Enhancement of Oral Communication Skills
Excerpts from a lecture by Dr. Lourdes D. Servito
(Resource speaker during the faculty development workshop at Mother Lourdes Learning School, Calasiao, Pangasinan last June 4, 2009)
WHY SPEAK GOOD ENGLISH?
Why is there a need for teachers to speak good English?
Global language; language of the elite
Legal language; language of literature, art, philosophy, ICT, world history, etc.
Official language; language of instruction for most subjects
English as a useful tool
FIRST IMPRESSIONS NEVER LAST
THE WAY WE SPEAK IS PART OF OUR PERSONALITY
GOOD SPEECH EXUDES CONFIDENCE
TEACHERS SPEAK MOST OF THE TIME WHILE TEACHING
TEACHING IS COMMUNICATING, USING THE LANGUAGE PROPERLY & EFFECTIVELY
Brain Research shows that:
We Learn and Retain:
IO PERCENT – FROM READING
20 PERCENT – FROM HEARING/LISTENING
30 PERCENT –FROM SEEING
70 PERCENT-FROM SAYING/DOING
SO, WE REMEMBER ONLY 10% FROM WHAT WE READ, 20% FROM WHAT WE HEAR, 30% FROM WHAT WE SEE, AND 70% FROM WHAT WE SAY AND DO.
This module deals specifically with the aural channel – VOICE and
DICTION.
It is important to remember that first impressions are largely based on non-verbal factors such as vocal attributes, pronunciation and speech patterns.
VOICE:
Voice is the vehicle by which people share/ transmit ideas. It is the conduit that serves as the channel that connects the speaker and listener – the teacher and the student. It is important to remember that, aside from the words we choose to utter, meaning is also conveyed by the voice: the loudness level, the rate of speech, or how rapidly or slowly one speaks, the way silence is used, the range of vocal pitches and the vocal quality of the speaker. This is called PARALANGUAGE.
Elements of Voice
VOLUME- the intensity, the loudness or softness of the speaker’s voice. Adequate volume is important for intelligibility and clarity. Some speakers don’t talk loud enough to be heard by everyone in the room or let their voice fade out at the end of a thought. Projection of voice is often a problem, especially if there is no microphone. Those who do not project their voices to reach the last person in the last row in the room lose their audience. Much of what that person says is irretrievably lost on the audience, who cannot always continually ask the speaker to speak up.
Projection problems are usually caused by a person’s inability to produce and sustain the proper breathing or failure to monitor his own voice. Projection should fir the content, listeners and environment.
RATE- the speed at which the speaker speaks, to be adjusted to the topic or subject being discussed. A serious subject deserves a slower and more deliberate rate; less serious subject matter can be delivered a bit faster. Experienced speakers also vary their rate based on the mood they want to create. For example, talking faster creates a sense of excitement.
PITCH- the highness or lowness of the speaking voice. If the speaker uses a narrow, unchanging pitch range, it may result in a droning sound that may become boring. By varying one’s pitch, the speaker can keep the listener’s attention and emphasize important points. Experienced speakers determine an optimal pitch and vary it with control.
VOCAL VARIETY- is needed to heighten and maintain attention and interest of the listeners. Variety and contrast will introduce dynamism, an essential aspect of credibility plus enthusiasm, energy and life to sustain interest. This will also add expressiveness to the voice. Variety and flexibility of volume, rate and pitch will help avoid monotony and will aid in underscoring ideas.
DICTION: A competent speaker should articulate speech sounds clearly and pronounce words correctly.
ARTICULATION: forming individual speech sounds correctly with your mouth, so they combine to produce an understandable word.
PRONUNCIATION: stressing and accenting the right syllables in a word.
In many cases, however, diction, articulation, enunciation and pronunciation are used interchangeably to mean saying words correctly and accurately, with crispness and precision. Failure to have correct diction can have negative results:
Listeners may not understand what you are saying, if you mispronounce a word.
Ex. I saw the tree (three).
An error calls attention to itself and distracts the listeners.
Errors in speech damage the credibility of the speaker.
RHYTHM OF ENGLISH
1. WORD STRESS – in words of more than one syllable (polysyllabic words), one syllable will receive more stress that the others to give it more importance. The stressed syllable is given: more force, higher pitch and larger duration. Ex: teacher, comfortable, testimony
2. SENTENCE STRESS: content words, or words that have meaning in themselves are stressed. These are nouns, verbs (except linking and auxiliary verbs), adjectives and adverbs. Two others are given stress: demonstratives (this, that) and interrogatives (Who, Why, What, etc.). Function words, like articles, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and linking or helping verbs are not stressed.
3. PHRASING AND PAUSING: Normally, all but the shortest sentences are divided into two or more parts or thoughts groups. Generally, pauses are made after a group of words which has an idea, such as phrase or a clause.
Example: Phrasing / depends upon the meaning / of what you say./
No pauses should be made to separate articles or adjectives and the nouns they modify auxiliary and main verbs, prepositions and objects, adverbs and verbs they modify, etc.
Pausing is necessary in a sentence for the following reasons:
To separate ideas and set them apart as units of thought, to make the meaning clear.
Example: He rose awkwardly / looked about nervously / clutched his throat / shifted his weight once or twice / and finally began to speak.
To point up an important idea to be expressed.
Example: The most dangerous force operating today is / apathy of the people.
To enable the speaker to catch his breath in a long sentence.
To allow the speaker some time to organize his thoughts.
To allow the audience to digest the words previously said.
To serve as verbal punctuation marks in a sentence, esp. when there are commas, colons, semi-colons in the printed page.
To signal change of ideas or change of mood.
4. BLENDING- another characteristic of the English language that the Filipino learner should know is blending.
Within a thought group, words and syllables are not pronounced as separate units. They should flow along smoothly, w/o jerkiness and one seems to lend unto the next. There should be an interrupted flow of breath within the thought group. / lamateacher / from the college of liberal arts /.
5. INTONATION: Intonation is the tune of what we say. It is the melody pattern of a syllable, word, phrase or sentence. In English, correct intonation is most necessary at the end of a sentence.
Related posts:
- Tips for a Good Grammar
- Ironically Ironic: On Communication
- What is Feature Writing?
- Keys to Achieving Academic Excellence
- Name a name
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