McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader, Revised Edition · Lesson Elocution · Part 1: Principles of elocution
1. Principles of Elocution: preliminary remarks and the elementary sounds optional
Goal: Your child knows the book's first rule for reading aloud and can say the vowel sounds and the paired consonant sounds clearly.
You'll need
- The book, open to these pages
- A notebook and pencil
What's in the book
The Introduction opens with Preliminary Remarks and Rule I, then II. Articulation: the elementary sounds of English, divided into vocals, subvocals and aspirates, with tables of example words.
The lesson, step by step
What this section is for
The Fifth Reader opens with about thirty pages on elocution, the art of reading aloud well. You don't need to master it before starting the lessons. Read a little of it now and return to it now and then.
Read the first rule together:
Before attempting to read a lesson, the learner should make himself fully acquainted with the subject
SayWhy would it help to understand a piece before you read it aloud to someone?
Three kinds of sounds
The book says the elementary sounds of English are divided into vocals, subvocals and aspirates.
Read its definitions together:
Subvocals are those sounds in which the vocalized breath is more or less obstructed.
Aspirates consist of breath only, modified by the vocal organs.
In plain words: vocals are open voice sounds (the vowels), subvocals use voice but are partly blocked (like b, d, v), and aspirates are breath only (like p, t, f).
Try the vowel sounds
Use the table of vocals on the page. Say each example word firmly, then say just its vowel sound, the way the book directs. Start with the long vowels (eve, pine, tube, no), then the short ones (mat, met, it, us), then oil and out.
Let your child lead the second time.
Feel the pairs
Have your child put a hand on the throat and say b, then p. One buzzes (voice), the other is only breath. The book calls such pairs cognates.
Try a few more pairs from the table: d and t, v and f, z and s.
SayWhich one makes your throat buzz?
Practice on words
Read the words in the table aloud, slowly and clearly, pronouncing the last sound fully: babe, bad, judge, move, buzz; rap, at, book, rich, life, hiss.
Wrap up
SayTell me the three kinds of sounds the book names, and give an example of each.
Afterwards
Spend a minute a day this week saying the vowel table aloud.
Tip
Keep it light. The point is to notice sounds, not to memorize the terms.