Commitment- Doorway to Clear English Mastery
Commitment Doorway 17 to Clear English Mastery
Article 17 for series Elements of Clear English Speech Mastery
Hey you, nonnative speaker of English, what’ll get you to change to clear, not “What did you say?” English?
Key to new learning, new habit is commitment, past and present.
First, social bonds to family or school or workplace or church light the way to stir to action. Gotta have motivation for new systematic muscle learning. Gotta be impelled for perseverance. Gotta be propelled to make habit the clear speech mode and accurate enunciation of AE (American English).
Enter Social Bonding Theory’s four processes: commitment, involvement, attachment and belief: the light to efficient and durable learning.
Efficient versus takes forever? Easy choice.
Durable versus gone-after-training? Double-easy choice.
Enter Social Bonding Theory’s processes that encourage vital behavior patterns that make thrive social groups and individuals.
Take the process of Commitment.
High success to get clear and easy to understand AE requires time, focus, effort and perseverance.
High success needs sound logic to commit.
It needs systematic learning, not just learning on inefficient unorganized or need-to-know basis.
Want sound logic? Diagnostic assessment fits the bill.
First tell us and yourself: what’s your learning already? Current skill? Needs, desires? For present, for future? That’s personal stake.
Then show what you’ve got: a dozen oral skills.
Numbers, numbers: what’s the meaning of measurements? How do you compare to non-native and native-born speakers of AE? Which are your error sounds? Intonation skills? Written word to pronunciation rules skill?
One size does not fit all ‘cause different reasons for diversity. Too soft speech because of muscle strength. or mother tongue habit, or your-choice habit? Errors in AE speech sounds due to using tongue, lips, teeth, larynx in mother- tongue fashion? Or habit of slurring words together? Or ignorance of AE pronunciation rules? Gotta get the six “whys” to know the six “hows” for acquiring effective fresh skills.
Whopper encouragement comes from the dreaded “What”, “What did you say?”. Or from self-pursuit of life choices, pursuit of uplifted social engagement, applying to grad school, career lift. Frequent incentive is supervisor ask to get better English speech at beginning of job or yearly review. The more sparks the better to fuel commitment to clear AE short-term course of learning.
Strange but true: self-pay versus sponsor-pay doesn’t seem to make a heck of a lot of difference. Ack, money’s worth a lot, but time and effort the precious more.
Circle back: Commitment for adults comes first from current bonds to familial, educational or school, workplace, church or ethical group. Over-18ers already have drivers for motivation and behavior patterns from these.
Now gotta get Commitment to short-term course of learning. After that get ignited involvement, attachment, belief.
What’s the short-term course for clear English mastery?
Seventy days of daily deliberate practice. That is the average to get every day habits. 1*. Ten weeks times seven days. Assessment and feedback makes twelve weeks total, same as semesters or quarters in academia.
Deliberate practice means not mindless and deliberate accuracy. It’s not practice makes perfect, but perfect practice makes perfect. 2
Want skill durability? Get with distributed or spaced schedule. Throw in massed practice, add deep learning. Thus the Clear English Mastery recipe with icing. Works every time.
Effortful, you’re dern right. Gotta make motor memory strong in the brain. Plus gotta batten down, inhibit. the old way. Accented English be gone.
There’s more. Commitment needs notable inducement for investing time, energy, the self in an activity path. Social Bonding Theory says inducement ideally is immediate desirable position or outcome and realistic promise of status in near future.
Immediate inducement is successful talk: listener gets it the first time. Gone is “What?”, the quizzical look.
Realistic promise of status in near future? Could be getting satisfying projects at work or at school. Could be promotions; could be landing job. Could be approving nod of colleague, friend, family member. Mastery is laudable.
Clear English is downright beautiful.
Next time- The social bonding process of involvement – what you’ve gotta do!
References:
- Lally, Phillippa; Van Jaarsveld, Cornelia H. M; Potts, Henry, W.W.Wardle; Jane, How are Habits Formed: Modelling Habit Formation in the real World, European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 998-1009, University College London, London UK (2010) The time it took participants to reach 95% of their asymptote of automaticity ranged from 18 to 254 days, average 66 days. 62 individuals. As evidenced in the study, many participants found it easier to adopt the habit of drinking a glass of water at breakfast than do 50 sit-ups after morning coffee.
- Famous quotation of Jack Nicolaus, golf master and icon.
