Elocution classes

Elocution is not just for native English speakers

Elocution is particularly useful for native English language speakers, but also for non native English speakers. You will learn how to pronounce the various vowels, consonants and diphthongs, etc., will be taught about rhythm, tone and stress of the English language, as well as the rules of intonation, thereby enabling you to fine tune your English and to become better at rhetoric. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding intonation, i.e. how speaking with melody by raising or lowering the pitch affects the linguistic meaning. This is very important since the English language, probably more than most other languages, employs intonation to convey connotations and meanings.

Being taught how to make optimal use of the prosodic characteristics of speech, i.e. how to employ speed, pitch and loudness, will enable you to stress words and sentences lexically. This is essential since English, just as Greek, constitutes a stress language. In English, tone is not employed lexically, as is the case, for example, in Mandarin, Japanese or Thai where the tone is determinative of a particular word; however tone is still imperative for intonation.

Correct use of intonation can be subtly exploited in a variety of ways, which particularly a non-native English speaker or a native English speaker unaware of the rules of intonation would not necessarily be aware about. This can result in parts of the communication being lost.

Our classes will educate participants about these rules and teach them how to become proficient in speaking English at a very high level, thereby also making you feel more confident.

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