Speaking a foreign language with confidence and ease takes time. We second-guess ourselves until we have proven speaking skills. In this month's blog, I share The Diamond Method™️ Frameworks with you so that you can start building your knowledge right now. Learn how the methodology got started and then get an inside look at the elements of the 6 frameworks that will change your speech.  

Speak English with Confidence and Inner Trust: A Foundational Lesson

After writing my weekly educational email last Thursday, I thought, "Hey, this is important stuff!"

And so, I've decided to go back to the foundations in this month's blog so that you can sink your teeth into the 6 speaking frameworks that have been elevating millions of individuals around the globe since 1997.

Yep, that's right!

I started my company nearly 30 years ago, and I have been all over the world and on millions of international folks’ screens since it all got started.

Now, before I jump into the 6 Frameworks of The Diamond Method™️, let me share a little of my history.

My Story

Back in 1990, I was wrapping up my undergraduate degree at Lesley University. I didn't know what I wanted to do for a career and I enrolled in Lesley's graduate program called Creative Arts in Learning.

It sounded right up my alley since I am a singer, songwriter, and actor from high school and college days and this program showed aspiring professionals how to integrate the arts into their careers.

Many people went into art therapy, but I chose creative education.

I could not be happier with my graduate program. It boosted my confidence and gave me an introduction into the international lifestyle I live today.

First of all, my colleagues were from all over the world.

And secondly, I got started teaching English as a second language when I was writing my thesis paper.

Both were my foray into other cultures.

In my second year of grad school, I was introduced to Carolyn Graham's Jazz Chant method and got a gig teaching it at the Japanese College outside of Boston, Massachusetts, called Bunsai Gakuen. 

After a year teaching English through music and drama to groups of 18-20 year old Japanese, I decided to write my thesis on my experience with the students.

They were quite shy and, if you know anything about the Japanese understanding of English, they could read and write much better than they could speak.

But, learning nursery rhymes, singing Jazz Chants, experimenting with improvisation, and practicing drama, they really came out of their shells.

The results at the end of each semester were astounding. 

After having a positive experience helping these Japanese build their confidence, I saw the opportunity to continue down this road, and I went on to work at a variety of universities in Boston and New York City until I stumbled upon a job at The World Trade Center in downtown Manhattan.

This opened up the world of working with international professionals. It was 1993.

By 1997, one of my colleagues from the World Trade Center job asked me to open up a language school with him in the city.

I said, “Sure, but one stipulation. I don’t want to teach English. I want to teach communication skills and the American accent.”

He said, yes, and the rest is history.

We launched our business in the Flatiron neighborhood of Manhattan, and I began to build an accent reduction curriculum that landed us immediate contracts with companies like Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Cisco Systems, and Merrill Lynch. 

By 2000, I was being flown first class to India to train a call center in our accent training methodology that became known as RITHMS^TM. (That stands for Rhythm and Intonation Through Musical Speech.)

As the years passed, my accent reduction program transformed into a full-bodied communication skills training methodology designed for non-native English speakers fluent in English but feeling like, well, something is still missing. 

The methodology is called The Diamond Method^TM.

I can’t tell you the number of people I’ve spoken with, who during their assessment phase, couldn’t put their finger on what they felt was missing.

Turns out, based on the years of feedback I’ve received, it was confidence.

After learning The Diamond Method^TM, graduates (and their corporate sponsors) generally say that they don’t necessarily know if their accent is different, but they know that they feel differently about themselves (more confident), and that they are understood more easily, and they speak up more frequently.

These are monumental moments in one’s second language journey. Trust me. I know because I speak Portuguese as a foreign language, and confidence is everything!

Well, it’s time to get into why you’re here today, my friend. I’m going to take you back to the basics and outline the 6 Frameworks inside The Diamond Method™️ and how it leads to confidence and inner trust as a speaker of English as a second language. 

Let’s go!

Framework 1: Thought Chunking

Simply said, Thought Chunking is the punctuation in your voice. Just like we use commas, periods, dashes, paragraphs, and more when we write, we have to create the same space in our voices for our thoughts to be conveyed skillfully. 

I define Thought Chunking like this: A group of words that create a meaningful thought.

Each group of words is followed by a pause that can feel like a comma, a period, a dash, or any other kind of punctuation or writing technique (like the paragraph, for example.)

Within each group of words is one very strong word that we call the emphasized word. Emphasis is the second component of Thought Chunking.   

And then, the third element of Thought Chunking is speed.

