By Therese Holm | Sandefjord VGS

CAPPELEN DAMM

ACCESS UPDATE: The Spoken Word in the Classroom

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If I say “I have a dream”, what do you think of? Some are bound to start humming the ABBA song by the

same name; others may envision Martin Luther King Jr. standing at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963,

speaking out against racism. What about the following sentences; can you identify the speakers?

– “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

– “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

– “Free at last!”

– “Peace in our time.”

– “We stand together to win the war against terrorism.”

Even taken out of context, these sentences are often recognized as quotations from famous speeches.

They may seem improvised, but they have been

written down in a manuscript and subsequently

read to an audience. Behind the best speeches

you will find a careful choice of rhetorical

devices and diction – in other words, a lot of

work and rewriting!

This article takes a look at speeches as a

text type and how we can work with them in the

English classroom. By studying different

speeches, I believe that students will gain better

insight into the structure, vocabulary, language

style and message of a good text, and will also

be better equipped for tackling the speech which

some of them will have to deliver at the end of

the school year – the oral exam.

Moreover, the knowledge they will

develop of the spoken word will also be useful

for the written exam, where students are

expected not only to analyse and understand an

unknown text, but also to produce a structured,

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well-written text of their own. Understanding the composition of this non-fiction text type can thus help

students improve their production of both oral and written texts.

The speech as mass communication

If we start off with a broad definition, a speech is a text type which is supposed to be presented through

oral communication. Just as plays are better when watched on a stage, a speech is best when you can

see it being made. Watching Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech is quite different from just

reading it!

Usually, a speech is presented by one person, as a monologue, or as a soliloquy in a play.

Although it is said that some people are natural speakers, most speeches have been written down and

rehearsed before being presented. The audience for some speeches will be more or less known to the

speaker – at private weddings or funerals for example. But for the most part, the speaker will not know

all the members of his or her audience. Therefore, we can say that speeches are often a type of mass

communication which is an effective way for the speaker to get his or her message across to a wide

audience.

Categories of speeches

Many kinds of oral communication can be placed under the category of speeches: speeches made in a

court room, keynote speeches to start off a conference, wedding speeches, speeches delivered at a

political rally, eulogies, stand-up comedians’ performances, speech as a presentation during an oral

exam, the list goes on. And let us not forget the speeches we find in fiction – from Shakespearian

soliloquies to the grand speeches in Lord of the Rings and speeches delivered at a crucial point in a film.

All these types of speeches have one thing in common: they are trying to get a message across to an

audience.

The message which the speaker wants to get across often depends on the type of speech in

question. A stand-up comedian performing her routine is making a speech which is intended to entertain

the audience – but perhaps also to make them think. A country’s leader delivering a televised state-of-

the-nation speech will often use it to assure and convince the nation of something. Speeches can also be

used to provoke or challenge the audience, and subsequently the government or people in positions of

power. Sometimes politicians use a speech to try to spread goodwill between nations and to create

bonds between countries – and sometimes also to challenge another country’s politicians. Finally, some

speeches, like eulogies, are simply meant to be in remembrance of a great person, and will therefore

mainly contain praise and personal memories.

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As mentioned above, speeches in

films and literature are frequently

used to achieve various effects. In

Shakespeare’s Hamlet, for

instance, the protagonist’s

soliloquies are a way of showing

the audience the inner thoughts

and fears of Hamlet himself, as in

the “Am I a coward?” speech (“Oh

what a rogue and peasant slave am

I”). In films, speeches are often

used to build tension and to

provoke a turning point, as in A

Few Good Men, where Jack

Nicholson’s character screams at

Tom Cruise’s character in a

dramatic court scene: “You want

the truth? You can’t handle the

truth!”, or in the court scene from

To Kill a Mockingbird, where Finch,

played by Gregory Peck, exclaims:

“The defendant is not guilty. But

somebody in the courtroom is”.

And it is, of course, hard to talk

about speeches in literature and films without mentioning Lord of the Rings, in which many of the

characters have monologues about bravery and challenges. Whether you are looking for fictional or non-

fictional speeches, there is a myriad of examples to choose from. So where do we start when introducing

students to this text type?

