Prosody: “Teach them well and let them lead the way…”

Paraphrasing from the classic song by Michael Masser and Linda Creed, we can both teach our children and learn from them. The manner in which they receive information can be in large part down to the manner in which the information is delivered by the teacher.

With regards to communication, we often cite children’s first words as a milestone. Indeed, this is a thrilling moment in which the difficulties of a toddler attempting to express their needs, show early signs of easing.

But before this exciting moment, we have an opportunity to teach our children features of our languages’ or accents’ unique prosody.

Prosody is the musicality of one’s accent. This might include the intonation, the pace, the volume, the stress patterns or whether the accent feels staccato or legato, for example. When we hear a child repeat an intonation pattern that feels full-to-the-brim with meaning, but does not invoke the use of recognisable words, it may be that they are developing their understanding of prosody – an essential feature of communication.

Prosody is a part of all speech patterns. In RP, for example, we might perceive a series of consecutive words with upward inflections to be a list, or endow a phrase ending in a downward inflection with a sense of finality.

Over the years, many very young children’s television shows have made use of prosody as the primary, or the only factor in their verbal communication. While prosody differs from accent to accent, and indeed from individual to individual, when combined with physical cues in these programmes (or in life), they can express ideas and feelings powerfully, without the use of words.

The Clangers
Teletubbies
Pingu

Listening to a child’s intonation patterns within the language we are modifying towards will teach us enormous amounts about what are valued as the most important communicative features of prosody within that accent. This is why prosody must not be overlooked in the process of accent modification or acquisition.

A toddler’s prosodic exploration

The Vowel Space

The vowel space is the space within the vocal tract that is used to generate vowel sounds (or phthongs). It’s useful to replace the word ‘vowel’ with ‘phthong’, as it is very easy to equate vowels with a restricted number of letters within a language’s alphabet, rather than set of sounds. Our curiosity must necessarily start from these sounds themselves.

In practical and anatomical terms, a phthong shapes air flow. It does not obstruct air flow. Obstruction is the task of consonant sounds (or obstruents).

The main articulators involved in the generation of phthong sounds are the tongue and the lips. Below is the vowel chart, as established within the International Phonetic Alphabet (revised in 2020).

As mentioned in the chart, ‘where symbols appear in pairs, the one to the right represents a rounded vowel’. This refers to the rounding of the lips. The degree of rounding is not specified, although this could be guided further through the use of diacritics (to be discussed at a later date).

The labels down the side and running along the top of the chart give us specific information about the position of the tongue.

The front of the tongue (not the tongue tip or blade, which refer to the apex of the tongue, and a thin strip behind this, respectively) can be raised, flat or lowered. Raising brings the front of the tongue close /kləʊ̯s/ to the roof of the front of the mouth (more specifically towards the hard palate/postalveolar area). Lowering it brings the front of the tongue down, leaving the space open, and the front of the tongue in a cupped position, as if you were holding a blueberry in the small dip that is produced. Slowly transitioning from a raised to a lowered position might result in the following sounds.

Within the gradual shift that occurs within this recording are countless possibilities for fronted phthong sounds.

The same is true of the back phthongs, as well as the centralised phthongs. We intentionally do not provide you with all of the answers (or recordings), as part of the tactic for maintaining longevity is discovering these sounds for yourself, matching the sound generated to a tangible sense of how the tongue and lips have moved to make the target sound. Moving towards a conscious effort to make these changes allows us to look at the difference required to get from one’s own native accent’s phthong set to a target phthong.

Imagine then, what is occurring as you transition from the a front to a back vowel. Moving from a front open phthong to a back open phthong, for example, might sound something like this.

You might imagine your blueberry from earlier rolling from the front to the back of your tongue as the cupping shape shifts backwards.

We highly recommend you explore the vowel chart in your own time. This is the best way to take control of the movement of your articulators. With control, modification of sound is a more manageable process, and results in sustainable change.

SELF-CRITIQUE

How NOT to engage in self-critique

What does this technique mean to you?

How can we employ this as an effective strategy for progress while also remaining sensitive to our needs and engaged in positive change?

Receiving criticism can feel like we’re walking into a brick wall – heavy handed and painful.

But self-critique is entirely within our own control. We know ourselves and our own intentions better than anyone. 

We can ask ourselves the following questions:

– are we engaging in self-critique by leaving a problem at the door and feeling helpless to affect change?

– or are we meeting our own criticism with gratitude for the honesty, and a readiness to find creative solutions?

– would we deliver our criticism to others in the manner that we deliver it to ourselves? 

– or perhaps even better, how would we communicate this feedback to our childhood selves?

These strategies are not suggested to give ourselves an easy go of things, but rather to engage collaboratively with the various different versions of us that have the power to find solutions – the team within us.

