Learn how to become a FLUENT and CONFIDENT English speaker by spending just 10 minutes a day. This is the JAM technique.
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Transcript:
Hi and welcome back. In this
video, I’m going to teach you one
simple trick that you can use to
become a fluent English speaker
by spending just 10 minutes a
day. The best part about this is
that you don’t need a partner -
you can do this by yourself. This
is a technique that has worked
for many of my students and if
you do what I tell you in this
video, I guarantee that you will
become more fluent in English. So
what is this trick? Well, it’s a
technique known as JAM. Uh, no,
not that kind of jam. This is
actually a little fluency game
based on a show that airs on BBC
radio. The reason it’s called JAM
is because it’s short for Just A
Minute. This game has three
stages. So here’s how you play
it: You’re going to talk about a
topic for one minute. That is,
you’re going to give a speech
without any preparation. So you
just pick a topic - you can
either take general topics like
sports, hobbies, friends, books
etc. or you can choose a
question. For example, what is
your favorite mode of transport?
And once you have a topic, you
speak. Now when you do, there are
some rules: The first rule is
that you cannot stop speaking.
You must talk for the full
minute. If you have to pause to
catch your breath, it’s OK, but
you cannot pause for more than
three seconds. Even if you say
nonsense or you say something
unrelated to the topic it doesn’t
matter. You’re just going to keep
talking. So that’s rule number
one. Rule number two is you
cannot repeat the same ideas.
That means you can’t just say the
same things over and over and
over again - this isn’t
pronunciation practice - it’s
fluency development, so no
repetition of the same ideas. And
rule number three is no writing -
you cannot make any notes while
you are speaking, you must only
concentrate on speaking. These
are just the three rules. So to
begin, you need a timer, this can
be on your smartphone for
example. You start stage one by
starting the timer and you speak
until the one minute is reached.
I’m going to give you an example
of how to do this. I’m going to
take this question: “What is your
favorite mode of transport?” and
I’m going to speak for a minute
on this topic. Now I haven’t done
any preparation, so let’s see how
I do. OK, so what’s my favorite
mode of transport? I would have
to say that it’s the train.
That’s because um, actually, you
get to see a lot of nice scenery,
beautiful landscapes and things
like that. And you know, train
journeys generally tend to be
longer than other types of, or
rather, other modes of transport.
You can see I’m really struggling
for ideas but I can’t stop, I
have to keep going so I’m saying
whatever comes to mind, that’s no
problem. But back to the topic at
hand, yeah, train journeys
because they’re longer, they’re
more relaxing. And one last thing
I want to mention is that I’ve
had the opportunity to meet
interesting people and make
friends on many train journeys.
As a kid I used to ride the train
a lot with my family. We used to
go to lots of places by train and
it’s actually something that I
really enjoyed. Phew! That was
hard. But that’s OK. That’s the
whole point of this exercise.
That was stage one. Now we’re
going to move on to stage two.
Here’s where we’re really going
to start building our fluency.
The first part of stage two is
making notes - so you can use a
paper and pen now. And you’re
going to think back to the speech
that you just gave, and collect
ideas you came up with. In my
speech, I remember that I had
three ideas: The first was that
on train journeys, you get to see
a lot of beautiful scenery. The
second idea was that train
journeys are longer, so they’re
more relaxing. The third idea was
that you get to meet interesting
people and make friends. So once
you have these ideas down, you’re
going to repeat the exercise.
That means, you’re going to set
your timer for one minute and
you’re going to speak again on
the same topic, but now, you can
use your notes to guide you. You
will notice that this time, you
are actually able to speak more
fluently because you have some
good ideas on paper, and you will
be able to expand on your ideas
and give more information. Once
the timer hits one minute, you
stop. And we move on to stage
three. Just like in stage two,
you’re going to go to paper and
pen, but this time, you’re going
to add more ideas to your notes
based on your second speech. I
added some ideas like this. So
now - for one final time, you’re
going to speak again. This is
your final speech. So you set
your timer for one minute, you
use your notes and speak. I’m
going to give you my final speech
based on my notes so you can see
the difference.