Sometimes we speak quickly, and other times   we   slow   down. (Do you see what I did there? I put in extra spaces between my words to slow down your reading. We do that throughout spoken English to indicate where we are in our communication. We go fast at the beginning of sentences and slow down when we get to the end of a series of sentences.)

How does this all build confident speech and inner trust?

Because it’s hard!

It sounds easy, but it’s not.

In fact, I tell my clients if they can achieve Thought Chunking and nothing else, everything about their communication will change. Yet, most people are uncomfortable with silence. It doesn’t matter if it’s a first or second language.

When you learn to create space between your spoken thoughts, you do a few things:

➔ You give yourself time for your brain to pull up vocabulary

➔ You are better able to direct your ideas

➔ You allow your listeners to digest what you’re saying

These are the foundations of communication skills, a multi-directional act between two or more people.

You speak. They listen. They speak. You listen. And it all starts again.

Look, when you use the key technique of Thought Chunking, pausing, you tell your audience that you are at ease; that you want them to understand you; and that you can access the words and thoughts you need to convey your message.

I know that’s something that you’re interested in, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog post today, right?!

If you’d like to learn more about Thought Chunking, watch this video of mine.

Framework 2: Emphasis

I mentioned that emphasis is one of three elements of the Thought Chunk Framework. Well, the Emphasis Framework has three components too!

But before I get there, let me tell you how to think about the parts of speech when you are choosing your emphasized word.

Here comes another set of three. Think of your words as:

✔︎Structure Words

✔︎Content Words

✔︎And, Focus Words 

Structure words are, what I call, the grammatical glue of your sentence. They are your prepositions, articles, conjunctions, pronouns, and helping verbs. These words do not deliver the information of the sentence, and that’s why I call them glud.

Content words, on the other hand, do deliver the information of each sentence. They are your nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and WH- question words.

If I said, “has a at on,” you’d have zero idea of the subject or content of my thought.

However, if I said: Jimmy doctor’s appointment three o’clock Tuesday,” you’d know EXACTLY what I was talking about, wouldn’t you?

Those content words need to have more power when you speak.

So now for Emphasis’s 3 elements:

We make emphasized words longer, louder, and higher in pitch.

That means you are going to make the content words more pronounced in these ways. They have to have more strength to them than the structure words.

And, (I didn’t forget), Focus Words?

Well, take a guess.

They are the MOST emphasized words in each thought chunk. That means that they will be THE longest, THE loudest, and THE highest in pitch.

Generally speaking, Focus Words are Content Words. But, it doesn’t mean that context can’t drive a Structure Word to take the emphasis.

In a standard communication, you’d make the word doctor’s or Tuesday the Focus Word of the sentence we’ve been analysing: 

➔ Jimmy has a DOCTOR’S appointment at three o’clock on Tuesday.

Or

➔ Jimmy has a doctor’s appointment at three o’clock on TUESDAY.

Both of those words are Content Words, and they follow the rule that Focus Words are generally Content Words.

Here’s an example of when you might make a Structure Word the Focus Word.

Let’s say you are looking for the laundry detergent. You ask your spouse where it is. They say: The detergent is in the cabinet under the counter. As you are walking to the laundry room, you ask: “The cabinet above the sink? And your spouse responds, “No, under the sink!”

Quite often, context will help you decide where the Focus Word goes, whether it is a standard emphasis of the Content Word or one where you go for a Structure Word.

The bottom line is that you have to learn to trust your voice and make at least one word longer, louder, and higher in pitch if you are going to speak with authority and confidence.

We make chosen words longer, louder, and higher in pitch. 

Sometimes we do all three things at the same time, but that's not always necessary.

You could use one or two together and still be utilizing the Emphasis Framework.

How does the Emphasis Framework build confident speech and inner trust?

✔︎It says that you know where you are in your communication.

✔︎It shows off your ability to make choices while you're speaking that go beyond vocabulary and grammar.

 ✔︎And, it reinforces your speaking skills for yourself, which builds your overall confidence, inner trust, and skill.

My recommendation? Check out this video on my YouTube Channel to start using Emphasis today.

Framework 3: Rhythm

The Rhythm Framework is the most important framework when it comes to sounding native-like in speech.

Here’s something for you to think about: Thought Chunking is your greatest communication skill while Rhythm is what gives you that native-like sound. 

You see, English is a stress-timed language, which means you have to know where the most important syllables are in words that have more than one syllable.

The Rhythm Framework focuses on the musical sound of individual words.

