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Celem artykułu jest zaprezentowanie podejścia całościowego do głosu i pracy nad jego prawidłową emisją. Holistyczne ujęcie nie koncentruje się wyłącznie na samym głosie, ale wskazuje na ciało, jako instrument wydobywania głosu, na czele z aparatem oddechowym, zestawem rezonatorów, narządami mowy, ale również świadomością własnego głosu i psychosomatyką etc. W tym podejściu cały człowiek jest instrumentem, a efektem jest jego głos, który wydobywa z ciała. Idąc tym tropem zamierzamy zaprezentować innowacyjną, słabo jeszcze rozpoznaną na gruncie polskim metodę DVT (DoctorVox Voice Therapy), która koncentruje się na kompleksowym, całościowym, wychodzącym od potrzeb jednostki modelu doskonaleniakompetencji w zakresie emisji głosu. Jest ujęciem procesowym, zakładającym etapy, przez które powinna być przeprowadzona osoba rozwijająca swoje kompetencje pracy głosem. Jednocześnie zamiarem Autorek publikacji jest przybliżenie propozycji warsztatów inspirowanych metodą DVT, podczas których uczestnicy studiów podyplomowych mieli okazję doświadczyć konstruktywistycznego modelu doskonalenia własnych kompetencji. Ich opinie, refleksje i efekty, z jakimi ukończyli 15-godzinny kurs zostały ujęte w końcowej części artykułu, stanowiąc ilustrację odbioru proponowanej metody w procesie doskonalenia warsztatu pracy głosem., The aim of the article is to present a holistic approach to voice and training on its correct projection. The holistic approach does not focus only on the voice itself, but points at the body as an instrument of voice production, led by the breathing apparatus, a set of resonators, and speech organs, but also awareness of one’s own voice and psychosomatic condition of the body, etc. In this approach, the whole person is an instrument, and the effect is his/her voice, which he/she brings out of the body. Following this path, we intend to present an innovative DVT (DoctorVox Voice Therapy) method, which is still poorly recognized in Poland. It focuses on a comprehensive, holistic model for improving voice projection based on the needsof the individual. It is a process approach, assuming stages through which a person developing his/her voice skills should be conducted. At the same time, the intention of the authors of the publication is to present the proposal of workshops inspired by the DVT method, during which the participants of postgraduate studies had the opportunity to experience a constructivist model of improving their own competences. Their opinions, reflections, and effects with which they completed the 15-hour course are included in the final part of the article, that illustrates the reaction of teachers to the proposed method in the process of improving the voice quality and projection.

Stage actors need breath control for voice projection and resonance. However, little is known about the abdominal muscle activation during vocalizations of different sounds and different lung volumes. The impact of training on muscle activation is likewise under-reported in the literature. This Voicing describes the content of an intervention used in an intensive six-week series of training workshops and forms the basis for a research project where muscle recruitment before and after was measured in both trained and untrained performers. Through participation in this intensive workshop, an untrained performer demonstrates changes in muscle recruitment with reduced activation of the global muscles and improved muscle efficiency.

This paper investigates the thematic types and derivations of subjects in Mandarin bei-passives. Based on an examination of the categorial status of bei discussed in the literature, we try a new approach by adopting Liu and Huang’s view that the mechanism of deriving bei-passives is argument raising (in which bei is a semi-lexical verb heading the Voice projection), and propose a simplified and unified account of bei-passives’ Experiencer and Possessor subjects, as well as their typical Patient subjects. Specifically, we propose that the high applicative gei proposed in Hsu and Qu can account structurally for the source of the Experiencer in bei-passives. We then present how the structure proposed in this paper accounts for Possessor related subjects in bei-passives, and explain the interpretations and the possible derivation of an extra implicit affected subject in bei-passives.

INTRODUCTION As a teacher of up to 260 medical students at a time I have found it important to provide a performance which elicits and maintains interest. I write this chapter from an educational perspective and as someone with an enthusiasm for drama and performance. I have taken acting classes but I do not profess to be an actor or professionally trained in theatre or drama. I have a musical background through singing, recording and performing some years ago through which I learnt voice projection skills, breathing control and dance. Acting classes have introduced me to roles such as William’s Blanche Dubois in A Streetcar Named Desire and Mrs Cheveley in Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. I have found that acting has enhanced my teaching, for example, in terms of vocal expression and breathing control, facilitating a more confi dent and assured delivery.

