Many people are intimidated about the idea of having to read aloud to an audience. In this post, you will learn how to read aloud and make voice more engaging to listen to. Apply this advice the next time you find yourself reading aloud at work or in the classroom.
Overcome Self-Conscious to Read Aloud
The self-consciousness that people feel when they read aloud in front of others often causes them to read the words in a dull manner. The boring and flat tone of voice used by reluctant readers sends everyone listening to sleep! For everyone’s sake, you should aim to put more energy and effort into your reading voice.
How to Read Aloud at the Appropriate Speed
The nerves that you feel when reading aloud in front of others can result in reading the text much too fast. For this reason, you should pay attention to the pace of your speech and adjust it if necessary.
When we read to ourselves inside our heads, we can read a text much faster. However, when reading aloud to an audience it is usually necessary to slow down the pace of a reading. This is because most people cannot process audio information as fast as visual information. If you read the text too fast, your audience will not be able to follow what you are saying.
The appropriate reading pace can often seem much too slow when your body is filled with adrenaline due to nervousness. This can make the reader want to get the reading experience over with, as quickly as possible. Understand that some nervousness will be felt regardless of how fast you read the text.
Give yourself permission to take as long as you need, without rushing to finish the text”.
Jade Joddle
Let Punctuation Guide Your Breath
When reading aloud the most important thing is that you have enough breath to get through to the next natural pause in the text. Punctuation in a text, such as full stops and commas, show you where you can next take a breath.
Try to avoid taking a deep breath mid sentence as it will disrupt to flow of the text and make it harder for listeners to understand what you are talking about. Scan a little ahead of where you are reading to see where your next pause is. Then, when you get there, don’t forget to breathe!
Vary Your Voice
Your job as narrator is to bring life to the text and to indicate the important parts to the audience. You can do this by varying your voice in different ways as you read.
Important information in the text should be read in a louder, slower or more emphasised manner. In contrast, text that isn’t that important should be read more quickly without any special influence.
One of the ways you can do this is by placing stress and emphasis on key words and phrases in the text.
How to Read Aloud Easily: Warm Up Your Voice First
You can improve your reading performance in front of an audience by 100 percent by warming up your voice beforehand. One way of doing this is to do a vocal training exercise. Exercises like this are great to do before a performance because they reduce nervousness by getting you ‘into your body’ and out of your head.
Extend Your Learning
◼️ Watch my lesson on How to Improve Weak Speaking Skills by Reading Aloud.
◼️ Download the video transcript: How to Read Aloud without Being Boring.
◼️ Watch my speech performance playlist of videos, in which I read aloud to you.
◼️Watch my lesson on How to Speak with Charisma by Practising Shakespeare.
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