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AN individual’s voice is the most effective and personal communication tool.

It requires no technical support to effectively deliver a message, or to impart one’s thoughts, beliefs, bias, disposition or attitude to an issue.

Used with purpose, the voice can attract and sustain attention, engender deep emotions, bring a listener to laughter or to tears, stir a crowd of factory workers to go on strike, silence a howling mob, settle a rowdy kindergarten class, sooth a crying child, and even call a nation to war.

In a teaching situation, the voice imparts information that provides understanding of difficult subjects, and encourages learners to explore further, in order to “own” what is being learnt to lift their personal goals and self-belief.

Alternatively, the moment people open their mouths, immediately a “signal” is sent to a listener as to whether or not they are a competent communicator.

In turn, the voice can bore to tears and make learning an auditory misery.

The primary key to pronunciation is voice production.

If the listener cannot hear what is being said, the significance of the subject matter is totally lost.

Volume, i.e. audibility and loudness, becomes the first prerequisite of quality, effective speaking.

Loudness in itself, however, is not the only requirement.

Instead, the desirable presentation mixes volume with variation, vibrancy of personality and voice, coupled with a constant visual contact with as many listeners as possible.

Maintain attention

The art of public speaking and effective communication requires a positive outcome.

That outcome centres on listeners having heard what was said, understanding it and having the opportunity and time to “digest” it.

This outcome requires the ability, on the part of the speaker, to maintain attention in order to achieve maximum retention.

A superior speaker focuses not only on the subject matter but also on delivery.

Delivery raises issues such as one’s visual presence, listener-perceived personality, method of presentation and displayed performance. Importance must also be given to other factors such as intonation and tone.

Intonation is the sound pattern produced by variations in the voice. It is the rise and fall of the voice pitch, which is also known as modulation.

When there is unchanging intonation, the delivery becomes monotonous.

Tone is the quality of a person’s voice. It can be defined as a person’s manner of speaking. For example, The interviewing detective began the interrogation of the suspect in a conversational tone.

Tone of voice can show what the speaker is feeling, e.g. There was a note of uncertainty in the suspect’s voice as he tried to explain where he was at time of the robbery.

Speakers should ensure that the subject matter presented has the potential of being introspective for the listener.

This requires the substance of the subject to be meaningful and relevant to the listener.

by Keith W. Wright.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2010/9/5/education/6882269&sec=education

In the previous column, we considered some key issues involved in developing superior public speaking talents: speed of delivery, planned pauses, designed repetition and meta talk.

This week, we will look at the issues of body language and gesture, and canvass some other language delivery considerations.

A speaker’s understanding of the influence of his or her body language on listeners can be advantageous in an everyday conversation or a teaching-training situation.

Body language can also be a useful measure to gauge the interest of one’s audience.

Speakers need to be aware of the significance of possible negative “signals” that may be exhibited by the body language of their listeners or themselves.

Typical negative listener body language signals include: not looking directly at the speaker; crossed, horizontal arms; excessive fidgeting, looking uncomfortable, shifting one’s stance or seating position and so on.

In contrast, an astute speaker takes advantage of positive signals, such as nodding, smiling, and leaning forward and focuses additional attention on the “exhibitor” to create an atmosphere of greater interest in and acceptance of what is being imparted.

Another skill that is useful in developing public speaking skills is gesture.

While gesticulating with one’s hands can give additional emphasis and impact to what is being spoken, the use of gesture can often be unnecessary, inappropriate, repetitive and meaningless, thus being annoying and distractive from a listener’s or viewer’s aspect.

Gesturing is the ultimate form of non-verbal communication, but it requires practice and modification to suit particular communicating roles.

Gesture should be practiced and practiced – perhaps in front of a mirror or even with supportive friends and colleagues.

This speaking “tool” should be used to highlight or give special emphasis to a particular point being made.

Delivery techniques

Successful communication and superior speaking depend very much on the application by a speaker of the DTs – that is, the Delivery Techniques, Tools and Tactics – used to impart ideas, concepts, principles and general information.

The basic prerequisite is that the DTs applied must be suitable for the vast majority of the audience, in terms of their interest, age and language-skill level.

The delivery approach used should engender immediate interest and expectation in the subject under discussion. Much is gained by explaining to listeners how they can expect to benefit and also what is expected of them.

Many presentations get bogged down with unnecessary and irrelevant detail.

by Keith W. Wright.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2010/8/22/education/6856114&sec=education

KOTA KINABALU: A group of students from the United Kingdom were impressed with the level of English among some kampung kids in Tambunan and hoped they had stayed longer to help boost it up.

The group was in Sabah for four weeks recently and as part of their homestay itinerary in Kg. Monsok in Tambunan, they had the opportunity to visit SK Monsok and to provide English lessons for the school children.

27-year-old Louisa Boldon, leader of the Outlook Expeditions, a UK- based company which has collaborated with the Tambunan Village Homestay over the last three years, said although she enjoyed the 8-day homestay tremendously she would have loved to spend more time teaching the local children English.

