly mention this, but there was a way that you could have spotted it.

Alternatively, you may already know, let's see how you get on.

How did you do? If you've got option one, absolutely brilliant.

The answer is Aristotle.

He created the art of rhetoric.

In fact, he was so passionate, he wrote an entire book about the matter.

Next up.

To speak or write effective rhetoric, you need to consider what? Pause the video here.

Let's see how you get on.

Excellent work if you've got option number three, which is ethos, logos, and pathos, three elements of our tribe that we need to consider when we're thinking about how effectively somebody has applied the tools of rhetoric.

So for today's lesson, we're going to be exploring Winston Churchill.

Now in order to understand the background of the speech itself and the context, we need to understand Winston Churchill himself.

Now he was born on the 30th of November 1874, in Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.

He didn't achieve particularly fantastic grades at school, however, his early fascination with the military saw him join the world cavalry in 1895.

As well as being a soldier, he was also a part time journalist, which saw him travel all over the world, including trips to Cuba, Afghanistan, Egypt, and South Africa.

He was elected as Conservative MP in the 1900s.

However, he then did what's called crossing the floor.

He crossed the floor to the Liberal Party, one of the opposing political parties in 1904, and he spent the next 10 years climbing the ranks of that political party.

Now meeting two warriors saw him again, cross the floor quite controversially from the Liberals back to the Conservative Party.

He served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1924 when he controversially opted for Britain to rejoin the gold standard.

Then when the conservatives were defeated in 1929, he lost his seat in Parliament and he spent pretty much the next 10 or 11 years out of office writing or making speeches.

Then Neville Chamberlain, our MP resigned in 1940, and Churchill was chosen to succeed him as Prime Minister.

Churchill also adopted the self created position of Minister for defence.

He was active in several elements around the British war effort.

Some of his most memorable speeches were given during this period of time.

He also made reference to the unwonder surround the Iron Curtain that had descended across the continent.

Now this was a figurative use of language to describe this barrier that the Soviet Union, which is now Russia, had created between themselves and the rest of Europe and these lack of working relationships between countries at the time, Churchill warned us of things.

He was then re elected in 1951.

At that point, there were some people of the opinion to say including Roy Jenkins, who said he was gloriously unfit for office.

He was ageing by that point and increasingly unwell and carried out a great deal of his business from his bedside.

And so his leadership was seen as less decisive during this time.

Now, poor health forced him to resign in 1955, at which point he made way for his Foreign Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, Anthony Eden to take on the role.

I think this is a fantastic quotation from Winston Churchill, particularly when we're thinking about rhetoric and rhetorical language, using language almost as a weapon as such.

He said, "Politics is almost as exciting as war "and quite as dangerous.

"In war, you can only be killed once, "but in politics many times." And I think if we look at anybody's career, Winston Churchill's was definitely quite apt for that idea of being killed many times over.

So we had a few different terms that I thought might be interesting to unpack before we move on.

That essence of crossing the floor is to leave one political party for another, which is what made for one of many reasons Winston Churchill so controversial and fascinating as a figure in history.

Morale we've looked at before.

The confidence or the enthusiasm of the people.

And the figurative language coined by Churchill to describe the barrier between the Soviet Union and the rest of Europe, the Iron Curtain that had been created.

So pause the video here and I'd like you to complete the following tasks.

Define the word morale.

Have a go at using morale in a sentence.

Answer the question, which party or parties was Churchill a member of? And number four, what other roles did Churchill undertake during his career? And we'll see how good your memory is.

As an additional challenge, could you use a sentence with an appositive then? So wherever you're using and now think about where you could include additional information.

Pause the video, resume play when you are done.

Now your answers might not look exactly like mine, so don't worry too much this is just to give you a little bit of an idea.

So morale we've said a few times now, hopefully we've got a secure understanding of it.

The confidence or enthusiasm of the people.

And there's my example for morale.

I've used my team winning basketball today as an example.

Which party or parties? The Conservatives and the Liberal Party.

Churchill was a member of both.

Of one or the other one point.

And number four his various different roles included, soldier, journalists, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an Exchequer cannot speak and Ministry of Defence.

Now the speech we're going to look at, We Shall Fight on the Beaches, also known as We Shall Never Surrender is delivered by Winston Churchill at quite a pivotal moment within British history.

We're going to have a look and understand that the background of why that moment was so pivotal.

Now, Operation Dynamo, which was the evacuation from Dunkirk.

Dunkirk port, the port that you're looking at just there, involved the rescue of more than 338,000 British and French soldiers from the French ports of Dunkirk between the 26th of may and the fourth of June 1940.

It's sometimes referred to as the Miracle of Dunkirk, and you'll see why later on in the way that Churchill himself describes that.

But it was a huge boost for British morale.

Winston Churchill recognised that there was still a huge challenge ahead as Nazi ambitions and plans then started to look towards Britain as their next conquest.

