![• Teachers of Elocution
"If there is a word more repellent than all others to an actor, or to the descendant of
actors, it is the word elocution. It is saying a good deal, but, probably, outside of patent
medicines, there is no humbug so great as characterizes nine tenths of elocution
teaching. Men and women utterly incapable of speaking one sentence naturally
undertake to make public speakers. What is the result? Pulpit, bar, rostrum, and stage
teem with speakers that mouth, orate, rant, chant, and intone, but are never natural. It is
a grievous evil. That elocution can be taught I have no doubt, but I know that most
teachers are to be shunned as you would shun the plague."
(American journalist and actress Kate Field, quoted by Alfred Ayres in Acting and Actors,
Elocution and Elocutionists: A Book About Theater Folk and Theater Art, 1903)
• Lord Chesterfield on Becoming a Fine Speaker
"The vulgar look upon a man, who is reckoned a fine speaker, as a phenomenon, a
supernatural being, and endowed with some peculiar gift of Heaven; they stare at him, if
he walks in the park, and cry, that is he. You will, I am sure, view him in a juster light,
and nulla formidine [without apprehension]. You will consider him only as a man of good
sense, who adorns common thoughts with the graces of elocution, and the elegance of
style. The miracle will then cease; and you will be convinced, that with the same
application, and attention to the same objects, you may most certainly equal, and
perhaps surpass, this prodigy." (Philip Stanhope, letter to his son, February 15, 1754)](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/howtoprepareforanelocution-181202055605/85/How-to-Prepare-for-an-Elocution-10-320.jpg)
How to Prepare for an Elocution
- 1. HOW TO PREPARE FOR AN ELOCUTION NAME – PRAGYA SINGH CLASS – B.ED 1ST YEAR ROLL NUMBER -
- 2. MEANING OF ELOCUTION • Elocution was one of the five core disciplines of pronunciation, which was the art of delivering speeches. Orators were trained not only on proper diction, but on the proper use of gestures, stance, and dress. (Another area of rhetoric, elocution, was unrelated to elocution and, instead, concerned the style of writing proper to discourse.) • With the publication of these works and similar ones, elocution gained wider public interest. While training on proper speaking had been an important part of private education for many centuries, the rise in the nineteenth century of a middle class in Western countries (and the corresponding rise of public education) led to great interest in the teaching of elocution, and it became a staple of the school curriculum. American students of elocution drew selections from what were popularly deemed "Speakers." By the end of the century, several Speaker texts circulated throughout the United States, including McGuffey's New Juvenile Speaker, the Manual of Elocution and Reading, the Star Speaker, and the popular Delsarte Speaker. Some of these texts even included pictorial depictions of body movements and gestures to augment written descriptions. •
- 3. • The era of the elocution movement, defined by the likes of Sheridan and Walker, evolved in the early and mid-1800's into what is called the scientific movement of elocution, defined in the early period by James Rush's The Philosophy of the Human Voice (1827) and Richard Whately's Elements of Rhetoric (1828), and in the later period by Alexander Melville Bell's A New Elucidation of Principles of Elocution (1849) and Visible Speech (1867). • The Original and simple meaning of Elocution is the skill of clear and expressive speech, especially of distinct pronunciation and articulation.
- 4. HOW TO IMPROVE OUR ELOCUTION 1. Drink sufficiently. Drink sparkling water or tea (no fruit tea!) to adequately moisten your vocal chords. 2. Be rested. Try not to spend the evening before your presentation in noisy, smoky bars so that your vocal chords are not burdened. 3. Stand straight and keep your body weight balanced on both feet. Try to keep your shoulders back so that your chest stands out – giving your vocal chords more volume when speaking. 4. Inhale deeply into your diaphragm and exhale. Try to exhale for 5-10 counts and then inhale before your next sentence. This will make you feel calmer – giving you enough oxygen to speak even long sentences without inhaling in between. 5. Develop vocal resonance out of your chest. Try to keep a lower register in your tone of voice. Generally a lower pitch is more pleasant to the ear.
