We have all been told since school how important and necessary it is to develop competent speech for study, work, communication, and mutual understanding. And we all roughly understand what is meant. Why then is this problem still relevant for a significant part of the adult population? And the point is just in this “approximately” situation, when everything seems to be clear, but you can’t tell what exactly it is right away.
Let's take a closer look at what literate speech is, and then it will become clear to all of us how to work on it. In our “Modern Rhetoric” program, we analyze all aspects of literate speech in the most similar way and learn to speak beautifully and correctly. However, we are ready to reveal some of the secrets of our paid course right now. So, what is “literate speech”?
What is “literate speech”?
Competent speech is the ability to express oneself in literary language in such a way as to convey one’s thoughts to the interlocutor, readers or listeners, to be correctly understood and to eliminate double interpretation of one’s message.
We all remember the excerpt from a school essay about Alyosha Popovich on a horse, who “bowed his head and nibbled the grass,” that spread across all humorous sites at one time. In general, of course, it is clear that grass in the context of “pinch” would be of interest to the horse rather than to Alyosha Popovich. However, such a presentation of thought in an essay cannot be considered literate.
In the “humor” section, you can also send a discussion on the forum of young mothers, when in response to the question “The child does not want to eat meat, what can be replaced?” some joker advised to replace it with “a dog, because a dog always wants to eat meat.” One can, of course, say that the word “than” can only refer to an inanimate object, so the question should be clear.
However, you can also answer that people have no time to read and it is better to immediately clarify what exactly you would like to replace: a child or meat. Moreover, the standard of living of many Russian families is not very high and they say that in large families, children who have worked up an appetite are not fed, but beaten until they are seen by juvenile justice officers. It was a joke, but seriously, illiterate formulations can significantly distort any, even the most intelligent thought.
No less amusing than the readers of humorous portals is the discussion of the image of one famous actor who “shaved his head and made it his business card.” The amazed interlocutor could only ask how the actor “was able to shave his head with a business card.”
If you wish, you can find a lot of examples of such incidents. We want such incidents not to happen to you, so we will analyze in more detail what makes up beautiful, competent speech and how to learn to speak beautifully and competently.
Presence of gestures and facial expressions
A live conversation always involves movement of the hands and body. A dry presentation of material without a pronounced emotional coloring is boring and implausible.
The speaker, living the content of the speech, forces the audience to join what is dear to him and close to him. These are not just clumsy swings. Every gesture he makes is beautiful and logical. Under the influence of sincerity, a rich, open dialogue between complete strangers is obtained.
It is useful to practice gestures and facial expressions in front of a mirror. Shortcomings and some excesses in movements are immediately visible. An open, beautiful look helps to cope with unnecessary and stupid gestures that do not fit into the overall picture.
Sometimes the accompanying gestures seem inappropriate and provocative. But a cold expression is prone to repulsion and misunderstanding. Find the harmony of words, body, voice.
Literary language as a component of literate speech
Literary language refers to language norms that are mandatory for use in official documents, the education system, science, culture, journalism, and fiction. These are the ones you should focus on in everyday life and daily communication.
So, any language has its own rules for constructing sentences. Somewhere they are very strict, as, for example, in English. There is a certain word order for declarative and interrogative sentences. In Russian, it is often enough to change the intonation to make a declarative sentence interrogative.
However, in all cases it should be clearly clear where the subject is, where the predicate is, and which word the verb refers to. For example, the verb “pinches” or any other verb we encounter in a sentence. In addition, all words must be consistent with each other and used correctly in the correct number, declension, and conjugation.
And, of course, the literary language does not accept filler words and unreasonably frequent repetition of interjections and other auxiliary lexical units. All these “well”, “this”, “here” can play the role of introductory words, but not linking words in a sentence.
If there are still some nuances in understanding all of the above, we recommend our “Russian Language” program, after which it will become clear how to make speech literate. The “Book of Good Speech” will also help you, where, using examples from the classics, the features of correct Russian speech and techniques for enhancing its expressiveness are analyzed [D. Rosenthal, I. Golub, 1997].
By the way, the co-author of the book, Dietmar Elyashevich Rosenthal (1900-1994), is the compiler of the “Handbook of Spelling and Stylistics” of the Russian language [D. Rosenthal, 1997]. In addition, he is the co-author of the famous “Dictionary of Difficulties of the Russian Language,” which is also useful for those who want to learn beautiful, literate speech [D. Rosenthal, M. Telenkova, 2003].
