Thailand Educators Network

Getting rid of annoying verbal ticks when teaching

How many times have you become so annoyed at a speaker or teacher that you gave up listening? How many times has this happened and you did not really know why?

More than likely, a major reason was the speaker’s overuse of nervous verbal ticks that distracted from their message...

These nervous, verbal ticks are often centered on voiced pauses that include "uhmm" and "ahhh", along with any other overused words or phrases that take attention away from the core message.

This could also include "you know", "okay", "like" and "so".

While we use these without much problem in a conversation to ensure that we do not lose our turn while thinking about what to say next, in a presentation or in teaching, where we should not be interrupted, they are not needed and become quite annoying.

It is very difficult to remove these "verbal ticks", and once an initial set is removed, another set often appears. However, if they become distractions, they can take away from a teacher's core message and make it that much more difficult to help students learn.

A classic teaching example of an overworked word would be "okay," employed by many teachers, to mean, "yes", "I understand" and "good", and as a marker to mark going from one item or step in the lesson to the next, as in "Okay, class, let's move on to ... "

If you have any doubts as to the extent to which voiced verbal pauses can distract from a message, compare live interviews on CNN - filled with voiced pauses - and BBC - with relatively few.

Then, record your own lesson and listen for any personal verbal ticks you might have that could be distracting from your message and work to remove them one by one.

It may not be easy, but a key point to remember is that when teaching, the use of unvoiced pauses, while initially difficult to accomplish, have more impact, and unlike when used in a conversation, are not a turn-taking signal but rather a time for both you and the student to think about what you have just said.