Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 June 1899 — PRACTICE BEADING ALOUD [ARTICLE]

PRACTICE BEADING ALOUD

Next to the Writer of a Great Thonsrht le He Who . eada It Welt. “It will surprise every girl who has not already grown to & realization of her shortcomings in this direction to hear how Httle of the author’s thoughts she brings 'out when she reads aloud,” writes Katherne Junkerman, giving instructions on “The Cultvation of the Speakng Voice” in the Woman’s Home Companion. “The monotony of her voice will surprise her, too, and her throat wiirgrbw.tired.. She will stumble or hesitate at unfamiliar words, even though she knows their meaning thoroughly, just as one who reads mu* sic readily wUI misplay it from lack of practice. Of; course, you think you understand about what you are reading, but when you read aloud you must not only do this; you must make it clear to the listeners. The eye can itravel more rapidly than the voice, so that it is easy to read a few words ahead and get the meaning before the voice needs to take up the words. By doing this, continuity of expression is insured, consequently continuity of thought ou the part of the reader is possible. . “It is a very rare thing to hefcr a good conversationalist who does ngt read well, and they are the first to acknowledge the help their reading has afforded them. In reading aloud new words are brought to us, and we familiarize ourselves with them, and also with the mechanism of pronfcuncing them, so that the risk in using them when we talk is small. In reading graces of expression and new arrangements of words come to our notice, and we can acquire them; depth and versatility of thought grow v to be ours by assimilating the thought of others, and that most desirable thing of all, a large vocabulary, also becomes ours. What girl has not stumbled and blundered vocally seeking an apt word to express her thought? And who among us has not listened to the extravagant ‘How perfectly lovely!’ applied to all sorts of things, from the newest in shirt-waists to a snow-cap-caped peak of the Rockies? If girls read aloud more they would acquire a better idea of the value of words, and use them more appropriately.”