How nice to listen to a person whose speech is competent and interesting at the same time. Unfortunately, there are very few such people. Most often, the overwhelming majority are tongue-tied, cannot construct speech correctly, both grammatically and stylistically, use a poor vocabulary. And if such people also have to speak to the public, then the latter is regrettable.
The components of a beautiful speech
Speech technique is a combination of several components, knowing which you can gradually learn this art. It includes several factors. And the main among them is diction. Speech technique would not have been possible without a clear pronunciation of sounds - vowels and especially consonants. Speaking clearly and clearly seems easy. In reality, things are exactly the opposite, and learning diction can take a lot of time.
In addition, it is very important to be able to speak convincingly and emotionally. This is how you can manage your audience and influence it. Expressive, lively speech can so captivate people that they will agree with all the arguments of the speaker, not wanting it.
And further. It is important to know what to say. Speech technique hides a lot of nuances that you just need to consider and keep constantly in mind.
Maybe to a speech therapist?
It may well be that you will have to remember such a specialist, despite the fact that you have already come out of the age when he is so necessary. Some people have real porridge in their mouths, and some sounds are uttered absolutely wrong.
Sometimes just understanding what you are doing wrong is enough to start speaking correctly. But it often happens that it is very difficult to correct the situation, so you should not even start. History knows many examples of famous speakers who had undelivered sounds, but this did not stop them from gaining an audience.
Going to a Russian lesson?
But the Russian language would not hurt to remember. An excellent speech technique is unthinkable without the masterfully used native language. We are very impoverished and mutilate our speech, using parasitic words and incorrectly placing stresses. What can we say about ordinary inhabitants, if from the lips of TVs or on the radio - from the lips of professional broadcasters or journalists - blunders are pouring in and out. What follows from this? That modern television is very harmful, even from the point of view of one speech technique. And I don’t want to talk about the reliability of information, especially since this is a topic of a completely different conversation. Therefore, let us return to the problem we are considering. The concept of speech technique is very capacious, but literacy takes the first place there. Want to be a really good speaker? Be kind, study the relevant literature, learn to express thoughts competently, consistently, clearly and clearly. You may need to hire a tutor, but the effort is worth it.
And one more nuance. Almost every one of us speaks very quickly, eating up many words and endings. In everyday life, this is normal, because a dialogue reigns here - what you have not heard, you can ask again. Although, of course, you need to strive to ensure that conversational speech is clean and beautiful. Well, and even more so on the podium! Indeed, here already one side is listening, and it is sometimes very difficult to speculate what the speaker wanted to say. And what do we observe in reality?
Right breathing
It turns out that the technique of speech, breathing, voice, diction - this is all one bunch, which, with the exception of any element, will inevitably disintegrate.
Breathing, as a rule, causes great bewilderment in people. We all breathe and cannot exist without it. What's so complicated? However, there are difficulties, and considerable ones. The speaker is like a singer or a musician playing wind instruments who just need the right breath. It is it that will help maintain the clarity of the narrative, the correct intonation, and will not allow the voice to slip in an unnecessary place.
There are several types of breathing. Namely: chest, in which the shoulders rise, abdominal and diaphragmatic. As a rule, women breathe with their breasts, unlike men. Perhaps that is why there are fewer good speakers among the fair half of humanity. After all, this art requires diaphragmatic breathing, that is, one in which the diaphragm works.
For its formulation, it is necessary to perform simple exercises, but it is important to do this regularly. After a short period of constant and persistent exercises, which in their load are no different from physical exercises, you will notice that you will begin to breathe in a completely different way.
How to train your breath?
The correct speech technique includes daily exercises to develop and optimize the breathing apparatus. We always speak on the exhale, and it is especially important that it be long, but not bring us to exhaustion. Unlike exhalation, inhalation should be energetic and short. Otherwise, there would be long awkward pauses between the words. Although in themselves they are also simply necessary for a beautiful speech, nevertheless, these gaps should not be prolonged. That is why it is necessary to perform exercises for a long breath, while you need to make sure that the air fills the area of the diaphragm with itself, and then it is slowly, portionwise consumed. In this case, you do not need to bring yourself to a state where a person has already used up all the air, but continues to talk. It doesn’t look very pretty. Better to stop and take your breath again.
