Some well-meaning critics try to stamp out every "um" and "er" from speakers and media spokespeople. Toastmasters is notable for this.
Those seeking to get more comfortable with public speaking often ask me whether they should join that group. My response is maybe with a big caution flag. Preparation and practice are essential elements of getting better. Indeed, preparation is the first of The Three Keys to Great Presentations. Toastmasters can be good for practice, but I strongly urge nascent speakers to take the feedback with a grain of salt. There's too much emphasis on eliminating filler words, going so far as to count them.
Filler Terms Serve a Purpose
As clients who have worked with me realize, I don't consider such speech disfluencies a bad thing necessarily. If they become overwhelming then, yes, corrective measures are in order. The fact is, however, that's the way we talk in everyday exchanges; I believe that a conversational sound helps us better connect with audiences.
Now comes a Wall Street Journal column from Valerie Fridland, a University of Nevada, Reno, professor of linguistics, who backs up that approach. In "Our Sounds of Hesitation Are Much More Than Filler," [gift article] she writes that "recent research has found that these vocalized pauses might be more useful than they appear, for both speaker and listener."
Pause to Think
On the speaker side, such fillers give us an extra moment to think. Consider your own presentations. Odds are you don't have every word memorized (unless you are reading from a full text speech, which is a unique animal). That's fine. In fact, I recommend not scripting everything rigorously so as not to sound canned or impersonal. Yet that means we are constantly processing the words that will flow from our lips. As Fridland puts it, "our brain needs time to catch up to our mouth."
She adds, "ums and uhs are unintended verbal output that escapes at moments of difficulty," citing research that found such disfluencies "more frequent before complex syntactic structures and difficult vocabulary items." In lay terms, that means complex principles and sentences, and words that tend to trip our tongue. And let's face it, most industries have their complicated concepts and bizarre buzzwords that take time for us to internalize before we can verbalize them sans tripping.
In a letter to the editor [gift article] of the Journal reacting to Fridland's piece, Hazel Denhart references a clear cut business effect: "(T)hose in subordinate positions are expected to use filler words to prevent 'too much' silence in a given situation. Superiors, by contrast, use their comfort with silence to project power, while subordinates use it to reinforce their unquestioned lower status."
The Value for Your Audience
Being a good listener also comes into play. Filler terms serve as a cue to an audience or conversational partner that there is more to come. An example: I tend to have a more deliberate speaking style than a close friend; I often pause silently to collect my thoughts when we speak. This individual considers that an open invitation to jump in and interrupt my train of thought (some people are put on edge by silence; I consider it a moment to reflect). However, when I insert a filler, the chance of holding my place increases. It's not a 100 percent guarantee that I'll be permitted to finish, though I have observed that it does raise the odds.
As an audience member, keep in mind that the ahs, ers, and ums (and plenty of other manifestations of disfluencies) are not entirely negative. Remember, you likely do the same thing when it's your turn on the podium.
Such terms may even serve to keep listeners more engaged as their brain receives the cue that there is more to come. Why is that important? It means that these fillers can play a role in delivering a message more effectively.
Isn't that the bottom line when it comes to public speaking?
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