Agreeing with someone ■■ That’s just what I was thinking. ■■ I totally agree. ■■ That’s a good point. ■■ I’m really glad you said that. ■■ Exactly! ■■ That’s exactly the way I see it. ■■ Thank you so much for bringing this up. ■■ Absolutely. I couldn’t agree more. ■■ Isn’t it just? ■■ I couldn’t have said it better. ■■ You took the words right out of my mouth. ■■ Wow, I feel like you’re reading my mind. ■■ Well, we’re exactly on the same page here. ■■ I can tell we see eye to eye on this issue. Expressing agreement ■■ Find a partner to do the second part (the dialogue) of task 1 4.15 with you. ■■ Whenever you agree with something your partner said, use one of the above phrases to express your agreement. Methods & strategies: Varying your speaking pace Silence is golden One of the most effective – and most often neglected – ways of making your presentation more interesting is to control and vary your speaking speed. There are very few people who speak too slowly but many who talk too fast, especially when they are feeling stressed – for instance in an exam situation. This normally makes it difficult for their listeners to follow them. Successful speakers often slow down and speed up – and they often take breaks. Author John Papa points out that silence can “be an incredibly effective way to grab attention and make an essential point. Have you ever listened to a presentation, a news report, or just a conversation with your friends where there was suddenly a pause in the action? What did you do? This pause can grab your attention cleverly and subtly.” Similarly, Liz Danzico remarks that the “pause has power.” John Papa lists five situations in which you can use “a pause to improve a presentation: 1 when you want the listener to have time to absorb an important point and think about it 2 when you ask a question you want them to consider and answer in their heads 3 when you want to give the audience a chance to predict what you will say/do next 4 when you want to change the direction of a presentation 5 when you need to collect your thoughts or breathing.” Speeding up, on the other hand, is an effective way to generate excitement at key passages. For best results, “observe the audience when you vary your pace. What reactions do they have? Experiment with this and as it will help you adjust your speed and improve your engagement with your audience.” Imitating great speakers Listen to Steve Jobs’ famous Stanford commencement address – arguably one of the most inspiring American speeches ever. It consists of “three stories”, as Mr. Jobs explains at the beginning. (“Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.”) After the first story, he pauses for about seven seconds. And the silence feels perfectly natural. Search for the video and the annotated transcript online or scan this page with the QuickMedia app. A great way to get better at speaking is to listen to great speakers and then try to imitate them by speaking along with them. Watch one minute of a good speech or presentation, then watch it again and try to speak along with the person in the video. Do it another time and really try to emulate the speaker. That way, you will get a good sense of the ways and methods professional presenters use to get their message across. Phrases & structures [E] [F] [G] 4.11 This is a powerful phrase to agree with a statement someone has just made that had the word “is” in it. For example: “That’s remarkable.” “Isn’t it just?” To do [E] [F] [G] 4.12 How-to [A] [B] 4.13 Just like it’s essential to take a break from work every once in a while, it’s important to pause during your talks. Video: Speaking pace To do [A] [K] 4.14 The link will take you directly to the end of the first story and the sevensecond pause. However, you would do well to watch the entire speech. 42 Key aspects Strategies Sample task 4 Food & health Nur zu Prüfz ecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv
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