The phrase: “we are our own harshest critic” need not be a self fulfilling prophecy.

Click the video above to see how NOT to do this.

#gratitude  #selfcritique #selfcriticism #creativesolutions #professionaldevelopment #selfempowerment #selfawareness #selfesteem #communicationskills #communication #problemsolving 

Common Misunderstandings about Communication

There are a numbers of blanket statements that have been historically made about presenting yourself within a professional environment. You’ve probably heard them since your school days. While they are helpful in part, they require varying degrees of application.

PRONUNCIATION: hit your “t’s” and “d’s”

Contrary to popular belief, using a strong /t/ or /d/ sound may not always be desirable.

When speaking in public to large groups of individuals, this tactic may help to carry sound to the back of the room.

However, in smaller groups, or one to one situations, it can feel a little forced. 

Take the following sentence:

“I love my job, buT Today I’m exhausted.”

In connected speech, the T at the end of the word, ‘buT’, may join with the T at the beginning of the word, ‘Today’, and so we may hear <bu-today> [bət̚ʔ̚ tə.ˈdɛɪ].

BODY LANGUAGE: sit up straight

The idea of sitting up straight is effortful. Effort can lead to unnecessary tension. Instead, sit back on your ‘sitting bones’, against the base of the chair. Imagine a piece of string is holding you up at the crown of your head. Allow gravity to let your shoulders drop, and take some deep breaths to settle in to this sentation.

Rather than actively trying to sit up, we are allowing it to happen, effortlessly

Removing effort and allowing the body to sit with ease, will help make the production of sound flow more smoothly.

COMMUNICATION: maintain eye contact

Eye contact is vital for connection. However, for many, when putting this into practice, it can result in aimless staring into the eyes of another. This can feel unsettling – as though one is being looked through, rather than at.

This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised at how many clients find it difficult to not only gain eye contact, but to comfortably find moments when it feels appropriate to look away.

As well as focusing on the eyes of the person with whom you are speaking, try picking two other spots in the room. When listening, you might feel you wish to maintain eye contact. This may also be true for the majority of time that you yourself are speaking. However, when considering your next thought, or when changing the energy of with which you enter into a new thought, you may wish to allow your eyes to visit one of your other spots.

Think of these shifts in eye contact as an opportunity to recharge and reenergise before heading in a new direction.

Wow! I Just Cleaned My Teeth!

If you want to inspire others, you must first allow yourself to become inspired. This tip is not only for public speakers, but one that has the power to change the way you think and communicate… about everything.

The curiosity of childhood does not exist exclusively for children!

When a child first learns a new skill – to walk, to feed themselves, to say their own name – the joy that floods their being is so catching that adults in the room cannot help but beam with abandon.

When you are making a pitch or a speech about a new product or service, feeling a genuine connection to the subject matter will make all the difference. Listeners will subconsciously pick up on your tone and your body language, as well as the content you are presenting. Nay, we’d venture as far as to say that they will be more affected by your tone and body language than they will the content you are presenting.

The challenge is allowing yourself to become excited by the small things. Once this is achieved, half of the work is done for you! Yes, you can add technique and skill to your delivery, but if you speak with passion, these will be ingrained and organic, rather than feeling learned and unembodied.

woman in black tank top
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

TRY THIS…

Tell a friend about your experience of brushing your teeth this morning.

Tell them again, but this time, allow yourself to become curious about the finer details:

Did you notice anything in the mirror as you brushed? Did you feel groggy before and fresh and ready for the day afterwards? Did you spill any toothpate on your pyjamas? How often does this happen? How many washloads per year could you save by getting a little closer to the sink? Would you feel more positive about the day if you could avoid this habit? Would you get a better view of your teeth if you wiped down the mirror more often? Would it be nice to try remaining present with the process of brushing your teeth, or do you prefer to check your social media platforms to save time?

The process of cleaning your teeth is FASCINATING!

SO…

Once you’ve written your speech, worked on your pitch or prepared for your interview, rouse the speaker into action with your delivery. Allow yourself to become inspired, fascinated and galvanised by the small things, and let your passion do the talking.

The Importance of Independent Practice

Perhaps you are a parent with young children. Finding a moment, or indeed the headspace to commit to anything other than feeding, cleaning or entertaining your children may feel utterly impossible. Maybe you are running a startup, and every waking moment requires focused dedication on keeping your business afloat. Or a doctor, who has dedicated your life to the health of others, and can only find the time for a few hours of sleep between shifts.

We all know that in much of the modern world, humans are busy, busy, busy. In the midst of the chaos, that commitment to the accent modification journey might feel a distant memory. It could be that we feel that a decision was made on a whim to work on something that had been on our mind for a while. But realistically, can the commitment required to make such a transformational change truly work with our intense schedules?

We believe so.

