ページの画像
PDF
ePub

II. SUGGESTIONS REGARDING CHAPTERS

CHAPTER II
Grouping

Of the various expressive modulations of the voice found in conversation, change of pitch seems to be the most difficult to secure in reading aloud. Whenever reading is a mechanical rather than a thoughtful exercise, this will be the case. The student whose reading is without variety may be aided to clear thought and natural speech by closing the book and telling in his own words the gist of what he has just read. It is likely that the monotonous reader will be unable to make a very clear statement at first. Let him read the passage as many times as necessary to get its thought, and converse about it until the style of his reading approximates that of his conversation.

CHAPTER III

Pitch Variation

The teacher should make it clear to the student that the illustrations used in this chapter, marked or spaced to represent to the eye something of the pitch variation of the voice when it acts under the stimulus of thought, are not meant to be practiced as mechanical exercises in voice manipulation. Little good will come from an effort to make the voice follow the inflections and leaps indicated unless the idea to be expressed is held in the mind when the words are spoken. The illustrations have been given in the hope that they may help to make clear the truth that

thinking controls the action of the voice and that the voice, in turn, is an important factor in determining the meaning which the listener gains from the words he hears.

Questions so put as to make answers possible in the words of a sentence under consideration, are often helpful in bringing out the sense of the text. In the case of the line from Julius Caesar (quoted on p. 61) some such questions as these may be asked: Who speaks the words? Is he one whose command the citizens would be likely to respect? What is the first thing he orders them to do? Go "hence!" Where does he tell them to go? "Home." What does he call the citizens? "Idle creatures." Not men or citizens, but "creatures!" What command does he repeat?"Get you home." Now let the student read the line as it stands. If the reading is still monotonous and mechanical, repeat the questions, and such others as suggest themselves, until the reading gives evidence that the situation and the sense of the line are understood. The question method will be found helpful in many instances when thinking is lax or the meaning of lines is not grasped. In dealing with the immature pupil especially, much depends upon the patience, sympathy, and tact of the teacher in so presenting the questions as to arouse his interest. He should not be made to feel that he is being quizzed and questioned in order to betray his ignorance, but rather that the questions are being asked of the text and that the text has the answer ready in its own words, which are there for him to use.

CHAPTER IV
Emphasis

The sentence quoted from Hamlet (p. 88) may be brought close to conversation in style of utterance when

the ideas of it are simplified and given purpose by such questions as these, which the student can answer in the words of the sentence: What are you urging some one to do?" Speak the speech."1 How is it to be spoken? "As I pronounced it to you." How did you pronounce it? Trippingly on the tongue."

66

CHAPTER V

Impressiveness in Speech

(a) Students often ask: "How shall I say this line?" The wise teacher will say, in substance at least, "As your understanding instructs you and as your honesty puts it to utterance." The teacher may instruct a student in the meaning of a piece of literature and by question, explanation, illustration, and example open his mind to it, but the student gains nothing in being relieved of the burden of doing his own thinking and analysis or by imitating another's reading of a line or stanza which he does not understand. Imitation is a doubtful way of imparting the thought or spirit of any piece of literature. The result may be curious, but it cannot be convincing.

No doubt, much of our knowledge of how to do things comes through imitation. Children learn how to form words by imitating others, but what they speak is determined by their own minds. There is a distinct difference between instructing a pupil in the use and control of his mind and voice and body and in showing him how to speak that which he does not understand, and the purpose of which is not clear to him. A pupil may profitably imitate another when necessary, in acquiring the use and control of his voice and body, the means by which he becomes able to act and express himself; but he gains nothing when another does his thinking and work for him.

1 Why does not "speech" need emphasis?

(b) Poetry offers a greater range for the play of the imagination and emotions than most orations do, and when selections are carefully chosen it makes a more direct appeal to the interests and experience of the student, with the result that expression is more apt to be spontaneous and spirited. The occasion of the delivery of notable orations and the conditions that prompted them may be outside of the student's ken, as in the case of Burke's Conciliation Speech, for example, or Webster's Reply to Hayne. The situation and the spirit of the occasion are to be realized only by dint of considerable reading or explanation, and, even with this, rarely does a student come into a very full realization of them. Nevertheless, well chosen passages from modern orations may be effectively used, and should not be ignored. But the vocal rendering of poetry is of vital importance in training the voice for speaking.

CHAPTER VI

Vocal Energy

In the study of vocal energy the student should be reminded that none of the modulations, which in this chapter are considered separately, occurs by itself. Every tone has some degree of intensity, duration, and kind of stress. The analysis has been made for the purpose of offering such suggestions for practice in vocal energy as might help in acquiring control of the voice in its full range of expressive power, and in overcoming mannerisms and faulty habits of speech. Lifelessness, drawling, uniform loudness and speed, habitually abrupt and insistent stress, are all faults which practice in rendering various types of thought and emotions will help to remove. Careful study of the different problems will bring the student to a realization of the expressive significance of the modulations of vocal energy,

and his mannerisms will eventually give place to a freer, more normal expression. If speech is lifeless and drawling, let the student render thoughts that find true expression in spirited utterance; if unvaried in loudness and speed, let him practice calm and reverential selections; if habitually abrupt, insistent, and dictatorial, he should practice on lines requiring full, sustained median stress. Adaptability of mind, spirit, and voice will come by exercise in rendering thoughts and feelings quite contrary in their normal style of expression to those which are habitually voiced in manneristic utterance.

CHAPTER VII
Rhythm

The teacher will find many students whose habitual and characteristic rate of speech is slow or rapid, according to temperament and habit. When these peculiarities interfere with true expression, when they override the influence of the thought and spirit of what is read, they are to be treated as mannerisms. In general, such cases are most effectively handled, not by insisting that speech should be slower or more rapid, but by directing the attention of the student to the significance of the words spoken, by awakening his interest in the thought and his imagination to a vivid realization of the scene pictured or action described, and by helping him to understand, by reference to his own experi ence, if possible, the emotional value of what he is reading. Furthermore, he should be impressed with the fact that he' reads or speaks for the purpose of conveying ideas, pictures, and feelings to others. The student will be helped in this if he is permitted to give in his own words the content of what is being read, and to describe the scene, the mood of the writer, the condition of mind and the state of feelings

« 前へ次へ »