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Файл:Практическая фонетика первого иностранного языка. Шаг за шагом. Учебно-методическое пособие для студентов первого, второго курсов
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II. Speech breathing development
….Breathing is the bridge connecting the life and consciousness,
Uniting body and mind.
Тhit Nhat Hanh, a Zen teacher
1. Why breathing is important in developing pronunciation?
To breathe in is to … in·spire /inˈspī(ə)r/, verb:
1. fill (someone) with the urge or ability to do or feel something, esp. to do something creative: "his enthusiasm
inspired them".
2. create (a feeling, esp. a positive one) in a person: "inspire confidence".
How do you breathe? Unless you‘ve had voice lessons or athletic training, most likely
your breathing is shallow, misdirected, and lacking in control.
Correct, natural breathing is the foundation of a good voice. Failure to breathe properly is
a leading cause of poor speaking volume. Watch an infant or a dog or cat lying asleep. The entire
body is relaxed and the abdominal muscles work with every breath. The muscular movement is
almost entirely below the ribs. You can judge the correctness of your own breathing by watching
your shoulders. If they are raised as you inhale, you‘re missing the deep, abdominal breathing
effect that is natural and correct.
Well, let`s see how breathing influences voice production.
Your audience (your students) judges you from the moment you stand up to speak. If you
are dressed well and are neat and clean, their initial impression of you will be positive. However,
if your voice is squeaky, your words unintelligible, or your voice is too loud, their positive
impression quickly will become negative. If you want to communicate effectively and positively
influence your audience, you must pay special attention to your speaking voice.
Every time you address an audience your mind, your body, and your voice act as partners in
your effort to communicate with your listeners. When you speak, your voice is the primary link
between you and your listeners. It is the medium of your message. Yet most likely the voice you
are now using is not your best voice. You may have buried your optimum speaking voice under
layers of bad speech habits. However, you must find it and put it to work if you want to become
a good speaker.
!!! An effective voice isn‘t necessary just for public speaking. A good, controlled voice is an
asset in every contact with others. Your voice mirrors your personality with a language all its
own. A natural voice which projects cordiality, cultivation, and authority is a significant tool for
personal success. It can help in winning the respect of others, and improving your social
opportunities, as well as in speaking effectively to audiences.
You will soon be able to extend it for an eight or even ten count.
One of your goals as a speaker should be to develop a voice that is:
- pleasant, conveying a sense of warmth;
- natural, reflecting your true personality and sincerity;
- dynamic, giving the impression of force and strength – even when it isn‘t especially loud;
- expressive, portraying various shades of meaning and never sounding monotonous or
without emotion;
- easily heard, thanks to proper volume and clear articulation.
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2. How your voice is created?
To breathe in is to inspire -become inspirited - filled with creative possibility. It‘s opposite in
English is to expire - die, end, or to become dispirited - lacking in energy, or hope.
Before you try to improve your speaking voice, you should first learn how speech sounds are
produced. This is the process that you can change in order to improve your speech. As you read
about the process, refer to the following diagram.
Speech breath is the breath during speech. The main muscle of inhale is diaphragm, i.e.
the muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal and a group of muscles that control
the edges of the chest. The most natural for any man – is breathing lying on the back when the
muscles are relaxed. As we pronounce on the exhale, its organization has the greatest importance
for the development of voice. In other words, we need to learn to use correctly the exhaled air.
Lie on your back. Place a book on your diaphragm. Try to relax each part of your body and
then concentrate on the movement of your diaphragm. As you inhale, the book rises. As you
exhale, flatten your abdomen as much as you can. Repeat this exercise until you
automatically expand and contract your waist as you breathe.
Lie on your back; put your hand on your abdomen and another one on your chest. Breathe so
that the hand on your chest stays unmovable, but the hand on your stomach rises. Then
exhale. You need to ensure that movements with abdominal breathing are easy, stress-free.
Now stand up and do the same. To train your speech breath this practice should be regular.
3. Breath Produces Voice
Breathing is fundamental to life, to your voice. Breath informs every part of lives - how
we feel, what we do, how we speak. Deep, controlled breathing is necessary for good vocal
production. Your voice is supported by a column of air, the depth and steadiness of which
determines your vocal quality. Think of the diaphragm as the foundation on which this air
column rests and by which it is controlled as it comes upward to meet the vocal organs. When
you breathe in, your abdominal wall expands and the dome-shaped diaphragm flattens. When
you exhale, the diaphragm relaxes and the abdominal wall contracts. The relaxed diaphragm
rises, pushing air out of the lungs. The exhaled air provides the controlled production of speech
sounds. As the air pushes upward against the vocal cords, it causes them to momentarily
separate, allowing the air to pass between them. The rush of air and the elasticity of the vocal
cords then pulls them back together. The production of these vibrations is called phonation.
