Activity Three: Listening to the speech

Learning Outcomes:
1. Students should be able to analyze the impact of the voice in the speech.
2. Students should be able to describe at least two differences between reading and listening to the speech.
3. Students should be able to discuss the effectiveness of re-embodying the speech through the voice of a speaker.

Preparation:
This activity is intended to follow the speech analysis activity. Students should have read the speech, reviewed the qualities of a vocal presentation, and either listen to the speech as a group or have listened to the speech on their own. Divide the speech into sections that last roughly 90s-120s. The time frame is flexible, but it should be long enough to have variation, and short enough to be manageable.

Activity:
For this activity, each student will either choose or be given roughly two minutes of text to focus on. Each person will choose a new section until the entire speech is assigned, and some students may be assigned a section of text that another student is analyzing as well. This may also be done in pairs. Focusing on the two minute segment that they have chosen or are assigned, students should:

1. Identify one moment in this section of the speech where the speaker varied his volume. Describe the variation. Why do you think the speaker made that choice? How did the volume variation impact the meaning making of that section? What was the impact on your attention to that section of the speech?
2. Identify one moment in this section of the speech where the speaker varied his speaking speed. Describe the variation. Why do you think the speaker made that choice? How did changing the speaking pace impact the meaning making of that section? What was the impact on your attention to that section of the speech?
3. Identify one moment in this section of the speech where the speaker used pauses to create an effect. Describe the effect created. Why do you think the speaker made that choice? How did the pause contribute to meaning making in that section? What was the impact on your attention to that section of the speech?
4. Identify one moment in this section of the speech where the speaker seems to be using articulation and enunciation to emphasize a point. Describe the ways in which you hear the syllables and words being spoken. Why do you think the speaker made these choices? How did these choices impact the meaning of that section? What was the impact on your attention to that section of the speech?
5. Identify a sentence or short series of sentences in this section of the speech where the speaker seems to be using inflection to emphasize a point. Describe the ways in which you hear the emphasis being vocalized in that section. Why do you think the
speaker made these choices? How did these choices impact the meaning of that section? What was the impact on your attention to that section of the speech?
6. Did you notice any fillers, vocalized pauses, or other fluency errors in the speech? Describe any you noticed and how they impacted your listening experience. If you did not notice any, describe how that impacted your listening experience.
7. How does the vocal variety of the speech form the rhythm or flow of this section?
8. Which vocal delivery techniques increased your attention? Which vocal delivery techniques decreased your attention?
9. You have already read and analyzed this section of the speech. Taking this section as a whole, describe two ways in which listening to the speech differs from reading the speech? Which do you prefer? Why?
10. Listening to the speech for vocal technique allows us to think more critically about how the voice conveys emotion, and/or contributes to pathos. What emotion or emotions are communicated by the speaker’s voice in this section? How does the
vocal delivery in this section contribute to the emotional logic, or pathos, of the speech overall?
11. As you know, this speech is a re-enactment, not a recording. What is the value of having a voice actor re-embody the speech for a contemporary audience? What challenges or concerns come up for you when considering re-enactment versus recording?
12. What is one vocal technique used in this speech that you could use to improve your own speaking? How would it help you?