My English teacher failed anyone who gave a report and used Ummmmm in the reading of the report. Guess what, Everyone failed. I noticed when people got stuck the used Ummmmm to fill the gap. Is this natural?
Check this out:
http://www.newscientist.com/lastword/answers/125body.jsp
It is natural in that it is very common, but it can also be very irritating to your listeners.
Three factors which cause people use verbal fillers like ‘uhm’, ‘ah’, and ‘er’ are: nervousness, fear of silence, and habit. Most people are not comfortable speaking in front of a group, it makes them nervous. When nervous our brain tends to freeze at inopportune moments. While our mouth operates at a normal pace, the brain operates at 1/2 speed and falls behind. We then have to pause to let the brain catch up. That makes us pause, and when you are supposed to be speaking, silence is uncomfortable. We consciously or unconsciously fill that silence with uuuuhhhhmmm. This habit can be broken, but it takes effort. I’m glad to hear that your teacher is forcing the issue, it will pay off later.
During meetings at work when I notice someone using verbal fillers I will make a tic mark on a sheet of paper for each um, er, and ah. I have recorded an individual using a verbal filler over 100 times in a 15 minute presentation. that’s almost 7 ums per minute. It ruined the entire presentation and the speaker likely didn’t even know he was filling.
I can testify to that. Years ago, in college, I had to give a deposition in a civil suit. Knowing that I might later be called to testify in court, and wanting to be precise in what I said, I made an effort to pick my words with care. A week or so later, I got a transcript of the deposition (to check for accuracy), and received a shock. The law firm had faithfully transcribed all my “ums” and “ahs,” and there were a lot of them. Literally one “um” or “ah” every three words or so. Yikes! At the time, I had had no idea that I was talking like that. Ever since, I’ve made a conscious effort to eliminate these little verbal fillers when I speak.
I agree that fillers tend to be distracting and a sign of not very good expression. Whatever you have to say, say it concisely and succinctly. Then shut up until you have something else to say. Just as bad are filler words like starting every response with “well…” and words like “basically” which are fillers 98.5% of the time.
Zut, you must have had a brand-new court reporter. Almost all of the court reporters I have dealt with don’t transcribe ums and ers. They tell me that they learn the trick to not hear verbal fillers after a couple of years of doing the job.
I took a public speaking class aimed at professionals not too long ago, and nearly the entire class was aimed at eliminating verbal fillers. Various theories were bandied about as to why people fill. My personal favorite is that people who are speaking fill silences with “um” because they lack self confidence. The same cause is at the root of rushing through a speech. The mental cyle is purported to be something like “I feel bad about using up these nice people’s time with my unimportant remarks, so I’ll get it out quickly, and I don’t want any silences in my speech, because they’ll think I’m wasting their time.”
We did an exercise where the entire class was instructed to shout back “umm!” everytime one of us ummed. After several weeks of this, everytime we opened our mouths, we were careful, deliberate, and slow spoken: and our speechs were 100% better. Silence is golden in public speaking. Replay King’s “I have a dream” speech in your mind, and consider how long the pauses are between phrases.
They should have signed it with sign language. No ‘ummm’s’ then.
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And what did this teacher prove by this exercise? You say that this was an English teacher, not a Speech teacher. I can understand this policy if you were learning to be an actor or something else that required peformance, but all you were doing was reading a report that you presumably wrote. And you could have written it well. I fail to see what the teacher’s point in this exercise was. I hope there wasn’t anyone in the class who had a speech impediment.
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I say “ummm” and “errr” and all sorts of stuff when I speak, but I am a horrible public speaker. Nevertheless, I notice it with just about everyone else.
Hello BobT,
My teacher explained it like this. There is no meaning for the word “Umm” thus it does not belong in a report or presentation. It has no value and it’s just wasting his time. He also asked this question. Do you write the Umms in a report? I wish I had, that would be 500 words out of 1000 word project.
I think you’re less likely to use fillers if you’re sure you won’t be interrupted. I’ve noticed this in different US states, where how much silence you are allowed before someone else jumps in varies. That’s in conversation though, not public speaking.
I’m sorry I didn’t realize this teacher’s time was so valuable 
I think this exercise serves to teach you that some teachers are complete idiots, not that people use verbal fillers.
But I digress from the OP.
Ummmm, yes.
To use “ummm” in particular? No. Some speakers use “uh”. British speakers are more likely to use “er” or “erm”. French speakers say “euh”, and speakers of most Slavic languages, like Russian, say “mmm”. (For some reason, I find this last practice to be particularly grating.)
Is it natural to use fillers? Well, yes, especially in conversation. They prevent interruptions by letting the other party or parties know that you are still talking. In a prepared public speech, however, they are completely unnecessary; you’re supposed to have more or less memorized what you’re going to say, so there should be no pauses to search for words.
Just say fnord instead.