The Art of Using Your Voice

8/4/2019 The Art of Using Your Voice

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- 7 -The Art of Using Your Voice

The tune of English may be different than the music ofthe language in which you usually speak. If so you may haveto learn to sing a new melody- a melody in which stress isvitally important. English is a stress-timed language morethan a syllable-timed language. So, although pronunciation isimportant, it will have less effect on whether or not yourEnglish is understood than using the correct stress will.

S T R E S S A N D A C C E N T

Linguists and dictionaries have not yet agreed upon exactpronunciations in either standard British English or standardAmerican English, but they usually agree on placement ofstress. So match your use of stress to that of some nativespeaker of English and you have relatively little to worry about.

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T h e A r t o f U s i n g Y o u r V o i c eI f you have the s t ress r igh t , you shou ld not waste your t ime bywor ry ing abou t whe the r o r no t you have some k ind o f accen t .Eve ryone has an accen t. Even a pe rson bo rn and ra ised w i th inan E ng l i sh -speak ing cou n t r y has som e fo rm o f reg iona l accen t.Pe r h a p s a s En g l i sh s im p l i f i e s a n d b e co m e s e ve n m o r e i n t e r -na t iona l , a un ive rsa l l y accep ted se t o f p ronunc ia t ions w i l ld e ve lo p , b u t t h a t h a sn ' t h a p p e n e d ye t. An d d o n ' t h o ld yo u rbreath wa i t ing fo r i t .

P ITCH

So wha teve r Eng l i sh accen t you use , t r ea t you r vo ice l i ke themagni f icent mus ica l ins t rument i t i s . F i rs t , learn how to p i tchyour vo ice so tha t you w i l l no t s t ra in i t when you speak to anaud ience . Con t ro l t he p i t ch o f you r vo ice by p ro jec t ing thesound , no t f r om the upper th roa t o r nasa l passages bu t f r omthe d iaphragm and lower th roa t . Th is t ype o f deep p ro jec t ionmakes your vo ice more p leasan t to l i s ten to . I t keeps the' ro u n d n e ss ' o f t h e so u n d o f yo u r vo i ce a n d m a in t a in s w a r m t h .In cont ras t , when you p i tch your vo ice h igh , you s t ra in yourvo ice box: You r th roat e as i ly t ires , and yo ur vo ice s ou nd s ' th in '.

V O L U M E

W e spea k to f ri ends and fam i ly w i th less vo lume than is neededwhen speak ing to an aud ience . Success fu l speakers mus tinc rease the vo lum e as we l l as the dep th o f the i r no rma l spea k-ing vo ice . In fac t you need to increase the vo lume and depth o fyou r vo ice even when us ing e lec t ron ic amp l i f i ca t ion becauseotherwise your vo ice wi l l no t sound as fu l l and warm as i t can.

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Chapter 7Gender DifferencesMale and female voice differences are as socially induced asthey are physically caused. Of course, there is a differencebetween male and female vocal cords. However this wouldnot be such a strong difference had we not been encouragedby our cultures to deliberately pitch our voices high forwom en and low for men.Women who let their voices go high in their throats insteadof deeper into their chests sound a bit l ike chi ldren.Maybe this is intentional; maybe not. However, childl iketones of stress and pitch may invite l isteners to assumespeakers are less professional than they are. Al l of us,male or female, can train ourselves to speak in deeper,ful ler tones.Both male and female voices are sometimes soft and diff icultto hear. With friends or in a small group a soft voice may beconsidered polite. However in a larger group soft, quiet speechsignals that the speaker is uncertain, and that perhaps theaudience should question the factuality of what is being said.All of us can train ourselves to increase the volume of ourvoices.

