Speaking out loud is almost synonymous with speaking publicly, loudly and clearly enough to be understood. One can practice well in private, but the real test is in front of an audience. The activity is about assuming a posture.
Some people let their thoughts and ideas flow,
others rely on a constructed text, learned almost by heart
or read. In all cases, the good speaker interacts with the audience. He or she adjusts to their attention, their interest, their reactions; he or she captivates them and even feeds off their energy. Some speakers manage to bring texts, speeches, or poetry to life as if they were the authors and were creating them in the moment.
But before they can achieve this mastery, they must first be able to read fluently, without having to pay much attention to decoding and interpretation. Reading aloud allows one to know quite quickly what one has mastered or not in reading, hence the great pedagogical value of the exercise.
Aloud, one assumes the position in coherence with the ideas one is putting forth. What one understands well comes through. Any hesitation, slip of the tongue, inversion, omission and other deviations signal a hitch in one's mental fluidity every time. Sound gestures are like our signature; our rate, tone, rhythm and even our tone of voice contribute to the message. If it is a performance, we will eventually be judged, hence the difficulty many people have in even imagining themselves speaking in front of an audience. Rest assured, we can create welcoming environments where it is not about performance but about learning and where everyone can manage to express themselves, without judgment and with a gradual approach: one sentence, then two...
Aloud we see the difference between "thinking" and "communicating" live. What one masters is clearly communicated and with a little practice one achieves this. Many educational uses and animations have been developed beyond recitation or dictation. Our editors introduce you to several of them.
Happy reading!
Denys Lamontagne - [email protected]