The 2011 Nigerian presidential election newspaper reports were not just to inform the public about the outcomes of the election. The representations in the newspaper reports were ideological and, by implication, judgmental. The main actors (presidential aspirants), were also represented differently. In this paper, we interrogate some linguistic tools that were used in the ideological presentation of the election and the main social actors. In other words, the paper examines whether the main social actors are included or excluded, genericised or specified; and the level of voice projection accorded to them. The study is anchored on Critical Discourse Analysis framework and it operationalises some aspects of van Leeuwen (2008) socio-semantic model and Hallidayan transitivity system in examining social actor differential representations and process types in the newspaper reports. These linguistic tools ( exclusion, inclusion, individualization, assimilation, collectivization, functionalisation, appraisement and voice projection ) are very pertinent because they serve as the very foundation on which further context analysis of the discourse could be based. The study observes that social actors representations and voice projection in the data do not only polarize the reportage but also lace it with bias. It also shows that the incumbent president was given more positive representation and voice projection than other aspirants.

RESUMO Neste texto, estudo três construções que tiveram/estão tendo mudanças em sua sintaxe no português brasileiro (PB). São elas: anticausativas, como em (1) O prato (se) quebrou: médias, como em (2) Essa roupa (se) lava fácil e impessoais, como (3) Nesse lugar (se) vende bota. Em sincronias anteriores, essas construções eram marcados com uma morfologia específica, o clítico SE. Atualmente, são também possíveis sem a presença deste clítico. Afirmo que as mudanças nas estruturas desses eventos possuem uma origem em comum: a perda de SE que nucleia um tipo de projeção Voice específica. ABSTRACT In this text, I study three constructions that have changed in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), namely anticausatives, as in (1) The plate (se) broke; middles, as in (2) These clothes (se) wash easily; and impersonals, as in (3) In this place (se) sell boots. These constructions were obligatorily marked with the clitic SE in previous centuries. I argue that the structural changes in these events have a common source: the loss of the clitic SE which is the nucleus of a specific Voice projection.

Zaburzenia głosu są powszechnym zjawiskiem wśród osób pracujących w środowiskach narażonych na nadmierne używanie mowy jako narzędzia pracy. Brak wcześniejszego szkolenia z zakresu prawidłowej impostacji oraz fonacji powoduje, że kłopoty z głosem są obecne w dużej części społeczeństwa. W odpowiednim ropoznaniu powodów powstawania zaburzeń głosu pomaga współczynnik niepełnosprawności głosowej czyli Voice Handicap Index (VHI). Jako narzędzie wielokrotnie sprawdzone, pozwala nie tylko na samoocenę własnego głosu, ale również jest pomocne podczas weryfikacji efektów rehabilitacji głosu.

Adjectival participles have been classified either as lexical participles or phrasal participles which are then further classified as target and resultant state participles based on some syntactic and semantic diagnostics as elaborated in Kratzer (1994, 2000), Anagnostopoulou (2003), Embick (2004) for German, Greek and English respectively. In this study we present the typology of adjectival participles in Turkish and show that unlike German, Greek and English, Turkish bears distinctive morphology for the three types of participles proposed in the literature. Based on diagnostics of event-oriented manner adverb modification, the present study argues that lexical adjectival participles formed with –(I)k directly attach to the root without an eventive layer as is the case in German and Greek lexical adjectival participles but phrasal adjectival participles with –(I)lI and –mIs morphology both have an eventive layer. A distinction is drawn for phrasal adjectival participles based on compatibility with (i) by phrases, (ii) purpose clauses and (iii) agent oriented adverbials which indicate an additional voice projection for resultant state participles with –mIs morphology. We propose that phrasal adjectival participles with –(I)lI denote target state participles and AspTARGET does not directly attach with the root but selects for vP projection. Phrasal adjectival participle with –mIs denote resultant state participles and unlike German and similar to its Greek counterpart, AspRESULTANT selects for vP and VoiceP. Additionally, phrasal participles derived from atelic activity verbs become grammatical only with –mIs participles when accompanied by telic expressions with an end point. We argue that the semantics of the aspectual stativizers differ for –(I)lI and –mIs participles and hence we get different restrictions on formation. This study shows that Turkish provides clear evidence for the tripartite classification of adjectival participles, and differences can be captured through different internal structures in syntax and semantic differences between the aspectual heads.

