Lesson video

Hello everyone, my name's Mrs. Riley, and I'll be teaching you today.

In our lesson today we are going to be looking at how speeches can evoke an emotional response from an audience.

We're going to be looking at one speech in particular given by a very special and very famous person.

I wonder if you know or if you can guess who it might be.

Let's get started so we can find out.

The outcome of today's lesson is to understand how the delivery of a speech can provoke an emotional response from an audience.

These are our keywords today.

The first keyword is emotive.

My turn, your turn, emotive.

Emotive means it's able to arouse intense feeling.

The next keyword is provoke.

Provoke.

Provoke means to stir up feelings or emotions.

The next word is activist.

Activist.

An activist is a person who campaigns to bring about political or social change.

And, finally, we have environmentalist.

Environmentalist.

An environmentalist is a person who cares about protecting the environment.

So in our lesson today, we are going to look at how Greta Thunberg provokes an emotional response from an audience.

We are going to first in our first learning cycle, analyse a speech by Greta Thunberg, and then we are going to look at delivering a speech.

Now, before I start, I should just say that Greta Thunberg is the way that we pronounce her name in English, but she is Swedish, and in Swedish you pronounce her name a little bit differently.

I have tried practising a few times how to say it, but it's very difficult for me to say, because I don't have a Swedish accent.

But I just want you to know that she would pronounce her name in a slightly different way to how I'm pronouncing it.

Okay, so let's start off by just discussing what is a speech? And what is the purpose of a speech? Why do people give speeches? Could you pause the video and discuss that with your partner now? Okay, lovely, I heard lots of really good ideas.

Well done.

A speech is the formal communication of someone's thoughts, through words, to an audience.

The purpose of a speech is always to have an impact on the audience in some way.

Very commonly, the purpose of a speech is to persuade the audience.

This is the purpose we will be focusing on.

So we're focusing on speeches where the purpose of the speech is to persuade the audience to do something.

Speeches are made every day, all around the world, by lots of different people.

There might be some very formal speeches given, for example, in a political setting, and there might be some more informal speeches at an occasion such as a wedding or a bar mitzvah.

I would like you to discuss what kind of jobs might require someone to make a speech? What kind of jobs might require someone to make a speech? Could you pause the video and discuss that with your partner now? Okay, lovely, I heard lots of great ideas.

So there are many different jobs that might require someone to make a speech, and here are some examples.

A politician, for instance, a prime minister might have to give a speech.

A teacher or a head teacher might give a speech.

An activist, and we know that that's gonna be one of our keywords for today.

We'll find out why later.

And a business leader.

So there are lots of other examples, there's just a few of them.

So we're now gonna discuss what are the features of a successful speech.

If somebody gives a speech, it doesn't necessarily always mean it's going to be successful, and some speeches are far more successful than others.

So what do you think would make a speech successful? Have a think of some features of a successful speech.

Discuss that now, pause the video.

Okay, let's come back together and share some ideas of what I heard you saying.

So, knowledge of the topic would make a successful speech.

No one's going to give a successful speech if they don't know what they're talking about.

So having really good knowledge is always going to help your speech be successful.

Including facts and statistics, real-life facts and statistics.

Using emotive language.

That's one of our keywords today, isn't it? Emotive.

Using rhetorical questions.

Not where the audience have to answer them, but where the audience will be answering it in their head or thinking about that question that you are asking them.

Using anecdotes, telling short stories of things that actually happened.

Giving quotations.

Perhaps somebody else said something that you would like to quote, because it's really relevant to your speech.

Using repetition, using the same phrase over and over.

And having a really clear purpose.

What do you want this speech to achieve? What are you trying to persuade the audience to think? So these are all features of a successful speech.

So now we're going to discuss how does a speaker make the delivery of their speech successful? Thinking more about things now like, how should you stand? Where should you look? How should you speak? Could you pause the video and discuss that now? Okay, let's come back together.

So, you should always address the audience if you want to have successful delivery.

Maybe you might address them by saying something like, "Good afternoon," introducing yourself and explaining why you're there.

But you are addressing the audience directly, you're not just reading out from something, you're actually addressing and connecting with the audience.

Speaking confidently.

Showing your personality and charisma.

So not just reading like a robot or speaking a like robot, but trying to show a bit of your character.