These and many other books, dictionaries, and spelling reference books have a truly miraculous effect, when literate speech and the Russian language take on a completely different, qualitatively new sound. And, by the way, they expand their vocabulary.
Vocabulary for beautiful literate speech
Our speech consists of words. Competent speech and vocabulary go hand in hand. That is why in our article we constantly refer to such a concept as “word” in the context of “word order”, “word agreement”, “linking words”, “filler words”, etc.
In order to correctly express one’s thoughts and correctly put words together into a sentence, a person “must have something to put together.” Otherwise, you will then have to apologize for your tongue-tiedness, which made the fans of one singer laugh with the phrase “I don’t have a very big... what’s his name... vocabulary!”
There is only one universal piece of advice: read more. Preference should be given to the classics and other examples of literary creativity verified from a linguistic point of view.
In addition, reading literature in specialties related to your main profession greatly develops your horizons and replenishes your vocabulary. On the one hand, you will understand exactly what we are talking about. On the other hand, you will learn a lot of new things, new words, new terms, which you can then use in everyday practice.
Books dedicated to the specific features of the Russian language and the nuances of using certain words are also very useful. For example, “A Word about Words” by the famous writer Lev Uspensky (1900-1978) [L. Uspensky, 1971]. No less interesting is the book by the writer Korney Chukovsky (1882-1969) “Alive as Life,” dedicated to the Russian language [K. Chukovsky, 1962].
Of course, over the decades since the publication of these books, many new words and speech patterns have appeared in the Russian language. The book by the famous linguist Maxim Krongauz, “The Russian Language on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” [M. Krongauz, 2007].
You will find other useful books for competent speech in the review “9 best books for the development of speech and vocabulary” [M. Lisitsyna, 2017]. In general, read, read and read again! The idea is not new, but nothing better has yet been invented.
Persistence and desire
I want to speak beautifully - this is not just a beautiful slogan. Long-term exercises repeated day after day will help you learn public speaking and will lead to a positive result thanks to great desire, perseverance, and patience. Having a specific goal in mind, for which you deliberately give up a free hour, will be a guide in the complex art of public speaking.
Color your activities with games. For example, start describing any item without stopping. It doesn't matter what you say. The main thing, excluding pauses, is to learn to speak without thinking. Gradually, the “nonsense” will develop into a coherent, beautiful story. Detailing develops attention, speech, and thinking. The attitude towards the outside world is changing.
Speech technique
Speech technique is a set of practical skills for presenting information in an oral format or, more simply, the way we speak. If competent written speech is achieved by working on vocabulary and literary norms of the language, for oral speech it is also important to convey a beautifully formulated thought so that it does not lose its beauty and power.
Our special course “Voice and Speech Development” is dedicated to this. You can complete this course in literally a couple of months, and a well-delivered speech will be your faithful companion for life. Beautiful, competent oral speech is impossible without a well-trained voice, so you need to work on your voice, even if it seems to you that everything is fine with you.
Let us clarify that the voice is a sound that is formed with the help of exhaled air, vibrations of the vocal cords and the resonance of the air flow inside the cavities of the body: the pharynx, trachea, oral and nasal cavities, and the skull.
Conventionally, there are 4 resonators: chest, head, mouth and nasal. Conventionally, because the names of the resonators were invented based on where the sound is subjectively felt, and it does not mean that, for example, the chest resonator is a single cavity or something specific, like any organ in the body. The names of the resonators are rather for the convenience of speech therapists, teachers of stage speech, vocals, public speaking and other disciplines where, one way or another, voice and speech are involved.
We talk in detail about the characteristics and properties of the voice in lesson No. 2 of the “Development of Voice and Speech” course. There you can also find exercises on how to work on each of the resonators and how to connect the resonators for a beautiful sounding voice.
In order to connect the resonators and sound beautiful, it is important to work on the support of your voice. For a powerful, beautiful sound, it is important to learn to use the lower part of your lungs and inhale so deeply that your lower ribs “spread” slightly and your sides and belly inflate a little.
Such a deep breath is the key to ensuring that you have enough breath for a long phrase, and your voice will not lose strength and flight by the end of the sentence. At the same time, you should not take an excessively deep breath, so as not to create excess pressure on the vocal cords.