“The children started to relax and use English around us a bit more after a while. I would like to spend more time in schools to see how the lessons were run and deliver some English lessons to students,” said Louisa, who leads a group of 11 students from the all-boy Wilsons School from Wallington, United Kingdom. Louisa also teaches BTEC vocational courses back in the UK.

Another group leader, Jamie Parkinson, 28, said he had plenty of opportunity to communicate with the children and he believed this had helped improve their English.

“The children’s spoken English is quite good compared to their written English. I think it would be particularly useful for us to go into the schools and to teach some English lessons – that could have been valuable during our stay in Kg. Monsok,” said Jamie, who teaches A-Level students science and biology in the UK.

Students Jacob Boitel-gill, 16, and Tom Gower, 17, said they were pleasantly surprised and impressed by the children’s level of English.

“During our visit to the classroom we went through some English stuff with the kids,” said Tom.

“Their grasp of English was a lot better than I expected so they ended up teaching us more Malay than we taught them English. Two members of my host family were quite fluent in English. I was able to interact with the locals in English and able to learn some Malay at the same time.”

Read more @ http://www.newsabahtimes.com.my/nstweb/fullstory/41560

IPOH,  — With the advancement in science and technology and the advent of globalisation, there is now a renewed and urgent focus on raising the standard of English in the country, the Raja Puan Besar of Perak, Tuanku Zara Salim, said on Sunday.

She said that as global interconnectivity increased, it was essential that students and Malaysians became effective communicators who were not only fluent and proficient in English but also keen appreciators of the language and its literature.

“Mastery of the English language is essential to an individual�s success and to secure our country�s position in the global economy. It allows us to participate and interact meaningfully on a global scale,” she said in her speech at the Ninth Cambridge English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) certificate presentation in conjunction with the Silver Jubilee Celebration of the Ipoh Learning and Training Institute, here.

Tuanku Zara also presented the Cambridge ESOL certificate to 121 students.

The English language was and would likely remain the language of global exchange and the primary medium of science, commerce, international relations and popular culture, she said.

“We must always be on guard to ensure that we do not fall any further behind than we already are. We live in an era of truncated messages and limited attention spans that threaten to further weaken our command of the language. In a world of tweets and SMSs, we should be all the more relentless in our aim to raise the bar of English language proficiency,” she said.

Tuanku Zara said teachers and schools played an essential role in creating an environment where English was well-spoken and well-understood.

BERNAMA.

Read more @ http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=519744

IF A person is to be a competent, superior speaker of the English Language, consideration and attention must be given to a number of particular influential factors.

A speaker who speaks too quickly can be a “negative” experience for a listener just like someone who speaks too softly or monotonously. The average person speaks between 120 and 160 words a minute and the average listener prefers a similar “listening speed-range”.

While a listener can receive up to 200 words a minute, the degree of comprehension of what is heard can often depend on whether the speaker is articulate or regularly listened to, and if the subject is of personal interest or importance.

Articulation, modulation, clarity and currency are the basic prerequisites of a speech or verbal presentation.

They are closely related to the quality and accuracy of pronunciation, to accent or stress, to conceptual emphasis and to word misusage and complexity.

Poor and lazy pronunciation, inaccurate syllabic stress, unnecessary complex words, boring modulation and incorrect grammar add to the uncertainty, anxiety and difficulty experienced by many listeners and learners.

Again, the use of words that are not current in their meaning can create further discomfort.

Due cognizance should be given to the fact that particular English words may have different, cultural meanings.

Words used by a primary English speaker in everyday communications may create a comprehension barrier for a new learner, especially for those for whom English is not their first language.

by Keith Wright.

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2010/8/8/education/6692972&sec=education

The majority of students in Malaysia planning on boing abroad choose to do IELTS, says Hartinah Annuar

The International English Language Testing System seems to be the preferred international language proficiency test and many top schools in the United States are endorsing it, writes NURJEHAN MOHAMED.

THE first step towards pursuing a tertiary course overseas is getting the right grade in an English language proficiency test — usually the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) or the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). The numbers suggest that more and more Malaysian students and scholars prefer to sit the IELTS test as opposed to others. British Council Malaysia  has seen a dramatic 30 per cent rise in the number of Malaysians taking the test at their centres in the past year.

The British Council, IDP: IELTS Australia and the University of Cambridge ESOL Examinations have been managing the test for more than 21 years. IELTS trainer Hartinah Annuar agrees that the test is gaining popularity.
“The majority of students in Malaysia planning on going abroad choose to do IELTS,” says Hartinah, who has 15 years’ experience in the fields of English as a Second Language and as a Foreign Language.

by Nurjehan Mohamed.

