While
researching my topic on voice, I came across a publication called The Language Teacher’s Voice by Alan
Maley. In one brief section of the introduction, I couldn’t help but compare
the part to Dannel’s 8 Essential
Questions Teachers Ask: A Guidebook for Communicating with Students. Just
for kicks, I called the section-
The 10 Statements
Teachers May Think About, Concerning Their Voice.
“How many of
these statements are true for you?
1) My voice gets tired quickly.
2) I sometimes run out of breath when I am
speaking.
3) I often get a sore throat after speaking
for a long time.
4) I need to clear my throat quite a lot.
5) I don’t think my voice sounds as good as
it used to.
6) My throat often feels dry after I have
been speaking for some time.
7) I sometimes experience a kind of
tightness in the throat muscles.
8) My voice often sounds tired and dead,
lacking energy.
9) I have difficult making myself heard when
speaking to large groups.
10) I wish I had a more attractive voice.”
Personally,
these 10 statements are serious voice malfunctions I would think about if I
were an instructor. Since we all cannot have smooth voices like Pierce Brosnan
or Cate Blanchett (#10), I believe we can tackle these concerns with the best
of our abilities and should always think about the main goal in the classroom:
teaching and engaging the curriculum to our students.
To my fellow grads: Have you found
yourself questioning your voice like the concerns above? Let me know what you
think in the comments.
#letsgetloud
#ithinkiwouldratherhaveavoicelikeverafarmiga
Reference:
Maley,
A. (2000). The language teacher's voice.
Macmillan Heinemann English Language Teaching.
This is an interesting perspective to nonverbals of voice, specifically our teaching voice. I definitely struggle with number 9. After my students have been working on an activity, I have a hard time getting them to stop talking within their groups so we can move on to the next part of the activity. This is only true in one of my classrooms, so I wonder to if this is more of a respect issue instead of them not being able to hear me.
ReplyDeleteAlso, when I am speaking in front of my students, sometimes I find my words becoming jumbled up to where I have to stop my sentence and start completely over. Nice post! :)
Thank you! Although I am not currently holding any teaching positions, I fear my voice is a bit too high pitch for the learning environment and would worry that it could be distracting. I guess this is something I will have to work on. :)
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