Words Matter: Language Use

Short All Things Teaching video on language use in teaching contexts.

Video Transcript

The language you use while you're teaching matters. We're going to look at speed, intonation, formality levels, and word choice. So first of all, don't make the mistake of speaking too slowly. Some of us learners (ahem, me) aren't too patient and may end up listening to you at double speed if you're recorded. But beyond my reality, this is actually based on research. So there were 180 students in a basic University Communications course and they were assigned to three different groups. One watched a video with a lower than average speaking, rate. One watched a video with an average speaking rate, and one watched a video where speaking was faster than normal. The same speaker and the same content were for all of them. And students watching the slower videos were less interested in the video. They felt less of a connection to the teacher and they thought the teacher was less credible. And the slower pace did not add anything for recall or clarity. So don't speak slowly. However, this may depend on your audience. So for example, if you're teaching English language learners, you don't want to speak too fast. You also don't want to speak unnaturally slow, however. It's probably a better idea to just add more pausing. And pausing is useful in other ways as well. Pausing can be used to get the attention of your learners. And if you're recording and going to post the video, make sure that you're posting it in a player such as YouTube that has an option to adjust the speed. Next, watch your intonation. Have you ever listened to somebody giving a presentation or public speaking and their statements and like this? So it sounds like a question? Even though it's a statement that undermines your authority, it makes you sound less credible. Also, make sure you're using informal and conversational language. This is referred to as the personalization principle in multimedia learning theory. Use "I" and "we: and smile when you talk. When you smile, when you talk, your voice sounds friendlier. And just say no to machine-read speech. More informal language use actually helps learners to remember batter and then do better and applying the new information into problem-solving tasks in the future. Finally, explain things in your own words. This is especially true if what you're talking about is policy or rules. Don't try to use academic language. Don't just read something off. Explain it using your own examples. Let your personality come through. Pretend that you're explaining something to your best friend at a bar. Well, maybe not that informal, but you get the idea. Creating a connection with your learners really matters. And using language in the right way is going to help you create a connection, engage them, and help them remember what you're telling them.