Oral Comm

• Voice


  • Hereditary Factors
  • Psychological Factors
  • Past and Present Environment
• Volume


  • The loudness or softness of your Voice
  • Increasing volume helps emphasize important points in a speech
  • Soft - insecure/unsure
  • Loud - a pain in the ear
• Pitch

  • Highness or lowness of your voice
  • High - thinner and longer
  • Low - thicker and shorter
  • The faster the sound waves vibrate, the higher the pitch the slower they vibrate, the lower the pitch
  • Can be used for emphasis
• Rate


  • Refers to the speed at which a person speaks, including the length or duration of sounds, and the length and number of pauses
  • Too fast - 180-200 w/m
  • Too slow - 120-140 w/m
  • Speech anxiety
• Quality


  • "Your voice tells a lot about you."
  • It refers to the timbre of the voice, a characteristic that distinguishes your voice from another
  • Your vocal quality is a good index of your physical and mental health
• Vocal Pauses

  • Pauses are punctuation guides to speech
  • Emphasis
  • Introducing a new idea
  • Dramatic impact
  • Take a break/breath
• Vocal Stress and Emphasis

  • Stress is the degree of the prominence of a syllable within a word
  • Emphasis is the degree of prominence given to a phrase or thought grouping. It can change the meaning of the message
• Stress

  • A property of syllables
  • A stressed syllable is more prominent (louder and longer) than an unstressed syllable
  • Primary Stress - marked by an acute accent ( ' )
  • Secondary Stress - marked by a grave accent ( ' )
• Vocal Stress

  • Prefixes - words containing prefixes tend to be strongly stressed on the first syllable of the base or root
  • Noun vs. Verb
  • Suffixes cause a shift in stress
• Vocal Variety

  • Vocal variety is the spice of public speaking
  • You must maintain a good\ vocal quality and use pauses, stress, and emphasis appropriately
  • Avoiding being MONOTONE or MONORESONANT
• Characteristics of an Effective Voice

  • Audibility
  • Breath Control and Vocal Projection
  • Pleasantness & Unpleasantness of Voice
  • Fluency
  • Flexibility
• Audibility


  • The effective use of force and the need for vocal projection
  • Adjust the volume of your voice to the size of the audience and compete distractions and noises
  • Practice effective breath control and vocal projection
• Breath Control and Vocal Projection

  1. Correct breathing

  2. Recite the alphabet

  3. Count 1 to 5

  4. I am in earnest – I will not equivocate

  5. I will not excuse – I will not retreat a single inch – and I will be heard!"
• Pleasantness & Unpleasantness of Voice

  • Pleasant voices are relaxed to produce, well-modulated, smooth, and resonant
  • Unpleasant voices are those that are nasal, shrill, raspy, breathy, weak, and whiny
• Fluency


  • The smooth, easy, and ready flow of utterances
  • Mastery of language
  • Consistency
  • Code-switching avoidance
• Flexibility


  • Having vocal variety
  • Proper use of the aspects of voice such as pitch, rate, volume, and quality
  • Enhances the meaning and mood to be conveyed
  • Helps gain and hold the audience's attention and attain the desired response
• The Speaking Process


  • Breathing Stage
  • Phonation Stage
  • Resonation Stage
  • Articulation Stage
• Breathing Stage

  1. Maintain life

  2. A force assisting in vocalization

  3. Inhalation or exhalation

  4. Lungs - Serve as a reservoir for air

  5. Diaphragm - Large sheet of muscle separating the chest cavity from the abdomen, gives pressure to the breathstream
• Phonation Stage

  1. Voice is produced in speaking as the expiratory air stream from the lungs goes up through the trachea or windpipe to the larynx

  2. Larynx - The principal organ of phonation, found at the top of the trachea, Protuberance known as the "Adam's Apple"

  3. Glottis - Combination of vocal folds and space in between folds, Produces a buzzing quality to the speech called voice or voicing or pronunciation which produces glottal sounds /h/

  4. Vocal Cords - A pair of bundles of muscles and cartilage, Opens and closes at various degrees
• Resonation Stage


  1. The process of voice amplification or modification

  2. Pharynx - Common passageway for air and food, Located behind the nose and mouth and includes the cavity at the back of the tongue, Holds and manipulates vocal cords

  3. Nose - Consists of external and internal portions: Nostrils, Nasal Cavity, Septum

  4. Mouth - Divided into the vestibule and the oral cavity proper
• Articulation Stage


  1. Occurs when the tone produced in the larynx is changed into specific sounds

  2. The result of the movement of the articulators towards the points of articulation

  3. Lips - Highly flexible, can be moved into numerous positions essential to Articulation

  4. Alveolar Ridge - Area between the upper front teeth and the hard palate, Creates sounds such as /t/, /d/, /l/, /n/, /s/, /z/

  5. Teeth - Serves as important surfaces in articulation, embedded in the alveolar ridge or gum ridges of the oral cavity

  6. Dome (Hard Palate) - Bony roof of the mouth, Serves as an important surface against which the tongue makes contact

  7. Velum (Soft Palate) - Separated the nasopharynx from the oral cavity, A flexible curtain attached along the rear border of the hard palate