In French as in many other Romance and Germanic languages, verbs undergoing the causative/anticausative alternation divide into two morphological and three distributional classes. With verbs of class A, the anticausative (AC) is morphologically unmarked (∅-ACs), cf. « brûler ». With verbs of class B, the AC is marked with the reflexive clitic se, cf. « se briser ». ACs of class C allow both markings (∅/se-ACs) allow both markings, cf. « (se) casser ». Several authors have proposed that the presence vs. absence of the reflexive clitic goes along with differences in meaning, see e.g. Labelle 1992, Doron & Labelle 2011, Labelle & Doron 2010, according to which se-ACs express externally caused events while ∅-ACs express internally caused events (claim 1) and se-ACs focus on the achievement of a result state while ∅-ACs focus on a process (claim 2). To derive these alleged differences in meaning, fundamentally different syntactic structures have been proposed for se-ACs and ∅-ACs: Labelle 1992 argues that se-ACs are unaccusative while ∅-ACs are unergative, whereas Doron & Labelle 2011 and Labelle & Doron 2010 (henceforth DL) propose that se-ACs and ∅-ACs are both unaccusative but differ substantially in their event decomposition and the position where the lexical root is merged in the structure. The goal of this paper is to show that most of the meaning differences proposed to hold between se-ACs and ∅-ACs are either not existent or idiosyncratic/verb-specific. In particular, they cannot be generalized to the presence/absence of morphological marking. This makes a structural explanation of these meaning differences unfeasible: the presence vs. absence of se cannot be associated with syntactic differences driving meaning differences. To the extent that meaning aspects can be robustly associated with either marked or unmarked ACs, we argue that this holds only for verbs of class C (optional marking; cf. also Legendre & Smolensky 2009). We derive these within a pragmatic account: with verbs of class C (i.e. if a choice is possible), a pragmatic reasoning on the possible interpretations of the string [DP se V] (AC or also semantically reflexive) leads the speaker to prefer one version over the other. Note that we do not deny any syntactic differences between ∅-ACs and se-ACs: the presence of se suggests a syntactic extra- layer on top of vP, a middle or expletive Voice (Doron 2003, Alexiadou et al. 2006, Schäfer 2008). The presence of this expletive Voice projection triggers (morpho-)syntactic differences (e.g. auxiliary selection) but does not add any semantics.

In Capeverdean, a Portuguese-based Creole language, many reflexive contexts do not show any overt reflexi­ve expression. This is the case of transitive verbs like bisti ‘dress’ in simple clauses: Ana bisti ‘Ana has dressed herself’. This is a perplexing fact, given that there is an anaphor of the SELF-type available in the language: (si) kabesa — literally ‘his/her head’ —, meaning ‘himself/ herself’, which participates in reflexive clauses with other verbs. The current paper explores this puzzle, en­ding with a proposal supported empirically and also by recent studies for other languages. This novel analysis goes as follows: all Capeverdean finite sentences, ex­cept unaccusatives, have a Voice head, responsible for assigning external theta-roles. This also includes middles, passives and this type of reflexives. It is this Voice head that, in spite of being silent, attracts the internal argument to a preverbal position and provides the in­terpretation for an implicit external argument, which is syntactically active.

The study takes a stance to explore the political discourse speech in Malawi as the country draws closer to the May 2019 general elections. This is a war-like zone period with different political figures pursuing, negotiating, and struggling for power. We specially mount our research to investigate how Saulos Klaus Chilima strategizes to get the winning card by exploring his voice and voice projection techniques during the launch of his party. We have hence borrowed insights from Heffer’s (2013, 2018) Voice Projection framework (VPF) and used Nvivo 11 Pro software in the analysis. The study discovers that his launch speech is highly authorizing, persuading, converging, and highlighting with very few instances of centring, and indexing which made the speech more powerful, stimulating and impressive. The study brings a different dimension of analyzing political discourse by shopping a theory from Forensic discourse.

