Expressive means of English intonation (ii)

LOW KEY INFORMATION.

WARM UP

1. Take a deep diaphragmatic breath on the count of 8. On the next count of 8 hold it, and on the next count of 8 release the air. Proceed in the same way on the counts of 7 and then 8. Try to breathe in and out softly.

2. Take a deep diaphragmatic breath on the count of 8. Release the air on the count of 7. Take another deep breath on the count of 8 and release the air on the count of 6. Proceed in the same way counting down to 1. At the count of one release the air with the sound “ha”.

3. Articulate the following tongue twister: “There was hanging an interesting thing on a string”. The vocal cords are not working. Try to articulate the sounds a bit stronger than you usually do.

4. Now whisper the tongue twister from the activity 0.3, and then say it aloud.

5. Take a deep and quick diaphragmatic breath on the count of 1. Release the air on the count of 8. Take another deep breath on the count of 2 and release the air on the count of 8. Proceed in the same way counting up to 8.

6. Take a deep diaphragmatic breath and count aloud from 1 to 8. Try to use all air you have in your lungs. Make sure that your vocal cords are relaxed. Check on it by putting your hand on your throat – the neck muscles should not be tensed.

7. Take a deep diaphragmatic breath and say the following “One by one they went away”. If you have some air left let it out freely. Make sure that your vocal cords are relaxed. Proceed in the same way adding one unit to the sentence “One by one and two by two they went away”, and so on up to “eight by eight…”

8. Do the same as in 7 but starting with the lowest voice you can make and picking its pitch up on each number. The last number should be said on the highest pitch of your voice. Try not to go beyond your natural voice.

9. Do the same as in 7 but starting from the highest pitch and going down to the lowest.

10. Do the same as in 7 but starting with whisper and increasing the volume to a very loud voice, and back from loud to whisper.

11. Say the tongue twister from the activity 3 five times each time increasing the volume of your voice on every other word.

12. Look through the following abstract from a text. Decide where you would make a breath taking pause (they are usually made between different semantic units such as paragraphs, sentences and intonation groups). Practice reading the abstract. Try to control the output of the air and make sure that your vocal cords are relaxed.

He didn’t know which door (or well) or opening in the house to jump at, to get through because one was an opening that wasn’t a door and the other was a wall that wasn’t an opening, it was a sanitary cupboard of the same color.

SOUND PRACTICE

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27