When it's our turn to present, we don't want to be that speaker, right? So, let's now think about presentations or presenters who are memorable. Can you think of a particularly engaging college professor? A captivating sales pitch? Or an enjoyable lecture or academic presentation? What was it about these speakers that was alluring?
Chances are, you felt that the speaker was addressing your needs and concerns with confidence and personality. The following five public speaking tips can help you do the same:

1. Know Your Audience
Tailor each presentation to your audience. Just as you would adjust what you're saying in private conversation to your conversation partner's needs, craft your presentations to address your audience's needs and knowledge base. To this end, as you organize your presentation, engage your audience at the beginning with a hook, like an amusing anecdote or a question that gets them thinking about the subject matter. Then tell the audience what you're going to say, by way of an outline or agenda. Throughout your presentation, watch the audience for cues and feedback. Are they bored? Confused? If so, adjust. Finally, conclude your presentation with a short summary and call to action. That is, what do you expect the audience to do with the information you've presented?

2. Let Your Personality Shine
I've worked with many clients who seem to be racing through their presentations to get them over with. This results in a rushed, wooden presentation with little connection to the audience. Slow down, take a deep breath, and show the audience who you are. Don't be afraid to connect through body language, tone, and content. Practice in front of a mirror to see how your facial gestures and body language come across.  Unless you're speaking about a tragic or grim subject, smile occasionally. Play with the tone of your voice so that you don't come across as stiff. Get comfortable with silence; pauses allow time for you to gather your thoughts and for the audience to think about your points. Add a few personal anecdotes. Use some humor. Establish trust and credibility with your audience by letting them see your authentic self.

3. Get a Handle on Anxiety
If speaking publicly makes you nervous, you're not alone. Approximately a quarter of adults report public speaking anxiety. Luckily, much has been written on ways to cope with that anxiety. Shifting your focus from a performance orientation to a communication orientation may be helpful. In other words, rather than focusing on how you "perform" in front of an audience, focus on how you will inform or inspire your audience. Another technique is using inoculation messages. With this cognitive reframing technique, speakers acknowledge their worries around public speaking and then follow them up with a refuting point. For example, if a speaker worries that the audience will laugh at her if she mispronounces a word, she reasons that it is more likely that the audience will either not notice or will disregard it. For more, see Overcoming the Fear of Public Speaking.

4. Use Visuals Wisely
Don't use visuals as a crutch for yourself! I've seen it too many times. A speaker crams most if not all of the presentation onto PowerPoint slides and bores the audience by reading the slides to them. Limit your use of slides and other visuals to images that help to illustrate your points. Images, graphs, charts, or realia can engage an audience and make your explanations clearer. But lengthy bullet-pointed lists can put your audience to sleep. An audience doesn't want to be read to. An audience wants to engage with you, ​not your slides.

5. Practice, Practice, Practice!
Practicing your presentation not only helps you to work through difficult spots and increase your confidence; it will help to ease your anxiety. Contrary to most advice I read, I suggest scripting your presentation word-for-word, especially if you are presenting in your second (or third, or fourth...) language. Scripting will help you to work through tricky pronunciation and natural rhythm and intonation patterns. Once you've practiced with a script a few times, you can pare it down to a short outline of keywords. When I've taught public speaking in a classroom setting, I've observed students "practicing" their speech in their heads. While this might help with memorization, it's not going to help with presentation. I suggest, at the very least, audio recording yourself delivering the presentation. Video recording is even better because you'll be able to see your facial expressions, body language, and visuals.

While you can do a lot on your own to improve your public speaking, you may want the help of a coach. At Every Voice, we specialize in assisting clients with both short-term (e.g., "I have a presentation in two weeks! Help!") and longer-term (e.g., "I'll be lecturing next year, and I want to improve my speaking skills.") public speaking goals, particularly for those who speak English as an additional language. See our private coaching and group courses for more information.
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Ready for the answers? The following words contain the /tʃ/ sound: chair, cello, situation, catch, and cappuccino. How’d you do?  In this month’s blog, we’re going to look at how to form the /tʃ/ sound correctly, and then we’ll look at phonics rules to help you predict which words contain the sound.
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First, to form the sound correctly, it may be helpful to think of it as a combination between /t/ and the SH (/ʃ/) sounds. In other words, stop the air flow, as in “t,” and then go into an SH sound. To do so, pucker your lips – as in “duck face” – and place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. Use your tongue placement to stop air flow, and then release it. It’s important to stop the air flow before releasing it; if you don’t do so, you will be producing the SH sound, not the CH sound.
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Try the following minimal pair list: Listen
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​/tʃ/ CH                              ​/ʃ/ SH
chip                                    ship      
cheap                                sheep
chair                                  share
choose                              shoes
March                               marsh
watch                                wash
witch                                 wish
crutch                                crush
watcher                            washer
latching                             lashing

