by DelvaRebin » Tue Aug 16, 2011 3:57 pm
Yes, this can certainly be a problem, since it gives the impression that you aren't really on top of your presentation, even if you're perfectly prepared! Luckily, you've been able to recognize (with your teacher's help) that the problem exists in the first place! Interestingly enough, many people are never aware of this problem.
One of the things you can do is to try and recite some poetry or other text which has a marked sense of rhythm and drama. You can use that to develop where you should place your pauses. Try to savour the silence between lines or sentences, and perhaps film yourself or have someone watch, to comment on the effect. Then, you can move on to newspapers or magazine articles, and try to use your new "silence skills" to inject some drama into those.
In a live presentation setting, you can ask a friend to monitor how often the um's and ah's creep into your speech, and agree on a signal they can use to subtly remind you. If you are signaled, retain your composure and simply be more aware of the sounds your mouth is producing. With practice, you should be able to weed out most of them.