Public Speaking - Clarence Stratton

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show how an ability to speak may be of value in it.

      9. Choose some business position, and show how an ability to speak is a decided advantage in it.

      10. What is the best method of acquiring a foreign language? For example, how shall the alien learn English?

      11. Choose some great man whom you admire. Show how he became a speaker. Or give an account of one of his speeches.

      12. Show the value of public speaking to a girl—in school; in business; in other careers.

      13. Explain the operation of a dictaphone.

      14. How can training in public speaking help an applicant for a position?

      15. Explain the sentence quoted from Bacon's essay on studies.

       Table of Contents

       Table of Contents

      Organs of Speech. Although the effects produced by the human voice are myriad in their complexity, the apparatus involved in making the sounds which constitute speech is extremely simple. In construction it has been usually compared to an organ pipe, a comparison justifiable for imparting a non-technical understanding of its operation.

      An organ pipe is a tube in which a current of air passing over the edge of a piece of metal causes it to vibrate, thus putting into motion the column of air in the pipe which then produces a note. The operating air is forced across the sounding piece of metal from a bellows. The tube in which the thin sounding plate and the column of air vibrate acts as a resonator. The resulting sound depends upon various sizes of the producing parts. If the tube is quite long the sound is low in pitch. If the tube is short the sound is high. Stopping the end of the pipe or leaving it open alters the pitch. A stopped pipe gives a note an octave lower than an open pipe of the same length. The amount of the vibrating plate which is allowed to move also determines the pitch of a note. If the air is under great pressure the note is loud. If the air is under little pressure the note is soft.

      

      It is quite easy to transfer this explanation to the voice-producing apparatus in the human body.

      To the bellows correspond the lungs from which the expelled air is forced upwards through the windpipe. The lungs are able to expel air regularly and gently, with no more expense of energy than ordinary breathing requires. But the lungs can also force air out with tremendous power—power enough to carry sound over hundreds of yards. In ordinary repose the outward moving breath produces no sound whatever, for it meets in its passage no obstruction.

      Producing Tone. At the upper end of the windpipe is a triangular chamber, the front angle of which forms the Adam's apple. In this are the vocal cords. These cords are two tapes of membrane which can be brought closely together, and by muscular tension stretched until passing air causes them to vibrate. They in turn cause the air above them to vibrate, much as the air in an organ pipe vibrates. Thus tone is produced.

      The air above the vocal cords may fill all the open spaces above the larynx—the throat, the mouth, the nasal cavity in the head, the nostrils. This rather large amount of air, vibrating freely, produces a sound low in pitch. The larger the cavities are made the lower the pitch. You can verify this by producing a note. Then place your finger upon your Adam's apple. Produce a sound lower in pitch. Notice what your larynx does. Sing a few notes down the scale or up to observe the same principle of the change of pitch in the human voice.

      

      Producing Vowels. If the mouth be kept wide open and no other organ be allowed to modify or interrupt the sound a vowel is produced. In speech every part of the head that can be used is brought into action to modify these uninterrupted vibrations of vocal cords and air. The lips, the cheeks, the teeth, the tongue, the hard palate, the soft palate, the nasal cavity, all coöperate to make articulate speech.

      As in its mechanism, so in the essence of its modifications, the human voice is a marvel of simplicity. If the mouth be opened naturally and the tongue and lips be kept as much out of the way as in ordinary breathing, and then the vocal cords be made to vibrate, the resulting sound will be the vowel a as in father. If now, starting from that same position and with that same vowel sound, the tongue be gradually raised the sound will be modified. Try it. The sound will pass through other vowels. Near the middle position it will sound like a in fate; and when the tongue gets quite close to the roof of the mouth without touching it the vowel will be the e of feet. Others—such as the i of it—can be distinguished clearly.

      Starting again from that same open position and with that same vowel sound, ah, if the tongue be allowed to lie flat, but the lips be gradually closed and at the same time rounded, the sound will pass from ah to the o of hope, then on to the oo of troop. The oa of broad and other vowels can be distinguished at various positions.

      By moving lips and tongue at the same time an almost infinite variety of vowel sounds can be made.

      

      Producing Consonants. In order to produce consonant sounds the other parts of the speaking apparatus are brought into operation. Everyone of them has some function in the formation of some consonant by interrupting or checking the breath. A student, by observing or feeling the motions of his mouth can easily instruct himself in the importance of each part if he will carefully pronounce a few times all the various consonant sounds of the language.

      The lips produce the sounds of p, b, wh, and w. The lips and teeth produce the sounds of f, v. The tongue and teeth together make the sounds of th and dh. The tongue in conjunction with the forward portion of the hard palate produces several sounds—t, d, s, z, r, and l. The tongue operating against or near the rear of the hard palate pronounces ch, j, sh, zh, and a different r. To make the consonant y the tongue, the hard palate, and the soft palate operate. The tongue and soft palate make k and g. A strong breathing makes the sound of h. By including the nasal passages in conjunction with some of the other parts here listed the so-called nasals, m, n, and ng, are made. According to the organ involved our consonant sounds are conveniently grouped as labials (lips), dentals (teeth), linguals (tongue), palatals (palate), and nasals (nose).

      The correct position and action of the vocal organs are of supreme importance to all speakers. Many an inveterate stammerer, stutterer, or repeater can be relieved, if not cured, of the embarrassing impediment by attention to the position of his speech organs and by careful, persistent practice in their manipulation. In fact every speaker must be cognizant of the placement of these parts if he desires to have control over his speech. Frequently it is such correct placement rather than loud noise or force which carries expressions clearly to listeners.

      While it is true that singing will strengthen the lungs and help in control of breath, it is not always the fact—as might be expected—that singing will develop the speaking voice. Not every person who can sing has a pleasant or forceful voice in ordinary discourse. In singing, to secure purity of musical tone, the vowels are likely to be disproportionately dwelt upon. Thus we have the endless la-la-la and ah-ah of so many vocal show-pieces. The same practice leads to the repeated criticism that it makes no difference whether a song be in English or a foreign language—the listeners understand just as much in either case.

      In speaking effectively the aim and method are the exact opposite. When a man speaks he wants to be listened to for the meaning of what he is uttering. There are so many words in the language with the same or similar vowel sounds that only the sharpest discrimination by

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