Spoken Performance Skills

Tony Blair – Chunking and Pausing

Aims: 1. To analyse an example of chunking, its purpose and effectiveness. 2. To identify when to pause/chunk, which language is typically emphasised and use of commas and semi-colons. 3. To practise chunking (filmed) and provide feedback to peers.

The Article http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/dont-slow-down-effective-presenter/ The 9 minute clip shows 's 2007 Resignation Speech and the effectiveness of chunking.

Suggested Lesson Plan

1. "Who is Tony Blair?" It is unlikely that many students will know of him. Provide a brief description of him and his time in Office.

2. Pre-Teach Vocab: Conventional wisdom; prevailing consensus; snapshot; controversial (pronunciation!); hellish; monolithic; to sketch

Higher Levels also include: moving with the grain of change/ keep out of the thick of it; to stand shoulder to shoulder with...

3. Pre-Listening Task Divide class into two groups. Each group reads a short extract from the Speech and predict where pauses/chunks will be. Model how to do this (/, //, commas, highlighting phrases). Show examples on the board and illustrate according to students' predictions.

Extract 1: In government, you have to give the answer – not an answer, the answer. And in time you realise putting the country first doesn't mean doing the right thing according to conventional wisdom or the prevailing consensus or the latest snapshot of the opinion. It means doing what you genuinely believe is right. Your duty is to act according to your conviction.

Extract 2: But I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That is your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for my country. I came into office with high hopes for Britain's future. I leave it with even higher hopes for Britain's future.

4. Listening Students watch video clip. Stop clip at 1m 50s and 6m 30s for the two transcripts and compares the students' predictions with Tony Blair's spoken techniques.

Suggested questions: How does Tony Blair use chunking to enhance his speech? Does he use any other techniques? (facial expressions, gestures, eye contact, intonation) Did he take a longer or shorter amount of time to say your extract than you had expected?

You might also want to hand out the transcript of the speech.

5. Chunking practice Use UTS worksheet. In pairs, students practise the 2 sample texts and identify differences.

6. Speaking Performance Students are filmed reading one of the 2 extracts from Tony Blair's speech using chunking/pauses, gestures and intonation.

Students assess peers and give 'Star, Star, Wish' (two positive pieces of feedback and one piece of constructive criticism).

Homework Students watch a clip of Leonardo Di Caprio's speech (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_mbC9pEwBA) about the environment and write a short comparison of the two speeches.

Or answers the following questions... a. Which speaker gives you more time to process the information? b. Can you add emphasis to Leonardo Di Caprio's speech below by using chunking?

As a UN Messenger of Peace, I have been travelling all over the world for the last two years documenting how this crisis is changing the natural balance of our planet. I have seen cities like Beijing choked by industrial pollution. Ancient Boreal forests in Canada that have been clear cut and rainforests in Indonesia that have been incinerated. In India I met farmers whose crops have literally been washed away by historic flooding. In America I have witnessed unprecedented droughts in California and sea level rise flooding the streets of Miami. In Greenland and in the Arctic I was astonished to see that ancient glaciers are rapidly disappearing well ahead of scientific predictions. All that I have seen and learned on this journey has terrified me.

Blair's resignation speech in full Tony Blair has announced his plans to step down as Labour leader and prime minister.

He paid tribute to his wife Cherie and election agent John Burton before delivering his formal address at his Sedgefield constituency. Here is his speech in full.

...This is a country [...} comfortable in the 21st Century, at home in its own skin, able not just to be proud of its past but confident of its future.

“I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short”

I don't think Northern Ireland would have been changed unless Britain had changed, or the Olympics won if we were still the Britain of 1997. As for my own leadership, throughout these 10 years, where the predictable has competed with the utterly unpredicted, right at the outset one thing was clear to me. Without the Labour Party allowing me to lead it, nothing could ever have been done. But I knew my duty was to put the country first. That much was obvious to me when just under 13 years ago I became Labour's Leader. What I had to learn, however, as prime minister was what putting the country first really meant.

Ultimate obligation Decision-making is hard. Everyone always says: 'Listen to the people.' The trouble is they don't always agree. When you are in opposition, you meet this group and they say: 'Why can't you do this?' And you say: 'It's really a good question. Thank you.' And they go away and say: 'Its great, he really listened.' You meet that other group and they say: 'Why can't you do that?' And you say: 'It's a really good question. Thank you.' And they go away happy you listened. In government, you have to give the answer - not an answer, the answer. And, in time, you realise putting the country first doesn't mean doing the right thing according to conventional wisdom or the prevailing consensus or the latest snapshot of opinion. It means doing what you genuinely believe to be right. Your duty is to act according to your conviction. All of that can get contorted so that people think you act according to some messianic zeal. Doubt, hesitation, reflection, consideration and re-consideration, these are all the good companions of proper decision-making. But the ultimate obligation is to decide. Sometimes the decisions are accepted quite quickly. Bank of England independence was one, which gave us our economic stability. Sometimes, like tuition fees or trying to break up old monolithic public services, they are deeply controversial, hellish hard to do, but you can see you are moving with the grain of change round the word. Sometimes, like with Europe, where I believe Britain should keep its position strong, you know you are fighting opinion, but you are content with doing so. Sometimes, as with the completely unexpected, you are alone with your own instinct.

