Talking with Your Hands

Science has confirmed that talking with your hands can make you more persuasive, according to research based on over 1000 TED Talks.

If you use "Illustrator" techniques - demonstrating the size, shape or number of something while discussing it - you will be more persuasive.

"Highlighters"  - pointing to something you are talking about - and random gestures, on the other had, had little or no impact.

The full story is here: https://www.popsci.com/health/hand-gestures-persuasive/ 

 

Gigantic list of TED Talks

The TED site has a great search function, but sometimes you just want a huge and easy list to browse through. 

You can find that here: http://whaddayaknowabout.com/ted_talk_list/

This list has almost 2000 TED Talks on it!

ESL TED Talks

Have you ever heard of the TED talks?

They are something like an 'Open University' concept of 10 - 20 minute videos for you to learn about something from an expert in the field. They are known for their excellent quality.

Some bright spark has set up a site called ESL TED Talks (http://esltedtalks.blogspot.com/). This site features TED videos and an accompanying ESL worksheet.

The site mentions that the videos are for 'intermediate to advanced' learners. Personally, I would say UPPER-intermediate to advanced. But if you have any students at this level, they could really benefit from this site.