Elocution and Pronunciation
Chapter Sixty-Six
Syllabus topic 3.3.3, "Elocution/Mock Trials/ Meetings"
Pages 321 to 324 of 406
In one line
Elocution is the art of speaking aloud clearly and effectively, and for a law student its practical content is audibility, stress, rhythm, and the small number of sounds and words that are habitually mispronounced.
Elocution
The definition. Elocution is the art of clear and expressive speaking, covering the production of the voice, the pronunciation of words, and the delivery of a passage or a speech so that its meaning and feeling reach the listener.
What an elocution competition is. A prepared passage, usually somebody else's words, delivered from memory or from the text, and judged on pronunciation, clarity, modulation, expression, confidence and use of time. It differs from a declamation or a speech competition, where the words are the speaker's own.
How it is judged, which tells you what to practise.
| Criterion | What the judge is listening for |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | Words said correctly, endings not swallowed |
| Clarity | Every syllable audible at the back |
| Modulation | Pitch and volume varied to carry the sense |
| Pace and pause | Not hurried; pauses used at the punctuation and before key words |
| Expression | The feeling of the passage conveyed without acting |
| Poise | Stillness, eye contact, no fidgeting |
| Time | Within the limit set |
The elements of the voice
Volume. Loud enough to be heard at the back of the room without shouting. Loudness comes from breath, not from the throat: breathe from the diaphragm, that is, low in the body, and the voice carries without strain.
Pitch. How high or low the voice is. A voice that stays on one pitch is a monotone, and an audience stops hearing it within two minutes.
Pace. How fast. Slower than feels natural, and varied: slow for what matters, quicker for what is familiar.
Pause. Silence used deliberately. The most powerful device available to a speaker and the one students use least.
Stress. Which syllable or word is given weight. Stress carries meaning, and misplacing it changes the sense, sometimes entirely.
Articulation. The clean formation of consonants, especially at the ends of words. Most inaudibility is not lack of volume but swallowed final consonants.
Word stress, which is where marks and credibility are lost
English is a stress-timed language: some syllables are strong and the rest are weakened. A word said with the wrong syllable stressed is often not recognised at all, even if every sound in it is correct.
The pattern worth knowing. Many English words change stress and meaning between noun and verb, with the noun stressed on the first syllable and the verb on the second.
| Word | As a noun | As a verb |
|---|---|---|
| record | a RE-cord | to re-CORD |
| conduct | good CON-duct | to con-DUCT |
| present | a PRE-sent | to pre-SENT |
| contract | a CON-tract | to con-TRACT |
| suspect | the SUS-pect | to sus-PECT |
| object | an OB-ject | to ob-JECT |
| convict | a CON-vict | to con-VICT |
| increase | an IN-crease | to in-CREASE |
The rest of this chapter
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