Another Back-to-School Tip for Teachers

 

Tip: Vary your Voice

A clue to communicative speech is to pick out the most important words and say them  LOUDER! In any sentence, one word will be the most important and communicate a lot of  meaning. For example, can you pick out the most important word in this sentence?

 

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

Hamlet’s famous speech has been said every possible way over the centuries since  Shakespeare first wrote those words. Many argue that the word “not” is the most  important; others say the first “be” ranks higher; still others pick the word “question”  because Hamlet is questioning his whole existence. The way you emphasize a word can  change the meaning of a whole sentence.

Here is the usual way that this Shakespearean line is performed in the very natural rhythm  of “iambic pentameter” (5 strong beats in a sentence):

 

“To be or not to be, that is the question.”

 “Little words” like ‘the’ and ‘that’ and ‘to’ and ‘or’ get less volume and are said more quickly  than the more important ones.

Typically, the most important word in any sentence is a noun, although the action verbs can  also be very communicative, e.g., “I can see the dog is running away!” What is the sentence  ‘about’? It’s about a dog. But what’s so important about the dog? He’s running away.

Adjectives give additional information about the noun and may be even more important  when you want someone to choose, “the blue one, not the white one.” When giving  someone directions, emphasizing the prepositions gives clarity: “go down the hill until you  reach the junction…” Simply choose one (up to three) important words in a sentence to say  louder, slower and more clearly than the rest to help your listener really hear them.

 

Volume is one way to give emphasis to words: say important words louder, less important  words more softly. Saying words more slowly than usual is another technique that can really  catch your listeners’ attention. Taking a pause for emphasis after saying a word gives  listeners time to absorb and think about what you are saying.

Give your words a bit of ‘emotional color’ and vary the pitch. Saying words on a higher or  lower note than usual can help listeners really hear you. You can even go so far as to make  your words illustrate their meanings – try saying the words “low, deep, down” in a bass  voice and the words like “high, light, airy, free” on a high pitch. You can convey the meaning  of the words by making them sound like the idea.