Monday, January 26, 2015

'CONNECT' 17 : Tips on Public Speaking: the tongue, the gum, the teeth and the lips



'The tongue is the only tool that gets sharper with use'
Washington Irving

The clarity of your speech will depend on whether each word is clearly delivered to the ears so that they are understood. It depends on factors like enunciation, pronunciation, articulation, tonality etc. These factors decide the quality of your 'diction'.

Imagine that you go a departmental stores and see stacks of biscuit packets of various brands and variety, but you cannot see each packet clearly and your vision is blurred for whatever reason. Will you be able to select the biscuits? The same happens when you cannot hear the words spoken clearly.

The clarity of your voice depends on the way you use your tongue, the gum, the teeth and the lips. If you do not use the strings of a guitar properly, will you be able to produce a good music? Similarly, if you do not use the tongue, the gum, the teeth and the lips, your diction will suffer due to poor articulation and pronunciation.

In this the most important part is the tongue. Most of the diction and articulation problems can be corrected by using your tongue properly.

You need to give exercises to your tongue. One way is to use what are called 'tongue twisters'. We will see some examples in the next newsletter.

N C Sridharan

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