LESSON 30. How to Improve Your Speech by Reading Aloud KEY WORDS: FORM THE HABIT OF READING ALOUD EVERY DAY. There is no better way by which to make your speech effective than the practice of reading aloud. Suppose you are in your home circle. It is probable that you will have several eager listeners. Read aloud short items of interest from the daily papers, or short articles from current periodicals. If you try to read an entire book aloud you wil meet with so many interruptions that you will be discouraged. There is always the opportunity for reading a short item or article. Avail yourself of that opportunity. The psychological effect on yourself will astonish you. You have an audience. You wish your audience to hear you; therefore, raise your voice, and gain in reaching power. You wish your audience to understand you fully, without asking you to repeat. Therefore, enunciate sounds far more clearly than usual. You wish your audience to be interested. Therefore, read with expression. Practise reading aloud, whatever else you do. The effect of this stimulus day after day is to form a habit of correct enunciation. A winter's reading aloud in the home will do more in giving effective speech training than will much hard study. You will find also that home reading will lead you naturally to public reading and to public speaking. PROBLEMS. 1. How many minutes in the past month have you given to reading aloud? 2. Take up a newspaper and read aloud some humorous item in a way that would interest a child. 3. Take up a letter from your desk and read it aloud in such a way that it will reflect the personality of the writer. Conclusion to Book I In Book I you have mastered the details of speech, and have learned how to avoid the faults that mark poor speakers. You have now become a far more excellent speaker than is the average person. During the rest of your study in this course return occasionally to Book I, and review the work here presented. In that way you will make your mastery permanent. In Book II you will learn how to use words effectively. Book II will show you how easy it is to gain a large vocabulary, and to use words with striking force. Book I has made you a master of speech. Book II will make you a master of language. |