Diction also requires training
Along with performing breathing exercises, do not forget about diction. She should be given a small amount of time, 10-15 minutes daily. Very soon you will notice how your speech will be intelligible and well understood by others. There are many different diction exercises. But first you need to soberly evaluate your speech. To do this, it will be enough just to record your voice on the recorder, and then listen to the recording very carefully. It would be nice to ask someone else to evaluate your diction, perhaps strangers will notice something that eludes your attention and hearing.
So, pay attention to the following points:
- Consonant sounds. What are they: right or wrong, do we swallow them?
- How soft consonants sound
- How do you pronounce consonants at the junction of two words.
- How unstressed vowels are pronounced.
- How consonants sound in different parts of a word.
As a rule, you will notice some general trend or mistake. Perhaps others, while listening to the recording, will hear something else. All this is the front for the upcoming work on voice and speech in general.
The concept of articulation
In general, we can say that diction and articulation are one and the same thing. There are articulatory muscles that are involved in the formation of sounds, and they need to be trained. These muscles form the right sounds, which is why it is important that they are strong and strong.
To strengthen them, you can and must perform special exercises, which includes a set of exercises for the tongue, jaws, lips and even cheeks.
You can just make faces, and then gently massage your cheeks and lips. In addition, there are many exercises for children with speech therapy problems. The most common of these are the “needle”, when you need to make a sharp tongue and reach as high as possible in the nose, and the “shovel” when the tongue is as relaxed as possible.
Teacher search
If you are very concerned about speech technology, courses are the best you need. You can learn to speak beautifully and correctly at home for a long time and not notice gross mistakes that negate all efforts. An experienced teacher and mentor will correct in time and will not allow to gain a foothold in error. The teacher’s speech technique will act as a reference and a guiding star, which will not let you go astray. It is the specialist who will tell you when you are already quite ready to speak to people, and stop, if it is too early, and you still need to practice.
What and how to say?
So, even if you have been doing diction, staging the breathing apparatus for a long time, but don’t know what to say, then it’s too early for you to oratory. It is necessary that beautiful turns and phrases ripen in time in the head, the right words are remembered in time, and the speech poured in a stream. For this purpose, you just need to read and reflect on various topics. You need to try to look for synonyms for many words and increase your vocabulary.
The speech of many people is replete with parasitic words. As a rule, in this way they fill in awkward pauses that arise from time to time. You need to follow this and not be afraid of those very pauses. Stops in speech arise when we are insufficiently prepared, “stumble” and select the necessary words and expressions. It should not be. No impromptu at the start of the journey! To achieve ease and smoothness of the narrative, you need to work hard and hard. Impromptu will come later.
It is also very important to monitor the pace of speech. Many people chatter without noticing it. This makes it very difficult to fully perceive speech. We need to keep track of the pace we are talking about; it’s not so difficult. First you have to pay attention to it, and then it will become a habit.
Gesticulation
Gestures are our second language. We simply need it, however, and there are rules here. There should not be too many gestures. Sweeping movements are also very distracting. That's why you need to learn how to control your body. There is a whole science studying facial expressions and gestures. This is kinesics. Even a superficial acquaintance with it will be of great benefit, for you will learn to read at least a little body language. Every gesture should be considered. First, study and objectively analyze the movements that you often use, and then make adjustments.
It is advisable to think through all the gestures in advance, rehearse in front of the mirror, demonstrate to your best friends.
If you say to everyone: “I want to speak beautifully ... Speech techniques are so complicated!”, Then you are unlikely to achieve anything. Beautiful and correct speech goes hand in hand with faith in one's strength and success. Almost all of us need them all, because success and self-confidence are some of the main components of the modern world.
Practice - and you will surely succeed!