Summary Spectrographic analysis of male actors' voices showed a cluster, the "actor's formant" (AF), which is related to the perception of good and projected voice quality. To date, similar phenomena have not been described in the voices of actresses. Therefore, the objective of the current investigation was to compare actresses' and nonactresses' voices through acoustic analysis to verify the existence of the "AF" cluster or the strategies used to produce the performing voice. Thirty actresses and 30 nonactresses volunteered as subjects in the present study. All subjects read a 40-second text at both habitual and loud levels. Praat (v.5.1) was then used to analyze equivalent sound pressure level ( L eq), speaking fundamental frequency (SFF), and in the long-term average spectrum window, the difference between the amplitude level of the fundamental frequency and first formant (L1−L0), the spectral tilt (alpha ratio), and the amplitude and frequency of the "AF" region. Significant differences between the groups, in both levels, were observed for SFF and L1−L0, with actresses presenting lower values. There were no significant differences between groups for L eq or alpha ratio at either level. There was no evidence of an "AF" cluster in the actresses' voices. Voice projection for this group of actresses seemed to be mainly a result of a laryngeal setting instead of vocal tract resonances.

Acoustic support of one’s own voice affects speech, and increased support can foster more relaxed voice projection, which reverses the Lombard effect. While hearing one’s own voice in typical rooms shows subtle influences of “global” room acoustics, local treatment can yield stronger effects for talking-listeners. This paper considers two types of architectural acoustic treatment for supporting one’s own voice and modifying speech propagation—high-back chairs and retroreflective ceilings. For a talking-listener, local acoustic treatment such as high-back chairs can be designed to selectively attenuate ambient noise while providing enhanced reception of sound from a particular direction, project speech towards a listener with increased gain for speech intelligibility, and also provide voice support. Acoustically retroreflective surfaces (e.g., ceilings and vertical partitions) provide increased voice support by reflecting a person’s voice back to them, without such local treatment. This also has the advant...

In the literature, Marshallese verbs are often categorized as perfective or as passive. However, sentences containing perfectives and passives share numerous morphological, syntactic, and semantic similarities. As a result, it is difficult to tell whether these sentences are perfective or passive. In this paper, I examine perfective and passive verbs and sentences and provide semantic and syntactic evidence supporting the existence of two verb categories. First, I show that while passive verbs denote events, so-called perfective verbs denote the resulting state of events and are thus resultatives rather than perfectives. Second, I show that passive verbs are syntactically different from resultatives in that they may cooccur with an agent phrase preceded by in . Lastly, I make a case for the existence of a passive construction in Marshallese and argue that in is the head of a Voice projection.

Previous studies have shown that, in addition to being speaker-dependent yet context-independent, lower vocal tract acoustics significantly impact the speech spectrum at mid-tohigh frequencies (e.g 3-6kHz). The present work automatically estimates spectral features that exhibit acoustic properties of the lower vocal tract. Specifically aiming to capture the cyclicity property of the epilarynx tube, a novel multi-resolution approach to spectral analyses is presented that exploits significant differences between the closed and open phases of a glottal cycle. A prominent null linked to the piriform fossa is also estimated. Examples of the feature estimation on natural speech of the VOICES multi-speaker corpus illustrate that a salient spectral pattern indeed emerges between 3-6kHz across all speakers. Moreover, the observed pattern is consistent with that canonically shown for the lower vocal tract in previous works. Additionally, an instance of a speaker’s formant (i.e. spectral peak around 3kHz that has been well-established as a characteristic of voice projection) is quantified here for the VOICES template speaker in relation to epilarynx acoustics. The corresponding peak is shown to be double the power on average compared to the other speakers (20 vs 10 dB).

This paper provides a sequence of specific techniques and examples for implementing theatre voice training and technology in teaching ESL/EFL oral skills. A layered approach is proposed based on information processing theory in which the focus of learner attention is shifted in stages from the physiological to the linguistic and then to the discourse level of speech where the components of a speech event are integrated. Objectives move from awareness to practice for improvement of voice quality, fluency, and intelligibility. Learner responses move from choral to individual to interactive. Techniques address expansion of vowel space, breathing linked to rhythm and pausing, voice projection and flow, enhancement of pitch range, shadowing and mirroring, monologue and dialogue. Technology is incorporated through visual pitch displays that provide informative learner feedback, and a Web-based tool that provides integration of video with the associated pitch contour and allows annotations for feedback on various elements (e.g., gestures) of a speech event. Techniques draw from drama pedagogy emphasizing contextualized meaningful communication.

