Lesson video

Hello and welcome to the lesson.

Thank you for joining me, I'm Mrs. Butterworth and I'll be guiding you through the learning.

Now, this lesson is all about non-verbal communication in speeches.

So we'll be thinking about how things like body language or the way we use our voice can really impact the delivery of speeches.

I find this particularly interesting, so should we get started? So by the end of this lesson, you will understand how non-verbal features contribute to an effective speech.

Now, before we delve into the lesson, let's look at those key words that will be popping up throughout the lesson that we need to make sure we understand.

Those words are paralanguage, kinesics, pitch, tone, and posture.

So what do they mean? So paralanguage refers to the features of verbal communication other than words, so we're thinking about tone, volume, and pitch.

So it's all the ways you use your voice to create meaning.

Then we have this word kinesics, and this is all about the way body language, facial expressions and gestures can communicate meaning.

So for example, we know that if someone gives a thumbs up, that might mean all good, or if someone is waving that idea of in terms of kinesics, is that we know that that means 'hello or goodbye', it's a specific gesture that has its own meaning.

Then we get this word pitch, and this is all about the highness and the lowness of your voice.

So if you are saying things in a particular tone, your pitch will change.

So for example, if you are really happy, your pitch might go very high, whereas if you're feeling sadder, your tone might go a bit lower.

And then the tone refers to the attitude and emotion of your voice, so you might have quite an angry tone in your voice, or you might have quite an enthusiastic tone in your voice.

And then posture is all about the way that someone holds themselves when they are seated or standing.

So your posture is, yeah, about where you position yourselves when you are delivering a speech.

So the outline of our lesson looks like this, we're going to start by considering paralanguage features, so how we can use our voice effectively, and then we're going to look at kinesics and effective body language.

So let's get started by considering paralanguage.

"It's not what you say, it's how you say it." I'm sure you have heard this phrase before.

Now I want us to consider how far do you agree with this statement? So, "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." Pause a video so you can discuss or think to yourself how far you agree with this statement, pause the video and off you go.

Excellent! Thank you so much for your contributions, it's a difficult one, isn't it? And you had lots of varied opinions because I guess it's a little bit of both, but let's feed back some of these answers.

So Laura said that she somewhat agrees.

She said, "I think it's important to have the foundations of a really good speech, but then also need to consider how it's presented." And that's a good point actually, because if you don't know what you are saying or you don't have something that's well crafted, I'm not sure how you say it is going to rescue that.

And Andeep says, "Arguably, I think that how you say something can be incredibly powerful, it can change the meaning of what you are saying and provoke different responses from the audience." And that's a really interesting point, isn't it? How we say things is really powerful.

So let's think of an example, so if we take goodbye, how you say goodbye to someone can impact the meaning.

So if you were happy, you might be like, "Oh, goodbye," if you were angry, "Oh, goodbye!" And you can see how that would impact how the audience or how you are saying or the person that you are saying it to, how they would respond to that.

So how you say things can really change their meaning.

When delivering a persuasive speech, you also need to consider paralanguage features.

Now paralanguage refers to the way in which you can use your voice to create meaning.

So you will need to consider the tone, pitch, pace, and volume of your delivery.

How can you manipulate these to make your speech engaging? And you'll also need to consider things like, where you are delivering your speech, for example, because that will impact your use of volume.

So take this simple sentence, "I didn't say you were wrong." What would you do to your delivery to make it sound angry, enthusiastic, comforting or sarcastic? Pause the video so you can have a go at changing the tone of that sentence using your pitch pace and volume, off you go.

Well done everyone, it is interesting, isn't it? How these paralanguage features can really change the meaning of such a simple sentence.

Okay, so A, B, C, or D, which of these would not be considered a feature of paralanguage? Okay, well done to everyone that said vocabulary, excellent! Remember we're thinking about those non-verbal features, so vocabulary would be to do with the writing of the speech, not to the delivery.