And so it was really important for him to not only keep morale high, but also look for additional support.

So at the outset, it was hoped that maybe 45,000 men might be evacuated from Dunkirk over that coming week.

In the event itself, as I said, over 338,000 troops reached England, of which 26,000 were French soldiers.

On the fourth of June, Churchill reported to the House of Commons and delivered this speech, which was then later broadcast on radio for the British public to hear.

Now he had two key purposes behind delivering this speech.

One, to check the mood for the British people and it showed that morale was indeed high, and that they recognise this as a fantastic achievement on the part of the British troops, particularly the Royal Air Force, and the army as well.

But also to make a very clear appeal to the United States for support.

So he needed to make this retreat, this evacuation sound like very much a victory.

He describes it in the speech as the miracle of deliverance, which I think is an absolutely fantastic way to put across what was essentially an evacuation of our soldiers from the war zone.

So what did Churchill call Dunkirk? Brilliant work if you've got option number one.

It was a miracle of deliverance.

We're going to explore that term later on in more detail.

Why would rhetoric be useful at this particular moment for Churchill? To highlight Britain's military success.

He wanted to ensure that both the British people, but also the rest of the world recognised this evacuation as a military success, and not just us submitting defeat.

So, let's have a look at the opening of Churchill's speech, and consider how he uses rhetoric to come across as motivational and to what extent he manages to do that.

Now, some new words that you might need to stop the video at this point and note down once I talk through them, we have three new words here.

We have capitulate.

You say it.

Capitulate, again.

Brilliant.

Capitulate, to cease to resist.

It's from the Latin of caput, which means head.

So this idea of stopping.

We had a water fight and I refused to capitulate.

Next up, tidings.

You say it.

Tidings.

Again, brilliant.

Tidings, is news or information.

Taken from the Old Norse of tithr, which means occurring or event.

In use, how do we use it? I bring you bad tidings, unfortunately.

I bring you bad news.

Last one, ignominious.

You say it.

Ignominious.

Again, ignominious.

Brilliant.

Is to cause public shame.

So if you're experiencing public shame.

So it's taken from the Latin of in and nomen with meaning in name.

So it's all tied to this idea of reputation and humiliation or breaking of reputation.

So how do we use it? My cake was an ignominious failure.

That sounds about right.

Pause the video here if you need to note any of those down because you'll need to understand them in order to understand the opening of the speech today.

Okay, we're going to listen to Winston Churchill, recording of Winston Churchill, and the opening, the first three minutes of the speech.

While we're listening to it, what I'd like you to do is make notes.

But how does Churchill describe the situation? So what words does he use to describe the situation? And what words does he use to describe the enemy? [Winston Churchill] When a week ago today, Mr. Speaker, I asked the House to fix this afternoon as the occasion for a statement, I feared it would be my hard lot to announce the greatest military disaster in our long history.

I thought and some good judges agreed with me that perhaps 20,000 or 30,000 men might be re-embarked.

But it certainly seemed that the whole of the French First Army and the whole of the British Expeditionary Force, North of the Amiens-Abbeville gap would be broken up in the open field or else would have to capitulate for lack of food and ammunition.

These were the hard and heavy tidings for which I called upon the House and the nation to prepare themselves a week ago.

The whole root and core and brain of the British Army, on which and around which we were to build, and are to build, the great British Armies in the later years of the war, seemed about to perish upon the field or be led into an ignominious and starving captivity.

The enemy attacked us on all sides with great strength and fierceness.

And their main power, the power of their far more numerous Air Force, was thrown into the battle or else concentrated upon Dunkirk and the beaches.

Pressing in upon the narrow exit, both from the East and from the West, the enemy began to fire with cannon upon the beaches by which alone the shipping could approach or depart.

They sowed magnetic mines in the channels and seas, they sent repeated waves of hostile aircraft, sometimes more than a hundred strong in one formation, to cast their bombs upon the single pier that remained, and upon the sand dunes upon which the troops had their only shelter.

Their U-boats, one of which was sunk, and their motor launches took the toll of the vast traffic which now began.

For four or five days an intense struggle reigned.

All their armoured divisions or what was left of them, together with great masses of infantry and artillery, hurled themselves in vain upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting appendix within which the British and French Armies fought.

Okay, so let's explore the opening of this speech in a little bit more detail.

Winston Churchill very much presents the problem.

If we have a look at the language that he uses, he really wants to emphasise how severe and serious this situation was for the British troops.

He says, "I feared it would be my hard lot "to announce the greatest military disaster "in our long history." So not only does he share his fears, but he also admits that he thought it would be so awful, and that the outcome would be so poor for the British troops that it would actually be the worst disaster in our entire history.

But he shares his fears around that, he shares his worries publicly through this speech.

That's quite unusual, is it not? We'll come back to that later on.