The necessity and sufficiency of any action is developed with practice, and for better control over the voice and speech, it is important to monitor the condition of your body: the shoulders should be in place and should not rise when inhaling, the muscles should be free and should not be “tight” in the throat There should be no feeling of “squeezing.”
In general, a good speaker can speak for hours without getting tired or straining the vocal cords, “shifting” the main work to the muscles and directing the flow of exhaled air to the necessary resonators. For a higher and more sonorous voice, you should use a head resonator; for a deeper and more languid sound, you need a chest resonator.
In addition, you can improve the sound of your voice by developing diction and correct articulation, which should be sufficient, but should not be excessive. Too much articulation of sounds leads to muscle tension and gives an unpleasant tone to the voice, and insufficient articulation makes speech unclear and unintelligible. You will learn how to find the “golden mean” when working on diction and articulation from lesson No. 3 of the “Voice and Speech Development” course.
The next nuance that directly affects the beauty of speech and its perception as literate or not very literate is intonation. So, if you ask a question, but do not give your voice a questioning intonation, your interlocutors may simply not understand that you want to ask them something.
It's even worse if you can't control your voice enough to emphasize the stressed syllables. If in oral speech you do not put emphasis where necessary, such speech will seem illiterate. To practice intonation, it is recommended to read poetry and prose out loud more often. And also try to imitate different emotions when reading (joy, sadness, thoughtfulness, etc.). You will find more information about working on intonation in lesson No. 4 of the “Voice and Speech Development” course.
The timbre color and pitch of the voice are also important. You have definitely heard something like “what a velvety timbre”, “what a young, ringing voice” in relation to one of the speakers. This is just about timbre and pitch.
The timbre and pitch of the voice are to a large extent predetermined from birth by our anatomical features of the structure of the vocal apparatus. However, you can work on the timbre and pitch of your voice and learn to control them. Read how exactly in lesson No. 5 of the “Voice and Speech Development” course. Or right now, do 5 voice exercises aimed at improving key sound characteristics:
In principle, a person is able to learn to regulate almost all characteristics of his voice:
- Strength and volume of the voice so that it sounds equally clear both when the speech is loud and when it is quiet.
- Timbre and pitch of the voice, expanding the conversational range and making speech more expressive.
- Vocal mobility, learning to quickly move from a high voice to a low voice, from loud to quiet and back again.
- The flight of the voice so that speech can be clearly heard even in the far corner of a large audience without the need to strain the vocal cords.
- The pace and rhythm of speech, allowing you to speak not too quickly and not too slowly and ensure a comfortable mode of perception of information.
- Purity and euphony of speech, allowing you to pronounce words without unnecessary overtones, hoarseness, nasality, a feeling of tightness and tension in the voice.
Note that the characteristics of voice and speech are influenced not only by anatomy and work on oneself, but also by the presence or absence of respiratory diseases and disorders in the speech apparatus. Thus, with stuttering or burr, beautiful, correct and competent speech is simply impossible, because letters and syllables “fall out” of the text, the tempo and rhythm of the sound are disrupted, and the process of intonation and isolating the semantic parts of the message becomes difficult.
If we are talking about the development of literate speech in a child, he should, first of all, be shown to a psychotherapist and neurologist in order to exclude delays in mental and, as a result, speech development. Speech and intelligence are closely interrelated, and there are many types of disorders in this area, so you should not rely on self-diagnosis or on the fact that everything will “go away on its own.”
In addition, the child should be examined by an otolaryngologist and phoniatrist for the presence of diseases of the organs responsible for sound production. There are so many such diseases and disorders that lead to problems with voice and speech that we dedicated special lesson No. 8 to them in the course “Voice and Speech Development.”
Physical defects of the speech apparatus, such as malocclusion or a shortened hyoid ligament (the so-called “frenulum”) can be successfully eliminated if you catch it in time and take action. Next, you should work with a speech therapist, who will set the correct sound production and work on speech.
The sooner you show your child to a speech therapist, the greater the chance of success. In adulthood, when the formation of the speech apparatus and speech habits has already been completed, it is almost impossible to change anything radically. However, you can always learn to speak better than you spoke before, and you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity.
