Learning to Speak: 14 Simple Exercises for Beginning Speakers
As you know, people's impressions of each other are based 55 percent on body language, 38 percent on voice timbre and diction, and only 7 percent on the words they speak. Therefore, the problem of a good voice for a person is extremely relevant, since it determines almost 40 percent of his success in life.
It is very important to breathe correctly. And the first few exercises will teach us this:
1. Inhale on the count of 1, 2, 3, 4, on 5, 6 - hold your breath, on the count of 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 - exhale.
2. Repeat the task of exercise 1, but as you exhale, count out loud: 7, 8...15.
3. Take a short breath, hold your breath a little, and as you exhale, start counting: 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. Do not speed up the counting rate, do not take in air.
4. Say a counting tongue twister, inhaling at the place indicated *, and continue as you exhale, as long as there is enough air: “Like on a hill, on a hillock there are thirty-three Egorkas*: one - Egorka, two - Egorka, three - Egorka and so on Further".
6. This is an exercise to train the diaphragm. Say the text below without closing your mouth. You can imagine that you have a filling and you cannot close your mouth:
Without eating for two hours? Terrible! I didn't have breakfast in vain. I want to eat more than ever!.. Wait two hours? Nonsense! I have character, I have the will, If I can’t, I won’t eat!
We are on the right track and the following exercises are aimed at developing the voice itself : its strength, mobility and euphony
7. Name the floors along which you mentally climb, raising the tone of your voice each time, and then “go down” down.
8. Pronounce the words slowly at first, then gradually speed up the tempo to a very fast pace and then slow down: “We were driving fast, we were driving fast, we were driving fast... we were driving fast... we were driving fast.”
9. Pronounce the syllables drawn out and smoothly (as when singing): mi, me, ma, mo, mu, we.
The most interesting thing is ahead, bringing us closer to the success of speaking in front of any audience: exercises for developing diction.
10. Pronounce difficult combinations of sounds, first slowly, then faster:
Tlz, jr, vrzh, mkrtch, kpt, kft, ksht, kst, ktsch, kzhda, kkzhde, kzhdo, kzhdu, kshta, kshte, kshtu, kshto.
11. Say words with difficult combinations of consonants, first slowly, then faster:
Stay awake, philosophize, postscript, cheer up, transplantation, supersonic, disheveled, counter-breakthrough, point of explosion, Protestantism, excite, over-anxious, get into the barrel, department, fire hose, supersonic, floridate, philosophize, monster, much to snore.
12. Practice pronouncing long consonants:
To Clara, to whom, to the throat, to tours, to Gala, to Katya, to Kiev, to the end, to the city, distant, to get involved, to give, to kindle, an outlet, to live out, without a fur coat, ruthless, immortality, to restore, to confirm, push away;
13. Work on the combination of sounds can be carried out in the form of a game, using onomatopoeia:
- Hammer the nails: Gbdu! Gbdo! Gbde! Gbdy! Gbda! Gbdi!
- Imitate a horse's stomp: Bird! Ptko! Bird! Birds! Ptke! Birds!
- Throw imaginary plates to your partner: Kchku! Kchko! Kchke! Kchka! Kchky! Kchki!
14. Pronounce tongue twisters with difficult combinations or alternations of consonant sounds:
- Tell us about your purchases. — What kind of shopping? - About shopping, about shopping, about my shopping.
- Buy a pile of spades.
- There is a haystack with a small quail, and under the hay there is a quail with a small quail.
- Standing, standing at the gate, is a bull with a blunt mouth and wide short length.
- The cap is sewn, the cap is knitted, but not in the Kolpakov style; the bell was poured, the bell was forged, but not in the Kolokov style; the bell needs to be re-capped and re-caulked, the bell needs to be re-belled and re-caulked.
This is a small part of the existing exercises aimed at developing speech and voice. But if you devote 15 minutes a day to such training, you can learn to control your voice and easily win over others.
“A poet is born, but a man himself becomes an orator” (Marcus Tullius Cicero)
Even such a famous speaker of the 20th century as the “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher had a shrill voice from birth that was not very pleasant to hear. She felt lost in front of a large audience, was frightened by hundreds of human eyes, and at the same time forgot her words and did not know where to look.
But in fact, Thatcher became “iron” later. Having perfectly understood and realized that without oratory she would not be able to achieve significant success in politics, Margaret began to work on herself. The “Iron Lady” signed up for voice training classes and took public speaking courses.
Long months of preparation for a public speech, rehearsals and auditions, consultations with a theater arts teacher and an experienced image maker led her to the result that we all know well.
As you can see, each of us can become a great speaker. The main thing is desire . If it is, then the first step on the path to your comprehension of the art of eloquence has already been taken.
To be continued…
Rhetoric and oratory
Oratory is not just the ability to speak a lot and beautifully. A good speaker must master the basics of psychology and acting, philosophy and analytics. Its main goal is not just to convey certain information to the interlocutor, but also to arouse interest among the audience and encourage listeners to take certain actions.