In my private coaching, we identify twenty industrial terms of my clients, and we break down:

➔ The number of syllables in each word

➔ The stressed syllables

➔ The secondary stress when the words have more than three syllables 

➔ And, the shape of the vowel for each stressed syllable.

Why don’t you pause right now and think of 5 words you use in the workplace that have two or more syllables? Then you can apply how rhythm works immediately.

Just like we make Focus Words longer, louder, and higher in pitch, you have to do the same thing with the stressed syllables of your words.  

Here’s an example of how to apply rhythm to the word communication. 

First, we count the number of syllables by separating them out: com  mu  ni  ca  tion. 1-2-3-4-5.

5 syllables.

Then, we decide which syllable is the primary one. (Hint: if you don’t know, use an online dictionary):

com  mu  ni  ‘CA  tion.   

CA is the stressed syllables (Oh, there are rules you can learn for this. Leave the comment RHYTHM and I’ll get in touch with you so I can send you the rules.) 

The secondary stress is the first syllable. I’m going to indicate that with a little mark before the syllable: 

,com  mu  ni  ‘CA  tion 

And then, the last step is knowing the shape of the vowel for the stressed syllable(s). I’ll get into that later in the blog when we talk about the Diction Framework.

How does Rhythm build confident speech and inner trust?

First of all, it reduces misunderstandings that are common when native English speakers listen to non-native speakers.   

Why?

Well, our brains are wired to hear the rhythm of our native tongue. That means if I speak English as my first language, my brain expects to hear co  mu  ni  CA  tion. Not co  mu  ni  ca  TION.

If the rhythm is off, native speakers fall behind in their comprehension. Their brains have to “auto-correct” the word, and then, they have to catch up to where you are in your communication.

This is why the Rhythm Framework is more important than the Diction Framework. You may think that your pronunciation of consonants and vowels is what makes you sound more like a native, but it’s not. 

Once you master rhythm, your listeners will have more confidence in your ideas, which will give you more confidence.

Your motivation grows from your own success with your speech.   

If you’re ready to sound stronger when you speak English, check out this video about the Rhythm Framework.

Framework 4: Melody

As someone who likes to sing, it's easy for me to apply intonation to my voice when I speak my second language, Portuguese. 

In fact, it’s the first thing I mastered when I started studying Portuguese back in 1999.

As I learned words and phrases, I listened for the melody of the language first.

So what is the Melody Framework all about?

It includes understanding the high and low pitches we use in words, phrases, and sentence types.

We already mentioned that you have to make stressed syllables (The Rhythm Framework) and Focus Words (The Emphasis Framework) longer, louder, and higher in pitch, but now it’s time to explain more about the pitch part.

First thing to know is that The Diamond Method™️ uses the words pitch and intonation interchangeably.

Here are two ways in which you will use pitch:

✔︎Stepping

✔︎Gliding 

Stepping is when you skip over notes to emphasize a syllable or word, and gliding is when you move through the notes.

We step up and skip over notes to grab stressed syllables and then gently glide down through notes to the rest of the unstressed syllables.

And the same is true of our Focus Words, as we approach that important word, we step up on the stressed syllable of the Focus Word and then glide back down to the other words in the thought chunk.

It’ll probably make more sense when you check out the video on Melody. Here you go.

There’s another really important way in which we apply intonation to our speech, and this is within the five sentence types.

We have statements, and we have four types of questions.

In order for statements to not sound like questions, we need to make sure the end of the sentences come down in pitch at the end. 

The closed questions stay up in pitch at the end. (These types of questions can be answered with yes/no.)

Open questions go up and down like statements. (These types of questions start with who, what, where, when, why, and how.)

Rhetorical questions stay up at the end in pitch.

And either/or questions have a combo of the closed and open question types.

As I mentioned earlier, check out this video to learn more about Melody.

How will using The Melody Framework help you sound confident and have inner trust? 

✔︎You’re going to be more fearless in your spoken English.  

✔︎You’re going to demonstrate that you are a risk-taker.

✔︎And, it’ll result in inner trust.

These all spell confidence if you asked me.

You see, most native English speakers never learn any of the things I’ve been talking about. They may be unafraid to speak in public, but they most likely, lack the skill and vocal variety that you’re learning when you practice The Diamond Method™️. 

If you have some favorite public speakers, I guarantee that one of the reasons you are engaged with them when they speak is because of how they use pitch to stress, show emotion, and connect with their listeners. 

You can check out the Melody Playlist to get started with your confidence now.

