Tone
Quick Tips
Don’t
Use a monotone voice.
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A monotone voice is dull and flat. We tend to use monotone when we feel nervous.
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DO
Keep your voice tone dynamic.
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Your voice is your instrument.
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Memorize only key points of your presentation so you do not have a speech that is flat.
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Practice can help combat your feelings of nervousness about your presentation.
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Do
Use your voice as an emphatic tool.
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Your voice should have emphasis when you are speaking. You can create emphasis by adding stress to a word, or highlighting important words, in a sentence when you are speaking.
Suggested Activity
Game: Ba-na-NA?
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Objective:
Students will develop awareness of word stress and intonation.
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Directions:
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Show students a video with characters from Despicable Me when the Minons say "banana" in various ways to convey emotion or meaning.
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Have a short discussion (e.g., meaning, types of emotions, pronunciation).
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Divide the class into pairs and have students choose a new word and create a dialogue.
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Then have students present their scene to the class.
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Ask audience to describe what happened in the scene.
For More Resources...
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Stress and Intonation during a presentation - This video teaches stress and intonation and the importance of using it properly in a presentation.
Download:
The text file of this page.