Steve Jobs at Stanford

After a long summer break and a very busy start to the new term, we’re back to update our neglected blog with a lesson based on Steve Job’s 2005 commencement speech at Stanford University.

In the speech, he told three stories about his life – stories which were quite personal, very revealing and extremely motivational –  and the speech went on to be a huge success on YouTube. Since his death on 5 October 2011, extracts from the speech have been widely quoted in the media. The text is reproduced in full here .

We decided to use this speech both as a listening exercise, to start with, but more importantly as a good example of public discourse in terms of chunking, rhythm, stress, and rhetorical techniques.

Steve Jobs Teacher’s Notes

Steve Jobs at Stanford

Steve Jobs Chunking

Steve Jobs Student AB

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