​Another sound that CH is similar to is /dʒ/ or the J sound, as in jam and jump. Tongue and lip placement are the same for both sounds; the difference is that CH is a voiceless sound, which means your vocal chords are not vibrating, and J is a voiced sound, which means they are. Another key difference between the two is that vowels preceding CH are shorter than the vowels preceding J. 
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Let’s try the following minimal pair list: Listen
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​/tʃ/ CH          /dʒ/ J
rich                  ridge    
H                      age
search           surge
March           Marge
batch             badge
perch             purge

Okay, so you can make the CH sound. But how can you recognize it?  Of all the CH sounds found in English, roughly three-fourths of them are spelled with “ch” or “tch,” and one-fourth are spelled with “tu.” Only 1% appear as “c” or “cc.”

Most of the time, when you see “ch,” it is pronounced /tʃ/, as in which and much. However, the “ch” in words derived from Greek are pronounced /k/, as in chemistry and school, and the “ch” in words derived from French are pronounced like SH, as in Chicago and champagne.

With regard to “tu,” you’ll hear the true /t/ sound at the beginning of a word (e.g., Tuesday), after "s" (e.g., student), or at the start of a stressed syllable (e.g., return). However, in most other instances, you'll hear the CH sound (e.g., situation, adventure, culture, virtual).

Finally, the “c” or “cc” followed by an “e” or an “i” in words derived from Italian are pronounced CH as in cello and concerto. Otherwise, “c” is usually pronounced as /k/, as in cake or /s/, as in slice, and “cc” is usually pronounced /k/, as in acclaim.

You may not always know from where a word is derived, and that’s okay. English is a giant mess of borrowed words, and even native speakers don’t always know how a word is pronounced unless they’ve heard it before. See The Labyrinth of English Spelling and Pronunciation for more on how English spelling and pronunciation evolved as it did. 

Please let me know in the comments whether this blog was helpful. I’d also love to hear your questions about other sounds or aspects of English – they could be a future blog post! For live, face-to-face assistance with /tʃ/ and other sounds, please see our Lunch Break: Pronunciation Workshop schedule and our private coaching services.

Was it difficult? If so, let’s work on tongue and lip placement when making the American /r/ sound. Then we’ll take a look at the vowel sounds that precede “r.”

First, your tongue should be high in the mouth and pulled back with the sides of your tongue touching the inside of your back molars. To help with this positioning, make the /i/ sound, as in "seed" or "be." Notice the contact your tongue makes with your mouth. Hold the /i/ sound, and then slide your tongue back, along the inside of your upper teeth. The /i/ sound will change to /r/. Do this a few times, and /i/ + /r/ will start to sound like "ear."

​Second, there should be no trilling or rolling of the tongue, as in the Spanish “rr” sound. In other words, you should feel no vibration of the tongue. Focus on keeping the tongue steady.  Say the following words, focusing on the placement of your tongue:          red          art          car          ready          artist          barber

​Next, your lips should be puckered – not quite a kiss – more like “duck face.”

Another tricky aspect of the American “r” is the vowel that comes before it. As you know, the pronunciation of vowels in English is tricky; while there are only five vowels, there are approximately 14 vowel sounds. However, when a vowel comes before an “r,” its sound is somewhat distorted; we call these “r-colored vowels.” In American English, there are only four sounds that a vowel + r make, but many different spellings, as the chart below illustrates. Practice these words, keeping in mind that each row reflects the same sound. And note that words like "ear" are formed /iɚ/ but sometimes represented as a fifth r-colored vowel.

Please let me know in the comments whether this blog was helpful. And also let me know if you’re having trouble with other sounds; they could be a future blog post! For live in-person assistance with /r/ and other sounds, please see our Lunch Break: Pronunciation Workshop schedule and our private training services.