Consider how sound is produced at the mouth of an inflated balloon. Vocal sound is produced in
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a similar manner. Air pressure comes up through the throat, mouth, and nose, causing a
continuous pressure change in the air surrounding the speaker. These pressure changes are called
sound waves. They are transmitted to the ear of the listener and the voice is heard.
4. Breathing to Reduce Anxiety and Tension.
Good breathing is dependent on the flexibility and elasticity of the body. When you use
your voice well you will feel relaxed, particularly around the area of the shoulders, neck and jaw.
Your voice will sound free if your body feels free. If you find that your voice does not project as
much as you would like, tension is nearly always a major factor. It can feel counterintuitive: you
may feel that you have to push the sound out more forcefully in order to be heard, but the reverse
is true. You need to relax more, to give your resonators a chance to ring.
Your body is your resounding instrument, and like the cymbals needs to be free for the
sound to ring through you. Relaxing your body releases your voice, and releases your mind and
your whole being at the same time.
The opposite is also true. Tensing your body tenses your mind. Not only is our voice
inhibited but your ability to listen is as well. You might have had the experience of tensing up
with fear when you speak in public. When that happens, you hear your voice going tighter and
higher in pitch, which is in itself anxiety-making, and your mind also becomes tense and unable
to think clearly. Your ―heart comes into your mouth‖. When this happens you can find yourself
trapped in an escalating spiral of performance anxiety. When you release, you are more able to
give out and to receive: you open up true communication. Be aware that relaxation is not the
same as slump: there is still vital energy running through you. Some tension in the body may be
the temporary effect of a stressful day or too much time spent hunched up before a computer
screen. Some tension however, as we have seen, is habitual, a result of holding yourself in a
particular way for years, often from childhood, as a defence against life‘s traumas.
So relaxation has much going for it, and especially with regard to the voice. So let‘s find
ways to release tensions in the body.
5. Let your voice ring!
My voice stuck in my throat.
Virgil, The Aeneid
Have you ever thought about that voice is your sound card? Your voice tells a lot about you what is your mood, your health, your emotional state whether you are excited, confident, or are
afraid of something.
A person with deep and low voice, trust, attention, makes impression of a balanced and
serious personality. The higher the tone of voice, the more the owner seems to be the irritable
man.
Do you sometimes feel the need to clear your throat when you have to talk in public? Or
your throat feels constricted? Tension in the throat is one of the first symptoms of anxiety.
Nerves make you tighten up around the shoulders as you draw yourself in for protection, and this
causes the voice to become higher and tighter. When you hear this happening to your voice, you
may fear loss of control and feel even more anxious, and a vicious circle is created. If you have
any difficulty in projecting your voice, the throat is usually the place where you sense an
inhibition. This can be the effect of the anxiety of the moment but can also be due to chronic
tension. If you have built into your psyche certain imperatives, for example, ―Never cry‖, ―Don‘t
sing, you sound awful‖, ―Stop showing off‖, it is quite likely that this presents itself physically as
a block in your throat, preventing you from being spontaneous. If then you wish to voice sorrow,
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joy, laughter or anger in a spontaneous way, you may find that the ability is no longer accessible
to you, until you teach yourself how to again. Sometimes, just an indefinable low level fear
holds you back. It may be a sense of, ―I can‘t‖ or ―I‘m not good enough‖. This feeling of being
blocked at the throat is in our language: ―He felt choked up‖, ―There was a lump in her throat‖,
―The words stuck in her throat‖. Giving yourself permission to express yourself from your throat
literally means ―to find your voice‖. Releasing your throat feels like giving way to more
expression of yourself on the inside.
The first step you should take in developing a clear speaking voice is to analyze your voice
and articulation. This will tell you what needs improvement.
Open the breathing channel
Just drop your head easily back. Feel the direct connection between the sky and your breathing
place in your belly (diaphragm) without the throat getting in the way. Now say ―haaa‖ as you
breathe out, and feel how the sound comes right up from your body. After a few times, move
your head back to its normal position and repeat the ―haaa‖, maintaining the same feeling as
before.