Speaking in an emotive manner.

And don't worry if you're not sure quite if that still feels a bit uncertain to you, 'cause we're going to look at that in much more detail in this lesson.

Making eye contact with people in the audience or with the audience in general.

We don't want to just look down the whole time when we're giving a speech.

And, really important, is rehearsal.

If you're feeling a bit unconfident about a speech, if you rehearse, and just practise, and practise, and practise, you're going to come across much more confidently when you deliver your speech.

So, all of these things help to achieve the purpose of engaging the audience and having the impact that you want.

So we're now going to discuss which feature of a successful speech do you think is the most important? You're going to share your opinion with your partner and explain why.

I'm just going to go back to this slide so you can have one more look at the features.

Addressing the audience, speaking confidently, showing personality and charisma, speaking in an emotive manner, making eye conduct and rehearsal.

So you're going to choose which of those you think is the most important and explain why.

So can you pause the video while you complete this task now? Okay, well done.

That was lovely to hear that you all had very different opinions.

So here's an example of what you might have said: "I think the most important feature of a successful speech is knowledge of the topic, because if you can support your argument with lots of evidence, then the audience is more likely to agree with you." That's a really good point, so knowledge of the topic.

Another example of something you might have thought is: "I think the most important feature of a successful speech is delivering it in a charismatic way, because the speaker needs to connect with the audience in order to persuade them." Today we are gonna focus on a particular technique used to connect to an audience and persuade them.

We are going to look at how emotive delivery of a speech can provoke an emotional response from an audience.

Now, emotive means able to arouse intense feelings.

So, if you speak in an emotive way, you are making your audience feel intense feelings.

That might be sadness, it might be anger, it might be excitement, it might be joy, but you're trying to arouse intense feeling if you are giving an emotive speech.

And that other keyword, provoke, to stir up feelings or emotions.

So if you are going to provoke your audience, you don't want them just sitting there and feeling nothing.

You want to stir up feelings or emotions in them.

So we are gonna analyse a speech by Greta Thunberg.

I'd like you to discuss, have you ever heard of Greta Thunberg before? Do you know why she is such an important figure? Could you pause the video and discuss that now? Okay, let's come back together.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish activist and environmentalist.

they were two of our keywords, who has worked hard to raise awareness about climate change.

She's dedicated her life to it.

An activist is a noun.

It's a person who campaigns to bring about social change, like Greta has done.

And an environmentalist is a person who cares about protecting the environment.

Greta Thunberg made a speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference when she was just 15 years old.

She made a speech at this really important event in front of hundreds of people.

Her speech was directed at the leaders of the world, imploring them to do more, to tackle climate change and protect the planet.

She delivered this speech in a very emotive manner, and this provoked an emotional response from lots of people.

So let's check your understanding.

What was Greta Thunberg's speech at the United Nations about? Was it A, about climate change? B, about education, or C, about politics? Pause the video while you choose your answer.

Well done, Greta Thunberg's speech was about climate change.

So we're now gonna to watch just the first minute of the speech by Greta Thunberg.

Now, you will need to find this on the internet, and you'll need to find a parent or guardian or trusted adult to help you, or your teacher will find it for you.

So can you find this video clip now of Greta Thunberg giving the speech, and watch the first minute of the speech, and then we will come back together.

Pause the video now.

Okay, let's come back together.

Hopefully you all feel emotional after watching that part of the speech.

Hopefully it had an impact on you.

It definitely had a strong impact on me.

So, I would like you now to discuss how does Greta Thunberg deliver her speech in an emotive manner? Remember, emotive means you're able to arouse intense feeling.

Could you pause the video and discuss that now? Okay, let's come back together.

They were really good discussions, well done.

So here are some examples of what you might have said.

You might have said that, "She sounded really passionate about what she was speaking about.

Her voice sounded powerful and almost angry." You might have said, "I think she looked visibly emotional about the topic she was speaking about.

She seemed upset." Emotive delivery involves the speaker displaying visible emotion as they deliver their speech.

So sometimes people might deliver a speech, even if they're feeling emotional inside, they might put on a brave face, and just read or just say the speech without emotion.

And other times people really show their emotion to have an impact, and that is what Greta does in her speech.

