The science of stage fright

The science of stage fright is a Ted-Ed lesson about our difficulty to speak in public. As Ted-Ed points out, "But the better you understand your body's reaction, the more likely you are to overcome it. Mikael Cho advises how to trick your brain and steal the show."

Self-study activity:
Watch the lesson and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for (strong) intermediate students.

Also remember that if you drop by the lesson on Ted-Ed  you will be able to do another listening comprehension activity together with some other suggestions to explore the topic.



1 What you feel at a podium is called stage fright.
2  Public speaking can threaten our reputation.
3  Charles Darwin experienced an uncontrolled reaction at the London zoo.
4  We have difficulty in seeing distant objects when affected by stage fright.
5 Stage fright is all psychological.
6 Practice may help us to control stage flight.
7 Some exercises might help us reduce stage flight.

Palms sweaty, heart racing, stomach in knots, you can’t cry for help. Not only is your throat too tight to breathe but it’s so embarrassing. No, you aren’t been stalked by a monster, you’re speaking in public, a feat some deem worse than death. See, when you’re dead you feel nothing, at a podium you feel stage fright.
But at some point, we all have to communicate in front of people, so you have to try and overcome it. To start, understand what stage fright is. Humans, social animals that we are, are wired to worry about reputation. Public speaking can threaten it. Before speech, you’re frightened. What if people think I’m awful, that I’m an idiot. That fear of being seen as an awful idiot is a threat reaction from a primitive part of your brain that is very hard to control. It’s the fight or flight response, a self-protective process seen in a range of animals most of which don’t give speeches.
But we have a wise partner in the stage of freaking out: Charles Darwin tested fight or flight at the London Zoo snake exhibit. He wrote in his diary: My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger which had never been experienced. He concluded that his response was an ancient reaction unaffected by the nuances of modern civilization.
So to your conscious modern mind, it is speech. To the rest of your brain, built up to code with the law of the jungle, when you perceive the conscious the possible consequences of blowing speech time to run for your life and fight to your death.
Your hypothalamus come to all over the brains, it triggers your pituitary gland to secrete the hormone ACTH, making your adrenal gland shoot adrenalin to your blood. Your neck and back tense up, your slouch, your legs and hands shake and your muscles prepare for attack. You sweat, your blood pressure jumps, your digestion shuts down to maximize delivery of nutrients and oxygen to muscles and vital organs. So you get dry-mouthed, butterflies. Your pupils dialate is hard to read anything up close like your notes, but long range is easy, that’s how stage fright works. How do we fight it?
First, perspective. This isn’t all in your head. It’s a natural hormonal full-body reaction by an autonomic nervous system on autopilot. And genetics play a huge role in social anxiety.
John wanted to play live thousands of times. Each time he vomited beforehand.
Some people are just worried to feel more scared performing in public. Since stage fright is natural and inevitable, it will never go, focus on what you can control.
Practice. A lot, starting long before in an environment similar to the real performance. Practising any task increases your familiarity and reduces anxiety so when it’s time to speak in public you’re confident and you’re yourself at the task in hand.
Steve Jobs rehearses epic speeches for hundreds of hours starting weeks in advance. If you know what you’re saying, you’ll feed off the crowds energy instead of letting your hypothalamus convince your body is about to feed lunch for a pack of predators.
But, hey, the vertabrate hypothalamus has had millions of years more practice than you. Just before you go on stage, it’s time to fight dirty and trick your brain. Stretch your arms up and breathe deeply, this makes your hypothalamus trigger a relaxation response. Stage fright usually hits hardest right before the presentation, so take that last minute to stretch and breathe. You approach the mike, voice clear, body relaxed. Your well-prepared speech convinces the wild crowd you’re a charismatic genius. How? You didn’t overcome stage fright, you adapted to it and to the fact that no matter how civilized you may seem, in part of your brain you’re still a wild animal. You’re a profound, well-spoken wild animal.

Key:
1T 2T 3T 4F 5F 6T 7T

Halloween

Self-study activity:
Watch this History Channel video about the history of Halloween that we published last year and say whether the statements 1-7 below are true or false.



1. Tribes of Celtic farmers believed there was one day a year when evil spirits could rise from their graves and walk amongst the living.
2. Druid priests tried to predict whether their villages would survive the summer.
3. Ordinary Celts lit great candles and disguised themselves to repel and confuse the spirits.
4. Pope Gregory IV established “All Hallows’ day”, a day honouring all saints known and unknown on November 1st.
5. In the mid 19th century a pumpkin famine drove two million starving Irish to America.
6. The origins of trick or treating are quite clear.
7. Halloween is one of the most profitable holidays on the calendar, earning retailers billions of dollars.