Poor breathing
Poor breathing becomes a vicious circle - the worse we feel, the less well we breathe. And
the less well we breathe, the worse we feel. Anxiety makes us 'up-tight' in more ways than one.
If you're familiar with the expression you'll know it generally applies to 'being snappy' or 'short
tempered'. But being up-tight is not only the temporary absence of our usually relaxed easygoing selves. It is also what literally happens physically.
Anxiety makes us breathe more quickly and less deeply. The result is the body perceives
itself as being under threat and the automatic primitive survival mechanism fight or flight
response takes over.
The physiological effects of anxiety include:
● breathing off the tops of our lungs which in turn gives rise to:
● less oxygen circulating in our system
● a buildup of carbon monoxide (because it's not being released through full
exhaling)
● and in some people, panic attacks or hyperventilation.
The direct consequence of anxiety on the quality of your voice is losing control of pitch and
tone. Shallow breathing means you restrict the fullness of sound and range your voice might
have. It will sound squeezed or strained because you are talking off the top of your lungs with a
tight throat, jaw, mouth and face. When you force yourself to override its effects you actually
make the problem worse.
! For the students speaking English is already a challenge - speaking without supporting
themselves through good breathing makes it very difficult indeed.
Good breathing
Good breathing will sustain, uphold and help keep you strong. It is the foundation - the trunk,
just like tree, from which everything else flows. The storm of anxiety may rage and rattle their
branches but if their breathing remains solid - they‘ll make it through.
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So, as we`ve seen above you cannot produce a fine, resonant, pleasing tone when your throat
muscles are pinched, tense, or strained.
Tight muscles combined with inadequate breath support cause disagreeable tones that are
thin, nasal, high-pitched, and lacking in resonance. Throat tightness may be caused by
nervousness and it is a common occurrence for inexperienced public speakers. If this tightness is
present during ordinary conversation, it is usually because of carelessness or ignorance about
proper voice use.
This manual will help you add dimension, strength, vitality, and authority to your
speaking voice. In the first session you are going to explore how good breathing practices good
voice production AND reduces anxiety and tension.
Reading COMPREHENTION
1. Skim and scan the text. Get the general idea.
2. Highlight the “ phonetic” words, write them out and transcribe.
3. Highlight the “ anatomy” words, write them out and transcribe.
4. Highlight the words, phrases with the figurative meaning. How do we call them?
5. Highlight the adjectives describing a “good voice”
6. Complete the formula
…….+……….+…….+……. …..= good vocal production( good voice).
7. Why the speech breathing should be developed?
8. Read a method for relaxing your voice. Write out the instructions.
Time to PRACTICE
These are a series of exercises focusing on putting good breathing habits in place.
Breathing Exercises to Avoid Anxiety and Tightness
Ex. 1
While standing or sitting comfortably, place your hands lightly on your throat muscles and
speak in a normal tone. Note the tenseness of the throat muscles and the tightness of your jaw.
Ex. 2
Yawn. Open your mouth wide. Finish the yawn with an easy ―ho-hum,‖ prolonging the ―hum‖
for several seconds.
Ex. 3
Drop your jaw as far as it will go without stress.
Ex.4 Waggle the jaw from side to side and continue humming with your lips closed and jaw
loose.
Breathing Exercises to Improve Volume
Ex.1
Stand with your feet a comfortable shoulder width apart.
support the weight of your body through your hips and legs rather than locking your knees.
consciously release and relax your shoulders.
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if you're holding your stomach in, let it go.
place your hands on your stomach.
breathe in through your nose to the count of four. Count slowly. As you inhale feel your
diaphragm rising.
breathe out through your mouth to the count of four and now feel your diaphragm
expanding.
do three rounds of inhale and exhale to a slow four count (1 – 2 – 3 - 4) while making sure
you keep your shoulders, stomach and legs relaxed.
once you have mastered the four count, increase it through regular practice
Ex.2
Use the out breath to sound each of the vowel sounds in turn. Let each go without force,
flowing smoothly from your relaxed throat. For example:
'A' is going to become ahhhhhhh... as in 'are'
'E' is Eeeeeeeeeeeee ... as in 'easy'
'I' is Iiiiiiii ...as in 'eye'
'O' is Ooooooo ...as in 'Oh'
'U' is Uuuuuuuu ...as in 'you'
! Feel the shape of the sound in your mouth and enjoy its resonance.
Ex. 3
Stand with your feet a comfortable shoulder width apart.
Support the weight of your body through your hips and legs rather than locking your knees.