He says, "These were the hard and heavy tidings." So we have this use of this alliterative language, pardon, heavy tidings to really reinforce how severe and serious this situation was.

He was incredibly worried about the fact that this would be bad news not just for the soldiers, not just for the troops, but for the country as a whole.

However, he then goes on to compliment the British Army, and he uses this China colong, quite figurative language here.

He says, "The whole root and core and brain of the British Army, on which and around which we were to build, and are to build, the great British Armies in the later years of the war seemed about to perish." What a brilliant word perish.

Then he uses this really complimentary set of flattery for the British Army.

He says that the very best of the British Army whatever day, the root and the core and the brain.

Now, the connotations of root, this idea that the roots were that they kind of the very beginnings of the British Army, but also the core, the central part, the central component of the British Army, and the brains the very best of the British army was there that day.

So it's incredibly complimentary just in a few succinct sentences there.

He also uses, when we think about the way that he presents the problem, this very figurative imagery that he's got here.

He says, "The enemy hurled themselves in vain upon the ever-narrowing, ever-contracting appendix." Now, your appendix is the part of your intestine.

So your intestine obviously squeeze the food through your digestive system, and eventually it bypasses the appendix.

So this idea of something contracting, it's like an appendix squeezing food through the digestive system.

So the British troops and the French troops are actually blocked in by this approaching enemy, and they're almost cornered into quite a confined space in the way that he describes them using this use of figurative language.

So so far, we don't have necessarily a very positive presentation.

He's a little bit complimentary of the British Army yet.

But the situation itself and the language that he's using, the rhetoric that he's using in order to present that, I would argue is far from motivational at this point.

Let's have a little bit of a structure and figure.

So you've got three statements here, pause the video and have a read through.

Are they true or false? Brilliant work if you managed to get number one and two as true, and number three is false.

Let's have a read through our true statements.

So Churchill was worried that the soldiers at Dunkirk would not be able to evacuate.

Churchill exaggerates the enemy through his use of language.

I definitely agree there.

That whole idea around being squeezed as though they're being cornered into an appendix is an amazing use of figurative language, fantastic rhetoric.

Churchill made the British forces sound weak.

Well, no, he didn't remember he described them as the core, the root, and the brain, yeah? So we have this structure, and we can assume this structure that Churchill uses to present the negative aspects for war.

And if we're looking at this as a motivational speech, we would hope, wouldn't we? We will predict that later on, they'll come a moment where we overcome the challenge.

We know to be the outcome of Dunkirk.

So we would hope that this speech mentions that the positive outcome of Dunkirk at a later point, but at the moment, we're kind of resting on all these negative aspects of war and the presenting the challenge as such.

So he shares this fear of the worst outcome, he presents the difficulties encountered by the soldiers, and he complements the British Army even in their moment of difficulty as well.

Let's hope by the time he gets to the next part of the speech that he moves on to explaining the positive outcome, perhaps, perhaps.

So if we're thinking about our final question for today, why does Churchill use rhetoric to motivate? Well, we might struggle a little bit there, because maybe we need a different question at this point.

Maybe instead of why does Churchill use rhetoric to motivate it's why does Churchill use rhetoric, but not to motivate yet? Why is it that he's creating the challenge and the difficult circumstances and making it sound as though it was completely inescapable and he feared the worst? Why is he doing that at this point? Well, there's a couple of reasons that we could hazard a guess at.

If you're going to describe a positive outcome to make it sound even more fantastic and monumental as an accomplishment and achievement, if you make the situation sound absolutely horrific and almost impossible to foresee a positive outcome, it's going to sound even more impressive.

Is it not? The other reason is remember, we need to think about the context of our speech.

If we have the American authorities listening to this speech, as it was delivered in Parliament, and then broadcast beyond that, well, we don't want them to think that it was an easy situation to get out of, and that we don't need their support later on as a country.

And so there's a couple of reasons why.

Maybe, maybe Churchill decided to use rhetoric, but with quiet negative slant to really emphasise and exaggerate the severity of the situation and how impossible it was.

What I'd like you to do is jot down your own answer to that question.

So write the answer and fall.

And then in your own words, I'll give you 20 words all together.

Why does Churchill use rhetoric, but not to motivate yet? And that's the end of today's lesson.

Fantastic work.

I hope you really enjoyed that speech.

I really do get a lot out of it.

I find it really quite fascinating, the starting point.

And hopefully that will give you a little bit of a taster of what's to come next lesson.

So next lesson, we'll look at the next section of that speech.

And let's see if our predictions are right.

I'll leave it at that.

I need you to do two things for me before you finish it today.

First one is, right down three things that you've learned today.

Now it might be something new vocabulary that we worked with and you repeated back to me, it might be around Winston Churchill or Dunkirk or it might be around rhetoric as a tool as well.

Second thing I need you to do is complete your quiz because I am really interested as you should be to see how much you've learned today.

Take care, see you soon.