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T h e A r t o f U s i n g Y o u r V o i c eS P E E D

On ce you have pract iced increas ing the loudness o f you rvo ice, you wi l l want to concent ra te on speak ing s lower andwi th more an imat ion than you norma l l y speak . Get someone,preferab ly who speaks good Engl ish , to he lp you dec idewh ich w ords o r phrases you choose to emphas ize in o rder tomake an in terest ing Engl ish-sounding melody.Research by mathemat ic ians and l inguists te l l us that humanlanguages around the wor ld are spoken at about the samespeed. Indiv iduals wi th in each language speak at var ied rates,and th is var iat ion is abou t the sa m e in a ll languages. Yet, m ostpeople bel ieve other languages are spoken more rapid ly thantheirs. An unfor tunate consequence of th is is that when youspeak a language, such as English, in which you feel lesscom fortable than in your nat ive tongue , you m ay speed up. Youprobably are do ing th is under the fa lse assumpt ion thatEngl ish is spoken m ore rapid ly than i t actual ly is .Success speak ing a t a con fe rence requ i res speech tha ti s s lower and c lea re r than occurs in norma l conversa t ion .However, nervou sness can also invite one to speak too rapid ly.I f th is is true o f you, you m ay have a dou ble problem achievinga lou d, slow speed, but w ith practice and careful t im ing you cando it . (See C ha pter 7 for advice on practicing and t iming.)

R E A D I N G T O A N A U D I E N C EThe mos t impor tan t th ing to remember i s tha t the aud ienceand speaker toge ther fo rm a speech . Avo id read ing sen-tences on s l ides to the aud ience . Your aud ience i s h igh ly

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C h a p t e r 7l i te ra te and beyond doubt they can read Eng l ish fas ter andbet te r than they can hear i t . So t ry no t to insu l t them byread ing to them exact ly what i s a l ready there fo r them tosee. The so lu t ion o f course is to use key words or phrasesra ther than sentences on your s l ides . Th is way you cang lance a t the s l ide and then put key words in to fu l l sen-tences as you exp la in the s l ide , add ing meaning to whatthey read. Th is w i l l i nv i te the aud ience to fee l honored andwi ll p reven t you from fee l ing foo l i sh fo r say ing w ha t they canc lear ly read.

D o n ' t R e a d Y o u r P a p e r A l o u dThe on ly good adv ice about read ing a paper a loud to anaudience is 'Don't ' . I t is bor ing and ineffect ive. Possibly atsome t ime in your career you wi l l f ind i t necessary to read apaper to an aud ience because the person schedu led to pre-sent i s absent . How ever never le t th is h appen wh en you havet ime to prepare. I f against your best wishes you are everforced to read a pa per , the solut ion is to kno w the ma ter ia l sothorough ly tha t you are ab le to look f requent ly a t the aud i -ence, pro ject your voice enthusiast ica l ly , and only occasion-a l ly g lance dow n a t the pr int.Sad ly enough even though they know be t te r , occas iona lpresenters s t i l l read ins tead o f speak the i r papers . Perhapsthey be l ieve the i r Eng l i sh w i l l sound bet te r when theyread, bu t th is i s never t rue . L is ten ing to someone read apaper i s a lways d i f f i cu l t f o r an aud ience . When someonereads sc ience a loud the vo i ce tends to become s ing -songand mono tonous , whereas the i n fo rmat ion becomes a l i veand i n te res t i ng when an aud ience can see a speaker ta l k ,

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T h e A r t o f U s i n g Y o u r V o ic elook , smi le , and ges ture . So do whatever you can to makeyour i n fo rmat ion new and exc i t i ng . Permi t yourse l f t o have acommun i ca t i on w i t h t he aud ience t ha t goes beyond wor ds .Speakers ' success su f fe rs when they read papers a loudbecause they are fo rced to bend the i r heads to l ook a t thepaper . Th is no t on ly p revents the aud ience f rom see ing the i rfac ia l express ion but i t const r ic ts the i r throats so that the i rvo ices are harder to unders tand. The f i na l sadness i s tha twhen speakers read to an aud ience, they usua l l y h idebeh ind a pod ium or tab le . S tand ing beh ind a tab le o r pod iumis a lways a d i sadvantage because i t s igna ls tha t the speakerwan t s d i s tance f r om the aud ience .However , i f , f o r one reason or another , you cannot avo idr e a d i n g a p a p e r a l o u d , y o u c a n s o m e w h a t c o m p e n s a t e b yl ook i ng up a t t he aud ience as f r equen t l y as poss i b l e andkeep ing a t l eas t one o f you r hands f r ee t o es tab l i sh non -ve r ba l com m un i ca t i on ( see Ch ap te r 8) . You can cons i de rp r epa r i ng you r pape r by :9 Put t ing accent marks on sy l lab les to be s t ressed.9 M ark ing p laces w he re you r vo ice shou ld pause.9 Und er li n ing phrases to em phas ize .9 An d, above a ll, pract ic ing a loud (see C ha pter 8).

