Module 9 scientific (academic) style

Theoretical Material

Classroom lectures are the most representative examples within the bulk of scientific style, and tend to be generally formal in style.

Attention is focused here on a lecture, on a scientific subject and reading aloud a piece of scientific prose. Thus, we can say that the speech within scientific (academic) style is that of occurring in the written variety of language, in one-sided form of communication (monologues), in prepared, public, formal discourse. The lecturer's purpose is threefold:

• he must get the 'message' of the lecture across to his audience;

• he must attract the attention of the audience and direct it to the 'message';

• he must establish contact with his audience and maintain it throughout the lecture.

Though lectures are generally formal in style, as it was already mentioned, the manner of delivery may differ markedly from one lecture to another.

In a university class, the size of the audience has a great deal of influence on the style of the lecture. If the audience consists of a small group – up to about 10, for example – the speaker is likely to become rather informal. In a large lecture hall where a hundred or more students are present, the lecturer will speak quite differently. If the students are expected to make notes, the professor will speak more slowly and leave more pauses.

Thus to achieve the above mentioned goals the speaker uses a specific set of intonation means. The most common pre-nuclear pattern (i.e. that part of the tune preceding the nucleus) is (Low Pre-Head) + Stepping Head.

The Stepping Head makes the whole intonation group sound weighty and it has a greater persuasive appeal than the Falling Head.

The High-Fall and the Fall-Rise are the most conspicuous tunes. They are widely used as means of both logical emphasis and emphasis for contrast. A succession of several high falling tones also make an utterance expressive enough, they help the lecturer to impress on his audience that he is dealing with something. He is quite sure of what he is speaking about, something that requires neither argument nor discussion. Thus basic intonation patterns found here are as follows:

(Low Pre-Head) + Stepping Head + Low Fall (+ Tail)

High Fall

Low Rise

(Low Pre-Head)+ High (Medium) Level + Low Fall (+ Tail)

Fall-Rise

Low Rise

Mid-Level

Less important parts are pronounced at greater speed than usual, while more important parts are characterized by slower speed. Besides, the speaker makes use of alternating rhythmic patterns, differing in length.

Some pauses, made by speaker, may be explicable in terms of hesitation phenomena denoting forgetfulness or uncertainty (e.g. word-searching). The most widely used hesitation phenomena here are repetitions of words and filled pauses, which may be vocalic /E:/, consonantal /m/ and mixed /E:m/. Intentional use of these effects enables the lecturer to obtain a balance between formality and informality and thus to establish a closer contact with his listeners who are made to feel that they are somehow involved in making up the lecture. A silent pause at an unexpected point calls for the listeners' attention.

It is necessary to mention that sometimes the broken Stepping Head is found, if an accidental rise occurs on some item of importance. The Stepping Head may be replaced by the so-called heterogeneous head, i.e. a combination of two or several heads. The most frequently used types of the Heterogeneous Head here are as follows:

• the Stepping Head combined with the Falling Head;

• the Broken Stepping Head combined with the Falling Head;

• the Stepping Head combined with the Sliding Head;

• the Broken Stepping Head combined with the Sliding Head.

Compound tunes make the oral representation of a written scientific text more expressive by bringing out the most important items in an utterance. Moreover, they secure greater intonational cohesion between different parts of a text.

The speed of utterance fluctuates from normal to accelerated, but it is never too fast. The accelerated speed of utterance is accounted for by the greater length of words and the greater number of stressed syllables within an intonaton group.

Reading scientific prose is characterized by contrastive rhythmic patterns (rhythmic utterance). This is predetermined by the correlation of rhythm and speed of utterance. It is generally assumed that slow speed supposes regular rhythm while in accelerated speech rhythm is less regular.

Pauses are predominantly short and almost always semantically or syntactically predictable. Hesitation pauses are to be avoided, if possible.