READING ALOUD
Silent reading is selfish, while oral reading is for the benefit and
pleasure of others. The ordinary individual in daily life reads but
little aloud, and probably makes no attempt whatever to improve his
style after he leaves the schoolroom. But parents and teacher are
incessantly called upon to read--to read intelligently and effectively.
To some this power appears to come naturally, but most people acquire it
only by serious study and continuous practice, and will find their
greatest assistance in a thorough knowledge of those things which are
essential to pleasing oral expression.
1. ARTICULATION AND ENUNCIATION. Articulation is one thing; enunciation
is another. A person articulates the sounds of a language; he enunciates
the syllables and words. A clear and distinct enunciation is as
necessary as the perfect articulation on which it is based. Indistinct
enunciation comes from a natural slovenliness of mind, from nervousness,
haste or over-excitement.
Any one who can articulate correctly can acquire a perfect enunciation.
Knowing this fact, and knowing the causes which lead to poor
enunciation, it is comparatively easy to correct the faults and give
drill which will overcome the carelessness or remove the difficulty.
2. EMPHASIS AND INFLECTION. The primary facts upon which rests
intelligibility in reading are emphasis and inflection. Let it be said
at the start that no one can read well who has not thoroughly mastered
the thought in the selection he is rendering. If he is compelled to
search his mind for the meanings of words or to grasp the complete idea
of a sentence, he unwittingly pauses and hesitates and confuses the
ideas of his hearers. But if the thought of a selection is thoroughly
mastered, he places the emphasis almost unerringly and by so doing
raises no conflicting ideas in the mind of the listener. Moreover, if
the meaning of a sentence is clear to a reader his inflections are
ordinarily correct.
3. EMOTIONAL STATES. A person may read with perfect inflection and the
most correct emphasis, yet fail altogether to convey the real feeling of
the author. Not only must a reader master the thought, but it is
essential that he be able to feel the emotions that possessed the author
or manifested themselves in the characters he describes. If anyone is
thoroughly possessed by the sentiment of any given poem, the quality of
his voice will modify itself and respond to the behests laid upon it. He
will unconsciously pitch his voice at the proper key, will use the right
amount of force, and speak at the rate which most suitably expresses his
feelings. When this is done, we have perfectly natural reading, the
highest art.
Pitch, rate, quality and force are the particular characteristics of
good reading which depend almost entirely upon the mental state of the
reader.
a. Pitch. Much depends upon the proper pitch of the voice. The key upon
which one reads may be medium, or low, or high, and what it is depends
upon certain physiological conditions. If the vocal chords are tense,
the pitch is high. Accordingly, any state of mind that produces tense
vocal chords produces high pitch in the voice. A person can forcibly
tighten his vocal chords and utter sounds at high pitch, but they are
strained, artificial and unnatural. If a certain amount of feeling goes
with the effort, the tones become more agreeable.
If a person's voice is pitched too high, is harsh and unmelodious, the
remedy is by way of a process of forgetting. He must forget that he is
reading and feel that he is talking. If his conversation is marked by
the same faults as his reading, he may gain something by imitation in
the way of raising his standards of expression. In general, he reads
harshly because he thinks he _must_ read. The nervous tension which this
feeling produces has affected his vocal chords without any intention on
his part. He cannot read more expressively while he feels as he does.
Harshness and unnatural pitch will disappear from his voice when he can
forget that he is reading from compulsion.
For practice the following selections are excellent:
_Gettysburg Address_, IX, 321.
_Boat Song_, VII, 17.
_Battle of Waterloo_, VIII, 176.
b. Rate or Time. The rate at which a person reads, or the time consumed
in any one selection, is regulated by the extent or breadth of thought
and by the rapidity of action. There is a certain medium or ordinary
time in which those selections that are in no way emotional are read.
Commonplace selections, not calculated to stir the feelings, are of this
character, as are simple narratives where the incidents are unexciting.
This medium or standard time may be varied in two ways: first, by the
quantity of time taken in the utterance of certain words or syllables,
and second, by pauses between sentences or groups of words. Rate,
however, usually depends more upon the grouping of words and the length
of the pauses between groups than upon the utterance of syllables. The
rate of syllabic utterance is usually a personal characteristic. Some of
us articulate rapidly, while others of more phlegmatic temperament speak
slowly.
In conversation or in perfectly natural reading, we usually utter with
one impulse of the voice those words which are closely related in
meaning. These words so uttered form groups that are usually quite
independent of punctuation. Punctuation marks are for the eye and are
intended to make clear the meaning. They do not separate the sentence
into units of expression. Only the terminal marks are of any great
importance either in suggesting the inflection or indicating the length
of the pause. A good reader notices the marks insomuch as they make
clear the thought, but largely disregards them in his reading.
The person who reads too rapidly has a mind that is very quick in its
action or one that is not fully occupied with the thought of his
selection; he may have a vague understanding, but does not realize the
full extent and import of the idea. If he reads too slowly, he is
naturally slow in thought, or the words come to him slowly through his
eyes, his organs of speech are not sufficiently under control, or he
does not appreciate the difference between the principal ideas and those
of minor importance. Find the central idea, group others about it in
proper degrees of subordination, feel the sentiment in what is being
read, and the time usually will be correct. There are worse faults in
reading than undue rapidity or slowness, for we can make our minds keep
pace with the reader, if in other respects his expression is good.
The following selections afford considerable variety in rate:
_Exciting Canoe Race_, VII, 79.
_Those Evening Bells_, VII, 340.
_Charge of the Light Brigade_, VII, 147.
_Marco Bozzaris_, VIII, 90.
c. Quality. The quality of the voice is almost entirely dependent upon
the emotions. Tenderness, love, joy, awe, fear, all produce their effect
upon the voice. In an unemotional state the person speaks in normal
quality and in the tone that is natural to himself. If the same person
is frightened or if his animosity is aroused, he speaks in an aspirated
tone; if he feels harshly toward anyone or is angry, his voice possesses
that guttural quality which indicates the severer and harsher emotion;
when he is moved by grandeur and sublimity, his voice naturally takes a
full, round quality.
d. Force. The quantity of mental energy the person possesses usually
regulates the force of his utterance, and that mental energy is
stimulated by his emotions. If he feels thoroughly in earnest in what he
is trying to accomplish, his voice becomes loud and full of force. It is
then a natural force and is usually agreeable, unless the emotion which
causes it is of an unpleasant type.
But it is often true, particularly of teachers who have been long in
service and those persons who have talked under unfavorable conditions
to large numbers of people, that their voices have become too loud and
too much strained to be pleasant to the ear. A soft, pleasing voice,
loud enough to be distinctly audible, is always better than a strident,
forcible utterance that compels attention whether one will or not.
Extremes of force may be found in the following selections:
_Sweet and Low_, VI, 122.
_To a Waterfowl_, VII, 395.
_The Destruction of Sennacherib_, VI, 141.
_Little Red Riding Hood_, I, 79.