Speaking Effectively in
English
Angela Wu
• Brainstorm in groups
– When do you communicate in English?
– When are you required to speak in English?
– Have you ever been asked to introduce
yourself in your native language and in
English?
– What components do you include when you
introduce yourself?
Agenda Today
• Making a self-introduction in English
effectively
• Answer more elaborated opinion questions
in English (e.g. Discussion)
1. Self-introduction
• Introduce yourself for one minute
• Were the self-introductions effective?
– Discuss in groups
– What criteria do you use to judge the
effectiveness of a speech?
Guidelines for self-introduction
• Focus on one aspect of your life.
• This aspect should tell who you are and
what you are about.
• Know your audience. Why is this
important?
Possible outline
• Grab your audience attention: bring in your
central idea right away
• Give some background information: e.g. Tell
why this aspect or your central idea is important
• Workout your topic in a few sentences
• Give an example to illustrate your central idea
• Conclude by offering a memorable answer on
the question the listener may have when they
listen to your self-introduction
Some guiding questions
• What activity has played or plays an important part in
your life?
• What is your main personal goal?
• What do you like very much? How does that influence
your life and who you are as a person?
• What do you hate or dislike?
• Do you have a special skill? What does that tell about
you?
• What is your lifestyle like? What does that tell about
you?
• What is a turning point or milestone in your life?
• Where do you come from? Do your roots reveal
something about who you are as a person?
• What distinguishes you from other individuals?
In groups
• Take 2 minutes to brainstorm your selfintroduction.
• Take turns introducing yourself.
• Choose one person to represent your
group to introduce yourself.
2. Opinion-choice questions
• Do you think it is better to study in groups
or by yourself?
• Is it better for your to ride a bicycle or drive
to school?
• This type of question will require you to
make a choice and explain why you select
the choice.
• You will need to demonstrate your ability to
elaborate on an issue.
• Effective structure in answering
– Topic sentence: main idea of the message
– Explain: provide at least 2 reasons for topic
sentence or further clarify the topic sentence
– Example: provide a specific example for each
of the reason
– Supporting with examples: important
Example
• Which do you prefer, riding a bicycle or
driving a car?
– Topic sentence: I prefer riding a bicycle.
– Explain: I like it because riding a bicycle is
healthier for our body.
– Example: For example, according to clinical
research, riding a bicycle for at least an hour
daily will strengthen our heart muscle
tremendously.
• The following is an example of utterances. Does
the example demonstrate the effectiveness
principle discussed above?
– A proverb goes, “Action speaks louder than words.”
This is a saying that everybody knows, but I think it is
quite bizarre. We learn it from books, we still cannot
figure out what its real meaning is. For example, our
last president has graduated from the best university
in Taiwan. He is certainly knowledgeable. But,
knowledge and wisdom are not the same.
• Another example:
• I believe that the great aim of education is not
knowledge but action. I think there are still many
things that knowledge cannot replace and only
action can make us understand clearly. For
example, we may learn about famine in East
Africa and that many of the children die from
starvation. However, we cannot really
understand the feeling of hunger until we try to
starve ourselves.
• Try this one
• Knowledge is important, but in my opinion,
action is more important than knowledge.
Education should put emphasis on action.
Action means putting what we learn into practice,
but besides this basic meaning, the word “action”
here has a deeper meaning to me. It means the
ability to take action, which is even more
essential to a person’s success.
Supporting your ideas
• Effective support can
– clarify your ideas: The suspension bridge has a
roadway suspended by vertical cables attached to
two or more cables. The main cables are hung on
two towers and have their ends anchored in concrete
or bedrock. (Is this clear?)
– Two well-known suspension bridges are the Golden
Gate Bridge in San Francisco and the Brooklyn
Bridge in New York.
– reinforce your ideas: Personal examples are great for
this. E.g. I love the outdoors. When I was young, I
lived in the country side which gave me a lot of
opportunity to do outdoor activities. One time,…
– Make your audience interested
Methods of support: (1) examples
• Brief example
• Extended example: a story, narrative, or
anecdote developed at length to illustrate
a point
• Hypothetical example: Be cautious when
using this. Using unreal situation to create
a realistic situation.
More method: (2) statistics
• Using statistics: using numerical data
– Are the statistics representative?
– Are statistical measures used correctly?
(mean: average, median: the middle figure,
and mode: the most frequent number in a
group of numbers) e.g. mean salary of
$72,000 a year for TV news anchorperson vs
$ 59,500 median salary of local news anchor
– Are the statistics from a reliable source?
Encyclopedia vs yahoo chat room
More method: (3) testimony
• Expert testimony: testimony from people who
are recognized expert in their fields
– Important when the topic is more controversial or
when the audience may be skeptical about your view
e.g. your stem-cell research result vs quoting Harvard
medical professor Stuart Orkin, Magdalena Gotz from
Germany’s Max-Planck Institute of Neurobiology.
• Peer testimony: testimony from ordinary people
with firsthand experience or insight on a topic
– Appeal to personal feelings, genuine experience
– E.g. Barriers faced by person with physical disability,
ok to use medical research but more effective to refer
to someone commonly known, e.g. Rick Hanson.
Practice
• Some college students choose to take courses
in a variety of subject areas in order to get a
broad education. Others choose to focus on a
single subject area in order to have a deeper
understanding of that area. Which approach to
course selection do you think is better for
students and why?
• Some students study for classes individually
Others study in groups. Which method of
studying do you think is better for students and
why?
• If your teacher makes a mistake, is it better to
correct the teacher or ignore the mistake?
• If is better to have a career that pays a lot of
money but keeps you away from your family or a
career that does not pay so much but allows you
time with your family?
• Is it better to take chances in life or play it safe?
• Is it better to make decisions quickly or take your
time making them?
• Should children obey their parents always?
Reflection
• Discuss in groups and write down one
thing you remember from each section.
• Set a goal for your self in improving one
aspect of your speaking ability in English.
• Discuss how you may want to improve it.
• Share your idea in one minute.