Research on the fear of public speaking addresses three components: the physiological, the cognitive, and the behavioral. Likewise, researchers have developed methods for overcoming the fear of public speaking that address each of these components. The methods below may be helpful:

Practice relaxation exercises: To address some of the physiological aspects of fear – shallow breathing, muscle tension, and rapid heartbeat – try progressive muscle relaxation or deep breathing exercises. One of my favorite relaxation exercises is “pursed lip” breathing. With your mouth closed, take a long, deep breath through your nose. Purse your lips, like a kiss, and slowly exhale. Repeat this a few times until you feel tension decrease.
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Challenge your beliefs: Cognitive reframing approaches help you to challenge your irrational beliefs about your abilities and your fears. Draw two columns on a piece of paper. In the first column, write down all the beliefs that come to mind when you think about speaking publicly. Then, in the second column, write supportive, positive, more realistic counterarguments. For example, 

Shift your focus to communication: Another cognitive approach involves shifting your focus from a performance orientation to a communication orientation. In other words, if you focus on your performance, you feel the audience is judging and evaluating you. This causes more anxiety. But if you shift to your focus to your message and see your role as informing or inspiring your audience, you will be able to communicate more confidently.

Visualize success: Imagine yourself delivering a clear, confident, informative presentation that your audience enjoys. Positive thinking can help decrease your anxiety.
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Embrace silence: Silence does not have to be awkward. If you lose track of what you are saying, take a deep breath and re-center yourself. It may feel like a long pause to you, but it may not feel that way to the audience. They may need time to absorb what you have been telling them.

Practice, practice, practice: A behavioral approach to conquering your fear of public speaking is practice. One of my favorite sayings is the 6Ps: Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Know your topic. Organize your materials and speaking points. And then practice, practice, and practice some more. Contrary to much advice about pubic speaking, I suggest actually scripting your speech out, word for word, if you are focused on pronunciation and natural rhythm and intonation patterns. By scripting it out, you can mark it for difficult sounds and rhythm patterns. You don’t have to necessarily memorize the speech, word for word, but by scripting it, you can foresee and work out tricky areas. 

Along with practicing, record yourself. Audio recordings are great, but video recordings are even better. You might be surprised that how you think you sound is not how you sound to others. And by watching a video of yourself, you might spot undesirable facial expressions or distracting hand gestures.
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Get support: While you can do a lot yourself to overcome the fear of public speaking, it’s okay to seek extra help. Toastmasters is a nonprofit with clubs throughout the world designed to give people the opportunity to speak publicly and learn public speaking skills. And at Every Voice, we work with clients one-on-one to help them improve their pronunciation and speak English with more confidence.

I often hear the same refrain from clients who speak English as a second (or third, or fourth...) language: “I’m sorry for my poor English. I hope you can understand.”  Or, “My accent is so bad.”
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​But what I have found is that apologizing for your language skills puts a spotlight on pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary errors. Your communication partners will likely know that English is not your first language, but when you point out your self-consciousness, your partners may start focusing on the delivery of your message and not the content. Perhaps they hadn’t given your accent or English skills a second thought, but once you point it out, they begin paying attention to it. So, skip the apology and take pride in speaking an additional language (btw, only 20% of Americans can converse in two or more languages.) 

Second, apologizing can put listeners in an awkward position, feeling compelled to compliment you on your language skills: “You’re doing a good job with your English. I understand perfectly well.” Putting listeners in this position casts you in an insecure or incompetent light. You are confident in your message, so project confidence in your delivery. Remember, your accent is unique and tells a story about you and your experiences. Take pride in it.

Finally, apologizing keeps your focus on you instead of the needs of your communication partners. I’ve had several clients so focused on their accents that when they speak in English, they lose track of what they are saying. Instead of focusing on how you are speaking, focus on your audience. How can you convey your message clearly and concisely to your audience? How can you help your audience remember your points or lead them to action? (more on this below)

How to Focus on Your Audience (or Listener)

I’ve prepared the following tips for situations in which you can plan and rehearse what you will say to an audience or listener. Perhaps you are presenting at a conference or interview, or giving a lecture…