We have two images here, one of Martin Luther King and one of Greta Thunberg.

Now these are two of history's most famous speech givers, and I'm sure you have an awareness of who they are and the sorts of speeches they have presented in the past.

So what I would like you to do, is I would like you to discuss why is their delivery so successful? What tone do they create? How do they vary, pitch, pace, and volume.

So we're really thinking about what makes these two speakers so powerful.

Pause the video so you've got time to consider your ideas, off you go.

Great! Thank you everyone, some really fantastic contributions there, so let's just share some of our ideas.

So lots of you picked up on the idea that they both have quite an angry and urgent tone, or there's a sense of frustration, and if we think about the subjects of their speeches and the issues that they are addressing, they need to be quite angry and urgent because they're trying to show people what's happening in the world, and also to persuade people to take action.

However, there is contrast to their delivery, Thunberg is much more subtle compared to Martin Luther King's emotive and impassioned delivery.

Now, Martin Luther King, and I'm sure you could almost hear him in his eye, have a dream speech, he uses a very loud booming voice, but he does also have moments of calm.

But that loudness comes through when he's stating, "I had a dream, I have a dream," and that repetition he uses his loud voice to emphasise that repetition.

So it's interesting how he uses volume and moments of calm, whereas Greta Thunberg, she has this very clear and calm delivery.

It's very subtle and understated, but that doesn't take away from her angry and urgent tone, she's very blunt with her delivery.

And Martin Luther King uses different pace and volume to emphasise key words.

So at times he can talk quite quickly when he's becoming really emotive, but then that becomes slower when he's using things like personal anecdotes or describing incidences.

And Thunberg also varies pitch and volume to address and challenge the audience.

At time, Thunberg can really look at the audience and challenge them, and she really changes the pitch and volume there almost adopting a lower tone, a lower pitch, and a more serious tone to make those challenges.

So you have written an engaging and powerful speech, and it's so important that your delivery matches this.

So the first thing you might want to consider is the tone, so what tone do you want to create? Now remember, you will need to consider your audience and the purpose of your speech because you don't want to get the tone wrong, so it puts people off.

Too angry or confrontational, and yes, you might put your audience off, but likewise, if you are too humorous or casual, you won't convince your audience.

So it's about really finding the right tone in which to address your audience.

So here are some tonal words, I'd like you to look at these and discuss which tone is the best for your speech and your audience.

So these are the words, assertive, confident, urgent, optimistic, inspirational, passionate, frustrated, emotional, authoritative, and empowering.

Okay, so pause a video so you can discuss which tone is the best for your speech and your audience.

You may just wish to sit quietly and think about your ideas yourself.

Okay, pause the video, off you go.

Okay, excellent! So hopefully we're getting a bit of a sense at how your speech is going to be delivered and what tone you were going to use, but it's true or false time.

So shout to at your audience is the best way to deliver a convincing speech.

Is that true or false? Yes, well done, that's false, so justify your answer by picking A or B.

And the answer is B, you need to consider the needs of all of your audience.

And some audiences may find an aggressive tone too confrontational, and I think that's a really key point.

You kind of have to find a tone and a way to address your audience that is going to be suitable for all members because you don't want to alienate anyone.

In a moment, I'm going to ask you to read an introduction varying your pace, pitch and volume, but first, let's just read the introduction together.

So I'm going to read it in quite a neutral tone, "I stand before you today to highlight the plague that has infested our waters and our earth." "This infestation is toxic, malicious, and will destroy the future planet." "Moreover, possibly the worst part of this vile invasion is that we here today have contributed to its spread." "Today, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here before you to banish plastic straws." Okay, so what I'd like you to do, is I would like you to pause the video and try varying your pace, pitch and volume, and see what you notice, okay? You may just want to read this quietly through in your head, but you can also think about the pace, pitch and volume too.

Okay, off you go.

Okay, fantastic! I love how I heard lots of you really playing with some of those ideas, just to play around with what effects you can create.

