The ability to qualitatively present a printed text with expressive artistic reading has always distinguished cultural and creative people. Despite the fact that the reader, while transmitting what is written, does not add anything from himself and can allow only voice improvisation in relation to the author’s idea, a lot depends on how he will react to his task, and first of all, how the author will be understood by the listener .
The concept and basic principles of fiction
Speech is one of the most important communication resources between people, transmitted and perceived at the moment of communication at the same time by all participants in the conversation. However, spontaneous speech is very different from speech "readable" if you approach the process with only one effort to convey information. The key rule of literary reading in the last century was proposed by the Russian linguist Ilya Chernyshev, who said that reading should be done as if you were speaking, that is, vividly and convincingly.
Expressive reading, as well as speech improvisation, must have 3 mandatory points:
- The feeling, the will of the reader and the thought that he seeks to convey must act in unity. This suggests that, voicing the emotion embedded in the text and releasing it in the form of intonation, the reader simultaneously presents the listener with his personal attitude to the spoken.
- Reading a text, a person pursues the same goal as talking with someone - it is important for him that the listener perceives the information in the same context in which he himself understood it.
- Expressive reading has all the advantages of non-verbal transmission of inner meaning. Even a well-made audio recording conveys the entire spectrum of active, lively speech of the reader, including gesturing in the “right” places and voice modulations. As for the artistic game for the viewer, all the means of fiction are used here.
According to Stanislavsky, a flat word devoid of a “double bottom” (subtext) has no place on stage or in an artistic environment. The artist’s creativity is only that and the creativity that it borrows the words from the writer, and is meaningfully absorbed from the performer. That is why fiction (or recitation) is referred to oral forms of speech, although they are devoid of the main aspect of free expression - improvisation.
Artistic reading is art
Artistic reading in art is defined as the interpretation of a product of artistic activity of a primary nature in the course of artistic performance. The primary product of creative work (a literary work) is itself an independent form of art, so any interpretation of it, from playing from the stage to expressive reading, is considered a secondary embodiment.
Often, verbal expressive means of literary reading is the only possible creative transmission of the text so that its meaning and structure are not lost forever. An example of this is the work of Turgenev, Gogol, Fet and other writers and poets, so subtly and sensually conveying the nature of the images of nature and people through descriptive psychologisms that it is simply impossible to do this through visual art.
All expressive means of artistic reading (and these are intonations, pauses, tempo, rhythm, etc.) are very close to acting, but they are not, because there is no moment of reincarnation (immersion) in heroes. The reader, as if from outside, is watching what rises in front of him from the page of the book, describing not only the events interwoven in the plot, but also portraits of heroes, landscapes, against the background of which actions develop, the inner experiences of the characters. This allows the listener to feel the fullness of the picture, without being distracted by visible images and visualizing them in their own interpretation on the basis of “given parameters”.
Since the aim of literary reading is always a complete and unconditional transfer of the author’s thoughts, the creative component of the reader’s work adheres to the strict boundaries of permissible improvisation. Caring for the original text is one of the most important ethical rules for any professional reader.
Oral expressive reading
The complexity of such a genre as fiction reading lies in the inability to use the full amount of auxiliary means available to the actors of the classical theater. The whole set of tools with which the master of the artistic word is forced to operate in front of the audience is his voice, speech technique, gesticulation.
How does an actor or actress convey the emotions embedded in a work by the author through literary reading? The set of tools with which the master can operate in front of the audience is small. However, in this set of advantages all the expressive means of art of literary reading are necessary for the reader. There are five of them:
- Intonation ("speech colors") - includes all the variety of possibilities of the actor’s voice, conveying the feelings and personal assessment of the reader regarding specific episodes of the work. Intonation should carry a high timbral saturation, variability, have plasticity and naturalness.
- Logical pauses - separate groups of words or phrases according to the principle of their logical completeness.
- Psychological pauses - designed to enhance the emotional load of this fragment of action, give the episode psychological depth, spontaneity, saturate the scene with a sensual reflection of the experiences of the heroes.
- Pace - determines the speed of the speech flow that regulates all the necessary techniques of intonation, the duration of pauses, increasing or decreasing dynamics of narration.