Consciously release and relax your shoulders.
If you're holding your stomach in, let it go.
Bring your palms together in the center of your chest.
As you slowly inhale through your nose, keeping the palms of your hands together, raise
your arms as high as you can above your head. At the same time raise yourself onto your
toes.
Hold your breath briefly at the top of your inhale keeping yourself fully stretched and
pushing without strain toward to the sky.
Exhale slowly through your mouth and while keeping your arms fully extended, bring them
slowly down and round back up to your chest, palms together in the starting position.
At the same time slowly lower your feet.
Repeat for ten rounds.
! You can use this exercise for breath counting as well. It has the same positive effects as the
first exercise with the addition of gentle full body stretching.
Ex. 4- to develop lung capacity
Lie on the floor with legs uncrossed and your arms loose by your side.
Breathe in through your nose to the count of four (1-2-3-4) and hold.
On the out breath talk very quietly about anything at all for as long as your breath lasts
without straining.
Repeat increasing the in breath count.
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Ex. 5 “Candle" – to develop smooth intensive exhale
Stand back straight, shoulders slumped.
Take a strip of paper or a lighted candle.
Hold the strip to the mouth. Lips in a tube (as if you are whistling).
Take a deep breath with your nose and start blowing on a strip of paper.
If you're holding your stomach in, let it go.
! Make sure that during the exhalation, the diaphragm remains in the same position, your
stomach should not get involved. Repeat it 5 times.The algorithm of the exercises as in the
previous exercise, but you should blow out 3, (6, 9, 12) candles.
Ex.6 - «Warm air».
Stand with your feet a comfortable shoulder width apart.
Support the weight of your body through your hips and legs rather than locking your knees.
Consciously release and relax your shoulders
Imagine that you are blowing on the frozen glass (hands) to «warm» it. Take a deep breath
through the nose (do not move the shoulders, the air goes into the stomach). The exhalation
should be smooth and slow. Repeat it 5-7 times.
Ex.7
Exhale comfortably.
Then take a moderately filling breath, not crowding your capacity. Hold it for 15 seconds,
and then exhale quietly.
Repeat this process frequently for several days. Then gradually increase your holding time to
20 seconds, 30 seconds, and 45 seconds. Eventually, you will be able to hold your breath for
a full minute. This exercise will help you to develop breath control by strengthening your
diaphragm and related muscles.
Ex.8
Standing erect, inhale with five quick, short gasps through an open mouth. You will notice
that you cannot gasp like this without using your diaphragm. Five gasps should fill you to
capacity.
Then exhale in five quick gasps or puffs. Next, practice gasping and puffing through your
nose with your mouth closed.
So, to get the diaphragm type of breathing it is necessary to train the abdominal muscles
and a diaphragm. This will help you to regulate the process of exhalation and will provide the
necessary sound support. To regulate the process of exhalation means to be able to distribute it to
equal portions. The right breathing is provided by the correct posture, by tense abdominal
muscles and feeling of freedom in the region of the chest.
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The exercises on breathing (*) should be done daily and regularly. Soon you`ll get used to
use them when you are anxious or tense (before the public speech, classroom recitations,
verse reciting).
Don`t practice the breathing exercises after eating.
A daily vocal warm up improves the quality of the sounds you make and helps prevent
vocal injury. It‘s exactly the same principle as at the gym or playing sport. A daily voice
work out will help your to stay in good vocal condition. It‘s essential before the activities like
public speaking, classroom teaching, or making sure you can be heard over the background
noise at a party.
Warm ups
Warm - ups sit alongside all the exercises you do: breathing, and articulation. Their
function is to limber up the body and the mind for optimum performance. You may get objecting
that this is not part of normal speaking or social interaction. They‘re right. It‘s not.
The BUT however, is that what you are learning is also NOT part of your everyday
world. Breathing exercises and warm ups support you as your transition from the known and
habitual into the new. What you‘ll learn and become aware of will enhance the whole of your
live - not simply this segment - the learning of English.
! Warm ups relax and ready a person. They clear focus the mind, and they‟re fun.
Ex. 1 “Rag dolls”
Stand with your feet a shoulder width apart, breathe in through the nose and bending from
the waist allow yourself to flop like a rag doll while breathing out through your mouth.
Shake any tension out of your arms, neck, shoulders and allow yourself to literally hang
loose.
And then breathing in through your nose very gently and slowly bring yourself upright and
breathe out through your mouth.
