Fill pauses smoothly when you speak
When you are speaking English, naturally you need to think and pause. In the last lesson, we talked about non-word sounds. G.B.C. penalizes your use of non-word sounds. So when you need to think, or you are having trouble expressing yourself, what should you do? Fill the pauses naturally. This lesson will teach you how.
If you have taken G.B.C. before, you know that there are five different scores that relate to similar aspects of fluency and delivery. We can work to improve some of these scores very quickly and easily; other things will take time and practice.
Last class we looked at non-word sounds. This lesson we are going to talk about how to fill pauses smoothly.
These are the five areas—give them to your student:
- overuse of non-word sounds;
- paused to search for words;
- spoke haltingly;
- spoke in fragmented sentences; and
- failed to fill pauses smoothly.
We did #1 already in the last lesson. Numbers 2, 3 and 4 are inevitable. The best remedy for these is "be good at English", but we don't get paid for that kind of lame advice. This class is about #5.
Try a difficult G.B.C. question. Your teacher will ask you. Just reply as you would in the test.
Ask this question:
What is your biggest strength?
In theory, this should be difficult to answer as most people don't like to brag. Count the non-word sounds, fillers and pauses. Report when your student has finished how many non-word sounds and fillers they used, and how many pauses.
There are two kinds of fillers: padding and discourse markers.
Conversational Padding
| Filler | Meaning & Nuance |
|---|---|
| Let me think... | I don't know what to say / I don't know how to say it / I have nothing to say |
| I mean... | I don't know how to say what I want to say / To clarify ... |
| You know... | I don't know what to say / I have nothing to say / I am thinking OR emphasis |
| Like... | I don't know what to say / I have nothing to say / I am thinking OR emphasis |
| So... | I don't know what to say / I don't know how to say it / To clarify/ So what you're saying is... |
| Let me see... | I don't know what to say / I have nothing to say / I am thinking |
| Well... | I don't know what to say / I have nothing to say / I am thinking |
Informative Fillers
| Filler | Meaning & Nuance |
|---|---|
| Basically... | The main point is... / To put it simply.... |
| As you know... | You should know / Introducing a topic |
| As you (might / may) know... | Maybe you know this already, but just to be sure... |
| Obviously... | This is easy. You should know, but I need to make the point. |
| That reminds me... / By the way... | Let's change the subject. |
| Could I ask...? / Could you find out...? / Could you tell me...? | Polite question / Embedded question |
| Do you happen to know...? | I think you probably don't know, but... |
| Anyway... | I would like to change the subject / Let's finish our conversation |
| Actually... / Frankly... / To be honest... | You might not like what I am about to say, but... |
| Guess what! | I've got (wonderful / surprising) news... |
| I doubt if... | ...is probably not true. |
| The real question is... | Let's get to the point. |
| Generally speaking... / In my experience... | (Generalising) I'm not saying this is always true, but... |
| Don't take this the wrong way but... | You aren't going to like this... |
| I (think / guess / suppose / suspect)... | It's just what I think, but I don't know... |
| What I'm trying to say is... / What I mean is... | You haven't understood me correctly... |
| So in the end... / All in all... / So... | This is my point... / This is the punchline... |
| I wonder if... | What do you think of this idea...? |
| I'm (sure / convinced / certain / positive)... | I strongly believe... (but it may not be true). |
| That's very interesting, but... | I don't want to (talk about / listen to) that. |
| Do you know what I mean? | Please tell me what you think (sometimes used as padding). |
| Perhaps / Maybe / Could it be... | I don't really know... / This is just an idea... |
| I'm afraid... / I'm sorry but... | You probably will not like this... |
| In other words... / So you're saying... | (Clarifying) What you said implies that... |
| If you ask me... | You should ask me. I think I know. |
| They say... / Apparently... | (Gossip) I don't take responsibility for this idea, but... |
| But can't you see that... / Look... | (Frustration) I think it's clear, why don't you... |
| Besides... | This should really make my point... |
| For example... / For instance... | This will show you what I mean. |
| Look at it this way... | You should think about it this way... |
| How shall I put it... | I can't find the right words OR You might not like this but... |
| That's a good question. | I have no idea. Let me think... |
| Sorry... | I have something to say... |
| OK, so... | Let's move on (to the next point)... |
| Rather / In other words... | This is what I really mean... |
Work through the two lists, and make sure that all is good.
The fillers are broken into two types:
- conversational padding; and
- informative fillers.
Informative fillers are basically discourse markers. They don't add to the message, but tell the listener something about your attitude to what you are saying.
Some of the first type of fillers (padding) are OK to use in G.B.C., as long as they are not non-word sounds.
Read more about this on the blog.
Take the student's answer from the warm up and then repeat it back to them with a good smattering of fillers from the list.
Move on to the practice section and encourage your student to use the fillers from the list. Also make them aware that they need to practice a lot for them to use these fillers effectively.
Now let's practice these fillers with some G.B.C. questions.