Crannell Consulting

The aim of this program is to make the speaker more intelligible, more easily understood. It is an accent reduction process, not an accent elimination process.

The participant(s) will be instructed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as it impacts the American/English language. An individual accent appraisal with exercises will be made for each participant by the second session. This is an oral seminar in which the participants are critiqued for the entire hour.

Attention is given to

American/English sounds (vowels, consonants, diphthongs).
Various sound substitutions, omissions, and distortions.
Rhythm and melody of the English language.
Projection of voice and its impact on being understood.
Stress patterns of American/English.
Problems involved in connected or vital speech.
Possible cultural differences.

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Presentational Skills and Public Speaking
Course Outline

This is an oral performance course designed to ensure that each client has the necessary oral communication skills to be an effective and professional communicator.

Content areas presented in this workshop are drawn from the basic skills of rhetoric and public speaking, listening, vocie and articulation, oral performance, group dynamics, kinesics, and interpersonal communication: ingredients of effective preparation for, and delivery of, informative and persuasive presentations.

Although theory is an important component in this course, the oral performance is the "thing." Feedback will be given by the instructor and the students. Each student is required to have his/her own VHS videotape on which the performances will be recorded to constitute the performance history of the workshop.

Text: Voice and Articulation (Fourth Edition), by Kenneth C. Crannell, Ph.D., Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont CA; with accompanying Audio Cassette Tapes.

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Oral Reading
Course Outline

This program is designed to train/develop one's ability to read a poem, or short story, or section from a play, or just a quotation aloud that embodies the thoughts and emotions of the writer/author rather than his/her own.

Goals:

To free the student from the constraints of his/her inhibitions when appearing before a listener(s).
To develop in the student an ability to make a definite connection with the listener(s).
To teach the student to analyze text/literature to deepen an appreciation of that literary work.
To enable the student to develop an ability to analyze, identify with,and express the emotions present in the text/literature.
To develop a sensitivity to the qualities of human relationships and to increase his/her ability to understand human behavior.

At the first meeting, the student(s) will read a poem, or short story, orsection from a play aloud to allow the Instructor to then design a programthat will be most helpful for the student's potential to express the thoughts and emotions evident in the piece of literature.

No text is required; however selections appropriate to the student(s)development will be assigned by the Instructor throughout the course.

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Voice and Articulation
Course Outline

This program is designed to develop a flexible vocal and articulatory mechanism that can be applied to conversation, sight/public reading,acting, media communication, and public speaking. In short, the, the student is expected to develop what I call "Career Speech."

Goals:

To develop proper breath control that should eventually become habitual.
To teach the student to make habitual optimum pitch and to develop aflexible and appropriate range in pitch.
To develop a flexible inflection pattern that adequately amplifies the speaker's intention of meaning.
To develop a pleasant vocal quality with adequate resonance; one that is free from excessive tension, breathiness, or nasality.
To develop appropriate projection.
To develop changes of tempo or rate appropriate to the intended meaning.
To develop an ability to produce the consonants, vowels, and diphthongs in connected speech with accuracy and smoothness.
To teach Career Speech through the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The student is expected to purchase one 60-minute cassette tape of goodquality and one 30 minute tape that will be used throughout the course beginning with one's initial speech voice reading and subsequent recordings.

Text: Voice and Articulation (Fourth Edition), by Kenneth C. Crannell, Ph.D.,Wadsworth Publishing, Belmont, CA., with accompanying Audio Cassette Tapes.

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