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July 2, 2012 7:19 AM Subscribe
Please suggest a good elocution and diction program I can use at home with my kids.
Would like a book/programs with:
--audio included (not necessary)
--fun rhymes or jingles or poems little children would enjoy
--a simple, clear progression of exercises we can do each day
We can not afford lessons right now, and my children do not have real speech problems, just millenial parents who mumble. I want to correct my own bad speaking habits and help my kids form their own good speaking habits early.
All the curricula I've perused on Amazon seem to be aimed at college student, especially those majoring in Communication or Journalism. I don't have time to write up my own lessons/exercises based on those.
I found this book on Google books. I'm not opposed to using it as a last resort, but I'd like to find something more modern, preferably with audio files or a CD.
If it matters, my children are 5 and under
Would like a book/programs with:
--audio included (not necessary)
--fun rhymes or jingles or poems little children would enjoy
--a simple, clear progression of exercises we can do each day
We can not afford lessons right now, and my children do not have real speech problems, just millenial parents who mumble. I want to correct my own bad speaking habits and help my kids form their own good speaking habits early.
All the curricula I've perused on Amazon seem to be aimed at college student, especially those majoring in Communication or Journalism. I don't have time to write up my own lessons/exercises based on those.
I found this book on Google books. I'm not opposed to using it as a last resort, but I'd like to find something more modern, preferably with audio files or a CD.
If it matters, my children are 5 and under
When I was in theatre classes (starting around middle school up through high school), we had a bunch of tongue twisters and rhymes we would do for both "elocution practice" and verbal warm ups. Things like "Unique New York, Unique New York, You know you need unique New York!" and "Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously..." (there's more to that last one, but I don't remember it).
We had them as ancient fuzzy xeroxed copies from... wherever drama teachers get their ancient copies from. I think these basically got handed down as Ancient Lore from teacher to teacher, though there must be a book, or even by now a website, devoted to them.
That said, I don't think this is really the cutting edge approach to vocal training for theatre, so there might be less of it out there nowadays. By the time I got to college in '99, we were doing the Linklater technique, which is absolutely opposed to any notion of Correct Elocution. We'd basically sit around in circles doing breathing exercises and enunciating nonsense syllables and dusting off various "vocal registers" (i.e. speaking really nasally, or doing deep Brian Blessed style belly speech).
In fact one of our texts was called Freeing the Natural Voice, by Patsy Rodenburg. That might be worth looking up, yourself, if you're worried about your normally-abled children's "elocution".
Also, show them the elocution scenes from Singin' In The Rain! Not so much because it'll help their speech (which I'm sure is fine), but because it's funny!
posted by Sara C. at 8:39 AM on July 2, 2012
We had them as ancient fuzzy xeroxed copies from... wherever drama teachers get their ancient copies from. I think these basically got handed down as Ancient Lore from teacher to teacher, though there must be a book, or even by now a website, devoted to them.
That said, I don't think this is really the cutting edge approach to vocal training for theatre, so there might be less of it out there nowadays. By the time I got to college in '99, we were doing the Linklater technique, which is absolutely opposed to any notion of Correct Elocution. We'd basically sit around in circles doing breathing exercises and enunciating nonsense syllables and dusting off various "vocal registers" (i.e. speaking really nasally, or doing deep Brian Blessed style belly speech).
In fact one of our texts was called Freeing the Natural Voice, by Patsy Rodenburg. That might be worth looking up, yourself, if you're worried about your normally-abled children's "elocution".
Also, show them the elocution scenes from Singin' In The Rain! Not so much because it'll help their speech (which I'm sure is fine), but because it's funny!
posted by Sara C. at 8:39 AM on July 2, 2012
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posted by Yellow at 7:49 AM on July 2, 2012