Read more @ http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Languageproficiency_Settingthestandard/Article/

Mastery of the English language is becoming increasingly tied to social standing in Indonesia. As a result of the English ‘invasion’, more children find themselves unable to speak the national language, writes NORIMITSU ONISHI

PAULINA Sugiarto’s three children played together at a mall in Jakarta the other day, chattering not in Indonesia’s national language, but English. Their fluency often draws admiring questions from other parents Sugiarto encounters in this city’s upscale malls.

But the children’s ability in English obscured the fact that, though born and raised in Indonesia, they were struggling with Bahasa Indonesia. Their parents, who grew up speaking the Indonesian language but went to college in the United States and Australia, talk to their children in English. And the children attend a private school where English is the main language of instruction.
“They know they’re Indonesian,” Sugiarto, 34, said. “They love Indonesia. They just can’t speak Bahasa Indonesia. It’s tragic.”

Indonesia’s linguistic legacy is increasingly under threat as growing numbers of wealthy and upper-middle-class families shun public schools where Indonesian remains the main language but English is often taught poorly. They are turning, instead, to private schools that focus on English and devote little time, if any, to Indonesian.

For some Indonesians, as mastery of English has become increasingly tied to social standing, Indonesian has been relegated to second-class status. In extreme cases, people take pride in speaking Indonesian poorly.
The global spread of English, with its sometimes corrosive effects on local languages, has caused much hand-wringing in many non-English-speaking corners of the world. But the implications may be more far-reaching in Indonesia, where generations of political leaders promoted Bahasa Indonesia to unite the nation and forge a national identity out of countless ethnic groups, ancient cultures and disparate dialects.

The government recently announced that it would require all private schools to teach the nation’s official language to its Indonesian students by 2013.

Read more @ http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/16indoo/Article/

Incorrect pronunciation is a major problem in English, and it does not only affect second language learners.

A major reason why many multi-syllabic English words are incorrectly pronounced is because some of the syllables are wrongly stressed.

The problem usually begins when words are broken into the wrong syllables, e.g. con/tri/bute instead of con/trib/ute; es/ti/ma/tion instead of es/tim/a/tion.

Another reason for mispronunciation is because the speaker usually is not aware of the traditional rules in English that relate to the primary stress in words.

When a word has more than one syllable and is used as a noun form — i.e. as the name of something or someone — it is usually stressed on the first syllable, e.g. pi/lot, cof/fee, sta/tion, aud/i/ence, sig/na/ture, doc/u/ment, guar/an/tee, sur/vey, per/mit, sus/pect, etc.

In contrast, words used as verb forms are usually stressed on a “later” syllable, e.g. The Council will sur/vey the road extension. – The police will not per/mit that protest march to disrupt traffic. – Do you sus/pect that he stole your watch?

This rule is well demonstrated using contribution. As this word is a noun, the primary stress will be on the first syllable, i.e. con/trib/u/tion. However, the verb form will be con/trib/ute, i.e. the stress is placed on a “later” syllable.

by  Keith W. Wright, the author and creator of the 4S Approach To Literacy and Language (4S).

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2010/7/18/education/6668899&sec=education

ENGLISH Language schools in the United Kingdom (UK) have won a High Court battle against tighter visa regulations for foreign students introduced by the previous Labour government to clamp down on illegal immigration.

English UK, which represents 440 schools and colleges across Britain, believes the ruling has saved an estimated “3,000 jobs and over £600mil (RM2.9bil) a year in foreign earnings.”

Chief executive of English UK Tony Millns said recently that the judgment offered schools and colleges “some immediate help since many of them faced losing a large number of students this summer and autumn”.

The changes made by the former government in March meant that overseas students had to have a good standard of English before they could come to the UK to learn the language.

“It’s clearly absurd requiring students to know English before they come here to study it,” Millns said, setting out his argument before the judgment was announced.

Students come from countries such as South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Colombia, Turkey, Japan, Venezuela and Vietnam to study in England, in schools mainly based in Brighton, Bournemouth, Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Reuters

Read more @ http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2010/7/18/education/6657484&sec=education

NOT too long ago, a Malaysian student at a university in Minnesota was speaking to an American student he had just met.

The young Caucasian chap knew the other person was a foreigner, but not the country from which he had come.

Midway through the conversation, the American learned the foreign student was from Malaysia and was shocked.
“But you speak such perfect English!”

Sad but true. You might think that the American was ignorant, perhaps, for thinking only his countrymen and Britons speak proper English. But can we blame him when the Malaysians he had met up to that point spoke English haltingly, at best, or hardly at all?

With more than 300 students, Malaysians made up the largest foreign contingent in that particular university which had an enrolment of about 15,000. Only a handful of Malaysians spoke fluent or even passable English.
So, if this American lad had only met Malaysians who spoke broken English, how was he to know that English was this nation’s second official language? When it was explained to him that this was in fact so, he was thunderstruck.

“If English is your second official language, why is it the Malaysians I met before you can’t speak English properly?”

by Leslie Andres.

Read more @ http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/2010071109441220100711094412/Article/