Chapter+4

Chapter 4: Use of the body in Oral Interpretation This chapter focused on technique, posture, Kinesics, Sense Imagery, Empathy, and Eye Contact. Technique is the style and can be gained through a lot of practice. There is a technique to everything, including teaching. Voice and body is used in technique, just as gestures and voice can intone what you want your student to pay particular attention to. Posture is maintained through the use of relaxtion exercises and is important to show the strength of your character, as well as assert authority in the classroom. Good posture will help you go home with your muscles feeling less strained and more relaxed. Kinesics includes fine and gross body movement, as well as locomotion, gestures, and posture. This incorporates nonverbal communication, which is important in the classroom and in daily life for us and our students. You do not want a negative gesture to go with a positive vocal inflection, it may send the wrong message to our audience. Autistic gestures should be avoided as much as possible during a performance because they take away from the performance and allow to much of the performer into somewhere where their particular character is not supposed to be. Muscle tone interprets how the performer is really feeling and should be controlled. Teachers also need to pay attention to their muscle tone because if they are slumped like he/she is bored, the students are likely to think the information is boring and not to pay attention. Sense imagery is your reaction to the literature and the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell, as well as larger muscle movements and muscle tension and relaxation. Then there is empathy. This is where the performer interacts with the character's feelings and physical responses. The performer is the character and is reacting to what is going on around him/her with sense imagery. These both show the audience how you are feeling and what is causing it (they are vital!). Eye contact should be made in the appropriate places. If you are talking to yourself, look up and away, if you are talking to your audience, look at each of them. Speak as your character, not as yourself giving a performance. Eye contact is imperative with students to show them you are paying attention to them as well and to know what is going on in the room around you as well. Activities: [|Comparing cultural kinesics] Students research on the internet/discuss in the classroom various gestures used in different cultures and what they mean in each. The "OK" sign in America means okay, but it is obscene in another culture. Discuss the importance of reading and interpreting gestures, as well as being culturally aware of gestures and meanings. [|Sense Imagery] Students will write a story using sense imagery to "paint a picture" about the scene.  Videos: media type="youtube" key="Nut7RNB7dQE" height="315" width="420" [] media type="youtube" key="nwbUy3MHZGg" height="315" width="420" [] Eye contact and eye avoidance
 * This lesson has been adapted from Susan Geye's Mini Lessons for Revision, 1997.