You can read the transcript here.

Key:
1T 2F 3F 4F 5F 6F 7T

H/T to Elena Perez for the activity.

From EFL Classroom 2.0 comes this video on Halloween, where all the traditions around this celebration are explained in a funny slideshow.

HALLOWEEN

You can also look up the following Halloween resources on this blog:

• Listening: The origins of Halloween.
• How to prepare a holiday party.

The power of introverts

This is the way The power of introverts is described in TED:
"In a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else, it can be difficult, even shameful, to be an introvert. But, as Susan Cain argues in this passionate talk, introverts bring extraordinary talents and abilities to the world, and should be encouraged and celebrated.
Our world prizes extroverts, but Susan Cain makes a case for the quiet and contemplative."

And this is the bio of Susan Cain that TED features:

"Susan Cain is a former corporate lawyer and negotiations consultant, and a self-described introvert. At least one-third of the people we know are introverts, notes Cain in her new book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking. Although our culture undervalues them dramatically, introverts have made some of the great contributions to society – from Chopin's nocturnes to the invention of the personal computer to Gandhi’s transformative leadership. 

Cain argues that we design our schools, workplaces, and religious institutions for extroverts, and that this bias creates a waste of talent, energy, and happiness. Based on intensive research in psychology and neurobiology and on prolific interviews, she also explains why introverts are capable of great love and great achievement, not in spite of their temperaments, but because of them."

Remember you can activate subtitles for most TED talks by choosing the language on the lower side of the TED screen.

For some other TED talks on this blog, just write TED in the search box on the left-hand side.

World's English Mania

It's ages since we last posted an entry on TED, a nonprofit site devoted to spreading ideas. TED is invaluable for the language learner at an intermediate and advanced level because it allows us to listen to thousands of varied presentations and talks by leading experts. On top of that, they give us the opportunity to activate subtitltes in English or in any other language.

The mini-talk below by Jay Walker, just upwards of four minutes, explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English.

Keep your goals to yourself

After coming up with a brilliant new life plan, our first instinct is to tell someone, but Derek Sivers says it's better to keep our goals secret.

Derek also presents research going as far back as the 1920s to show why people who talk about their ambitions may be less likely to achieve them.

Watch this three-minute mini-talk by Derek Sivers, the founder of CD Baby. In 2008, Sivers sold CD Baby to focus on his new ventures to benefit musicians, including his new company, MuckWork, where teams of efficient assistants help musicians do their "uncreative dirty work."

Remember that all of the TED talks offer optional subtitles in a number of languages, and very often the transcript of a talk is also available, as in the case with Keep your goals to yourself.

Groundhog Day

Groundhog Day is a holiday celebrated in the USA and Canada on 2nd February. The day was brought to the spotlight by the 1993 film starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell.

Learn some of the details about this tradition with this subtitled talking story book.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo.

Australia Day

26th January is Australia Day, which commemorates the first convict ships that brought immigrants to the continent to start the country.

Básico 1 and Básico 2 students can find out some basic information about the country by reading this simple online presentation I learnt from Larry Ferlazzo.

Only In Australia is the title of a slideshow from The News in Australia. It shows images of places and things that make Australia unique and which I also learnt from Larry Ferlazzo.

Funny door mats

A few weeks ago David Deubelbeiss published his collection of door mats. They make a funny, easy read that can help us ease through our day with a smile.

Subject and object questions

In late November Carmen Gómez Benítez, from EOI Valencia, published this presentation on Subject and object questions on her blog Mcargobe's Blog-Room.

It is a good opportunity for Básico 1 and Básico 2 students to revise this grammar point, which may be a bit difficult for those people who have just started learning English.

Subject and object questions

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Carmen also provides this link to the web English Exercises for those students who wish to do more practice on this point.

Also remember that by clicking on the tag Subject questions on the right you will find more explanations and activities on the topic.

Martin Luther King's Life

This is a slideshow on Martin Luther King’s life that provides audio support for the text. It was created by Jen Farr.

Students can listen to the biography of Martin Luther King while they read the text. The presentation is suitable for Básico 2 students.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo.

Grammar video lessons

At the end of November Life Feast published a number of video lessons on three key grammar areas: The passive voice, reported speech and relative clauses.