Getting started

I once heard someone say that a speech should be like a mini-skirt: Long enough to cover the essential

bits, but short enough to maintain interest. There is some truth in that, especially when working with

speeches in the English classroom. If students are to have a good understanding of this text type, they

should first of all watch some speeches being delivered. Watching a five-minute speech is a lot more

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manageable for many students than reading two full pages of text. For students unfamiliar with

speeches, it may be a bit daunting to start off with MLK or Churchill’s famous words, so starting with

something they already know could be a better approach – for example, stand-up comedy. At

youtube.com you can find extracts from the famous show Live At The Apollo, where such comedians as

Dara O’Brien, Michael MacIntyre, Jack Dee, Russell Howard, Sarah Millican and Omid Djalili – to name

but a few – make “speeches” (monologues), often based on their own experiences and intended to make

the audience laugh. Since each performance is usually between five and ten minutes, a warm-up activity

(either in the classroom or as homework) could be to choose two performances and ask the students to

watch them and find out why these comedians make people laugh. “Because it’s funny” is often the first

reply, but why is it funny? Give your students a list of reasons to consider before they discuss the same

question in groups. Is it funny because it is recognizable? Does it have to do with the language used? Is

the performance structured in a particular way? Are any words repeated for effect? How much impact

does body language have? What about facial expressions or “funny voices”? Would this be just as funny

if you just read the comedian’s manuscript? Why / why not?

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Having discussed the speech type known as stand-up comedy, we move on to more serious speeches. Of

course we do not expect students to have us in fits of laughter during an oral exam, but we do expect

them to be able to present a topic in a well-structured and well-articulated manner in the scope of a few

minutes. Perhaps we should therefore show them some examples of people who do just that. This brings

us to the website http://ted.com. The TED speakers are all experts in their field, and talk about issues

that engage them, topics as diverse as technology, entertainment, business, science and global issues. If

you search under “Talks”, you can find speeches of less than 3 or 6 minutes on all topics. Before looking

at some of these talks, however, ask the students to think about a few points which will be discussed

afterwards. What is, for example, the structure of the talk? How does the speaker start and end his or

her speech? What seem to be the main points? Which catch phrase could you imagine being taken from

this speech? Does the speaker’s body language influence what he or she says? What message does the

speech convey and how are the images (if any) used to enforce this message? What presentation skills

shown in this speech can you apply to your own oral presentation later on?

As there are thousands of good speeches at the ted.com website, it is hard to pick any favourites.

But to show a spirited speaker, I particularly recommend Adam Savage and his quest to find the dodo

bird. Some other talks that I have successfully used with students are: Candy Chang’s Before I die I want

to..., Bahia Shehab’s A Thousand Times No, Matt Cutts’s Try something new for 30 days, Alisa Miller’s The

News about the News, and Graham Hill’s Less Stuff and More Happiness, to mention but a very few. All

these talks are less than six minutes long, and cover very different topics.

Increasing vocabulary

Having introduced some words for talking about speeches (introduction, ending, body, main parts, catch

phrase, body language, message), it might be a good idea to add some more, to expand the students’

vocabulary. Some suggestions for relevant vocabulary related to speeches are found in the box below;

the list is not extensive and can be adjusted to your students’ needs. All students may not need to learn

all words, but perhaps a minimum could be suggested to them? In my opinion, students should at least

be able to point out the following devices in speeches, as they are fairly common: alliteration, allusion,

false dilemmas, hypophora, parallelism, repetition, rhetorical question, tricolon and varied sentence

length. Since students will be familiar with logos, ethos and pathos from their Norwegian lessons, I think

it can also be expected of them to recognize these ways of arguing in speeches.

There are numerous ways of working on increasing the students’ vocabulary, so I will only

suggest a few I have used successfully in my classroom. I like to take advantage of the fact that all my

students have computers and internet access, so I usually create a page on It’s Learning where I write all

the new words I want them to learn. Then I split the class into groups and give each group some words to

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look up. They are to write definitions of the rhetorical devices in their own words, and provide one or

more examples of the use of these devices, using the internet as their source. All students have access to

the web page, so that when they are finished writing their definitions and examples, they have to read

what the other groups have produced. If any word explanations are unclear, it is up to the group in

charge of the word to explain it better. When the vocabulary begins to sink in, the students are given a

list of sentences in which they are to identify the rhetorical devices used. An example of such a list can be

found in the second box below.

Let’s analyse!

Once the students are equipped with an adequate rhetorical vocabulary, it is time to let them analyse.

An introductory activity could be to ask students in groups to choose a speech from a film, to analyse

which rhetorical devices the speaker uses, and to present what they find to the rest of the class. The

website http://www.americanrhetoric.com/moviespeeches.htm contains a number of speeches from

famous films, and can be a good starting point. The page has the extracts from the films both in visual

and written form, so it is possible for the students to show the film clip either before or after they have

presented what they have found. A lot of film clips can also be found on Youtube, and many film

transcripts are available online.