The majority of clients find the online appointments with a specialist at The Accent Centre a manageable commitment. But if the work stops here, progress will be slow, with several steps forwards followed by one or two steps backwards, as sessions will focus primarily on recapping material, rather than progression.

As creatures of habit, we can begin to apply new habits to our daily personal and professional lives. We ask first for a commitment of at least 5 minutes a day. To begin with, we recommend you practice alone so as to build awareness of your own oral posture, as well as pronunciation and prosodic features. This can be done out loud at breakfast when reading a newspaper, when checking your emails on the sofa at the end of the day, or in the mirror after brushing your teeth. After a few sessions, you may feel ready to debut certain features of your accent to trusted family and friends. We suggest that you are selective with whom you practice in order to avoid ill-considered, negative comments, that risk damaging your sense of commitment to the process. Once you’ve found your happy listeners, you might throw out some of your newly discovered sounds by the water cooler at work, to your children when reading them a bed time story, or at the pub at end of play on a Friday.

The goal may be, of course, to apply these sounds completely and entirely to your personal and professional lives. The gradual exposure of the sounds you have acquired over time will help you to feel not only more comfortable with the change, but also gift you a sense of ownership over them – a truly important step, not to be missed.

By incorporating your practice within your daily habits, the process will become less effortful, and more organic, which will encourage the most effective and longest lasting results.

Of course, for those on our GROUPS and FULL ACCESS plans, you will also have varying degrees of assistance from us in order to hold yourself accountable to your commitment to independent practice. See https://atomic-temporary-213044056.wpcomstaging.com/plans-pricing/ for more information on the options available to you.

kids making noise and disturbing mom working at homebeautiful view of moraine lake
Finding calm in the chaos

Some Key Sounds in Modern Received Pronunciation (R.P.)

Pertinent sounds will differ from individual to individual, depending on their own native accent.

Here are some key sounds for modern R.P., some of which may already be present within your own accent. You will need to pick and choose those that are most relevant to you.

  1. Aspiration on unvoiced plosives /p/, /b/ and /k/

Hold your hand out in front of your mouth and say the word, ‘catapult’. Do you feel a burst of air where the ‘c’, ‘t’ (the first one) and ‘p’ appear? If not, see if you can increase the pressure before you release an larger explosion of air into your hand.

2. A dark l and a light l realised in specific positions.

Both ‘l’ realisations occur with contact between the tongue tip or blade and the alveolar ridge. The dark l, however, also requires a lifting of the back of the tongue towards (but not touching) the soft palate (or velum). In Modern R.P., light l’s appear before vowel sounds, while dark l’s appear before consonant sounds, or at the ends of words (unless, in connected speech, following words begin with a vowel sound).

3. Modern R.P. (and indeed all variations of R.P accents) are non-rhotic.

This refers to the rules behind when we realise or do not realise the ‘r’ phoneme. When the letter ‘r’ is followed by a vowel sound, we will hear the ‘r’ (symbolised as /ɹ/ phonetically). E.g. borrow, sorry, maraud. When followed by a consonant or in a word-final position, we do not realise the /ɹ/. E.g. hard, Farsi, shower.

4. GOAT / GOAL split

Modern R.P. will see a split between words that might traditionally fit into the GOAT lexical set. In a ‘so-called general American’ accent, these words will share the same diphthong. In Modern R.P., however, the diphthongs will differ, driven by the presence of a dark l that follows it.

GOAT words include: over, moan, condone; GOAL words include: control, oldest, unfold.

5. Schwa in place of many (but not all) unstressed syllables.

The schwa /ə/ is a sound formed when the tongue lies flat in the centre of the mouth. Many R.P. Speakers will make use of this as their hesitation sound. I.e. ‘Errr… where was I?’ It is commonplace for multisyllabic words to use the schwa in the pronunciation of their ustressed syllables (e.g. baNAna /bə.ˈnɑː.nə/ ). But not always (e.g. syLLAbic /sɪ.ˈla.bɪk/ ).

Tips and tools such as these will be made available on our various platforms. If you have any specific questions about these sounds, feel free to get in touch, and we can discuss your options for delving deeper into your accent journey.

Approaches to Learning: Ever Tried, Ever Failed…

Mr Gradgrind in Dickens’ Hard Times states that, ‘Facts alone are wanted in life’. We tend to disagree. While learning facts around the anatomy of speech can be incredibly useful, the process of accent acquisition is primarily an experiential process.

The consonant chart within the IPA offers information on three features of speech: point of articulation, manner of articulation and voicing. The vowel chart guides us as to the degree to which the front, middle or back of the tongue (or any part in between) are close to the roof of the mouth, or dropped open to the bottom of the mouth, alongside whether we are to round our lips. Diacritics and suprasegmentals help guide us closer to our precise point of aim. These are fantastic tools for accent acquisition, but a cerebral understanding of the process will ultimately end in failure.