To do this, we invite you to our “Modern Rhetoric” program, where you will learn how to learn competent speech and what is needed for this, in all the nuances and details. In addition, we recommend books that will help you train beautiful and competent oral speech. This, in particular, is the book “Speak beautifully and confidently. Voice and speech production" [E. Shestakova, 2013].
For those who want to learn how to speak “in public,” the book “Fundamentals of Oratory” [N. Kokhtev, 2013]. For those who have far-reaching ambitions and are developing their voice and speech with an eye to a future acting career, we recommend the publication “Technique of Stage Speech: Speech Problems and Their Solutions” [E. Tsaregorodtseva, 2016]. Many useful exercises can be found in the book “Voice Development. Coordination and training" [V. Emelyanov, 2015].
And, of course, one cannot ignore the book by the famous leadership consultant Radislav Gandapas, “The Kama Sutra for the Speaker. 10 chapters on how to get and give maximum pleasure while speaking in public" [R. Gandapas, 2016]. By the way, it contains a lot of practical advice on how to learn beautiful, literate speech, which we will now talk about in more detail.
Nurturing Confidence
When there is no confidence, it is impossible to learn to speak beautifully. Fear tightens the muscles, the voice begins to tremble treacherously.
To get rid of the overwhelming feeling of anxiety, try to seek advice from a specialist or read literature on psychology. They will reveal the true reason and remove the clamps. The Internet is filled with manuals and training exercises that are simple and clear.
Low self-esteem provokes a reluctance to overcome feelings of fear. Such deliverance seems impossible to a person and the impregnable barrier increases. Love everything you do. You need to learn to work on yourself. Let go of the past, live here and now. Start life's story with a blank page.
Each voice is beautiful and unique. Don't be shy about it, no matter what it is. Be able to fascinate with the right presentation. The listener will accept any unusual timbre when the topic is accessible and interesting. Experiment. Say the simple sentence “I want to speak beautifully” in different ranges: high, low, medium. After varying, you will notice a special refinement and will be happy to note that your voice is the best.
How to learn beautiful literate speech
We have already quite thoroughly touched upon the question of how to develop competent speech and how to learn to speak beautifully. Now let’s summarize all of the above, reveal a few more secrets and give some more practical advice, which, in turn, will give a fairly quick result.
Top 20 secrets of beautiful, literate speech:
- Read a lot: classics, fiction, specialized and professional literature, popular science publications.
- Read aloud a lot: poems, stories, jokes, theatrical recapitulations, or even a textbook on quantum mechanics. The main thing is to read aloud with expression and mood.
- Replenish your vocabulary: this is facilitated by reading, watching popular science programs, communicating with professionals from different fields of activity.
- Eliminate gaps in language knowledge: grammar, spelling, syntax.
- Get rid of parasitic words: endless “well”, “this”, “here” interfere with the perception of the essence, or even simply irritate the listeners.
- Purposefully work on speech technique: breathing, diction, articulation, tempo, timbre, volume, pitch, euphony and flight of voice.
- Monitor your health: the body in general and the respiratory tract in particular. Health is your vital energy, which you can share with listeners, and your technical ability to pronounce all sounds clearly, distinctly, beautifully.
- Learn to cope with anxiety if you have a responsible speech or an important meeting ahead: straighten your posture, take a series of deep breaths and exhalations, try to speak a little slower than usual.
- Practice facial expressions and gestures: Nonverbal cues can greatly increase the credibility of your speech if you learn to use them correctly.
- Master acting skills: an artistic speaker is always listened to more willingly, and his speech is more likely to be perceived as beautiful and competent.
- Imagine in advance the result you want to get: this allows you to structure your thoughts, speak to the point and select the right intonation, whether you want to get a job as a top manager, convince an audience to quit smoking or a client to sign an agreement, persuade your husband to buy you a fur coat or “lift up” the public onto the dance floor as the host of the party.
- Rehearse and practice the speech: draw up a plan or the full text of the speech, speak it out loud, correct difficult moments for pronunciation, replace long sentences with shorter ones, speak again and record the text on a voice recorder, correct the text again and record the speech on video.
- Think about where to start a speech in front of a specific audience or a dialogue with a specific listener: in some case it will be appropriate to ask “How are you?” or “How are you?”, in some way give a compliment or thank the audience for their interest in your report.
