What is speech? The role and functions of speech in the modern world

What is speech? What is it for? How did it come about? And lastly, what is its strength? The importance of speech cannot be overestimated, since it is an important skill that allows a person to learn new skills, share experiences, maintain contacts and transfer learned material by word of mouth.

For many centuries, people living in society communicated with each other as needed. For example, in order to satisfy personal communication needs. If you stop maintaining contact with other representatives of an integral society, a person may encounter some mental disorders and disorders that manifest themselves through isolation, embarrassment and awkwardness, and end with a stop in development.

Today we will answer the above questions by taking a holistic approach to considering the importance of speech in human life.

What is speech?

First of all, it is necessary to clarify: language and speech are two completely different and dissimilar concepts. Language is a historically established system of signs for the verbal expression of thoughts, which has a certain sound, lexical and grammatical structure; it is a concept that serves as a means of communication in human society.

Speech is:

the form of their communication that has historically developed in the process of common human activity, mediated by language;
an essential element of human activity that allows a person to understand the world around him, transfer his own knowledge, skills and experience to other people, and also process them for transmission to subsequent generations to form a heritage;
a set of spoken or perceived sounds that have the same meaning and the same meaning as the corresponding system of written signs.

There are four properties of speech:

content - the abundance of thoughts, feelings and aspirations expressed in speech, their importance and correspondence to reality;
understandability - syntactically correct construction of sentences, as well as the use of pauses in appropriate places and highlighting words using logical stress;
expressiveness - emotional richness, richness of linguistic means, their diversity (in terms of its expressiveness, speech can be colorful and active or, conversely, sluggish, lazy and fleeting);
effectiveness is the property of speech, which consists in its influence on the thoughts, feelings and will of other people, on their beliefs and behavior.

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
Learning a foreign language: old rules about the main thing
How to learn to speak beautifully
How to develop eloquence: some tips
Rhetorical hand
The power of words in practice
Ten communication mistakes
Interesting facts about literacy
Learning your native language: a selection of useful materials
George Orwell's 5 Rules for Those Who Want to Learn to Write
"What else can you tell me?"

Key words:1Rhetoric, 1Russian

Theories of the emergence and development of speech

One of the questions of particular interest in terms of the psychological and linguistic study of speech is the question of its origin. It is formulated as follows: does a person have innate prerequisites for mastering speech, or are there no such conventions, and everything related to the emergence and development of speech is associated exclusively with the training and upbringing of a person?

In linguistic terms, this question is posed and resolved as a question about the origin of language, since the emergence of speech in humans is closely associated with the genesis of language. It is for this reason that the concepts under consideration are often confused with each other.

Thus, the emergence of speech can be considered from the point of view of the following stages (hypotheses):

Onomatopoeia hypothesis - the first “speech” signals noted by some historians, linguists and linguists are considered to be sounds made by people who imitated external noises, natural responses and rustles, as well as sounds that accompanied various technical processes.
Affect hypothesis - speech arose from unconscious cries that accompany various emotional states. Perhaps the first real elements of speech were the endings of voluntary shouts, varying in intensity. Gradually these sounds became isolated and became teams.
The emergence of speech from sign language - sign language arose earlier, but due to the need to free up hands for work. Sign language was gradually replaced by sound speech.

Considering the presented theories in a more detailed manner, we can come to the conclusion that speech arose because the new environment gave birth to new thoughts and concepts that needed new ways of expression. Perhaps the word was originally a means of communication in joint work activities. It is believed that the evolution of brain structures associated with speech preceded the development of speech functions as a result of the perception of sounds and the development of communication gestures.

How to develop public speaking skills

“The skill lies not only in mastering the external techniques of rhetoric or stage literacy,” says Elena Polyakova. - When we say something, we always express ourselves. The question is how and what we express.”

Samuel Marshak also said that “you cannot feel and know the word if you do not feel and know reality.”