Recordings of the rib cage and abdominal motions and acoustic output were obtained from five professional opera singers during performance of an aria recorded with two levels of voice projection. The condition of greater projection resulted in a significant increase in the acoustic power in the frequency band 2–4 kHz, relative to the power in the 0–2 kHz band, and a decrease in the mean expiratory flow, implying a move to more efficient vocalization with the greater projection. Also, the condition of greater projection resulted in a larger rib cage, particularly in the lateral dimension, but only a small decrease in the abdominal lateral dimension, suggesting that the greater abdominal support required for a larger projection is obtained by increased activation of abdominal muscles acting medially.

This article is a preliminary study on the effects of Arthur Lessac'sy-buzzas a tool in teaching projection of an actor's voice. The y-buzz is described as part of the Lessac System. Leino's formulation of the actor's formant is presented. Following this, LTAS analyses of the y-buzz and a prose extract from Lessac himself are done. LTAS analyses of a trained and an untrained male voice doing the y-buzz and speaking a prose extract are demonstrated. These analyses are compared to the LTAS analyses and results collated by Leino. The spectra analysed for the two male voices trained through the Lessac System seem to have an actor's formant. This seems to suggest that the Lessac System may be an effective teaching tool in voice projection for actors. The need arises for a more indepth study in this field.

Background: Recent studies revealed that aphasic speakers have difficulties with the production of the intransitive (unaccusative) variant of verbs entering transitivity alternations. A key point of the current interpretations of these difficulties concerns the movement operations taking place at surface syntax, namely, the A-movement operation (Bastiaanse van Zonneveld, 2005; Bastiaanse, 2008; Thompson, 2003). Aim: The present study revisits the issue of processing verbs with alternating transitivity in non-fluent aphasia in Greek, a language with rich morphology and relatively free word order, which lacks A-movement. In addition, in Greek, unaccusative verbs appear with different voice morphology: One class of intransitive variants of alternating verbs bears active morphology, another one non-active morphology and a third one can surface with both. The presence of non-active voice has been argued to correspond to the presence of a voice projection in syntax of these variants, while the variants that bear active morphology are not associated with a voice projection at the level of syntax. This study investigates the ability of non-fluent aphasic speakers to produce and comprehend verbs entering transitivity alterations and explores the role of active vs. non-active morphology and word order in the performance of aphasic speakers. Methods Procedures: We tested five non-fluent patients and fifteen control participants. We used two tasks supported by pictures: an elicited production task and a comprehension task. The experimental material consisted of fifteen transitive and fifteen unaccusative verbs (marked for active, and/or non-active voice morphology) in sentence contexts. Outcomes Results: The results indicated that (i) the aphasic speakers performed better on the production and comprehension of transitives than of unaccusatives, (ii) they showed significantly lower performance on the comprehension of unaccusatives with active morphology than on unaccusatives with non-active morphology, and finally (iii) they produced transitive (S)VO structures instead of the unaccusative ones. Conclusion: We suggest, in agreement with other researchers (for example, Schwartz, Linebarger, Saffran, Pate, 1987) that aphasic individuals overuse a mapping strategy that associates the theta roles of agent and theme with syntactic subject and object respectively, as they produce transitive (S)VO structures, to a large extent, instead of unaccusatives. In addition, as they had difficulties with unaccusative verbs marked for active voice, we suggest that they could not successfully interpret unaccusative verbs with active voice morphology as non-agentive structures. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

Teaching adult learners requires ongoing preparation and commitment to excellence by adult educators. Central to the educational process is the educator's teaching style. One of the most powerful yet frequently underdeveloped qualities is the educator's voice. The authors present the Voice Projection Instrument as a personal development tool for adult educators to assess and enhance their speaking effectiveness in the classroom.

