Diction | Articulation | Enunciation
No matter how new or helpful the information you’re sharing is… no matter how interesting or unusual your story… no matter how important your topic… if you mumble or talk so fast you’re running your words together, your ability to reach your audience is compromised.
I’m sure everyone remembers being called on in class to read a passage from a book. I know I do… and I hated it. I may not have been the worst reader in the class, but I was far from the best. Which made me self-conscious. It was something I had to address before I could feel comfortable speaking on camera.
No one thinks twice about an athlete warming up and stretching before they take the field. Think of the exercises I’m going to share with you as your warmup before you speak on camera or deliver a presentation.
Articulation & Enunciation
There are two equally important components to speaking clearly. There’s articulation and there’s enunciation. Articulation refers to the clarity and expressiveness with which you speak. For example, pausing slightly before uttering hard consonants, like “t” or “b”. While enunciation refers to the physical sounds you make to convey that clarity and expressiveness. Practicing tongue twisters will help you differentiate your vowel sounds and make the beginning and end of each word distinct and crisp.
When I went looking for tongue twisters to help improve my diction, I didn’t have to look to hard. I invite you to try these, but feel free to do some research of your own and let me know your favourites.
- High roller, low roller, lower roller.
- I need a box of biscuits, a box of mixed biscuits, and a biscuit mixer.
- He thrusts his fists against the posts and still insists he sees the ghosts.
- The jolly collie swallowed a lollipop.
- Friday’s five fresh fish specials.
- Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.
- Twixt this and six thick thistle sticks.
- Red leather, yellow leather.
- She sells seashells by the seashore, and the shells she sells are seashells.
Here are a few tips before you get started. Start out saying each one slowly and carefully, making sure the start and end of each word is crisp. Repeat them but a little bit faster each time without sacrificing clarity. If you trip over a word, stop and start again.
As well as being fun, tongue twisters are also extremely effective. And if you’re brave enough, feel free to share your favourite tongue twisters with me, either on video or audio. If I get enough, I’ll compile them into a mash up and share them on Linkedin.
If you’d like a professional team to handle your video content, don’t hesitate to send us an email [info@arcandcrown.com] or click here if you’d like to book a free 30-min video consultation with one of our producers. The team at Arc and Crown Media would be more than happy to help.
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