Repeat x3
Ex. 2 “Shake-outs”
Shake out your arms and hands until you feel them warm and relaxed. Do the same for your
legs.
For your shoulders: hunch them as high as your ears and then let go. Repeat until they are at
ease.
For your neck: very smooth and gentle head rolls. Let your head flop forward and then
slowly roll it up and around to the right and then back. Repeat for the left side.
For your face: scrunch it as tight as you can and then release.
For your jaw: yawn widely, letting all the tension it might hold go. If you wish use the sound
- ahhhhhhhhhhh. Repeat. Massage any points of residual tension.
For your mouth: smile as wide as you can. If you wish use the sound -
eeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Hold and release.
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Ex. 3 For your voice sound not harsh (especially in the mornings)
Stand with your feet a comfortable shoulder width apart.
Support the weight of your body through your hips and legs rather than locking your knees.
Consciously release and relax your shoulders
* Lean your head and back look at the ceiling, breath in and then breathe out with the sound
mmmmmmmmm, holding it as long as you can without discomfort.
** Lean you back forward and look at the floor, breath in and then breathe out with the sound
mmmmmmmmm, holding it as long as you can without discomfort.
If your voice is high and you want it to sound lower do *.
If you voice is deep and low and you want it to sound higher do **.
!!! During any session or class, breathing exercises and warm ups should be a fundamental part the start. They set the tone for what is to come.
Reading COMPREHENTION
1. Highlight the “ phonetic” words and the instructions, write them out and transcribe.
Time to COACH.
1. Group the“ phonetic” words and the instructions according to the reading rules you are
taking in you classes.
2. Give the proper instructions. You fellow student should read the given word.
3. Listen to the reading. Detect his mistakes! Pay attention to the correct articulation of the
sounds, the word stress and the reading rules.
4. Give him the advice to get rid of the mistake
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SEGMENTAL PHONETICS
III. Introduction to phonetic transcription
1. The sounds of English and the International Phonetic Alphabet
If you want to have good English pronunciation, you have to learn and practice all the
English sounds anyway. If you‘re going to learn each sound in the English sound chart, you
might as well learn its symbol – it doesn‘t take that much extra effort.
When listening to a recording, sometimes you‘re not sure whether you heard ʊ or ə, ɒ or ʌ, s
or z, etc. This can happen due to lack of experience, due to poor audio quality in a particular
recording, or both. Reading the transcription can make things clear because it lets you see all the
sounds in a word.
Dictionaries have more transcriptions than recordings. For example, the transcriptions may
show two ways to pronounce a word, but the recording will show only one. If you can read
phonetic transcriptions, you can get more information out of a dictionary.
On the Internet, people use phonetic transcription to discuss pronunciation problems. If you
want to join the discussion, or ask questions, you have to know the transcription system.
There are situations when you cannot listen to sound – for example, the computer you‘re
using has no speakers, you don‘t want to disturb other people, you are in a noisy environment
and can‘t hear the sound, you only have access to a paper dictionary, etc. Even if you can use
audio, a glance at the transcription can be faster than clicking a button and listening to a
recording.
In short, you can learn good English pronunciation without knowing the IPA symbols for
English sounds, but learning those symbols is not that hard and you get a few nice benefits in
return.
The symbol from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), as used in phonetic
transcriptions in modern dictionaries for English learners — that is, in A. C. Gimson‘s phonemic
system with a few additional symbols.
Many words are pronounced differently in British and American English. Of course, these
differences must be reflected in phonetic transcriptions
1. Almost all dictionaries use the e symbol for the vowel in bed. The problem with this
convention is that e in the IPA does not stand for the vowel in bed; it stands for a different vowel
that is heard, for example, in the German word Seele. The ―proper‖ symbol for the bed vowel is
ɛ (do not confuse with ɜ:). The same goes for eə vs. ɛə.
2. In əʳ and ɜ:ʳ, the ʳ is not pronounced in BrE, unless the sound comes before a vowel (as in
answering, answer it). In AmE, the ʳ is always pronounced, and the sounds are sometimes
written as ɚ and ɝ.
3. In AmE, ɑ: and ɒ are one vowel, so calm and cot have the same vowel. In American
transcriptions, hot is written as hɑ:t.
4. About 40% of Americans pronounce ɔ: the same way as ɑ:, so that caught and cot have the
same vowel: cot-caught merger.
5. In American transcriptions, ɔ: is often written as ɒ: (e.g. law = lɒ:), unless it is followed by r,
in which case it remains an ɔ:.
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