The videos are on the short side -three to four minutes long- and their main focus is on revising these grammar points rather than introduce them.

Intermediate students will find them worth having a look at.

The passive voice



Reported speech



Relative clauses

Original New Year Resolutions slideshow

I know it's not very original, but every year brings along a number of resolutions for personal improvement a lot of people make.

Here's a slideshow from Metacafe. Watch it, enjoy it, and you may come across some ideas for 2012 you had never thought about.

New Year's Resolution List - The best bloopers are a click away

You can also find some old posts with New Year Resolutions on this blog:

• http://mythatsenglish.blogspot.com/2010/12/new-year-resolutions.html shows in a video the use of auxiliary will to talk about predictions.
• http://mythatsenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-year-resolutions-for-kids.html is a listening comprehension activity which focuses on the use of going to for predictions and to show the speaker's determination.
• http://mythatsenglish.blogspot.com/2011/01/how-to-stick-to-new-years-resolutions.html is a 'serious' Videojug video which offers tips to keep to one's resolutions.

The years are short

The years are short is a beautiful slideshow from the Happiness Project, masterminded by Gretchen Rubin.

Watch this one-minute film and think about the important things in life while admiring breath-taking pictures of New York.

Famous quotes that were never said

Famous quotes that were never said is a slideshow from Life where we get the opportunity to read 32 famous quotes comprising all aspects of life -cinema, sports, politics, art and so on.

The slideshow is a good opportunity to refresh or get acquainted with famous quotations and compared them with what was actually said.

Famous quotes that were never said is an entertaining way to develop our reading skills.

A Day in Jersey

A Day in Jersey is a beautiful slideshow on the British Island devised by F. Lewandowski and R. Maufroid and which I learnt through Michelle Henry.

The listening activity is suitable for Básico 2 students.

Click on the picture below to be directed to A Day in Jersey. You will find a twenty-question quiz with sentences to complete just below the slides.

You can read the transcript here.

Death by powerpoint

Death by powerpoint is already a classic among those who at some stage in their professional life have had to deal with the challenge of giving a presentation.

Some of the readers of this blog may be wondering what it is in Death by powerpoint  for them as English learners, as they have never had to do such a thing in their life and it's quite likely they'll never do in the forseeable future.

Anyway, I think everybody can enjoy the powerful visual message of Alexei Kapterev's slideshow and develop their reading skills and vocabulary in English by going through Death by powerpoint .

Death By Powerpoint4344

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Top 10 Real Life Monsters

This is a slideshow from Time Magazine where we can observe a choice of the ten creepiest creatures in the world.

The selection includes:

• The killer crocodile
• The giant squid
• The world's largest spider
• The Portuguese man-of-war
• The emperor scorpion
• The vampire bat
• The oar fish
• The box jellyfish
• The Burmese python
• The Loch Ness monster

You can read a short description of each monster, and you can also read further by clicking on the links on the slides.

H/T to Larry Ferlazzo.

Why does it matter that families eat together?

Does it matter that families eat together? Answer the question for yourself, and think about as many reasons as you can in favour or against.

Now click on the picture below to see and read The New York Times slideshow of the same title and check whether any of the reasons you came up with are mentioned, while you learn about the different customs of American multicultural society.

H/T to It's for Tweeters.

How to improve your presentation skills

How to improve your presentation skills was a post Jeffrey Hill published on his blog The English Blog in late September this year.

I liked the video for a number of reasons: The topic may be of interest to a large audience, it gives us an excuse to listen to English to intermediate English students and, last but not least, we might use it as a springboard for conversation, as Jeffrey suggests.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and note down the pieces of advice the coach gives the girl after her two presentations.



After watching the video get together with an English-speaking friend or relative and do what Jeffrey suggests: Prepare a one-minute presentation on a given subject. One of you plays the role of the coach, giving positive feedback and points for improvement. Then swap roles.

You can read the transcript here.

Live a healthy life

Life a healthy life, a presentation pieced together by Kirsti Dyer, physician, health educator and professor, gives us food for thought for a whole term.

The 35 slides tell us about all aspects of our lives: diet, sleep, exercise, relaxation, health, fun, friends, the lot.

You may wish to compare your lifestyle with the ideas put forward by Dr Dyer. To do so, why don't you get together with an English-speaking friend or relative and discuss some of the issues Dr Dyer touches on?

Live a Healthy Life - Original

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