INTRODUCTION. FORCIBLE EXPRESSION. Some say: "My voice ELOCUTION is the expression of thought by word and action. In order to become a good reader three things are necessary: A GOOD VOICE, A CORRECT PRONUNCIATION, A To obtain a forcible voice is not difficult. is too feeble; I can never become a speaker." the shade one year without exercise or sunshine, they would have feeble muscles. Practice will give any one a voice of sufficient force to be heard clearly in any hall in the land. Go to work at once and acquire a good voice. Put the voice to its severest test. In balmy weather, go out in the groves and practice on a high key. Then on a low key. Do not be alarmed should you get hoarse the first time. Try again. If a person has not been accustomed to walking, the first few hours' walk will greatly fatigue him. But let him practice walking each day and he will become accustomed to it. Occasionally the race-horse is put to his severest test. So the voice must occasionally be tested. This will give the voice flexibility and ease. The greater part of practice should be on a conversational key, but occasional practice in shouting tones will develop the voice rapidly. Many speakers find their voices harsh and uncontrollable at the beginning of an address, but at the close the voice is in "fine condition." Much annoyance may be avoided by practicing on different pitches of the voice for a half hour. The practice may be severe. Begin lightly and increase to shouting tones. The last part of the practice should also be moderate. This should be done one or two hours before the time for delivering the address. To break up bad articulation practice with the mouth full of pebbles, marbles, or smooth hickory nuts. The author has tried this plan often, and is satisfied that it is worthy attention. Fill the mouth full and attempt to read one or two pages. Then remove the pebbles and read a few pages. The organs of speech will now be as "sportive as the swallow and as versatile as the stream let." Let public speakers who are annoyed with indistinct articulation try this plan. A correct pronunciation is a necessary element to good reading. Often an uncouth pronunciation ruins the effect of an entire address. Speakers should carefully guard against vulgar pronuncia tions. This subject is fully discussed in Part II. A vivid expression is necessary. Thought is antecedent to everything. First get the thought. Expression is giving out. Many persons attempt to give out before they have anything to give out. Before reading a selection ask yourself the following questions: 1. Who wrote this selection? 2. Why did he write it? 3. Under what surroundings did he write it? 4. What would be the condition of the mind of a person who would write such a selection? 5. How would he express it? 6. How would I feel under similar surroundings? 7. How would I express that feeling were I under similar surroundings? It is not enough to tell a person to read naturally. Suppose a man has walked in a stooped condition for ten years, and you tell him when he goes before an audience that he must stand up straight and be natural. He would certainly assume a very awkward and unnatural attitude. Before he can give your idea of naturalness you must elevate the creature. He must practice standing straight behind the counter, in the parlor, and walk straight upon the street. If a person never laughed it would be impossible to teach him elocutionarily how to laugh. On the contrary, you would be compelled to place the person in cheerful society, and first have him laugh from the heart. To be natural is to be what you are. If you are not a model in naturalness you must elevate the creature. PART I. HOW TO TEACH A CHILD TO READ. CLOSE observers conclude that the surest way to secure a nation of temperance people is to educate the children in the habits of sobriety. Neglected home training necessitates temperance laws. So the best way to secure good readers is to begin correctly in the primary school. Bad teaching in primary grades necessitates elocutionists. The chief work of the elocutionist is to undo what the primary teacher has done; to right what has been thus made wrong. The child comes into the school room heralding the mastery of its first day's journey with that ringing laugh and sportive speech that challenge the admiration of the most gifted orator or polished elocutionist. The teacher makes rapid haste to destroy this natural sweetness of expression. In a few days this sportive expression is changed to a drawling school style. Ten years pass. The elocutionist comes forward to reap a rich harvest from the bad teaching in the primary department. The child has learned to talk well. One thing I would impress upon the teacher; let the child continue to talk well; let the silvery speech heard on the play-ground be heard in the reading class. The teacher who can not teach reading can not teach school, for reading is the key to knowledge. Most of the failures in reading can be traced to the bad teaching of primary and intermediate teachers. When the child gets thought by the eye (written words), it should express the sentiment in the same easy manner that it does when it gets the thought through the ear. I would have the teacher to remember, and to keep on remembering, that the eye is as quick to know a word as is the ear, and if properly trained the child will comprehend the word cat just as quickly by seeing it as by hearing it. LANGUAGE. Learning to Talk. The child learns to talk before it is sent to school. Its parents are its teachers. Happy is the child whose parent-teachers instruct it correctly! The child's first lesson in language is learning to talk. It hears words used and learns them by imitation and association. How a Child Learns to Talk.-We have numerous methods of teaching children to read, but mothers do not meet in state associations and discuss the best methods of teaching the child to talk. Common sense guides the mother. She certainly does her work well. She does not begin by teaching the child the elementary sounds of the language, neither does she begin with an entire sentence. How ludicrous it would be to see a mother attentively teaching the child the sounds of the word papa. Common sense tells her that the child first acquires ideas (words), then relations (sentences). The child learns the word as a whole. After it has learned a few object-words, papa, hat, book, cat, bed, etc., it begins to learn relations. It does not learn the spoken word cat by hearing it. It must see the object. You might repeat the word cat a thousand times, yet the child gets no idea. But say cat, and point to the cat, and the child will, in its baby way, say "catty.' |