10 Basic Rules of Rhetoric
In rhetoric, there are 10 components that influence the quality of speech and form the basis of oratory.
Objectivity
You should not present your own beliefs as an immutable truth. The speaker's speech must be unbiased and the information truthful;
Conciseness
A long monologue containing a lot of secondary information causes irritation and a negative reaction from others. The text of the speech should be quite short and concise, while remaining meaningful and informative;
Clarity
Clarity is the ability to explain complex things in simple words, to present information in a form understandable to the interlocutor;
Imagery
Using real life situations as examples, comparison and contrast, causes the listener to associate with familiar, familiar things. The feelings and emotions that arise in this case simplify the perception of information and make speech more memorable;
Feasibility
The main idea of what was said should be easily grasped and quickly remembered;
Voltage
The interlocutor needs to be captivated, interested, and, while maintaining intrigue and increasing the degree of tension, gradually bring him to the climax of the story;
Surprise
A non-standard approach and a fresh look at the situation increase the audience’s interest in the speaker and his speech;
Saturation
The listener should not be burdened with an abundance of difficult-to-understand terms and formulations; they should be interspersed with simple and easy-to-understand information;
Comic effect
Humor smooths out rough edges, endears the audience, and performances, diluted with a good joke or appropriate wit, are better remembered;
Style
You should not make pretentious and sublime speeches, but at the same time, what is said should not seem vulgar or vulgar. The choice of narrative style depends on its content and the target audience for which the speech is intended.
Read further: Secrets of oratory and public speaking
Fear of public speaking
Anxiety and self-doubt prevent a speaker from expressing his thoughts clearly. He often gets confused, his speech becomes confused and the viewer has to strain to catch the essence of what is being said. Excitement and fear of an audience can lead to failure of any performance. How not to be afraid of public speaking?
The first step to solving the problem is to analyze and identify those factors due to which a person experiences discomfort before going on stage and is afraid of the audience. Most often, the reasons for such a reaction are psychological in nature. Uncontrollable fear and anxiety can occur due to:
- childhood memories (unsuccessful performance at an early age);
- strict upbringing (prohibitions and restrictions on the part of parents, the belief that one should not attract the attention of other people);
- complexes (dissatisfaction with oneself, expectation of laughter from the audience);
- painful pride (fear of criticism, desire to be perfect in everything).
Fear of public speaking is a very common phenomenon, familiar to almost everyone who has worked with a large audience. A little anxiety makes a speech more emotional and interesting, but it is very important to ensure that it does not develop into panic.
Read next: 15 tips to overcome your fear of public speaking
How to avoid anxiety before public speaking
There are many techniques known to help you cope with emotions and overcome stage fright. Exercising and playing sports before a performance helps you relax and relieves nervous tension. A cup of warm milk or herbal decoction with honey soothes and makes the voice softer and clearer.
Exercises
Oratory skills help not only to control the situation, but also to manage it. The positive outcome of any case depends on the speaker’s communication skills and correctly structured dialogue with listeners.
Eloquence is not an innate ability, but an acquired one. This skill needs to be developed and trained. You can learn to freely express your thoughts using words, speak easily and naturally, and arouse interest and trust in your audience by performing fairly simple but effective exercises.
8 exercises for speech training
Reading out loud
In order to develop the strength and flexibility of your voice, you need to read any text out loud every day. In this case, you need to change the tonality of each sentence, moving from loud to quiet pronunciation and vice versa. You can pronounce drawn-out vowels using a similar technique, but your voice should sound lower than usual;
Retelling what you read
You can learn to formulate thoughts by regularly retelling the texts you read in your own words. In this case, it is necessary to pay special attention to details, try to remember and reproduce as much information as possible;
Keyword Search
Searching for keywords helps develop verbal thinking. You need to determine which phrases and sentences are key in the text and try to find new wording for them. At the same time, the meaning and information content of the words must be preserved. Another version of the exercise suggests, after reading only the first part of the sentence, completing it in your own words;
Paraphrasing
This exercise teaches you to highlight the main idea in the text. After reading a short article or message, you need to convey the information contained in it in your own words, while reducing the text size to one sentence;
Simplicity of speech
To eliminate the frequent use of the same words (the words “parasites”), the retold text is recorded on a voice recorder. Having discovered sentences containing such words while listening, they must be spoken several times, but in the correct form;
Tongue Twisters
With the help of tongue twisters, you can learn to speak faster while maintaining clear pronunciation;
Reading by warehouses
Reading by vocabulary is used to develop free, clear pronunciation. It is necessary to read any text slowly, step by step, paying attention to the correctness and clarity of the pronounced sounds. This exercise allows you to get rid of another common drawback - hasty pronunciation, in which individual sounds or endings of words are lost (swallowed), and speech turns out to be crumpled and slurred;
Reading poetry
When reading rhymed works, the correct placement of stress in words is easier to remember.
Exercises should be performed as often as possible, but it is important to take a break and rest if you feel tired. In addition, clarity of speech and clarity of pronunciation depend on proper breathing, which can be developed with the help of breathing exercises.
Read more: How to learn to speak beautifully and competently
