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I am an experienced teacher of elocution having helped political and business people, actors and students present and speak publicly or privately with more confidence and clarity. I offer three hour personalised one-to-one classes during the day.
Why elocution?
Sometimes the speaker feels as if his/her message is not getting across and is not commanding the respect or attention he/she feels it deserves; if this is the case it could be that the speaker needs to improve his/her presentation skills. I use Standard English pronunciation as my norm but even those who have good pronunciation can gain from elocution training. The aim of speech is to express the speaker's message without drawing attention to the way the speaker communicates. If the speaker's message is not getting across then it could be due to any number of things and caused by any or all of the following: lack of confidence, too fast/slow/loud/quiet speech, bad posture, bad pronunciation, inadequate voice projection, faulty tone causing quality of voice to suffer, and more. Many problems are created by inadequate knowledge of Standard English pronunciation, the mechanisms of speech, and the way words fit together to create the rhythm of the spoken English language.
This area includes work on the phonemic chart which practises correct usage of all vowel and consonant sounds in Standard English pronunciation, voiced/unvoiced distinction, strong and weak consonants, places of articulation. The student would also look at where and how each sound is produced in the vocal tract and the role of the tongue, lip and jaw in production of sound, eg their movement and position.
To practise these sounds we would look at a specific piece of work, but also practice various pieces specific to the sounds we wish to recreate. There would be some individual work at this point, probably a recording of the student so they can identify which sounds they have a particular problem with.
Here I would cover the rhythm of connected speech. This gives the student a chance to look at how they personally present themselves. Under this area we would cover stress, rhythm, tonal quality, projection of the voice, and presentation skills.
Students should be committed to improvement of their voice and is encouraged to contribute to the course content. The student should also bear in mind that without the groundwork of sound formation (phonemic chart work) it is difficult to progress on to the clarity of speech that many people yearn for.
Philippa Benjamin
Bristol Computer Training
92 Egerton Road
Bristol
BS7 8HP
(+ 44) 117 9247567Contact by email
www.bristolcomputertraining.co.uk