Does the way we speak make a difference to how much of what is said is remembered by the recipient? If I were to address a class of students in a chatty conversational way, rather than adopting a more formal delivery, would they remember more or less of the information?

Being able to speak confidently and clearly in public is certainly a vital skill worth investing in. We want pupils to be able to hear the words we are speaking and we want them to be good speakers, too: often students are reluctant to speak up in class and, when they do so they may not speak as clearly or as accurately as we might like them to.

But how we speak differs - we all have our own delivery style, with some adopting a conversational tone while others choose to be more formal. Beyond dialect and accent, we all have our own way of talking.

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Are some ways better than others? Well, recent research has found that speaking style can have an important impact on how much information is remembered by the person being spoken to.

Sandie Keerstock and Rajka Smiljanić (Keerstock & Smiljanić, 2018), of the University of Texas, Austin, are interested in how the style of vocal delivery affects our ability to consolidate information into memory; or in other words, are people more likely to remember what they have been told if the information is delivered in a particular vocal style?

Conversational turns

To this end, the researchers chose to present information to participants in two different vocal styles: clear speech, where delivery is slow and words are articulated with precision; and conversational, in a more casual and speedily delivered style.

Keerstock and Smiljanić recruited 30 native and 30 non-native English listeners and presented them with 72 sentences broken down into six blocks of 12 sentences each. Sentences included statements such as: “The grandfather drank the dark coffee” and “The boy carried the heavy chair.”

Sentences were presented in both clear and conversational speech.

Clear response

After hearing all the sentences, listeners were asked to recall them verbatim by writing them down on a sheet of paper, but only after being given a clue.

So, if the clue was “grandfather”, they would be expected to recall the sentence about the grandfather and the black coffee.

Both groups recalled more sentences when they were presented using a clear speaking style. Which you might have expected. But how formal would you say your own delivery is in the classroom?

Overloaded

What appears to be happening here is that when information is presented in a chatty conversational way, we have to employ more mental resources, so listeners are having to work harder to consolidate the information into memory.

On the other hand, when vocal delivery is precise and crisp, more resources are available to ensure that the information is attended to more effectively, what is generally referred to as cognitive release.

This would imply that teachers should refrain from using a conversational style of delivery, at least when teaching complex material.

The researchers are now interested in investigating whether or not clear speech can also benefit the speaker; for example, does speaking clearly out loud aid in memory consolidation, such as a student verbally rehearsing scientific definitions for an upcoming test?

Try recording yourself in your next lesson: where would you put your delivery style on a scale of formal to informal?

Marc Smith is a chartered psychologist and teacher. He is the author of The Emotional Learner and Psychology in the Classroom (with Jonathan Firth). He tweets @marcxsmith