- Rhythm - organizes the manner and transmission of the work as a whole, harmonizing the active and passive swings of speech delivery in order to maintain the constant interest of the viewer.
Expressive means of the art of fiction reading, such as tempo and rhythm, constantly interact with each other. At times when the rhythm is inert, the pace of reading slows down (goes out), and vice versa, when the rhythm becomes energetic, the pace also speeds up.
Non-verbal means of fiction
Among the necessary techniques used by a professional reader, the plastic accompaniment of speech transmission belongs to the category of the most difficult. According to the writer V. Aksenov, plastic as one of the most striking examples of means of artistic reading is an integral part of artistic broadcasting, additionally expressing the reader's attitude to plot twists, behavior and images of heroes.
The plastic presentation of the semantic load of the work consists of several components:
- Facial expressions - in fact, these are the same intonations, only transmitted not by the voice, but by the movements of the facial muscles. Since the facial expressions reflect the reader’s actual attitude to what he is speaking at the moment, it’s important for the performer to understand all the hidden motives of the author and accept them as his own.
- Gesture - despite the fact that each gesture of the performer should be “out of place” and must be rehearsed, ease is the necessary condition for using this technique. With the help of expressive hand movements or timely shaking of the head, a powerful effect of emotional influence on the listener is created, which enhances the impression of the actor’s speech.
- Movement, movement - the resources of mechanical movement around the stage of the actor of the conversational genre are very limited, so he needs to invest as much as possible in every step or turn of the body. Skillfully combining gestures, facial expressions and movements, the performer creates the illusion of expanded space on the stage, makes the presentation large-scale, diverse.
After the actor managed to convey or strengthen any scene using the means of literary reading, he should temporarily allow himself to "calm down", relieve tension from his monologue, and slightly "relax" the viewer. If this is not done, then the rhythm of the speech will be disrupted, and the plot of the narrative will be overloaded with excessive emotionality.
Important conditions for improving speaking
The development of literary reading skills in adulthood is fraught with many obstacles of well-established violations of diction, so retraining involves first of all a change in a person's perception of his speech, and only then - correction of defects. Work on speech deficiencies takes a lot of time and includes three types of exercises:
- reading tongue twisters;
- breathing exercises;
- recording your speech on the recorder and listening to the recorded.
Of all the known tongue twisters, the future reader should choose no more than five, given to him with special difficulty, and work through them literally in syllables, achieving an impeccable pronunciation at a high pace of speech. Gradually, you can move on to pronouncing texts composed of a large number (10 or more) tongue twisters combining the most difficult word forms for pronunciation.
A weak diaphragm is the reason for lack of air when reading long sentences. It is one of the main obstacles to the stage or lecture hall of the lecturer. In order to have time to take a breath, he is forced to part with phrases and make unnecessary pauses, which complicates the perception of his speech by the audience. Respiratory exercises for daily workouts at home are designed to help correct this shortcoming:
- inflating balls of 3-5 in a row;
- stretching vowels (all in turn) on the exhale until the lungs are completely released from the air;
- application of the “deep breathing” method - first a deep breath is taken by the abdomen, then air slowly moves into the chest, bursting to the limit of the lungs, and then a prolonged full exhalation follows.
From time to time, home-based fiction reading classes are provided with the recorder turned on. Listening to your voice in a recording, it’s easier for a person to abstract him from his personality and to see obvious flaws in speech that elude attention in everyday communication.
Slurred speech is the enemy of diction
Some readers, with all their diligence, cannot get the listener's attention due to slurred, illegible speech, despite the fact that they have everything in order with breathing and the pronunciation of individual sounds also does not cause problems. If this problem is not associated with congenital pathology or the development of a complex disease, you can fight it with the help of simple articulation exercises:
- opening your mouth, you need to move the lower jaw from side to side, then back and forth;
- crossing his wrists on his chest and leaning forward, stretch any vowel sound in the lowest octave, then, having straightened up, pause and repeat the exercise with another vowel sound;
- having closed teeth, with tongue touch alternately to the right and left inner sides of the cheeks.