1. What is the overarching message you want to deliver to your audience? Be sure that it is clear in your mind and that you repeat it throughout your presentation. Art Markman writes in the Harvard Business Review, “By designing your presentations starting with the ways you want to affect your audience, you can do a better job of constructing an experience that maximizes your influence.” As you construct your overarching message, think about what affect you want to have on your audience: Will you call them to action? Teach them a skill? Provide them with information you want them to use or remember?
2. Boil your sub-messages down to 3-5 main points. Because most of your audience will not remember a laundry list of points, it’s best to chunk your information around a small number of main points. Think of these chunks as paragraphs within a document. All of the supporting information relates back to the topic sentence (or main point).
3. Draw connections to the audience. People remember things easier when they are related to other things they know. Providing anecdotes, explicit links to experiences your audience has likely had, or information that they know will aid them in remembering.
4. Summarize your presentation at the end. A common saying is, “Tell them what you’ll say, say it, and then tell them what you’ve said.” That is, provide a brief outline of your main points at the beginning, elaborate on those points in the body of your presentation, and then summarize what you’ve said in the conclusion. At the conclusion, too, you might explicitly call the audience to action or help them to understand why they should care about your message.
5. Sometimes even the most animated and personable clients become wooden when they deliver a presentation. Suddenly, it is as if they are reading a script (sometimes they are!) instead of making eye contact and processing feedback from their audience. This is understandable, as nerves can get to all of us, but try to take a deep breath, look the audience in the face, and elicit feedback if you can. For example, if you are presenting your ideas to a small group, it’s okay to pause and ask if there are questions. Rephrase in another way if anyone is having trouble understanding.

Remember, too, that practicing will help you convey your message clearly and confidently, especially if you are worried about specific sounds or the pronunciation of certain words. Get those tricky sounds out of the way with practice so that you can focus on your audience.  And don’t apologize for your English!

Much has been written on English as a lingua franca and the responsibility of native English speakers, who make up only about one-third of the total English-speaking population, to attune their speech and ears to those who speak English as a second (or third, or fourth…) language. In fact, a BBC article written in 2016  claims that native English speakers are far worse than nonnative English speakers at understanding others and making themselves understood in intercultural situations.  Nonnative English speakers, according to the article, tend to speak more purposefully and carefully than native English speakers and use less jargon and slang. On the other hand, native English speakers, especially those who speak only English, are less likely to adapt to the needs of their listeners, by slowing down, for example, or rephrasing points in a different way. In fact, research shows  that when a native English speaker enters a conversation among nonnative speakers, understanding declines.

Over the years, I have worked with nonnative English-speaking clients who spoke perfectly clear English. When asked why they want to “improve” their English (i.e., make their English sound more like standard North American English), their responses have been variations on two common themes: they have encountered negative attitudes from native English speakers when they speak, or they feel they are not well understood by others. I’ve suggested to these clients that the negative reactions they have received from others say more about the others’ attitudes and prejudices than about their ability to speak clear English. Nonetheless, many remain motivated to change their English pronunciation.
 
Communication, however, is a two-way street. So how much of the burden to change should lie on the nonnative English speaker, and how much should lie on the native English speaker? With the majority of English speakers in the world nonnative, it may be time for native English speakers to improve their communication skills.  So, how can one become a better intercultural communicator? The following five tips are designed to help native English speakers communicate more effectively in intercultural situations:
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1.  Bring a Positive Attitude – One of the most important shifts you can make towards intercultural competence is to make a conscious effort to want to understand a speaker.  Reflect upon your own culture, biases, and attitude. What’s getting in your way? For example, do you feel that it is mostly a speaker’s responsibility to make listeners understand? This may reflect a Western bias towards the importance of speaking, taking listening for granted as something “you just do.” Many non-Western cultures are more likely to value the skill of listening as a responsibility and sign of respect. This and other differences between cultures and communication styles may lead to biases and negative attitudes that interfere with communication. 

In a study by University of Georgia professor Donald Rubin, native English-speaking undergraduates were divided into two groups: one was shown an image of an Asian instructor, and the other was shown an image of a white instructor. Both images were paired with the same recording of a lecture given in General American English (i.e., “standard North American English”) by a native English speaker. Undergraduates who thought the speech came from the Asian instructor rated the speech as “more accented” than those who thought the speech came from the white instructor, and, more surprisingly, their listening comprehension scores were lower than those who thought the speech was coming from the white instructor. This study suggests that the biases we bring to the table have a significant effect on communication.

Recognizing and questioning your own biases may be a lifelong – but life-changing - process. The Office of Diversity and Outreach at the University of California, San Francisco, provides practical strategies to address one’s own unconscious bias.
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2. Know your Audience.  This is sound advice no matter whom you are communicating with. However, with respect to communication partners who speak English as a second language, it is helpful to know something of the national cultures to which they belong. Culture can be thought of a lens through which communication is filtered. 