S O F T W O R D S

Your s l ides are ready. Your vo ice is ready. Now what wordswi l l you choose? Your spreadsheets and the ar t i c les youphotocop ied w i l l supp ly you w i th good cho ices o f verbs ,adject ives, and phrases, but they wi l l not supply you wi th sof t

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C h a p t e r 7

w o r d s t o s m o o t h t h e a u d i e n c e ' s w a y b e t w e e n s l id e s . T h e ya r e n o t i n t h e a r t i c l e s yo u p h o t o co p i e d f o r t h e se a r e w o r d sused ve rba l l y . I n f i na l d ra f t s o f pub l i shed research a r t i c l es ,t h e y a r e e d i t e d o u t a s e x t r a n e o u s l a n g u a g e .B u t n o w y o u n e e d t h e m . Y o u n e e d t h e v e r y w o r d s a n dp h r a se s yo u e d i t o u t w h e n yo u w r i te . Yo u n e e d t h e m in yo u rvo i ce , n o t o n yo u r s li d e s . Yo u w a n t so m e s i m p l e w o r d s t ose r ve a s ' so f t e n e r s ' / ' sm o o t h e r s ' a s yo u l e a d t h e a u d i e n cef rom one s l i de t o t he nex t . F ind t hese words by l i s t en ing f o rt h e m a t c o n f e r e n c e s w h e n y o u h e a r E n g l is h s p e a k e r s p r e -se n t . F ig u r e 1 co n t a i n s a li st o f so m e h e a r d r e ce n t l y a t a ni n t e r n a t i o n a l co n f e r e n ce .L i s t e n f o r so f t t r a n s i t i o n s w h e n yo u h e a r En g l i sh sp e a ke r s a tco n f e r e n ce s . C h o o se t h e o n e s yo u like a n d m a ke a lis t t oa d d t o y o u r s p r e a d s h e e t s .Y o u m i g h t a l s o c o n s i d e r a t r a n s i t i o n a l w o r d o r p h r a s e f r o my o u r l a n g u a g e o r a n o t h e r l a n g u a g e . A n y t h i n g i s s u p e r i o rto 'u m u h . . . ' , 'e r a h . . . ' , ' u m m m . . . ' . F o r e x a m p le ,

. . . as y ou s e e . . .

. . . h a vin g sa id t h i s . . .. . . o nc e a ga in w e . . .. . . a nd , y es , t h e . . .. . . w e l l . . .. . . fo r e x a m p l e . . .. . . now to ou r su rp r ise . . .. . . a c t u a l l y . . .. . . a n y h o w . . .. . . a l l r i gh t , so . . .F i g u r e 7 .1 T r a n s i ti o n W o r d s U s e d a s S o f t e n e r s

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The Art o f Using Your Voiceyou might choose someth ing wi th a meaning s imi lar tothe Engli sh words" 'O K . . . ' , 'and . . .', ' s o . . . ' , ' y e s . . . ' ,' f u r t h e rm o re . . . ' , o r ' n e x t . . . ' . Su ch a wo rd o r p hrasein your nat ive language could -w i t h profi t and no loss ofaudience understanding - add an ethnic in ternat ionaltouch which might del ight an audience and add to thepleasure of hear ing your presentat ion.

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The Art of Using Your Voice

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