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7th grade reading & vocabulary
Course: 7th grade reading & vocabulary > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Close reading: speech and dramaHow the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words
Good public speakers use a range of techniques to convey their message to their audience, which goes beyond just the words they say. They become actors, who are telling us a story on stage not just with their lines but with their physical presence.
Created by Kimberly Kutz.
Want to join the conversation?
- What is the meaning of bueller?(6 votes)
- "Bueller...Bueller..." atis from the 1986 movie, "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", starring Matthew Broderick as Ferris Bueller, a high-school student who skips a day of school with his best friend and his girlfriend. Meanwhile in class, the teacher is taking attendance, calling out students by last name. Each student responds with "present," or "here," until he gets to Ferris – the teacher keeps calling out, "Bueller...Bueller...Bueller...Bueller...", waiting for Ferris to respond, but of course Ferris isn't even there. 2:25
The line is famous for the monotone voice of the teacher, played by Ben Stein. You can find clips of this scene on YouTube.
As @YESHA mentioned, people commonly use the phrase "Bueller...Bueller..." when waiting for a response from someone but that person is not responding. For example, suppose you sent a text message to your friend, but she didn't answer; you might jokingly text her again, saying "Bueller...Bueller...".(24 votes)
- I liked this video it was very helpful, but where is David?(16 votes)
- I liked the examples like the speech and texts too, and I think that David might be sick or taking a vacation.(3 votes)
- Where be David!(16 votes)
- italics DAVID BE WHERE WHY BE ME MAD(13 votes)
- Where is David?(11 votes)
- Where is david!(10 votes)
- Where is david(10 votes)
- I like david better than Kimberly. He's funny. who else likes him better?(7 votes)
Video transcript
- [Narrator] Hello readers, today we're talking
about how the delivery of the speech affects the
impact of the words. So what do I mean by that? It's all the ways that how a person says something
affects what they mean. Words on a page may have
a certain definition, but we humans use all
sorts of different ways to show what we really mean. We can say something quietly or really loudly to emphasize a point. We can emphasize some
words, but not others. We can pause, to create dramatic tension. We know that how something
is said is important because when we don't
have that information, sometimes it's hard to know what another person is really saying. Say that you forgot about your
friend Eli's birthday party. So you text them, "hey,
sorry I missed your party." Seriously for me this is one of the most anxiety-inducing situations that I encounter on a regular basis. What does Eli actually mean here? It's fine. Or it's fine or it's fine. Is it fine or isn't it? Gang, I don't know. Eli's tone and body language, which we can't see in just a text message, add in important elements of meaning. We can apply that
knowledge to how we speak and how we assess the speech of others. Good public speakers use
a range of techniques to convey their message to their audience, which goes beyond just
the words that they say. They become actors who are
telling us a story on stage, not just with their lines, but with their physical presence. So, let's talk about
some of these techniques and then we'll watch a
little bit of a speech so you can spot some examples. First, there's vocal variety. This means using different speaking speeds and changing between soft
and loud speaking volumes. When people don't do this, we say that they're speaking
in a monotone, you know. Bueller? Bueller? Vocal variation adds excitement
and emphasis to speech. Then there's language. Here I mean the choice of words and the rhetorical
devices the speaker uses to appeal to their audience and make the audience
agree with their points. So, for example, if you're
at a business convention, you would expect a speaker
to use pretty formal language like, good evening my esteemed colleagues, tonight I want to discuss the
importance of market research and connecting with our customer base. You wouldn't expect the speaker to say, "(indistinct), I'm a Hanker
and (indistinct) tonight. "Let's go mine some gold." But if you were at a
gold miners convention, maybe that's exactly what
you would expect to hear. Language also includes
the rhetorical devices that help to structure an argument. For example, repetition. Repeating the same word or
phrase can help hammer it home or make the speaker's
point feel more urgent. In Martin Luther King Jr's
"I have a dream" speech, he starts eight sentences
in a row with the phrase, "I have a dream." So these two points cover
how a speaker talks, but there are also physical
aspects to giving a speech. Gestures and eye contact, visual aids, and the use of the stage area itself. The speaker can pace back and forth to show they're feeling agitated, or throw their shoulders back
to show they're feeling proud. They can use their hands to
emphasize what they're saying. Speakers can use props if they want to, a chart or image or an object. And just like actors can have
performances that are great, and performances that are only so, so. Speakers can use all of these
techniques to great effect, or they can miss the mark by
seeming phony or uncomfortable. So let's take a look at
a speech and its delivery to see if we can spot
any of these techniques and what messages they convey. This is a speech from 1988 by the then governor of Texas Ann Richards at the Democratic National Convention. I'll fast forward to the good parts. - Those were real people
with real problems and they had real dreams about getting out of the depression. I can remember summer
nights when we had put down what we call the Baptist palette and we listened to the grownups talk. I can still hear the sound of the dominoes clicking on the marble slab my daddy had found for a tabletop. - [Narrator] Did you
see what she did there? What's her language telling
us about who she is? What did she do with her hands there when she talked about the dominoes? She's telling us she's not fancy, she's from an ordinary background and she helps us visualize the scene by wiggling her fingers like
she's putting down dominoes. - I got a letter last week from a young mother in Lorena, Texas, and I wanna read part of it to you. - [Narrator] Okay. How about that? What did you think about
her opening up that letter? Is that actually the letter she received from the young mother? Probably not. I think I
can see the text on it and it's really big. So, she's probably
reading from a typed copy. It's folded in thirds though, like a letter that came in an envelope. It gives you the impression
that this is a real letter, something she got in the mail, and she's telling you
the plain truth from it. This is a visual aid. Okay. Let's skip the middle of the letter and see how Governor Richards
delivers the end of it. - We plot along trying to
make it better for ourselves and our children and our parents. We aren't vocal anymore. I think maybe we're too tired. I believe that people like
us are forgotten in America. - [Narrator] What did you notice about how Governor Richards delivered
those last two sentences? I think maybe we're too tired. She sounds tired. And she pauses between the words. I believe that people like
us are forgotten in America. All of those pauses
give weight and emphasis to the experience of the young mother. This is vocal variety. Okay. This is the last
one we'll talk about. - They've told farmers
that they were selfish, that they would drive up food prices if they asked the government to intervene on behalf of the family farm and we watch farms go on the auction block while we bought food
from foreign countries. Well, that's wrong. (crowd applauds) They told working mothers
it's all their fault that families are falling apart because they had to go to work
to keep their kids in jeans and tennis shoes in
college and they're wrong. (crowd applauds) They told American labor they were trying to ruin free enterprise by asking for 60 days
notice of plant closings and that's wrong. (crowd applauds) - [Narrator] What did you
hear repeated several times in this section? That's wrong. This is a rhetorical device. What does it make you feel about the points Governor
Richards was making here? It kind of feels like they're
piling on each other, right? She's adding more and
more evidence to her case. So the next time you watch a speech, keep these techniques in mind. They'll help you see
how a compelling speaker can transform the text of the speech with vocal and physical effects.