Framework 5: Diction

So many advanced speakers of foreign languages believe that how they pronounce individual sounds is the most important part of sounding like a native speaker.

Although it helps, it's not the greatest factor.

As I said earlier, it’s the rhythm of words and phrases that, when misused, makes it tough for others to understand your pronunciation. 

The Diamond Method™️ focuses on the shape of the vowel sounds (not the consonants) since that is what we use when we are stressing syllables and applying rhythm to our speech.

If there's one thing you want to master when it comes to diction, it should be the 16 vowels of American English.

One of my favorite resources for this is The Color Vowel System. It’s fun, interactive, and a practical way to memorize the vowel sounds.

Check out the system here or download The Blue Canoe app to practice it. 

Just remember that vowels are open while consonants tend to be more closed. And because the vowels are open, they are easier to lengthen and apply melody.

I’m going to give you a link to some diction videos at the end of this section below so you can learn what I’m talking about.

But, how does The Diction Framework make you sound confident and gain inner trust?

Pronouncing the vowels correctly will get you closer to native-like speech. And, based on what I know about my clients, this is the ideal you are reaching for.

The better you feel about yourself when speaking your second language, the more you’ll 

➔ do it

➔ be the first to raise your hand

➔ be asked to speak in the work arena.

That's huge!

You’re accent will change as you enhance the pronunciation of the vowels. Chances are you’ll never eliminate your accent (and not something I even suggest), but, the change will lead to an inner belief that others will feel when you speak.

Check out this playlist on diction to start practicing now.

Framework 6: Flow

Here's where the magic happens.

I call this framework Flow because of something called Flow State. 

It is a state of being where we become zoned into the present moment. We:

✔︎Lose our self-consciousness 

✔︎Have no sense of time

✔︎Gain clarity on the goal at hand

✔︎Experience a balance of challenge and skill.

Can you see how all of these things work divinely with speaking a second language?

The Flow Framework is not only about how you feel, though. There are specific elements to Flow that I’m going to tell you about.

Flow is how we create the overall rhythm of speech. It embodies all of the frameworks, and there are four components of Flow:

➔ Contractions

➔ Reductions

➔ Linking

➔ The Flap Sound

I call these four components Americanisms.

Contractions are something we use in our writing, and you’ve probably noticed them there. For example: He’s getting promoted next week. He’s = He is.

Do you use these in your speech? They’ll help you get past the Structure Words and on the Content and Focus Words.

Reductions are harder. Generally, we don’t write with reductions. You might see gonna or wanna sometimes, but it’s just not common. 

We reduce structure words so that we put our listener’s attention on the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Additional examples besides gonna and wanna are hafta (have to) and wh’d’ya (why did you).

Linking is a general connection technique that happens in every language. We have specific ways that you can take the ending of one word and link it to the beginning of another. 

The easiest way is when a word begins with a vowel. Instead of stopping the airflow at the end of a word and then beginning the next word, we say two words as one word. Let’s take two words as an example: look at. We wouldn’t say look. at.  We’d say loo kat. 

Next, here’s a brief description of The Flap Sound.

This one is the one that trips people up a lot because we change our /t/ to a quick /d/. We do it between syllables and between words.

So, instead of saying letter with a pronounced /t/, we’d reduce the /t/ to a quick /d/ and it would sound like leder. 

We’d do the same thing when the /t/ is at the end of a word and the following word starts with a vowel. For example, right away. No pronounced /t/, instead it would be the quick /d/ and be righ daway.

It’s much easier to learn by watching a video. Check this one out if you want to go straight to The Flap.

How does The Flow Framework lead you to sound confident and have inner confidence?

Let's call it what it is: Fluency. 

Using the Americanisms within The Flow Framework will make you sound fluent in the ways that you dream of sounding.

➔ You'll have smooth movement between words

➔ You'll use reduced sounds from the language that are hard to acquire

➔ And you'll create fewer distractions for those listening to you. 

All of that means you'll be more effective, which will give you that boost of confidence and inner trust you’re after. 

You can learn more about all the Flow techniques by checking out my Flow Playlist on YouTube with this link.

Conclusion

Taking these skills seriously is the first step in mastering your spoken English. Just a little bit of attention each day can be all you need to take the next step you need to feel like yourself in English. I hope you’ve enjoyed reviewing The Diamond Method™️ with me in this month’s blog. I want to hear which Framework excites you the most and how you plan to apply it towards your more confident speech.

Remember to write the word Rhythm in the comments below for the PDF.