Alongside an exploration of the IPA, we explore the practical journey of our vocal tract articulators, both listening and feeling to the changes that occur. Listening is vital, as if we are able to identify small differences between sounds of ourselves and others, we allow ourselves the opportunity to make changes. Feeling is essential, as if we are aware of the possible movements of our articulators, and can feel change as we make it in real time, we can begin to guide away from our habitual vocal tract movement, opening up the possibilities for speech sounds we never knew we could create.

We often hear clients say, ‘I can’t do it’, ‘my tongue doesn’t move that way’ or ‘I can do it in isolation, but not when speaking normally’. We invite you to adjust the language you use around your own learning. Perhaps: ‘I find it challenging’ would suit better? If we tells ourselves the story that we can’t do something, this self-fulfilling prophesy is likely to play out as such. But if we hear that we have a challenge coming our way, we will often set ourselves up in readiness to complete it.

A word on failure.

Once a client has accepted the challenge, we have found that their progress increases exponentially if they fail plenty along the way. This is not a new concept. It’s a simple concept. But it can be hard to live through. By facing failure with a sense of play instead of frustration, and freedom as opposed to tension, and a willingness to make changes accordingly, we allow ourselves to face the work like curious children, enjoying the process, rather than aiming only for the result. By enjoying the process, the results appear more quickly, and have longevity as they are embedded in our vocal tract’s muscle memory, rather than in our minds alone.

Ever Tried. Ever Failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

(Samuel Beckett)

Why Can’t I Just Listen to Native Speakers and Learn for Myself…?

Well, you can! In fact, if you feel you want to give this journey a go solo, we would encourage you to do so! You may be able to soak up the sounds and prosodic patterns that feature within your target accent just through mimicry. Some individuals are naturals, and do not require a great deal of assistance. However, the vast majority of us find that after attempting this process ourselves, we aren’t able to truly tell with any confidence whether we have quite achieved the sounds we are aiming for.

One reason for this may be oral posture – where articulators within our vocal tracts feel most comfortable to us personally. Different accents will benefit from different oral postures in order to produce the sounds that are most commonly heard within that particular accent. For example, a ‘so-called general American’ accent will benefit from a more retracted tongue root than, say, Received Pronunciation, due to the molarised ‘r’ phoneme that is so much a part of the accent.

Other struggles may be to do with difficulty identifying the correct lexical sets for particular words. Lexical sets are used to help us find rules for categorising words with the same sounds. For example, in most accents of English, the words mouth, house and about will all make use of the same vowel sound, but will sound very different, depending on the accent (i.e. RP, Belfast and Glasgow will have consistency within themselves, but when compared to one another, the differences may be very noticeable). If we have a frame of reference for one (or more) accent(s) of English, it becomes easier to identify other words that should be modified in the same way when working on our target accent. It can be more time consuming to grasp this tool for those for whom English is not their first language. But do not confuse time with surmountability – detailed and focused listening over a period of time will absolutely help solidify this process.

So, have a go yourself! If you feel you are getting there and just want that final boost adding the icing to your accent cake, perhaps we can help with our BASIC plan. If you feel you want a more intensive approach with guidance along the way, our GROUPS or FULL ACCESS plans may be exactly what you are looking for.

How can Actor Training Help Grow my Business?

Aside from accent modification, we provide a service in speech and communication training. Clients contact us with a desire to develop their confidence in these areas for a wide variety of purposes, including: help with public speaking tasks for client-facing roles; leading or sharing in workplace meetings; guidance on pitching ideas with passion and confidence; developing effective communication strategies for online marketing; and building rapport in social scenarios, to name a few.

Imagine opening the office door tomorrow with a spring in your step because you are clear on exactly what you need to achieve that day.

Imagine actually looking forward to that presentation you have to give, because not only do you believe in your product, but you know exactly how to make others believe in it too.

Imagine sharing your ideas ‘trippingly on the tongue‘, just as Shakespeare’s Hamlet instructed the players, rather than feeling embarrassed to raise your hand for fear of which muddle of words might decide to fall out today.

The journey of professional actor training covers the skills necessary to acquire and make use of strategies to get you to where you wish to be. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Breathing techniques designed to help you take control of your speech, rather than allowing your it to control you;
  • Vocal tract articulation exercises in order to enhance intelligibility;
  • Textual analysis, encouraging a detailed understanding of speech and how to deliver it appropriately in order to attract the desired emotional response;
  • Improvisation exercises that encourage saying ‘yes’ – a truly effective tactic when working as a team.

The list goes on…

While acting may not be your chosen profession, embracing these tools can lead to enhanced productivity throughout your workforce, inviting clearer delivery and more efficient, effective and assured communication that both yields results, and makes the process of speaking more enjoyable.