Global terrorism In Sierra Leone and to stop ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, I took the decision to make our country one that intervened, that did not pass by, or keep out of the thick of it. Then came the utterly unanticipated and dramatic - September 11th 2001 and the death of 3,000 or more on the streets of New York.

I decided we should stand shoulder to shoulder with our oldest ally. I did so out of belief. So Afghanistan and then Iraq - the latter, bitterly controversial. Removing Saddam and his sons from power, as with removing the Taleban, was over with relative ease. But the blowback since, from global terrorism and those elements that support it, has been fierce and unrelenting and costly. For many, it simply isn't and can't be worth it. For me, I think we must see it through. They, the terrorists, who threaten us here and round the world, will never give up if we give up.

“The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth”

It is a test of will and of belief. And we can't fail it. So, some things I knew I would be dealing with. Some I thought I might be. Some never occurred to me on that morning of 2 May 1997 when I came into Downing Street for the first time. Great expectations not fulfilled in every part, for sure. Occasionally people say, as I said earlier: 'They were too high, you should have lowered them.' But, to be frank, I would not have wanted it any other way. I was, and remain, as a person and as a prime minister, an optimist. Politics may be the art of the possible - but at least in life, give the impossible a go. So of course the vision is painted in the colours of the rainbow, and the reality is sketched in the duller tones of black, white and grey.

High hopes But I ask you to accept one thing. Hand on heart, I did what I thought was right. I may have been wrong. That is your call. But believe one thing if nothing else. I did what I thought was right for our country. I came into office with high hopes for Britain's future. I leave it with even higher hopes for Britain's future. This is a country that can, today, be excited by the opportunities not constantly fretful of the dangers. People often say to me: 'It's a tough job' - not really. A tough life is the life the young severely disabled children have and their parents, who visited me in Parliament the other week. Tough is the life my dad had, his whole career cut short at the age of 40 by a stroke. I have been very lucky and very blessed. This country is a blessed nation. The British are special. The world knows it. In our innermost thoughts, we know it. This is the greatest nation on earth. It has been an honour to serve it. I give my thanks to you, the British people, for the times I have succeeded, and my apologies to you for the times I have fallen short. Good luck.

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk_politics/6642857.stm

Published: 2007/05/10 14:36:19 GMT

© BBC 2016

Tony Blair Labour 1997 to 2007

Born 6 May 1953, Edinburgh, Scotland

Dates in office 1997 to 2007

Political party Labour

Major acts Civil Partnership Act 2004: allowed legal recognition of civil partnership relationship between two people of the same sex.

Interesting facts Tony Blair initiated reforms in the House of Commons, modernising the format of Prime Minister's Question Time.

Tony Blair, the longest serving Labour Prime Minister, oversaw the Northern Irish peace process, public sector reform and the response to the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks.

He joined the Labour Party in 1975 and, in 1983, successfully fought for the safe seat of Sedgefield. was also elected in 1983 and they became firm allies.

Tony Blair assumed several Shadow Cabinet roles before being made Shadow Home Secretary in 1992. In 1994, his and Gordon Brown’s friendship was permanently changed when the Labour leader, John Smith, died suddenly. Tony Blair won the following leadership contest overwhelmingly, having made an agreement with Gordon Brown that, if he didn’t stand, he would become a powerful chancellor should Labour win the next election.

Tony Blair was seen as a new kind of politician with enormous charisma, arguably the finest opposition leader of modern times – even succeeding in reforming ‘Clause IV’ of the Labour constitution. It was of little surprise when Labour won the 1997 general election by a landslide majority of 179. Succeeding to the role, he officially became Prime Minister on 2 May 1997.

One of his biggest achievements came in 1998 when the Northern Irish peace process really made progress with the Good Friday Agreement.

On foreign affairs, he became increasingly convinced of Britain’s need to become more involved, joining the American bombing of Iraq in 1998. A landmark came in 1999 when he risked much to protect the Kosovars, his idea of ‘liberal interventionism’ explained in his ‘Chicago’ speech on ‘The Doctrine of the International Community’. Limited military involvement in Sierra Leone in 2000 reinforced the democratically elected government.

Thanks to Tony Blair’s leadership, a healthy economy and a poor showing by the Conservative Party, Labour won the 2001 general election with another landslide, with 167 seats. His priority for the second term was to increase the pace of public sector reform, which took shape in the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit, bills on Foundation Hospitals, Academy Schools and university tuition fees, and the increasing ‘choice agenda’. He also intended to call a referendum over Britain adopting the Euro, but events prevented this.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks became defining moments for Tony Blair and his legacy. He allied with the USA and President Bush over the need to confront militant Islamism, first in Afghanistan in 2001 and then, much more controversially, in 2003 with the invasion of Iraq.

The case for war in the UK had been built around the widespread belief that Saddam harboured weapons of mass destruction (WMD), which were not subsequently found. This, together with criticism over use of the machinery of government and doubts over the legality of the UK’s involvement, led the previously popular Tony Blair to become a divisive figure.

Despite this, he led Labour to a third general election victory in 2005, with a much smaller but still significant majority of 66. The 7/7 London explosions by British-born Muslim suicide bombers led Blair to try to tighten civil liberties, another cause of public division.

In 2006, the Israel-Lebanon war saw a very large Labour rebellion against Tony Blair over his reluctance to criticise Israel and his continued support for Bush. He resigned as Prime Minister on 27 June 2007.

Written by Dr. Jon Davis, Mile End Group