- Copyright 2024 Clear Talk Mastery, Inc
Find What People Want and Need
Find What People Want and Need
Come to full attention when you hear the following phrases:
“ I want …”
“I need…”
“My goal is to …”
“I’m having a problem with…”
“I’m looking for …”
“I’m involved in a project that …”
Get and Stay in Touch
Staying in Touch
Previous Monday speech tips focused on different kinds of calls you will be making to friends or colleagues. Examples of openers for different kinds of calls gives you confidence with telephone communication. Be alert to the tone of voice– you can hear emotion not only in the pitch of the voice but also in the pauses. Do follow-up questions which show that you care. Use emotion in your voice — empathy and caring, gladness, surprise, congratulations. Because the shape of the lips and other mouth muscles change with emotion, people can actually hear your emotion even if they cannot see your face or body.
In the United States, 50% of all adults are single. 30% of all adults live alone. Reach out. Get and stay in touch with friends, colleagues and family. That gives you and them support over a lifetime – people who care about your ups and downs.
How to Be Clear When Teaching a Task –English Speech Communication
Be Clear When Teaching a Task
Recall the last time you assigned a person to complete a task for you at work or in daily life –family or friend?
Tips for being clear in that circumstance:
- Set the climate.
Use a place conducive for listening.–specially level of background noise
Get a time when your colleague or helper is free to pay attention.
- Give the big picture.
Describe the overall objectives because people need to see where their part fits into the whole. Then they feel they are part of the bigger, more important goal.
- Describe the steps of the task.
That’s the critical part of the task teaching. If the task is already printed in an instruction manual, you still need to go over these steps to assure yourself that the colleague or helper is familiar with the steps.
But if the steps are not written, have the person write the list as you are discussing the steps. That increases the likelihood that the colleague or helper will remember all the steps.
- Describe the resources.
Point out other references on the task— perhaps a manual or a You Tube video, if there are any.
Including refering to people who have worked on this task before.
- Invite questions.
Often there’s the feeling we don’t have time to answer questions. Better to give extra explanation than be unhappy with the results. Do open-ended questions, such as “What questions do you have?” Avoid saying “You don’t have any questions, do you?” The open-ended question invites responses.
- Get the person to summarize his or her strategy for accomplishing the task.
That assures you and the other person that the steps for the task are well understood.
You could use this sentence: “Call me compulsive – I need you to summarize how you will get this done.” You are taking responsibility and thus reduce the defensiveness in the other person.
- Agree on a date to follow-up.
Follow-up date depends on how complex and the value of the task. For complex and/or very important tasks, an earlier date for initial follow-up works well.
When you speak, ask if you are being clear by saying, “Are you following me?”
That can remind the other person to listen more carefully. If the point you are making is critical, ask the other person to repeat the information back, just to be sure you are communicating effectively.
And, don’t forget to express your appreciation and gratitude that your colleague or helper is assisting you. Smile!
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.
Public Speaking- Clear and To the Point
Public Speaking— Make Clear and To the Point
Do you want to communicate ideas clearly? Do you want to be clear and to-the-point for presentations? Those presentations could be any presentation, from a five-minute informal chat, to a thirty-minute formal speech using many examples. Here are some tips for expressing ideas clearly.
Being clear simply means that when you speak, write, or otherwise communicate, your listener understands your intended message.
Probably you are like most people. You start from the point of view of “What do I want to tell my listener?”
Instead, best is to make your point of view from the listener’s side of the communication. Try asking yourself this question: What do I want my listener to do, think, or feel as a result of my communication?
First, be clear with yourself about what your goals are. Then have information about who the listener is, what filters are in place, and how to get through those filters so that you can be understood.
Present your ideas in an order that the listener can understand– you want the listener to be nodding in agreement with you as you speak.
Here is one of my favorite techniques to organize your thoughts and communicate logically. The P.R.E.P. approach is great because you can use it in an impromptu fashion. P.R.E.P. stands for point, reason, example, point.
- My point is: Exercise is energizing.
- The reason is: It makes your heart rate go up.
- My example is: After at least 20 to 30 minutes of increased heart rate, you are more energized when you leave the fitness center than when you entered it.
- So my point is: Exercise is energizing.
Another strategy is to list and number your points. Here is an example:
I recommend that you hire the new consultant to create a plan that will
- Increase sales.
- Improve morale and enthusiasm.
- Increase productivity.
Unfortunately, no one is born knowing how to express ideas clearly. But there are clever strategies to organize your thoughts and communicate clearly?
Be sure to watch our English Speech Tips videos and Accent Reduction Tip videos for more English pronunciation and accent reduction exercise.