So if you may have noticed that pace is quite tricky, because if you speak too quickly the audience will miss your important message.

So, "I stand before you today to highlight the plague that has invested on waters on earth." People will be like, what are they saying? I don't understand.

But also if you speak too slowly, your speech will sound monotonous.

So, "this infestation is toxic, malicious, and will destroy," and we don't want to put the audience to sleep.

So it's really important you find a balance between not speaking too quickly, but you don't want to speak too slowly either.

So what you might even do is try reading some parts faster than others for emphasis.

But remember that spoken language often feels slower than natural, so you should feel a little bit like you are speaking slowly, but not so slowly that you send your audience to sleep.

And likewise, pitch and volume variety is best, so really think about the intonation of your voice because if you keep it the same, your speech will become monotone.

So if I read the first sentence without any variety, you'll see how it sounds.

"I stand before you today to highlight the plague that has invested our waters and our earth, this infestation is toxic, malicious, and will destroy the future planet." It's not very interesting is it? So if you manipulate the pitch and the volume, it can really help you emphasise it, so I'll read those two sentences again with a bit more pitch and volume.

"I stand before you today to highlight the plague that has invested our waters and our earth, this infestation, is toxic, malicious, and will destroy the future planet." So you can see how playing with those features can just add a bit of interest in to your speech.

Okay, so I'd like you to pick A, B, C, or D, which of the following refers to the speed at which you deliver your speech? Well done to everyone that selected a, pace, that is the correct answer.

Okay, so now it is over to you, I would like you please to read your speech aloud.

So you're going to need to consider the tone you want to create, you'll need to consider the pace, and remember that spoken language often feels much slower, but you don't want it to be so slow that it's monotone, so really make sure you get that pace right.

And you also want to consider your pitch because you want to vary the pitch and intonation to engage, create emphasis and offer moments of light and shade.

Okay, are we ready to get practising ? And remember, the more you practise, the better this delivery will become.

Okay, pause the video to get ready to read your speech aloud, and off you go.

Well done everyone, and thank you for those speech deliveries.

Now, as you can see, the more you practise, the more confident you will feel at the pace that you need to deliver your speech, and the tone, and all of those things.

So it is really important to keep having a go at delivering your speech.

Now, before we move on, I would like you just to pick a target for your spoken language.

So which of these are you finding the most difficult? Because this will help you give a focus as you continue to practise.

So I need to ensure my tone is suitable for my audience, I must make sure I speak slower, I'm going to vary my pace for emphasis, I'm going to vary the pitch of my voice, okay, pick a target and then we will move on.

Excellent work everyone, we are now at the second part of our lesson, and this is all about kinesics or looking at effective body language, so let's keep going.

So kinesics refers to how we create visual cues through our body language and gestures.

So for example, if we give someone a thumbs up, we know that that usually means we're good, we're happy everything's okay.

So we can even do that without saying words and it has its own meaning.

And likewise, we might use things to say "hello or goodbye" to use that waving to signal communication.

So what I would like you to do, is I would like you to look at these images and discuss how are the people in these images using body language to present particular actions or feelings.

Pause video, so you've got time to discuss your answers or just in quietly to yourself, off you go.

Okay, great! Yes, lots of you picked that this image, the man is looking up and a finger to his chin suggests he's thinking.

So you can see how he's using body language and physical gestures, and even the way his eyes are positioned to suggest something quite particular.

And in the second image, we get this person there rubbing their eyes, and rubbing their eyes as a sign of tiredness or it could also signal emotion.

And the image here, he is presenting a serious expression, so you can see how he's using a facial expression to show that he's considering something, he's thinking about something.

However, in this image, the person is actually hiding their face and if someone hides their face, it usually suggests they don't want to be looked at.

So this will give us an idea that perhaps they're feeling vulnerable or emotional.

There is something there, that is being created to give a sense of vulnerability or emotionalness or just tiredness even.

