Learn English with speeches
As I mentioned in Shadowing and Obama Speeches, speech is a great tool for us to practice English. Via speeches, we can also learn surprisingly new point of views, new valuable skills, professional presentation styles, and so on. Using English speeches as learning material is one of my favorite ways to learn English. I usually combine all the language learning skills together using one speech.
My method:
- Write down the transcription on paper
- Learn all of the new vocabulary
- Learn the special grammar structures in the speech if there are any of them were used by the author for his or her own purposes
- Translate the speech into Vietnamese to understand the content thoroughly
- Mark all the pronunciations which you are not sure how to pronounce correctly
- Mark all the linking sounds in the speech while listening to it
- Mark the intonation
- Listen to the speakers several times to be familiar with the the way they deliver their speeches
- Read out loud after the speaker
- Read out loud simultaneously with the speaker
- Imitate the tone, the gestures, the way the speaker presents his or her speech
- Learn by heart the speech if you really like it. It will be much more useful and effective that you can learn the speech by heart. By doing that, it will gradually become part of your own English.
- Stand in frond of the mirror and make your presentation (it would be great if you can record your speech or make videos to recheck later)
- Check your recordings/videos and correct your mistakes
- Present it to your close friends or in English club
- Listen to the speech whenever you can for at least 15 days
I used to learn by heart the speech of Steve Jobs at Stanford university in 2005 by taking exactly the steps I listed above. Whether you believe it or not, learning deeply with just a speech like that in a month is worth more than spending time to study in English classes for several months!
Here are some of the high quality speeches for those who want to study English this way:
1. YouTube channel – English Speeches
2. YouTube channel – Ted Talks
“TED Talks shares the best ideas from the TED Conference with the world, for free: trusted voices and convention-breaking mavericks, icons and geniuses, all giving the talk of their lives in 18 minutes. We post a fresh TED Talk every weekday.” – Ted Talks
Hope this post is useful for you.
nhutly
Thành tựu không đến từ sự thờ ơ, mộng ảo và ý chí cùn mà đến từ bàn tay, khối óc luôn miệt mài tranh đấu với thời gian.
3 thoughts on “Learn English with speeches”