Another interesting task could be to look at some of the more famous speeches from recent

years and compare how the speakers argue their case. This can be done as preparation for a class

discussion, or perhaps as preparation for a written assignment. George W. Bush’s speech after the terror

attacks on the USA on 9-11 in 2001 is one obvious suggestion. This speech is available from

americanrhetoric.com, video and transcript. At this stage, it would be natural to both show the students

the televised speech and also to give them a written transcript so that they can pick the speech apart

using pen and paper. If there is time to look at a couple of slightly longer speeches, the speeches of

Michelle Obama and Anne Romney at the National Conventions in 2012 are definitely worth looking at

(see Magazine edition 02/2012), as well as the inaugural speeches of the American presidents in recent

years.

In terms of historical interest, some speeches are hard to overlook – here are some suggestions:

Neville Chamberlain’s speech upon returning to Great Britain after having made a deal with Hitler is one

that should not be missed. Another is Winston Churchill’s war-time speeches – either choosing one in full

or looking at extracts from several. Sojourner Truth’s powerful “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech deserves to be

mentioned, as does obviously the speech I quoted from at the beginning of this article, Martin Luther

King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech. Another interesting speech by MLK is the last one he ever made,

entitled “I’ve seen the promised land”, delivered on 3 April 1968, the night before he was shot. Franklin

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D. Roosevelt’s 1933 inaugural address, where he uttered the now famous words “The only thing we have

to fear is fear itself”, is certainly worth looking at, as is Nelson Mandela’s Presidential address in 1994,

known for the catch phrase “Free at last!”. It can be of interest to examine the famous sentence “Ask not

what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” in context, used by John F.

Kennedy in his inaugural address in 1961.For a more global approach, one could, for example, look at F.

W. de Klerk’s speech at the opening of Parliament in South Africa in 1990, where he stated that “The

time for negotiation has arrived”. Or perhaps you have your own favourite that you would like to share

with your class.

When working with speech analysis, I prefer to follow these “rules”:

a) Students are given a copy of the speech either digitally, as a Word document, or on paper.

That way they can make notes and underline or highlight text as they please. If they have the text

digitally, they also have the advantage of being able to quickly search for phrases or words used in the

text.

b) Students also get a handout with key elements I want them to focus on in the speech. These

include: How does the speaker begin and end the speech? How is the speech structured? What are the

main points the speaker is trying to make? How are these points made – which rhetorical devices are

applied? What effect does the use of these rhetorical devices have on the text? Which elements from

this speech can you make use of when you create a text of your own?

c) Students must know before starting the analysis what their work will be used for. Will they be

participating in a class debate, writing a formal text analysis, presenting the findings individually (if

working with different texts in the same group) or adding their information in key words to a class web

page, for example?

Now talk!

As a final part of the work with speeches, and as a preparation for their oral exam, I like to have students

write and deliver a speech of their own. After having analysed George W. Bush’s 9-11 speech, I often

challenge students to “change history” by writing another version of it, a version in which Bush does not

declare a “war on terror” but instead chooses a different approach. This speech should then be delivered

in front of the class, either by the student herself, or by a co-student (who has been given the written

text and prepared ahead of time). I also ask each student to make a list of the rhetorical devices they

have used in the speech, and to hand these in before the speech is delivered. To make sure the audience

is not passive while listening to the speeches, the students are told that after each speech they are to

point out which rhetorical devices they detected in the speech. The speech-writer then has to verify the

audience’s suggestions – and add any devices they forgot to mention. The presentation can subsequently

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be marked not only for content, structure and delivery, but also for language skills and application of

rhetorical devices.

I believe that if we want students to pay more attention to the way language is used, we need to

show them, through real-life examples, how others use language. If we want students to be able to

discuss the use of language, we need to give them the necessary tools and vocabulary to do so. Putting

more emphasis on the spoken word in the classroom will not only give the students a wider

understanding of the way language is used, but can in turn help them become better, and more

confident, language users.

Photos:

Page 1: President John F. Kennedy making his electrifying address during his visit to West Berlin, June 26, 1963 (©NTBscanpix)

Page 3: Michael Sheen as Hamlet at the Young Vic theatre in London, 2011 (©NTBscanpix)

How the speech argues:

Logos = refers to our sense of logic Ethos = refers to the trustworthiness of the speech Pathos = appeals to our emotions

Some rhetorical vocabulary:

Alliteration = recurrence of initial consonant sounds (“dignity and decency”, Michelle Obama)

Allusion = when your speech echoes another speech or famous phrase

Anaphora = the repetition of the same word or words at the beginning of successive phrases, clauses, or sentences. “We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground” Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

Antithesis = contrasting two ideas, for example first saying what you will not do, then say what you will do