Common emotions for a speaker to express are sadness or anger about something in order to promote social change.

So if somebody gives a speech where they express their sadness or anger, it will hopefully prompt social change.

It will, hopefully, spark people to change the way they might live.

You may hear or see the following to convey these emotions: A slightly shaky voice.

Sometimes our voice shakes a bit when we feel strong emotions.

Maybe it might be that you have watery eyes, or even tears.

Perhaps you might speak in a powerful or harsh voice.

Perhaps you might have a frown or gritted teeth.

And perhaps you might have tense body language so you're not looking lovely and calm and relaxed, but you're looking tense.

So I'd like you to discuss now, why do you think an emotive delivery provokes an emotional response in an audience? Why do you think all those things that help include an emotive delivery, like gritted teeth or watery eyes or tense body language, how would they provoke an emotional response in an audience? Pause the video now.

Okay, well done.

Perhaps you said: "When I can see that someone else is emotional, I feel empathetic towards them, and I want to understand why they feel that way." Maybe you said: "When a person is visibly emotional, when you can see they're emotional about something, it helps persuade me that what they're speaking about is really important." So we're now going to watch the whole speech by Greta Thunberg.

Again, this is something that you need to find on the internet with a trusted adult to help you, or your teacher will find it for you now.

And after you've watched the entire speech, I would like you to discuss what is the main emotion that Greta Thunberg conveys in the delivery of her speech? Is it happiness? Is it excitement? Is it sadness? And how does she do this? So pause the video now.

Watch the speech, and discuss the main emotion that Greta Thunberg conveys.

Pause the video now.

Okay, let's come back together.

Well, I hope you are all feeling okay, because it is a very emotional speech, and it might have made you feel very emotional watching it.

So the main emotion that Greta Thunberg displayed was anger.

She spoke powerfully, and she used strong, emotive language like, "How dare you," to criticise world leaders for their lack of action.

She's saying, "How dare you, you're not doing enough." Her expressions and her body language also demonstrated her anger.

She spoke with a frown, her eyes were watery, and she pointed her finger.

So let's check your understanding.

What is the predominant emotion that Greta Thunberg conveys in her speech? Is it A, happiness, B, anger, or C, sadness? Pause the video now.

Well done.

The predominant emotion is anger.

I think she does show some sadness as well, but the predominant, the main emotion, is anger.

So for your task you're going to discuss how does Greta Thunberg convey her anger? How does she show her anger? And how does this make the speech persuasive? Here are some sentence stems you might use.

"I can tell Greta Thunberg is angry because.

." Or, "I think Greta Thunberg's emotive delivery is persuasive because.

." So pause the video now while you complete this task.

Okay, let's come back together.

Here are some examples of what you might have said.

"I can tell Greta Thunberg is angry because she repeats the words, 'How dare you' to demonstrate her outrage at world leaders for their lack of action on climate change." You might have said: "You can see that Greta's eyes well up, and her facial expressions and voice convey her anger." Or you might have said: "I think Greta Thunberg's emotive delivery is persuasive, because it provokes feelings of guilt in world leaders for not doing more to protect the planet." So we're now going to look at our second learning cycle, delivering a speech.

So, I have written a similar speech to Greta Thunberg that persuades the leaders of our world to protect the planet.

It's obviously not going to be as good as hers, but I've tried my best.

I'm going to model delivering this speech in an emotive way in order to provoke an emotional response from an audience.

And you will then deliver this speech to an audience yourself with the purpose of provoking an emotional response from them.

In this speech, we will use the repeated phrase, "Shame on you." So Greta used the phrase, "How dare you." We're going to use, "Shame on you," as a repeated phrase to help our speech be really successful.

So you're now going to listen as I read this speech to you.

Now, when I first read it to you, I'm just going to read it in a normal voice.

I'm not going to try to read it in a really emotive way.

So, first of all, just listening to the speech, and then we can start thinking about how we can make it really emotive, and how we can add facial expressions and body language to help convey our emotion.

But first of all, I'm just going to read it to you in a normal voice, and hopefully you'll see then that it's less effective when we read it in just this normal way.

"Dear Leaders of the World, Today, I stand before you as a representative of the young generation, the generation that will inherit the planet you are shaping.

I come with a message of urgency and call to action.

Shame on you.

