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Blunderbuss Posted 16 years ago
Teaching
Reducing my students' response time/getting them to speak faster?
Greetings everyone. First-time poster.
I teach English at a private school in Tokyo. I have a client who is in his 70s. He is extremely articulate and has an extensive vocabulary, but he takes a long time to form sentences. He is not a brick-by-brick speaker, if that makes sense; rather, he takes long pauses:
"One of the reasons, ... is because... a number of seniors...rely ... on the buses to get around."
This is a very coherent sentence, to be sure, but it took him about 20 seconds to say. Is it just because of his age? Or are there some exercises I can do to help him form sentences without the pauses and with a smoother rhythm?
I teach English at a private school in Tokyo. I have a client who is in his 70s. He is extremely articulate and has an extensive vocabulary, but he takes a long time to form sentences. He is not a brick-by-brick speaker, if that makes sense; rather, he takes long pauses:
"One of the reasons, ... is because... a number of seniors...rely ... on the buses to get around."
This is a very coherent sentence, to be sure, but it took him about 20 seconds to say. Is it just because of his age? Or are there some exercises I can do to help him form sentences without the pauses and with a smoother rhythm?
Top answer
His age could be a factor in that. One of the 'tricks' that I was taught is to get him to try to practise without the pauses by rather than saying the words but by humming the words. To concentrate on the stressed words therefore the rhythm of the sentence rather than just the words.
- His age could be a factor in that.
- One of the 'tricks' that I was taught is to get him to try to practise without the pauses by rather than saying the words but by humming the words.
- To concentrate on the stressed words therefore the rhythm of the sentence rather than just the words.
- Once he can hum the sentence then get him to repeat using the words.
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2 Answers
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His age could be a factor in that. One of the 'tricks' that I was taught is to get him to try to practise without the pauses by rather than saying the words but by humming the words. To concentrate on the stressed words therefore the rhythm of the sentence rather than just the words. Once he can hum the sentence then get him to repeat using the words.
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Let him sing a song or recite a poem.
That should keep him in the rhythm.
That should keep him in the rhythm.
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