- Think over the summary and ending of the speech: for example, summarize the main thoughts and say something inspiring, why everyone should like your ideas, hire you, sign an agreement with you, quit smoking, buy you a fur coat or go dancing right now.
- Solicit feedback and encourage interaction: It is estimated that people forget up to 90% of what they hear, 60% of what they see, and only 10% of what they do [R. Gandapas, 2016]. Therefore, it is worth asking questions during your speech, allowing your interlocutor to speak, giving tasks to the audience, etc.
- Divide any speech lasting more than 20 minutes into meaningful parts: for each such part all the recommendations apply, as for a self-sufficient speech. Between parts you can pause for questions and answers or rest, and begin the next part with the questions “Have you rested a little? Then let's continue?"
- Sometimes make a mistake: not necessarily explicitly and rudely, saying that two plus two equals five. It is quite enough for some minor fact to clarify that you do not remember exactly all the details, so state only the essence. This way you will win over the audience and, perhaps, make someone feel important and “help” you remember the details of the mentioned fact or event.
- Analyze your mistakes and correct them: if possible during the performance, do it during the performance; if possible, do it after the break, do it after the break; if not, take it into account for the future. Many years ago, a singer who was exhausted from touring, confused about the names of cities, and spoke little Russian was played as a prank by telling her that they were now having a concert in Mukhosransk. Well-developed emotional intelligence allowed her to feel the mood of the listeners, understand that something was wrong here and reveal the joke, and the second part had to begin with an apology for the first part, which the singer began with the words “Hello, Mukhosransk!”
- Search and find inspiring examples: listen to live and online lectures, speeches by politicians and parliamentarians, interviews with singers and artists. This way, you are more likely to find useful life hacks that will help make your speech more beautiful and bright.
- Always remember that you need to communicate with people, and not just speak in front of them or convey your thoughts to them. And then your speech will be perceived positively, regardless of whether it is impeccably literate or you are just working on it.
Almost all of the above applies not only to oral, but also to written speech. In both cases, we use the same words, phrases, speech patterns, we start with something and end with something, we have some goal and want to be correctly understood and assisted in achieving our goal. The only difference is in the format of conveying information: oral or written. And, of course, in any case, our speech should be literate, because this makes it easier to perceive and understand information.
And here I would like to drown one more aspect. Why do we all need to develop competent speech? Is it really so important that we are always understood correctly by everyone? Perhaps if someone doesn’t understand something, it’s their problem, not yours?
Of course, this can also happen. Sometimes there are individuals who find it difficult to explain something even in the most correct literary language and well-thought-out formulations due to either their lack of intelligence or poor ability to concentrate.
And indeed, this is their problem, because such people usually do not succeed either in school, or in work, or in their personal lives, because they cannot clearly explain what they want. If you are interested in succeeding in all of the above areas, you need competent speech.
Why do you need competent speech?
- For communication and mutual understanding.
- To transmit information.
- To exchange information.
- For adequate and most complete expression of your own thoughts, emotions, feelings.
- For successful studies: writing essays, speaking at seminars, answering at the board, oral and written exams.
- For a successful career: writing a resume, passing an interview, negotiating, preparing reports, presentations, formulating technical specifications, marketing strategies, innovation proposals and more.
- For fruitful creativity: writing fiction, articles, reviews, maintaining a personal blog, preparing and conducting interviews, compiling a catalog of your paintings, annotations for your books, descriptions for music albums.
- For teaching work, including online.
The trendy topic of online education today is based not only on what to teach and what to tell listeners, but also how to do it. A great speaker always has a better chance of gaining subscribers and putting online learning on stream than someone who has never been able to learn beautiful, literate speech. So, competent speech is not only a help in the career of an employee, but also a completely monetizable skill on the basis of which you can build your own business.
We wish that your speech is beautiful and literate, that you are always understood correctly, and that you get everything you want from life. And, as usual, we have one question for you on the topic of the article:
We also recommend reading:
- Storytelling
- "What else can you tell me?"
- Learning a foreign language: old rules about the main thing
- Ten communication mistakes
- How to develop eloquence: some tips
- George Orwell's 5 Rules for Those Who Want to Learn to Write
- How to learn to speak beautifully
- The power of words in practice
- Learning your native language: a selection of useful materials
- Rhetorical hand
- Interesting facts about literacy
Key words:1Rhetoric, 1Russian