Shame on you for ignoring the science that has been clear for decades.

While you make grand promises, our planet burns, our oceans rise, and our future is put at risk.

Shame on you for pretending that this crisis can wait.

Every moment you delay action, the problem grows worse.

We need bold, decisive actions now, not empty words and hollow commitments.

Shame on you for leaving this burden on the shoulders of the young.

We should be in school, dreaming about our futures, not standing here, pleading for you to protect the planet.

Shame on you for failing us, but it is not too late to change course.

It's not too late to be the leaders we need.

The world is watching and history will judge you by the actions you take today." So, hopefully you can see that even though the words in that speech are strong, powerful words, I read it in a way like I was just reading a speech about what I think about whether or not we should wear a school uniform in schools.

I wasn't reading it with lots of emotion, and therefore it probably wasn't as powerful or successful as it could have been.

So now I'm going to model saying the beginning of this speech again, but this time I'm going to try to convey anger.

And then in a second you're going to do the same thing.

You're going to practise reading a part of the speech and again, conveying anger.

Okay, so here I go.

Let's see if I can do a bit better in my delivery.

"Dear Leaders of the World, Today, I stand before you as a representative of the young generation, the generation that will inherit the planet you are shaping.

I come with a message of urgency and a call to action.

Shame on you." Okay, so hopefully you saw the difference there.

I read the exact same words, but I tried to emphasise certain words.

I tried to add some facial expressions and actions to try to convey my anger.

And now it's your turn.

So you're going to read this part of the speech aloud and convey anger.

Here it is.

Pause the video now and good luck.

Okay, well done.

I loved hearing you read that part of the speech again, and you used so much emotion.

It definitely made me.

it stirred up lots of feelings in me when you were reading those aloud.

So, did your tone and expressions convey anger? I think they did.

So for your second task today, you are going to deliver the speech, which can be found in the additional material section of this lesson, to an audience.

So you're not going to just do a section, you're going to deliver the whole speech, and you're going to focus on delivering the speech in an emotive manner in order to provoke an emotional response from your audience, just like we saw Greta did in her speech.

After you've delivered your speech, ask members of your audience for feedback.

You could ask the following: "Did I deliver the speech in an emotive way? And how? What emotion did you feel from me during the speech? Did any parts provoke an emotional response in you? And if so, which part and why?" So, first you're going to be delivering the speech to a small audience and really thinking about delivering it in an emotive manner.

And then you're going to ask members of the audience for some feedback, and there are some questions to prompt you.

So I hope you really enjoy this task.

Pause the video now.

Okay, let's come back together.

So, here's some examples of what you might have said: "Did I deliver this speech in an emotive way, and how?" Somebody might have responded: "I heard and saw lots of emotion in you as you delivered the speech.

This was particularly obvious when you said the words 'Shame on you,' because you slowed down to emphasise these words, and you had a really disappointed look on your face." When you asked, "What emotion did you feel from me during the speech?" Somebody might have replied: "I sensed a feeling of complete outrage.

This was conveyed through the words you used but also through your tone.

It implied that you could not believe you were required to make the speech in order to call for action." "Did any parts make you feel emotional? If so, which part and why?" Someone might have replied: "You provoked an emotional response in me when you said the words, 'Our planet burns and our oceans rise,' because I felt very connected to the cause, and I wanted to join you in calling for action from world leaders to protect our planet and oceans." So let's summarise what we've learned today.

We've learned that a speaker can provoke an emotional response from an audience by delivering a speech in an emotive manner.

We've learned that provoking an emotional response may help a speaker achieve their purpose.

Greta Thunberg is a Swedish activist and environmentalist.

She made a speech at the United Nations Climate Change Conference when she was just 15 years old.

So I hope you've enjoyed learning with me today, all about different ways of giving speeches and how to really provoke an emotional response from an audience.

Perhaps, after this lesson, you might see and watch some other famous speeches.

Perhaps you might even do some research and look at some other famous speeches that Greta Thunberg has given.

And you might see again how she provokes an emotional response from the audience.

Does she use any other different techniques in other speeches she gives? Just remember, if you're looking for something on the internet to always ask an adult to help you find what you're looking for.

So thank you so much for working so hard today, and hopefully I'll see you for some more learning another time.

Bye.