Social psychologist Geert Hoftstede suggests cultures can be defined along the following five dimensions:
 
a)  Power Distance is the extent to which the less powerful members of a culture accept and expect unequal power distribution.
 
b)  Individualism is the degree to which individuals are integrated into groups.  On one end of the spectrum, members of individualist cultures are expected to take care of themselves and their immediate families. They value independence and individual success. Members of collectivist cultures, on the other hand, share responsibilities among a larger communal or familiar network.  Collectivist cultures tend to value listening, harmony with others, and conformity. 
Collectivist cultures are often high-context, which means that the meaning of messages relies highly on context, tone, and nonverbal cues, whereas individualistic cultures tend to be low-context, which means meaning is derived more explicitly on words.
 
c) Masculinity refers to the level of assertiveness and competition among members whereas femininity, on the opposite end, refers to the level of modesty and caring in a culture.
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 d) Uncertainty Avoidance refers to a culture’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity; uncertainty avoiding cultures minimize risk and value security. 

e) Long-Term Orientation refers to cultures that value thrift and perseverance; values associated with short term orientation are respect for tradition and fulfilling social obligations.
 
There’s far more to culture, however, than what can be summarized at a national level; subgroups related to race, ethnicity, gender, politics, socio-economic class, profession, organization, and countless other categories can all have their own unique cultures.
 
In addition to trying to understand your communication partner’s cultural perspective, it’s also helpful to tune in to your partner’s level of ease with English. Overuse of idiomatic expressions and jargon, references to American sports and old TV shows may be meaningless to your communication partner. Furthermore, particularly if your partner has not been in the US long, it may be helpful to slow your speech down and enunciate clearly. If you sense discomfort or misunderstanding on the part of your partner, rephrase using simpler terms.  Again, bringing a positive attitude pervades this advice; modify your speech in the spirit of helpfulness as not to become patronizing.
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3. Become a Good Intercultural Listener. Much that has been written about intercultural listening is grounded in this simple idea espoused by Carl Rogers and Richard Farson in 1957 with regard to active listening: “Sincerely listen with understanding and respect.”  Again, what it means to be a good intercultural listener comes back to approaching communication with a positive attitude. 

Rogers and Farson’s work on active listening has been upheld as a successful model for intercultural listening. While members of low-context cultures (such as Germany and the United States) tend to believe that listening is a passive skill, requiring little more than hearing, members of high-context cultures (such as Brazil and China) tend to believe that listening is a skill requiring the active use of the whole being, as represented by the Chinese characters, ting.  As pointed out in research by Melissa Beall, “The characters in ‘ting’ represent the eyes, the ears, the heart, (the total being) and undivided attention…Listening requires the whole being to be involved when trying to understand what is being communicated.”

4. Acknowledge the Complexities of English.  Another aspect of bringing a positive attitude to the table involves empathy. For those Anglophones who do not speak a second language, the complexities of speaking another language, especially one as difficult as English, may go unnoticed.  English is a highly non phonetic language, which means that the spelling of words does not provide a clear guide to their pronunciation. For example, we have “to,” “do,” but also “go.” In fact, we have five vowels but approximately 14 different vowel sounds. We have “berry,” “Barry,” and “bury,” which all sound exactly the same in many parts of the United States. But let’s not forget regional variations in dialect across the U.S., as well as differences in standard Englishes across the globe. For example, many people who move to the United States from other countries have learned other dialects of English, such as British English or Australian English, or they may speak a variety of English that is unique to their region.

​Furthermore, people who speak English as an additional language far outnumber those who speak English natively. Who’s to say that the native speaker is speaking correct English? Nobody, in fact. There is no governmental or royal society that dictates correct English. What is “correct” varies by region or context. A more useful way of looking at English as a lingua franca may be to ask oneself, “What is standard usage or pronunciation for the context or situation?”  All of this to say, English is complex and controversial; show empathy for those who speak it as something other than their first language.  In the words of author Amy Chua, “Do you know what a foreign accent is? It's a sign of bravery.”
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5. Ask for Permission to Provide Feedback.  In the spirit of friendship and helpfulness, you may ask your communication partner (in private) whether he or she would like feedback on language use. If he or she consents, you could tell him or her how you would have phrased or pronounced something differently. Some nonnative speakers appreciate the feedback. But if your partner declines the help, let it go. My rule of thumb is to ask myself whether my feedback is both necessary (i.e., will it increase comprehensibility?) and elicited (i.e., does the speaker want my help?).
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In summary, the first tip, bringing a positive attitude, pervades all of the tips here. By showing respect, empathy, and a sincere willingness to understand, you can learn to be a successful intercultural communicator. With effort and practice, you can uncover and let go of biases, learn about the cultures of your communication partners, adjust your speech to your listeners, and become an active listener. In addition to increasing your understanding of another and minimizing miscommunication and errors, you are communicating your respect towards him or her, increasing the likelihood that your messages will also be met with respect and understanding.