The first thing I would like to say to those who are just interested in studying public speaking: if you can speak with friends in the kitchen, then you speak well enough.
Second. Our speech, like our human nature, is a huge pit, very deep. And there is a lot to learn here. You need to study as persistently as you read and write. Go from layer to layer. There is no substitute for practice. One exercise, done with thoughtful reasoning, will yield more than dozens of books read. Be patient - it's a long journey.
And third. Always think about the purpose of the speech, its meaning. What do you want to convey and get as a result? Ask yourself. It will be easier for you if you think about the benefits for the people you are addressing. What do you want them to do when they leave the room?

No matter how many techniques and techniques you learn, it’s not about the beauty or form of words, but about their content. Once you're clear on your why, you'll know exactly what to say. And even without studying the science of speech, you can become persuasive and your speech powerful.

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Reasons for violations

Having figured out what kind of speech happens when the articulatory apparatus is not working properly, it is worth paying attention to the reasons that could influence the problems that have arisen. And the sources of violations are very diverse.

One of the reasons that causes a malfunction of the speech organs is various types of injuries that the child could receive during childbirth or in the first years of life. This reason can be classified as the most severe. No less serious is the one that relates to hereditary predisposition.

In addition, speech disorders can occur due to insufficient development of phonemic hearing, which leads to the child’s inability to fully perceive spoken phrases. A child’s stay in a certain speech environment also significantly affects the level of language development.

His parents and close environment can have a great influence on the development of a child’s ability to speak, listen, read or write. For example, replacing live communication with watching TV will certainly lead to a delay. If adults do not pay attention to visible defects, believing that the problem will go away on its own, this can cause a significant delay in speech development.

Is it important to speak competently?

The debate about what a person’s speech should be like arises quite often in the scientific pedagogical environment. This problem worries both the younger and older generations. Most people are still inclined to believe that a language should be literate, that is, beautiful.

The ability to speak correctly is not born with a person. This skill needs to be learned. The process of language acquisition begins in preschool childhood and continues throughout life. Desire alone is not enough to achieve results. It will take some effort and a lot of time.

A person who has mastered the art of speaking always makes a good impression; he stands out favorably from those around him. The figures of speech used indicate the level of his culture. It is believed that a person who knows how to control the flow of words, phrases, and sounds is able to control his mind.

So, mastery of the correct beautiful language with a positive connotation is a huge human dignity.

Where speech defects are eliminated

Before correcting deficiencies, the specialist to whom the patient turned is obliged to establish the causes of the difficulties that have arisen. The methods and techniques that will be used in the work depend on them.

If the development of speech is affected by neurological abnormalities or they are associated with an abnormal structure of the articulatory organs, then, in addition to a speech therapist, a surgeon or neurologist will be required. An integrated approach to working with people with speech development disorders gives the greatest effect.

Speech therapy classes with a child can be conducted by specialists in schools and kindergartens. Similar offices are opened at children's clinics or child development centers. The speech therapist conducts classes using numerous methods, techniques and techniques. The exercises are aimed at developing the articulatory apparatus, motor skills, and the child’s ability to observe, compare, analyze, and express his emotions.

Parents provide enormous assistance in overcoming the child’s speech difficulties by working with him at home. Doctors and teachers, having explained to adults what a child’s speech might be like during regular classes, give specific tasks. All recommendations must be followed. Only with this approach can you get a lasting positive result.

What are the goals of speech exercises?

Tasks aimed at language development can be completed together with a teacher, independently or in a group. The exercises suggested below also give an understanding of correct speech.

So what should it be like? Good speech is distinguished by conciseness and a rich vocabulary. The use of expressive means only embellishes the language.

Examples of speech exercises

Remember the title of a movie you recently watched or a book you read. State the content in four sentences that can be written down or retained in memory. Think about which of these sentences is not so important, eliminate it. Do the same with the rest of the offers, leaving only one. Say it a few times, edit it if you think it doesn't sound right. This exercise, performed regularly, will teach you to express your thoughts concisely.
Many people love tongue twisters - they are fun and useful. But not everyone knows what slow talkers are. The exercise helps get rid of confused, slurred speech. The task is to pronounce the phrase slowly, clearly, with pauses. But unjustified stops and prolongation of sounds should be excluded. Try to enjoy the sound of the speech. You can choose phrases for the exercise yourself or use the recommended ones.