Asyndeton = omitting conjunctions between words, phrases, or clauses: "I came; I saw; I conquered" Caesar. “… that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“ Abraham Lincoln, The Gettysburg Address

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Epizeuxis = repetition of one word for emphasis: “Alone, alone, all all alone,” Alone on a wide wide sea. Coleridge

False dilemma = When only two solutions to a problem are suggested, and one is chosen over the other

Hypophora = asking a question, then answering it. "You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory, however long and hard the road may be.” Winston Churchill

Hyperbole = exaggerating for effect : “I’ve told you a million times”, “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse”

Juxtaposition = two things of opposite nature mentioned together:“Day and night”, “Fire and ice”

Metaphor = comparison between two different things without using the word “like” or “as”

Oxymoron = a paradox reduced to two words (“eloquent silence”)

Parallelism = repeating the same sentence structure: "Ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country" John F Kennedy. “To be or not to be, that is the question”. William Shakespeare.

Personification = giving human qualities to inanimate objects

Polysyndeton = the use of a conjunction between each word, phrase or clause. The opposite of asyndeton. "Let the whitefolks have their money and power and segregation and sarcasm and big houses and schools and lawns like carpets, and books, and mostly--mostly--let them have their whiteness." Maya Angelou

Simile = comparison between two different things using the word “like” or “as”

Rhetorical question = asking a question which does not require an answer

Tricolon = a list of three, a sentence that has three parts: “ I think we've all arrived at a very special place. Spiritually, ecumenically, grammatically."Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean. "Our campaign ... began in the backyards of Des Moines and the living rooms of Concord and the front porches of Charleston", Barack Obama

Understatement = expresses an idea as less important than it actually is

Varied sentence length = contrasting long sentences with short ones, for effect and emphasis

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TASK: Can you identify the rhetorical devices used in these extracts?

“If you're a daring designer, a budding botanist or simply green-fingered, we want to hear from you.” (Alan Titchmarsh, Gardeners' World Live, BBC TV, June 2001)

"This election is not about the miners; not about the militants; not about the power of the unions ..." (Harold Wilson, during the 1974 UK General Election campaign)

"And so, my fellow Americans, ask not, what your country can do for you. | Ask what you can do for your country." (John F Kennedy's Inaugural Address, 1961)

"…the grisly gang who work your wicked will". (Winston Churchill, in his speech about the Luftwaffe, addresses the Nazi leaders)

"We have seen peace prevail in most places for a half century. We have avoided another world war." (Hillary Clinton, Women's Rights Are Human Rights Speech Beijing, China: 5 September 1995)

“We will not deny, we will not ignore, we will not pass along our problems to other congresses, to other presidents, and other generations”. (George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 2003)

“There are no blue states or red states; there are only the United States of America”. (President Barack Obama, 2012)

“In a whirlwind of change and hope and peril, our faith is sure, our resolve is firm and our union is strong”. (George W. Bush, State of the Union address, January 2003)

"...the story of a power that went into the world to protect but not possess, to defend but not to conquer." (George W. Bush's Inaugural Address 2001, referring to US history)

“Even if the world decided tomorrow to ban these weapons, this terrible legacy of mines already in the earth would continue to plague the poor nations of the Globe. ‘The evil that men do, lives after them.’” (Princess Diana, Responding to Landmines speech)

“The greatest pain in life is to be invisible. What I've learned is that we all just want to be heard. And I thank all the people who continue to let me hear your stories, and by sharing your stories, you let other people see themselves and for a moment, glimpse the power to change and the power to triumph.” (Oprah Winfrey, accepting the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award - September 22, 2002)

“We are banished no more. We wander the wilderness of despair no more. We are afraid no more. For on this day, with love in our hearts, we have come out, and we have come out across America to build a bridge of understanding, a bridge of progress, a bridge as solid as steel, a bridge to a land where no one suffers prejudice because of their sexual orientation, their race, their gender, their religion, or their human difference”. (Urvashi Vaid, Gay Rights March On Washington Speech April 25, 1993)

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Links mentioned in the article:

Youtube: http://youtube.com

TED: http://ted.com

American rhetoric, speech bank: http://www.americanrhetoric.com

Sweet speeches, another speech bank: http://www.sweetspeeches.com

Extensive list of rhetorical vocabulary: http://www.virtualsalt.com/rhetoric.htm

Famous eulogies: http://www.eulogyspeech.net/famous-eulogies

Several of the speeches mentioned can be found in audio form on the CD “Speeches that changed the

world” by Simon Sebag Montefiore, 2005.

One suggestion from me:

Wordle: http://www.wordle.net

This is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.