- 5. 6. Record your presentation and pay special attention to the sound of your voice and its intonation. Where could you improve? When do you sound confident and when self-conscious? 7. Speak slowly without any rush: Take a deep breath after each sentence and use the break to focus and think of your next words. 8. Check how fast you speak. Nothing is worse than hastily rattling down your presentation. It is important to not only be heard but also to be understood. So try to speak a little slower than you might normally speak when conversing. 9. Speak clearly: A fun way to train how to speak clearly is to practice tongue twisters. When doing this, pronounce your words as clearly as possible. 10. Say „Hmmmmmm.“ Find your personal voice volume by repeating a humming tone right after each sentence (of course only when practicing). This way you will find a pitch which is deep and confident.
- 6. • According to Bidisha Das, Elocution is the skill of clear and expressive speech , especially of distinct pronunciation and articulation. We have to learn these things which we will able to use in it. • Be clear, audible and loud. • Stress on the most important words the most. • Change your pitch according to requirement. • Be expressive: by this I mean by your voice, your facial expression, body language. • Be straight and well postured. • Understand the speech and if required go though the history of the incident if thee speech was a historical one.
- 7. • Enjoy while you are speaking. • Do not look for expressions in the audience. • For not getting nervous, look at the walls or the straight at the background. • Have enough clarity. • Know THE CONTENT from before hand. • When you are about to say a important point, give a pause (just few seconds) by doing this audience will pay attention to you. • When you forget any point , skip that and go to next.
- 8. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELOCUTION AND SPEECH
- 9. EXAMPLES AND OBSERVATIONS OF ELOCUTION • "The word elocution means something quite different to us from what it meant to the classical rhetorician. We associate the word with the act of speaking (hence, the elocution contest)... But for the classical rhetorician, elocutio meant ‘style’. "All rhetorical considerations of style involved some discussion of choice of words, usually under such headings as correctness, purity..., simplicity, clearness, appropriateness, ornateness. "Another subject of consideration was the composition or arrangement of words in phrases or clauses (or, to use the rhetorical term, periods). Involved here were discussions of correct syntax or collocation of words; patterns of sentences (e.g. parallelism, antithesis); proper use of conjunctions and other correlating devices both within the sentence and between sentences... "A great deal of attention was paid, of course, to tropes and figures." (Edward P.J. Corbett and Robert J. Connors, Classical Rhetoric for the Modern Student. Oxford University. Press, 1999)
- 10. • Teachers of Elocution "If there is a word more repellent than all others to an actor, or to the descendant of actors, it is the word elocution. It is saying a good deal, but, probably, outside of patent medicines, there is no humbug so great as characterizes nine tenths of elocution teaching. Men and women utterly incapable of speaking one sentence naturally undertake to make public speakers. What is the result? Pulpit, bar, rostrum, and stage teem with speakers that mouth, orate, rant, chant, and intone, but are never natural. It is a grievous evil. That elocution can be taught I have no doubt, but I know that most teachers are to be shunned as you would shun the plague." (American journalist and actress Kate Field, quoted by Alfred Ayres in Acting and Actors, Elocution and Elocutionists: A Book About Theater Folk and Theater Art, 1903) • Lord Chesterfield on Becoming a Fine Speaker "The vulgar look upon a man, who is reckoned a fine speaker, as a phenomenon, a supernatural being, and endowed with some peculiar gift of Heaven; they stare at him, if he walks in the park, and cry, that is he. You will, I am sure, view him in a juster light, and nulla formidine [without apprehension]. You will consider him only as a man of good sense, who adorns common thoughts with the graces of elocution, and the elegance of style. The miracle will then cease; and you will be convinced, that with the same application, and attention to the same objects, you may most certainly equal, and perhaps surpass, this prodigy." (Philip Stanhope, letter to his son, February 15, 1754)
- 11. REFERENCES • www.Quora.com • www.thoughtco.com • Sullivan, Mark (1996). "Educating the American Mind". In Dan Rather. Our Times. America Finding Itself. New York: Scribner. pp. 152–157. ISBN 0-684-81573-7. Further reading • Carol Poster (ed.). The Elocutionary Movement: British rhetoric in the eighteenth & nineteenth centuries. Bristol: Thoemmes Continuum. ISBN 1-84371-023-4.