Is Your Lecture Interesting?

Bob Bohlken of Northwest Missouri University asks this question and suggests that the answer has to do with your "lecture language" (The Teaching Professor January 2000 [14.1]: 4).

Along with three other researchers, he recorded lectures of 15 experienced faculty and had students rate the recorded lectures on a scale from "interesting" to "not interesting." Linguistic analysis of the "interesting" lectures noted a high percentage of--

personal reference words: proper names, people pronouns ("she," "ours," etc.), and other words for people, e.g. "student," "woman," etc.

content words: Often such words make images or appeal to the senses. They have synonyms and associations that may help students network the ideas.

direct address: calling students by name, asking a question, using the word "you" or commands ("Now, get this idea"), speaking to the class as a whole ("OK, students, let's look at the cause of this phenomenon"), and quotations of other people

comparisons: Either literal or figurative similarities can spice up a lecture:

The Progressives were, in a way, like the Populists, romantic in nature. However, the Populists were basically rural, farm folks; the Progressives were basically urban, middle class, city folk.

dynamic statements: active, rather than passive, statements; [specifics]

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