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IMPROVEMENT
OF SPEECH AND VOICE CAPABILITIES
OF A TEACHER AS LIFELONG DEVELOPMENT
OF PERSONAL CULTURE
N. V. Popovitskaya
Being a person in the educational system is the permanent state of man of the 21st century, thus, a focus on self-improvement throughout one’s life is an essential condition of the effective professional life of a teacher. In the present social and economic conditions there is a considerable increase in the number of specialists, for whom culture of speech activity is necessary for the sake of their profession. The speech of a teacher is the main means of impacting students, so it should be perfect. The combination of sonorous, powerful voice, clear diction, logically constructed speech with rich intonations is an essential component of professional competence. The ability of a teacher to rightfully use his/her speech and voice capabilities reduces the risk of occupational diseases of the vocal apparatus, whereas knowledge of the foundations, of work focused on voice training, breath training, development of diction and development of expressive language is necessary for carrying out work with various categories of children and adults. Expressiveness is considered to be a qualitative characteristic of speech, which is closely connected with the manifestation of human individuality. The concept of expressiveness of speech has an integral character and includes verbal (intonation, lexical, syntactic expression) and nonverbal (facial expressions, gestures, posture) means of verbal communication.
Speech communication was widely discussed in domestic and foreign psychology, social psychology, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, education and several other sciences. In the above works, communication was seen as a means and a condition for formation, development and socialization of an individual, as a factor of manifestation of external relations with other people, important for a person as an influence by means of speech. The character of interaction and understanding between people, and the results which they obtain in the course of joint activities, are largely determined by how well a person reflects, identifies and interprets the appearance, behavior, and emotions of the other person [1]. In order to master the technology of speech influence, one must have a basic understanding of the human articulatory apparatus and the process of speech production, as well as of such key concepts as diction, voice, and intonation. Furthermore, it is important to know the orthoepic standards of language and means of use of speech to have an impact upon the audience, including standards of bodily movements (facial expressions, gestures, and posture). In this situation, philological training is not enough. One must also know theater pedagogy, and it is necessary to understand the psychological patterns of communication. An ability to understand the intonation variety of human speech is extremely valuable for teachers, since the largest part of his/her work is related to the impact through means of the word. A word addressed to a student’s consciousness affects his/her activities, and his/her behavior.
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Voice, more than speech, is important for a teacher, because it is an instrument used in his/her professional activities. In the physical sense, voice means the totality of various sounds that differ in terms of pitch level, strength and tone. If a person knows how to use his/her voice correctly, this is an important indicator of oratorical skill and a precondition for persuasiveness of speech communication. There are the following necessary qualities of the voice: beautiful tone, strength, endurance, and great range. The disadvantages include an unpleasant tone of voice, wheezing, croak, small range, or intense sound. Theater educators believe that a good natural voice should be trained to make it resilient, and ready for large loads. By means of regular studies, one can develop, strengthen, expand the range, and make resonators to sound, thereby improving tone, and making it an assistant in one’s professional activities [2].
Protection of the vocal apparatus is of great importance. In this regard, the issues of preservation of the health of one’s voice using special events and exercises is of great importance. A big voice load is a harmful production factor. Scientific studies have shown that the proper use of voice technology is a powerful means of prevention of voice dysfunction of people. And even if these skills are more or less inherent, it still has a positive impact [2].
The author created the course “Improvement of speech culture of a teacher” for students of pedagogical higher institutions and teachers, aimed at improving communication skills and proper diction skills, orthoepic culture of speech, intonation, and verbal and logical placement of accent, which makes it possible to strengthen the culture of pedagogical communication. Objectives of the course are: 1) improving the correct pronunciation of sounds and sound combinations based on the mastery of correct breathing, relieving muscle tension for enhancement of language skills; 2) mastery of standards of orthoepy to develop an ability to create the right rhythmically melodic pattern of a verbal expression; 3) development of skills of knowing the culture of auditory perception, and speech phonemic hearing in the conditions of oral interaction [6].
References
1. Бодалев А. А. Восприятие и понимание человека человеком. - М.: Изд-во МГУ, 1982.
2. Зарецкая И. И., Бруссер А. М., Оссовская М. П. Устная речь в деловом общении. - М.:
Дрофа, 2009.
3. Рудин Л. Б. Основы голосоведения. - М.: Граница, 2009.
4. Поповицкая Н. В. Коммуникативная культура: основы, методика, условия. - М.: АПК и
ППРО, 2011.
5. Поповицкая Н. В. Познавательно-речевая активность младших школьников. - М.: АПК и
ППРО, 2012.
6. Поповицкая Н. В. Совершенствование речевой культуры преподавателя. Программа
повышения квалификации. - М.: АПК и ППРО, 2011.
7. Поповицкая Н. В. Современные требования к педагогу в межличностном восприятии //
Электронный научно-практический журнал: «Перспективы науки и образования», 2013.
Translated from Russian by Znanije Central Translations Bureau
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