Developing your talking skills

If you have been practising your commentary as directed, you should now be able to talk about what you are doing, as you are doing it, for at least some of the time that you are driving.

This project stays with basic actions, however, this time you are going to 'teach' yourself to complete a number of manoeuvres by using something that driving instructors often describe as 'talk-through'.

The purpose of this exercise is to improve the fluidity of your speech and to 'slow down' your thinking in order to create more time and space in your driving. The talk-through commentary should be slow paced and deliberate – adjust your driving to ensure that the commentary stays ahead of the action as opposed to describing what you are doing or have just done.

At this stage you are still developing the 'verbal skills' element of commentary - not attempting a full flowing commentary drive as you might do during an advanced driving test.

The example video above and text below should give you an idea of you are trying to achieve.

Stick to simple statements of instruction without including any reasons for the action. If you are not sure what to say, simply pause and think for a moment!

Your aim is to be as spontaneous as possible. No prepared scripts or ideas, no trying to 'learn' from the video. If you do the same exercise three times, it's perfectly OK, in fact it's desirable, to use a slightly different form of words each time.

Important: As with earlier commentary exercises this exercise has been kept deliberately 'easy'. If you are finding it difficult, return to earlier exercises and stick to the 'rules' or expect to encounter difficulties.

Repeat this exercise with every manoeuvre when you get to the Manoeuvres Unit. In the meantime, continue to practise commentary driving whenever possible when you are out driving.

Next: Project 4, Recognising the structure