Ready to learn more? Every Voice delivers research-based  intercultural communication programs to address communication problems and cross-cultural misunderstandings within your business or organization. 

Words in English that do not contain these sounds should not cause vibration in your nose. Try saying these words while, again, touching your nose.

backpack, laptop, lawsuit, traffic, culture

If you’re feeling vibration when saying words that do not contain nasal sounds, then your voice is taking on a nasal-sounding quality. This could be caused by interference from your first language or because you are not producing a full range of motion with your jaw, lips, and tongue.

How can you decrease nasal resonance? The following exercises will help:

1. Explore how the soft palate works with a mirror. While looking into a mirror, open your mouth wide. Make the “k,” “g,” and “ng” sounds, watching your soft palate move.
2. To lower your voice, imagine speaking from your breastbone area. Practice introducing yourself, imagining your voice radiating from your chest.
3. Alternate between nasal and non-nasal sounds.  Hold the sounds, thinking about where the sound is coming from and touching your nose. Try these combinations:
   1. “m” vs. “v”  (“mmmmmmm” vs. “vvvvvvvvvv”)
   2. “n” vs. “l”
   3. “ng” vs. “g”
4. Practice speaking while fully aware of the movement of your jaw, lips, and tongue. The nasalization of non-nasal sounds often occurs when the jaw is not lowered enough or the tongue is not placed properly.  The /æ/ sound, as in apple, is a good sound to start with because it requires a wide mouth and a dropped jaw. Say the /æ/ sound in a mirror. Compare your mouth to that in the image below from the University of Iowa’s Sounds of Speech.  Practice these words, which contain /æ/:  black, drag, flag, chap, tax, bath

However, this experience makes me wonder how many more of my speech characteristics are more common in women than in men. Am I teaching clients “women's English?" Are gender differences in language real?

The answer to the latter question is complicated. While some researchers suggest that there are definite differences between men and women’s speech, others have argued that not enough evidence exists to discern meaningful differences. One complicating factor is that various studies have analyzed language within different contexts, using different metrics of analysis, and often with small sample sizes.  Not to mention, our concept of gender is evolving. Indeed, it’s difficult to come to a consensus on the issue.

In response to this difficulty, Newman et al. (2008) conducted a large-scale review of 14,000 language samples across 70 separate studies.* Indeed, they found some significant differences between men and women’s language:

Compared to men, women’s speech tends to use more

• first-person singular (e.g., I, me, my),
• pronouns,
• words related to psychological and social processes,
• words related to home,
• negations, and
• verbs.

And compared to women, men’s speech tends to use more

• object properties, such as numbers, articles, and prepositions,
• words related to current concerns, including occupation and money,
• words related to sports, and
• swear words.

In addition, men tend to use longer words.
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The study describes women’s speech as “rapport style,” where verbal communication is an end unto itself, whereas, men’s speech tends to be more “report style,” serving the instrumental purpose of conveying information.
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Other studies suggest that women tend to use more rising intonation than men, suggesting deference, politeness, or cooperation, as well as more tentative speech (e.g., hedging and tag questions). In addition, women tend to formulate “wordier” sentences, but men speak more words overall and take more speaking turns.

So, some empirical evidence seems to support conventional wisdom that men and women use language differently. But what does this mean for language instructors and their students? As a female speech coach, how worried should I be that I'm teaching men "women's English?" I argue, not so much, for three reasons.  First, much of what constitutes English rhythm and intonation patterns is universal. Whether you're male, female, or non-binary, stress should fall in a somewhat predictable pattern within an utterance. Second, speaking exercises can often be supplemented with audio samples that correspond with a client's gender. Finally, in my own practice, I encourage clients to use as much of their own material as possible within our sessions. Clients have sent me their presentations, field-specific vocabulary lists, lectures, articles, scripts, and interview questions, among other meaningful speech samples from their lives. Use of their own materials, unedited by me (except for an occasional word choice or grammatical correction), would negate any effects my gender has on their use of language.  Clients and I then work together to analyze and rehearse the samples, so that they're soon communicating clearly and confidently - and in a style that is their own.

*Note, there is no mention of whether or not the subjects in Newman's study are cisgender nor does the study include non-binary subjects.