So body language and physical gestures can help you appear convincing and assertive.

So when we are giving our speeches, it's important to consider these as well, 'cause they can help with the overall tone.

And you can also use gestures to draw attention to key ideas.

So you might point towards something to help you make your point.

So using kinesics features, can help make your speech even more engaging.

So you might choose to point to something or make a gesture or use your hands to beg, "Please world leaders consider this our last plea." So you can use those gestures just to create a bit more interest.

So which of the following does kinesics not refer to? So you are looking for one that does not refer to kinesics.

Is it A, B, or C? Well done to everyone that said C, pitch and pace, kinesics is all about those physical features, so the body language and physical gestures.

So in order to convey a compelling and convincing speech, you also need to consider your body language, your posture, and your eye contact.

So body language refers to the movements or positions of your body that show other people how you are feeling.

Posture, refers to the way someone holds themselves when they're seated or standing.

So no matter how you are positioned, you can still have a good and open posture.

And eye contact, refers to whether someone is directly looking into your eyes or not.

So when delivering a speech, you should look out to your audience generally and vary your eye contact.

You don't just want to look and stare directly at one person, you want it to be varied and you want to address the whole room.

True or false time.

When giving a speech, you should pick out one member of the audience and focus your eye contact on them.

Is that true or false? Well done everyone that said false, now you need to justify your answer by picking A or B.

Yeah, that's right, you should look at your audience generally varying your eye contact to generate greater engagement, so well done to everyone that said B.

So here, Sam is about to deliver her speech.

Can you discuss please, what does Sam's body language indicate here? You may want to consider where Sam is facing, what is Sam's facial expression and what are Sam's hands doing? Pause the video so you've got time to discuss these ideas, off you go.

Okay, great! Let's just feed back, so you may have noticed that Sam shows relaxation and confidence.

Okay, she's using her body language really well here because they're facing the audience and looking at them.

You could also see that Sam is smiling.

Now even if you are delivering a serious and persuasive speech, you can still change your facial features, maybe not smiling so much, but having a suggestion of openness.

Hands are not in pockets, which is a really good tip, you want your hands by your side so that you are not fidgeting or distracting your audience.

And that the posture is upright rather than hunched, and actually having a really open posture and stance can really help deliver your speech in a confident way.

So which two of the following would you use to show confidence? A, B, C, or D? Hopefully you've all got two answers, absolutely, B and C, you need good eye contact and open body language.

Okay, so it's over to you for another practise of your speech.

So I want you to read your speech aloud again, remember that practise is key to confident delivery, and I want you to consider everything that we thought about in the first part of the lesson with the pitch, the tone and the pace of our voice.

But also this time I want you to consider your body language, your posture, your eye contact, and your physical gestures.

Okay, pause the video so you've got time to deliver these speeches beautifully, and we'll feedback in a moment, off you go.

Excellent work! These speeches are just getting better and better, and considering all of these non-verbal features are just really adding to what were already great speeches, but they're just making them completely impressive, so that's great.

So I'd like you to answer the following reflection questions please.

What has been the most difficult part of delivering your speech out loud? What are you most proud of, and what are you going to make sure you improve for next time? So pause video so you've got time to fully answer these questions, off you go.

So now you can use these answers to help you to continue to improve the delivery of your speech.

So fantastic work everyone, and remember, just because the lesson is over doesn't mean you should finish practising your speeches.

You want to practise them as much as you can to ensure you get that confident delivery that we are looking for, but are really well done today in considering all of those elements of delivery.

So let's just remind ourself of those that paralanguage is important, the pitch, tempo, loudness and tone of voice that is used in speeches can enhance the content.

Kinesics, gesture and posture can be used to engage the audience and to add emphasis to important points.

Spoken language often needs to be slower than feels natural and you need to consider your spacial behaviour.

Too much movement can be distracting, but too little can be wooden.

So thanks again everyone for your hard work today, and remember, keep practising !.