Research published today by the Global Language Monitor, which tracks linguistic trends, suggests the typical Oscar-winning actor accepts the golden statuette with a speech using the vocabulary and syntax of an average 10-year-old.

A handful of Oscar winners, mostly British and Australian actors, have raised the sophistication to the reading age of a teenager, but the more typical was Halle Berry whose 2002 best actress speech largely consisted of saying thank you 31 times. Berry, who is half- British, apologised for her “over-excitement” the next day.

Las Vegas bookies expect winners today to include Ang Lee, director of Brokeback Mountain, and Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line.

Hoffman is the 38-year-old darling of the art-house cinema set and the favourite to win best actor for his portrayal of the author Truman Capote in the film Capote.

The burly New Yorker has told friends that, if he wins, he wants his speech to honour the waspish author who claimed that his IQ was 205, more than twice the average.

Hoffman, who paved his way to the Oscars with memorable roles in The Talented Mr Ripley, Almost Famous and Cold Mountain, said he admired the director Steven Soderbergh who, on the Oscar podium, said he would thank his friends later in private.

This will come as good news to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which has bowed to prolix reality and extended the time for speeches from 45 seconds to a minute before the orchestra is instructed to drown them out.

In an attempt to discipline and spice up the speeches, the academy has recruited Tom Hanks to narrate an eight-minute video distributed to 150 Oscar nominees full of “helpful hints” on how to make a graceful yet memorable speech.

The main message is to “lose the list” of past and potentially future employers, but “show gratitude with style”.

Hanks, who has won two Oscars and been nominated another three times, continues: “Maximise your moment. You have devoted your passion to the entertainment industry so use a little of that Oscar-winning creativity to make your speech entertaining.”

Too many actors have spurned such advice in the past. Paul Payack of the San Diego-based Global Language Monitor said: “Maybe it says something about our educational standards, but we have to leave it to the Brits and Aussies to make the sophisticated speeches.”

Payack analysed all top Oscar winners’ speeches back to 1992 using the Flesch- Kincaid readability test, which calculates reading ages for American children’s books, analysing vocabulary, syllables and sentence complexity.

“I was surprised to discover that the most advanced speech was by Russell Crowe when accepting his Oscar for Gladiator: he used phrases like ‘a vital and adrenalised contributor to the art form’ . . . his colleagues were, on average, talking like 10-year-olds,” said Payack.

He said other more sophisticated Oscar-winners included Tom Hanks and two Cambridge graduates, Sam Mendes, director of American Beauty, and Emma Thompson. Both spoke in rich, witty sentences.

He said British winners, who have included Sir Michael Caine and Jim Broadbent, are known for their comparative erudition, but the bar for wit was set by David Niven. In 1974, while he was hosting the ceremony, a streaker ran across the stage. Niven riposted: “The only laugh that man will ever get is by stripping and showing his shortcomings.”

For awards in full and weblog coverage: www.timesonline.co.uk/oscars

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