Submitted by Guilherme Lemeszenski (guilherme@nead.unesp.br) on 2013-08-22T18:40:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 S1516-80342009000300011.pdf: 414684 bytes, checksum: 64b3baa3ff92f9d7c2ce6f5b99da52af (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2013-08-22T18:40:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 S1516-80342009000300011.pdf: 414684 bytes, checksum: 64b3baa3ff92f9d7c2ce6f5b99da52af (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-01 Made available in DSpace on 2013-09-30T19:26:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1516-80342009000300011.pdf: 414684 bytes, checksum: 64b3baa3ff92f9d7c2ce6f5b99da52af (MD5) S1516-80342009000300011.pdf.txt: 50576 bytes, checksum: e132a6e37ceec89e26417dc79947a563 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-01 Submitted by Vitor Silverio Rodrigues (vitorsrodrigues@reitoria.unesp.br) on 2014-05-20T15:07:23Z No. of bitstreams: 2 S1516-80342009000300011.pdf: 414684 bytes, checksum: 64b3baa3ff92f9d7c2ce6f5b99da52af (MD5) S1516-80342009000300011.pdf.txt: 50576 bytes, checksum: e132a6e37ceec89e26417dc79947a563 (MD5) Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-20T15:07:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 S1516-80342009000300011.pdf: 414684 bytes, checksum: 64b3baa3ff92f9d7c2ce6f5b99da52af (MD5) S1516-80342009000300011.pdf.txt: 50576 bytes, checksum: e132a6e37ceec89e26417dc79947a563 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-01-01 Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) OBJETIVO: Investigar os efeitos da aplicação de um Programa de Desenvolvimento da Coordenação Motora, baseado em Piret e Béziers, na voz do cantor lírico. MÉTODOS: Cinco cantores líricos profissionais executaram uma ária de ópera, de livre escolha, que foi filmada. em seguida responderam a uma questão sobre a propriocepção ao cantar. Durante um mês submeteram-se ao Programa de Desenvolvimento da Coordenação Motora e ao final gravaram novamente a mesma ária e responderam a mesma questão. As filmagens foram enviadas para nove juizes profissionais (três fonoaudiólogos, três fisioterapeutas e três professores de canto) que avaliaram a integração corpo e voz dos cantores por meio de análise perceptivo-auditiva e visual. Os cantores, após assistirem às duas filmagens, fizeram outra auto-avaliação. RESULTADOS: Na avaliação dos juízes: as duas sopranos, a mezzo-soprano e o baixo melhoraram a projeção da voz; o tenor melhorou a ressonância e o baixo melhorou também a respiração; com exceção do baixo todos ficaram com os gestos mais livres. Segundo relato dos cantores, os exercícios garantiram maior percepção da tensão muscular durante o canto e isso possibilitou melhor controle dos gestos. CONCLUSÃO: de acordo com a avaliação subjetiva os ajustes posturais, oriundos da execução dos exercícios da coordenação motora, provavelmente garantiram abertura da caixa torácica e melhoraram as condições da respiração dos cantores, durante o canto; este fato pode ter favorecido a verticalização da ressonância e a projeção da voz. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of the application of a Motor Coordination Development Program, based on Piret and Béziers, on the voice of lyric singers. METHODS: Five professional lyric singers performed an opera aria of their choice, which was filmed. Next, they answered a question regarding their proprioception when singing. They were submitted to the Motor Coordination Development Program for a month, after which each subject performed the same aria and answered the same question. The videos were sent to nine professional judges (three speech therapists, three physical therapists and three singing teachers), who carried auditory-perceptive and visual analyses of the singers' body and voice integration. After watching the two recordings, the subjects carried out another self-evaluation. RESULTS: In the judges' evaluation: the two sopranos, the mezzo-soprano and the bass improved their voice projection; the tenor improved the resonance, and the bass also improved the breathing; all subjects, except the bass, showed freer gestures after the program. According to the singers' report, the exercises guaranteed greater perception of the muscular tension when singing, and that allowed more control of gestures. CONCLUSION: According to the subjective analysis, the postural adjustments deriving from the execution of motor coordination exercises probable guaranteed greater opening of the thoracic cavity and improved the breathing conditions of the subjects while singing, which might have favored the verticalization of resonance and the projection of the voice. Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) Programa de Estudos Pós-graduados em Fonoaudiologia Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho

