speech activities

1. How is your
teaching voice?
Here starts
the lesson!

2. ● Your teaching voice is the one you
use when you're standing in front of
your class. It's your professional
voice and often different in quality
from your day-to-day speaking
voice.
● So, how is your teaching voice?
● There is a good reason behind my
question.

3. ● Even though it may be long ago, I'm
sure you can remember the experience
of listening to a teacher with a poor or
weak voice.
● Perhaps they droned. Whatever they
were saying emerged out their mouths
at the same monotonous rate, at the
same monotonous pitch, tone and
volume. Just as if it had been pushed
through a blender. Result, pureed
speech.

4. ● Even though it may be long ago, I'm
sure you can remember the experience
of listening to a teacher with a poor or
weak voice.
● Perhaps they droned. Whatever they
were saying emerged out their mouths
at the same monotonous rate, at the
same monotonous pitch, tone and
volume. Just as if it had been pushed
through a blender. Result, pureed
speech.

6. • Or maybe their voice was shrill, or too
loud, or they didn't articulate their words
clearly.
That teacher may have been an expert in
their subject but their voice didn't
communicate in a way that inspired you to
want to know more.
Instead you switched off.
If that happens when we're adults we may
politely day dream - focus our attention
inwardly and wait for the talk/lesson to
end.

7. • However, if it's children in a
classroom, their response is
likely to be less restrained. They
will whisper, pass notes, yawn,
and prompt the class clown to
entertain them with diversionary
tactics.

8. Do you know what
affect your teaching
voice has?
Here starts
the lesson!

9. • If you know your subject, have
prepared your lessons carefully
to meet the needs of your
students and are still having
difficulty maintaining attention, it
might be time to consider your
voice.
There is nothing to lose and a lot
to gain. I promise you the
exercises are fun and easily
learned.

10. Awareness of the
impact of voice
quality is changing
Here starts
the lesson!

11. When I did my teacher's training years
ago we were taught nothing about either
the impact of voice or how to care for it.
The little knowledge I had came from
speech and drama tuition, something I
had actively sought out for myself.
However there was no help or guidance
for my fellow teacher trainees. The result
was ignorance. They didn't know enough
to know what they were missing out on.
Thankfully, that is changing.

12. Communication &
Voice Research
Here starts
the lesson!

13. Now we have a growing awareness of
how the quality of a teacher's
voice impacts on children.
A review of recent research established,
unsurprisingly, that:
"Prosodic characteristics such as
adequate pauses, precise articulation,
and lower speech rate are key resources
for a teacher’s expressiveness. Those
resources help in the modulation of the
voice in the classroom and to capture the
students’ attention, reinforcing the
importance of the voice as a didactic tool
in the educational process."

14. We also know that the major components of communication
(effective and non-effective) are a combination of what you
say (the words) and how they are delivered.
I'll let communication expert Stacey Hanke explain:
"Most individuals are unaware of the static they create when
they communicate. What do I mean by static? Static is created
when what you say is inconsistent with how you say it.
For example, suppose you’re having a conversation and the
other person says, in a boring, monotone voice, “I’m so
excited to have this opportunity to work with you.” Their facial
expressions are lifeless. They never look you in the eye and
all the while they’re fidgeting with a pen. Most likely you’d
question their credibility and knowledge, and not take action
on what they have to say."

15. 6 BAD HABITS OF
INEFFECTIVE
SPEAKERS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Fm-IlrQNVA

16. What does this mean
for your teaching
voice?

17. In a nutshell it means that
what you do with your body
while you explain the lesson is
as influential as the words
themselves.
If you want energized, focused,
actively listening students then
you need to mirror that in your
actions.

18. The trick is to SHOW while you
are TELLING what you've got
to share is exciting, relevant
and important. This cuts
through the "static" Stacey
Hanke is talking about in the
extract above.
Your body language, tone of
voice, and words must match
each other.

19. Achieving congruency
Some people achieve congruence of body
language, tone and words intuitively.
They are the performers who know how
to hold an audience's attention
effortlessly.
Others of us need to learn consciously. In
case you are tempted to judge yourself
harshly; it is not a question of better or
less than but merely one of difference. In
fact, often the person who learns these
skills consciously has more control and
flexibility once they've mastered them.

20. Why? Because they can
stand back from
themselves, analyze their
results and adjust
accordingly. The person
who just 'does it' often
lacks an overview of their
behavior.

21. Where do I begin?
- with body language
A great start to re-energizing your teaching
voice is to understand body language. This
page offers a basic overview.
I'm sure once you've read it you'll realize
you know most of it already.
What you may not have consciously
understood though is that you have the
power to choose what story your body
language tells.

22. Where do I begin?
- then vocal variety

23. Where do I begin?
Your next step is to look at vocal variety.
While your voice needs to reflect passion,
it also needs flexibility. This means having
a wide variety of tonal expressions and
other skills to select from.
You can find exercises to develop vocal
variety here. Rest assured they are fun,
easy to learn and EFFECTIVE!

24. Where do I begin?
- pause power
Do you know the trick of using
the power of the pause?
Timing is the key.

26. Silence can speak so much
louder than words.

27. - putting the brakes on motor mouth
Perhaps you need exercises to slow your
speech down?
Your voice rattling off information at high
speed will lose many students quickly. There
are exercises for developing a flexible
speech rate here.
Fast is one option. Be kind. Give yourself
some more.

28. - getting clarity of sound

29. Do your students have difficulty
clearly hearing your words?
If you habitually speak without
sufficient articulation, here is a
page of fun tongue twister
exercises here to help.

30. And lastly, breathing
How you breathe underpins voice quality
and health. Good breathing and postural
habits are essential for maintaining a strong
healthy voice.
Do read, and then practice these breathing
exercises.
You'll find not only will they improve the
quality of your voice but any stress or
tension you are carrying will fall away as
well.

31. Stage your learning
Begin with one element. For example,
speech rate. Practice with that until you feel
you have more control over it. And then add
another aspect. Now practice with that as
well as the one previously mastered. When
you feel happy with your progress, add a
third. Etc., etc. Keep building. Keep
practicing!

32. Your voice is essential to your career
Your teaching voice IS important.
It's the vehicle for transmitting your
knowledge, your passion, your concern...in
short all the things that made you excited
about becoming a teacher in the first place.
Have fun developing your voice.
And remember you're never just a teacher,
you are a motivational speaker!

33. PS
If you have specific & ongoing voice
health issues, please be sure to check
out my voice health page. Get help
before you actually need it.
And if you'd like more on how the
quality of our voice affects how others
perceive us check this page on voice
image.