Record your own voice. Make two recordings:
1. Record informal, conversational, and unrehearsed material. An interview with a classmate or the instructor or a brief impromptu chat are suggested. (2 minutes)
2. Record an unrehearsed reading. Use one of the selections "A" through "C" that follow. They contain all of the sounds of the English language commonly found to be troublesome or temperamental. Again, pick 1 of the paragraphs.
Begin each recording with a sentence or two of identification. My name is __________. Please include whether the material is an example of "A", "B" or "C".
3. Bring the audio tape with the two recordings to class. First, we will exchange with other students who will evaluate your performance using the first evaluation form. Then, the instructor will give you feedback on your performance using the second form. This is NOT a graded exercise. It will be incorporated in the grading as extra credit.
A. I heard someone say, "Pop music is the hamburger of the day." For me, it’s a lot more, Music is the commonest vibration, the people’s news broadcast. I would like to study music and find out how we could use it to heal. Half the battle is selling music, not singing it. It’s the image, not what you sing. Anyway, the softer you sing, the louder you’re heard. Music does things to you whether you like it or not. Fast tempos raise your pulse and blood pressure. Slow music lowers them. You know yourself, music can calm the savage beast. A person can charm a snake with a flute. You place speakers in a jungle with wild animals and play Beethoven, and the animals will come into your camp. In music you have to think with the heart and feel with the brain. On stage I make love to twenty-five thousand people; then I go home alone. Not even boot camp could be as tough as being in rock and roll. The truth is where the truth is, and sometimes it’s in the candy store. (Janis Joplin)
B. When you get a hundred-million people watching a single pro football game on television, it shows you that people need to identify with something. Pro football is like atomic warfare. There are no winners, only survivors. The football season is like pain. You forget how terrible it is until it seizes you again. Is it normal to wake up in the morning in a sweat because you can’t wait to beat another human’s guts out? Every time you win, you’re reborn. When you win, nothing hurts. When you lose, you die a little. No one knows what to say in the loser’s room. How you play the game is for college boys. When you’re playing for money, winning is the only thing that matters. Fewer than three touchdowns is not enough, and more than five is rubbing it in. You’re a hero when you win and a bum when you lose. That’s the game. They pay their money, and they can boo if they feel like it. If football was half as complicated as some sportswriters make out it is, quite a few of us would never have been able to make a living at it.
C. Once there was a prince, and he wanted to marry a real princess. He traveled all around the world to find one, but always there was something wrong. There were princesses enough, but he found it difficult to make out whether they were real ones. One evening a terrible storm came along. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the gate. It was a princess. But what a sight she was after all the dreadful weather. The water ran down her hair and clothes. And yet she said she was a real princess. We’ll soon find out," thought the old queen. She went into the bedroom, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea at the bottom. Then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea. On this the princess slept all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept. "Terribly!" said the princess. "Heaven only knows what was in the bed. It felt as though a huge rock was under that mattress. I am black and blue all over." Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that. So the prince married her, for now he knew that he had a real princess. (Fairy Tale)
First Voice Quality Evaluation
Breathy 1 2 3 4 Strident 1 2 3 4 Harsh 1 2 3 4 Nasal 1 2 3 4 Denasal 1 2 3 4 Throaty 1 2 3 4 Hoarse 1 2 3 4 Second Voice Quality Evaluation
Quality 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voice pleasant to listen to? Articulation 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the speech clear, distinct, and easy to understand? Loudness 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voice easily heard? Expressiveness 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voice varied and flexible? English sentence structure 1 2 3 4 5 *Did the student use full, complete sentences in English word order? Fluency 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the production of the text smooth and fluid? Unnecessary fillers 1 2 3 4 5 *Did student use "um", "ah", or similar fillers? Final Voicing Project
Quality 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voice pleasant to listen to? Articulation 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the speech clear, distinct, and easy to understand? Loudness 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voice easily heard? Expressiveness 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voice varied and flexible? English sentence structure 1 2 3 4 5 *Did the student use full, complete sentences in English word order? Fluency 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the production of the text smooth and fluid? Unnecessary fillers 1 2 3 4 5 *Did student use "um", "ah", or similar fillers? Register 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the vocabulary used fit the time, age, and education of the speaker? Fingerspelling 1 2 3 4 5 *Was student able to accurately voice fingerspelling? Message Accuracy 1 2 3 4 5 *Was the voiced message accurate and cohesive?