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Teaching Guidelines

Distance Education Guidelines
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High School Drama Courses

High School Oral Comm Courses
Recommended Unit Areas
Argumentation
Communication Process
Group Discussion
Interpersonal Comm
Interviewing
Mass Communication
Oral Interpretation
Parliamentary Procedure
Public Speaking
Voice and Diction
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Class Activities
Breathe!
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Voice Warmups
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Rate Control
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Let Me Hear It!
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To Project Or Not To Project!
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"I Got It"
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ASCA Oral Comm Position Statement
Addendum

Arkansas Guidelines

Department of Education Curriculums
Theatre
Communication - One Semester
Communication - Full Year

Oral Communication Units and Activities

"I GOT IT"

Unit(s): Voice Production

Purpose:

The purpose of this exercise is to inroduce students to paralanguage and the importance of vocal variety in communication.

Objective:

Students will be able to use vocal variety to establish moods, feelings, and attitudes.

Materials:

  1. Hand-out of vocal clues
  2. A selected number of "Nerf Balls"

Procedure:

Hand out the vocal terms and discuss the definitions and their usage in speech communication.

Move the chairs in the classroom so that students can stand in an open circle.

Explain the rules of the exercise:

a. The Nerf Ball can be any object the student wishes it to be.

b. The student hands the ball to another student asking them to take the object or giving them the object.

Examples:

"Look what a beautiful rose I picked for you on the way to school this morning."

"Take those dirty socks and put them in the dirty clothes basket!"

"Here's your promise ring back!"

c. Students may not refuse to accept the object, and must take it, demonstrating vocally, verbally, and nonverbally that they are actually taking the designated object.

As an extension of this activity, I have the students give me the object and I will only accept the object if they are convincing. They are not allowed to sit down until they can convince me that they actually are handing me the designated object.



Changes in an individual's voice can reveal a great deal about a person if the listener is perceptive.

  1. Pitch - the highness or lowness of a voice. Usually men have lower pitched voices than women. Nervous people tend to have higher pitched voices. If you are really tense, your voice can become much higher than normal.
  2. Rate - how fast or slowly a person talks. Extreme differences in rate of speech may be a reflection of how nervous a person is. A person who is tense in a particular situation will probably tend to speak more rapidly than normal. Often very high-energy people have a rapid rate of speech.
  3. Volume - the loudness or softness of the voice. Sometimes the loudness or softness of one's voice may be related to his or her self-image. Soft-spoken people may be concerned that others may not want to listen to them. Sometimes people get louder because they think it's a way of pushing their point or that people will listen if they are loud.
  4. Quality - the sound of the voice. People may have unpleasant voice qualities, such as nasal, raspy, or whiny tones that may communicate an unfair image.
  5. Inflection - the rising and falling of the pitch. Statements usually end with a falling inflection and a question with a rising inflection. Doubt or uncertainty and humor are usually indicated by the rising and falling of the pitch pattern. An individual who has very little variety in his or her inflection is said to be speaking in a monotone.