Publisher Summary Delivery is important in establishing the impact of a scientific presentation on the audience, and speaking skills can be the determining factors for success in scientific careers. Effective use of voice, pause, stress position, eye contact, posture, gestures, and enthusiasm contribute to the stage presence of a speaker and distinguish a routine presentation from a memorable one. The force of delivery may make the difference between whether or not a job offer can be got and whether or not a grant proposal is approved. It is the delivery and not the content that makes the last impression. Being a confident and powerful speaker is not only a talent but also a skill that can be acquired. The characteristics of delivery in terms of voice control can be separated into several interrelated properties: sound, volume, speed, and intonation. This chapter discusses the challenges for non-native English speakers along with the ways to deal with them. Genuine enthusiasm accounts for 90 percent of the speaker's success, and slowing down the rate of speech is the remedy for 90 percent of most speakers' problems, while monotony is the greatest enemy of a scientific presentation. Articulation and eye contact are the two most important components of voice projection. Take the time to articulate every word of each sentence clearly, while maintaining eye contact with the audience. Nervous and hurried speech leads to inaccurate articulation. Restating conclusions or reminding the audience of a conclusion reached earlier in the talk, which serves as a basis for additional arguments, is an effective means of emphasizing important aspects of the presentation's content.

Fifty female and four male aerobics instructors completed a questionnaire pertaining to vocal problems and variables that could indicate an increased risk for developing problems. The questions concerned teaching experience, physical data regarding instructional facilities, method of voice projection, music volume, history of illness, allergies, voice loss, hoarseness, smoking habits, and knowledge of vocal hygiene. The results showed that a significant number of instructors experienced partial or complete voice loss (44%) during and after instructing, as well as increased episodes of voice loss, hoarseness, and sore throat unrelated to illness since they began instructing. Significant variables associated with voice problems included sore throat and hoarseness following instruction, and shouting to cue the participants. It was also found that very few instructors in this study had any knowledge of vocal hygiene techniques.

Context: Exploring the characteristics of actor's voice is been the interest of the researchers in last two decades. Research on professional voice users in India is mostly concentrated on singers, teachers, radio jockeys etc. A literature search indicates two areas where more research is needed. Primarily detailing the way of perceptual evaluation of actor's voice (speaking voice) and correlating it acoustic parameters. Research needs to be carried out to find out whether the actors are special as in the strategies they use to project their voices in Indian contexts. Aims: The primary aim of the following study is to analyze acoustic and perceptual parameters for voice projection in actors and non-actors at three loudness levels and secondary aim is to find out correlation between them. Subjects and Methods: A total of 18 actors and 18 non-actors within the age range of 19-60 years participated in the study. Their voices were digitally recorded and analyzed using LTAS (Dr. Speech, Real Analysis-Tiger Electronics, Version 5) on frequency-intensity parameters. Result and Discussion: The result showed that there is a significant difference between actors and non-actors at stage performance level (P < 0.01). Pattern of spectral slope was found sharply falling with higher energy concentration in actors at 3-4 kHz. Perceptual parameters correlated moderately only with average f0 at stage performance level. Conclusion: Actors are efficient in projecting their voice perceptually than non-actors which is in correlation with acoustic parameters at stage performance level.

Performers (10 actors/10 singers) rated via a self-report questionnaire the severity of their voice-related changes when vocally fatigued. Similar frequency patterns and perceptual features of vocal fatigue were found across subjects. Actors rated "power" aspects (e.g., voice projection) and singers rated vocal dynamic aspects (e.g., pitch range) of their voices as most affected when vocally fatigued. Vocal fatigue was evidenced by changes in kinesthetic/proprioceptive sensations and vocal dynamics. The causes and context of vocal fatigue were vocal misuse, being "run down," high performance demands, and using high pitch/volume levels. Further research is needed to delineate the perceptual features of "normal" levels of vocal fatigue and its possible causes.

Summary 1.Between 1951 and 1968 a personal series of 19 patients have been examined who after removal of tonsils and adenoids suffered permanent nasal escape during speech. 2.All had had normal speech before operation and were of above average intelligence. 3.The main defects in speech were audible nasal escape and loss of voice projection. 4.Radiological studies always demonstrated a fully mobile soft palate but with a gap between it and the posterior pharyngeal wall. When this gap was occluded by a cartilage implant behind the posterior wall of the pharynx speech returned to normal. 5.Cephalometric measurements suggest that the essential defect is a pharynx deeper than normal, but that such disproportion between palate and pharynx is probably not possible to diagnose before adenoidectomy.