A series of exercises is carried out 5-6 times during the day and always on the eve of public readings (speeches, lectures).
Pedagogical reading
The purpose of literary reading at any stage of raising and educating a child is to introduce him to the aesthetic and humane world of literature. In order to convey to the student the meaning of the work and the beauty of the syllable, unique for each book, the teacher himself must be a passionate fan of the printed word and burn with the idea of ​​translating dry text into live speech.
However, unlike the conversational actor who is free to choose the topic for his speech, the teacher has to deal with a limited list of literature approved by the program and designed for a certain age category of the listener. The teacher’s presentation of the work never bears the character of a continuous reading of the text, but always contains pauses, during which difficult moments of actions are explained, the actions and behavior of the heroes are analyzed.
Of great importance for the students to correctly understand the work is the literary reading of the stories in various interpretations. At the same time, schoolchildren are invited to conclude in which version of the “voicing” of a thing they already know, the characters of the heroes more clearly emerge, or those or other images appear better.
Expressive reading in the middle group of kindergarten
At the age of 5, a child no longer just picks up the emotional background of a fairy tale being read to him, but he can sincerely worry about the characters and distinguish positive and negative characters from them. Texts for literary reading in the middle group are selected meaningful, with a large number of characters, each of which plays a characteristic role in the work (a hare-coward, a sly fox, an evil wolf).
It is important for the educator to emphasize the individuality of each hero by voice modulations, to make him memorable. A great role in stimulating children's interest in a work is played by well-chosen pace and rhythm of reading, observance of logical accents and expressive pauses. The teacher reads the fragments of the text to which the children should pay attention, slowly and impressively, and pronounces episodic moments in his usual voice and a little faster than the conversational pace.
In preparation for the lesson, the teacher must parse the text in advance, marking those words or word forms that will be difficult for the audience to understand. A competent presentation of complex words, accompanied by gestures and facial expressions, will help children grasp the meaning of unfamiliar expressions and even express their assumptions about their meaning.
Program tasks for preschoolers
In the preparatory group of the kindergarten, the teacher continues to acquaint children with little fiction, fixing in memory of preschool children such concepts as a reading room, proverb, proverb, fairy tale, tongue twister, story. Enough time is devoted to studying the structure and design of the book: what is the table of contents? Illustration? How are chapters, pages marked?
Every work the teacher reads is now analyzed in terms of the positivity or negativity of the characters. The actions of the characters are evaluated (“What would you do in his place?”), Alternative scenarios for the development of the events of familiar tales are created (“And if the cat’s house had been put out, what would happen then?”). The skills of using epithets, comparisons, figurative expressions are formed.
In the preparatory group, the child is brought closer to such a genre as poetic lyrics ("Spring Waters" by Tyutchev et al.), Where much attention is paid to descriptions of nature, praise of the beauties of the Motherland. Poetic turnovers used by famous word masters for the unique transfer of images expand the horizons and vocabulary of a preschooler.
Expressive reading in preparatory group
Listening and learning poems forms a sense of pace and rhythm in a preschooler, expands his vocabulary, makes his speech literate, and diction clear. Poetic constructions are perceived by a child more easily than prose, but they have a number of features that a preschooler should pay attention to to better understand their poetic form:
- in the poem, the words go in a certain rhythmic order, with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables;
- the rhythm of the poem is determined by correctly observed pauses;
- poems are emotionally colored constructions that require a change of pace, dynamic development and the use of a rich palette of live sound;
- you need to read poetry in a loud and clear, moderately deep voice, the strength of which should repeatedly change as the emotional coloring of the work intensifies or weakens
Artistic reading in the preparatory group occupies a very important place in the education of the future student, because it is during this period that the child is able to evaluate not only the content of the text, but also the beauty of the syllable and the importance of correctly conveying the author’s thoughts.
Famous world-famous teachers, for example, Konstantin Ushinsky, warned and warned parents and teachers against forcing a preschooler to mechanically learn poems and fragments of prose. According to the Russian teacher and writer, only an in-depth study of the text, finding the author’s ideas in it and analyzing the behavior of the characters contribute to better memorization of the work and competent retelling.