Cognitive-behavioral strategies for speaking English with confidence

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Cognitive-behavioral strategies for speaking English with confidence

My students are almost all adults. Most of them are professionally employed in local high tech companies here in the Silicon Valley. Many are engineers from other countries, working under employment visas. In every case, students are highly motivated and eager to learn self-development strategies. My graduate studies in Adult Learning taught me that adults seek instruction at specific stages of their lives and for specific reasons. Usually they have two specific needs. They want to be able to “get what’s going on” in a conversation, meaning that they understand the context and relevancy of the actual words exchanged, they understand the subtle messages that accompany all human interactions. Without some effort of this kind, non-native speakers must remain satisfied with incomplete comprehension.

The second specific need most students share is how to speak with confidence, which is a kind of behavior. Just as radio transmission towers require more power than a battery operated receiver, transmitting spoken language requires a lot more brain power than simply receiving, or listening to someone else. Likewise, writing takes more thought (cognition) and energy than reading, which is passive absorption. Before students realize and accept this fact, they tell me their English isn’t very good because they don’t feel comfortable speaking. Reading to English is the easiest behavior and listening is second easiest. Writing requires some hard thinking. Most difficult is speaking, so naturally learners find this their greatest challenge. Speaking requires the most cognitive effort and the most complex behavior.

Presented in this way, students become receptive to studying specific cognitive-behavioral strategies that automatically build self confidence. Most basic is inhaling before speaking. Starting with your lungs full gives you a lot more time to speak clearly and accurately. The other great benefit is that the intake of fresh air gives your mind a moment to compose your first sentence. Nervousness and stress make the breath shallower. Slightly extend your breath you will relax and feel more in control. Try it out! I am interested in your experience, so please send me an email, or follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.

Another cognitive-behavioral strategy is to consciously slow our rate of speed. In the modern world we are constantly immersed in a sea of very fast speech in advertising, TV, and movies. When chatting with our friends, we often speak very fast. But speed is not fluency. Think about it. Do fast-talking people inspire more trust and confidence than those who speak slowly? In the U.S. at least, we hold a stereotype of the “fast-talking used car salesperson” who will say anything to make a sale. This is unfair to salespeople in general, but “fast-talking” is used very often conversationally. In more formal writing, I think “glib” would reflect a higher standard. Glib is a great word, but for some reason not more widely used.

When we consciously put the brakes on our impulsive rate of speech and go just a little slower, then keeping our minds and speech synchronized is easier. Our brains’ structure and the structure of our first language are embedded in each other. Our brains are optimized for our first language, so they can never process additional languages as efficiently. Additional languages are like new computer programs that run on top of basic language software embedded in our brains since childhood. Non-native languages require more mental effort than our original languages. Just as computers slow down when under a big load, so do our brains. English language learners often don’t take this into account, so when they start talking in English, they try to speak as quickly as their native language. However, unless they keep their rate of speech under close control, the mouth will quickly outdistance the brain. Then, people get “tongue-tied,” which means not being able to speak (as if your tongue was tied in a knot, I suppose).

Notice that cognitive-behavioral strategies do not require any additional training in English. Such training is also highly desirable, of course. But this takes a long time and may not pay off right away. Direct control of thoughts and actions delivers results right away. Be sure to take a breath please, and speak slowly!