CC BY
26
УДК 372.881.111.1
Kuznetsov N.I.
Ukrainian Academy of Printing (Lviv, Ukraine)
N.G. Fersman
Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University (Russia)
INFORMATIVE METHODS OF PROVIDING SKILLS FOR SPEAKING AND WRITING
The paper deals with the main principles of structural organization, types and methods of speech delivery of various genres and topics. The key characteristics of an informative discourse are considered and classified. Different factors of capturing attention are also discussed as well as the ways and methods of making the informative report interesting and catching.
INFORMATION, INFORMATIVE DISCOURSE, DISCOURSE ANALYSES, STYLISTIC METHODS
Information is a means of knowledge or news given. It provides and accounts for communicative processes in the society. Information as a kind of speech is a variant of exposition that explains and answers the question how to provide a man with a means of transferring knowledge. The investigations of scientists, theoretical studies of economics, politics, literary essays - all those, however different they are, have for their purpose to inform and explain things either in oral or in written form. If the information is conveyed orally, and the speaker tries in a concise style to give much information in a few words, the main purpose of it is the same: to ensure the listeners' clear understanding of the ideas presented. To achieve this result, the informative speech must be interesting to the audience, easily understood by it.
Types of informative speech take different forms. Most typical of them are:
l.Reports: scientific, committee, executive;
2.Instructions: class and job instructions, instructions for special purposes, projects, device applications, etc.;
3.Lectures: academic lectures, business and professional reports, information talks on TV and radio programmes, etc [1].
Teachers, scientists, businessmen attend conferences and conventions and either there themselves or later report to the others the most essential information they obtained. Teachers instruct students in ways of preparing assignments and performing experiments. Supervisors tell their subordinates how a task should be performed. Researchers often share information and knowledge with groups interested in the problem at meetings and study conferences. Instructors lecture on
college campus; visiting professors lecture before students' groups and business institutes.
Essential characteristics of an informative discourse.
Interest and attention are most important to capture the attention of the audience. If the speaker is skilful and his message is worth listening - interest may grow as the report proceeds. A great deal of interest and attention depends on how the informative speaker delivers his speech or in what way the written discourse is arranged [2], [3], [4].
In view of this some generally accepted factors of capturing attention are recognized:
1. The speech should move or "march forward" and be integral. It should aim at a clearly defined goal - the completeness of the whole utterance: one idea follows another in a logical succession, without the speaker's spending too much time on any point, if that one is not of primary importance.
2. To raise interest and attract attention it is recommended to use pictures, allusions, references; to mention real events, places and people.
3. The theme of information must convey something new and essential. However, the speaker should observe a balanced combination of the new and old, of the new and familiar that brings best results: it is easier for understanding.
4. Stylistic devices are often resorted to, for example, suspense, can be made full use of. It is a kind of postponing the completeness of a sentence, of an idea or an utterance that accounts for calling attention by creating tension. But suspense should not be too long, otherwise the information becomes less interesting and some points of it may even be forgotten. For illustration as an effective address to students some fragments from John F. Kennedy's Commencement Speech (June 3, 1957) at the Syracuse University can be quoted. It is known for its impressive array of facts, quotations, historical references and anecdotes. In this way the future President qualified the profession of politics as an exciting and challenging, as well as an honorable pursuit, especially in the final paragraph of his speech: "Bear in mind: as you leave this university and consider the road ahead, not the sneers of the cynics or the fears of the purists, for whom politics will never be an attraction - but bear in mind instead these words which are inscribed behind the Speaker's desk high on the Chamber Wall of the United States House of Representatives, inscribed for all to see and all to ponder, these words of the most famous statesman my state ever sent to the Halls of Congress, Daniel Webster: "Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its power, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered" [5].
The President addresses the graduates with a striking speech to persuade, on the one hand, and with a commencement address, on the other. He congratulates the graduates upon their achievements and challenges and inspires them to meet obligations and opportunities which lie before them.
5. Be sure to establish the personal contact with the audience. For this reason avoid reading your speech for a long time as if to yourself. Try to pick out
listeners in various parts of the audience and talk directly to them for a few seconds, then shift to someone else or even to one person and then again to the whole group [6] .
6. A well-established means for gaining attention is making a starting statement of a fact or opinion. It is an effective method for introducing one's speech or beginning reports, articles and essays. To demonstrate its power, let's consider a remarkable example of works by Charles Lamb, an English writer and essayist, best known for his Essays of Elia (1775 -1834). His essay "A Chapter on Ears" the author starts with the cryptic remark: "I have no ear". Such a subtle way of catching the listener's/reader's attention aims to puzzle and intrigue him, hereby stimulating to go on reading or attentive listening [7]. No wonder that his famous work is endlessly reprinted and read by thousands of students and general readers.
7. Contrast is another attention - arousing stylistic device. As a rule, it is accompanied by comparison, i.e. comparing by contrast. Somewhere in the middle of the discourse to support his statement the speaker resorts to some other illustrative stylistic means, for example, the use of the so-called phrase epithet, always sounds unexpected and new, e.g.: "...to produce facts in a Would-you-believe-it kind of way"; "I-am-not-that-kind-of girl look"; "Shoots'em-down type" (I.V.A.); or ".a Move-if-you-dare expression in their eyes" (J.Greenwood); "the sunshine-in-the-breakfast-room smell" (J.Baldwin); "There was none of the Old-fashioned Five-Four-Three-Two-One-Zero business, so tough on the human nervous system. (A.Clarke) [8]
8. For gaining attention and arousing interest humour is highly effective. Wherever appropriate humorous anecdotes, jokes can be introduced to brighten up a lesson, speech or a talk. However, it should be kept in mind that the jokes should not offend listeners or make them feel uncomfortable because of some identical situation. There are numerous collections of anecdotes like "British Literary Anecdotes" or "The Guinness Book of Humorous Anecdotes", etc., where one can find any kind of adequate to the situation text. Here is an example:
Employer: For the job we want a responsible man.
Applicant: Then that for me. Everywhere, when something went wrong, they told me I was responsible.
The word "responsible" realizes two meanings simultaneously - positive (trustworthy) and negative (guilty/faulty), hereby causing a humorous effect and reviving the speech [9], [10].
There are lots of other ways and methods of making the informative report interesting and catching.
At meetings, for example, the professional audience can be involved into the process of discussion, exchanging information and evaluating ideas or judgements [11]. Discourses dealing with philological problems are known for their expressive stylistic means used; matter-of-fact reports abound in numbers and figures (wherever necessary), etc.
Various as all these methods are they should be built on some logical principles:
1. From the general to the specific, or from the specific to the general;
2. On the inductive or deductive principles;
3. From cause to effect, or from effect to cause;
4. On contrast or comparison.
The above presented methods are aimed at facilitating the process of apprehending either oral or written informative speech, its structure, pragmatics and delivery, by adding to the effectiveness of communication. These are the main principles of speech which are recommended to observe, irrespective of their genre, the author's individual style and the variety of the subject-matter - whether it is political, sociolinguistic, popular-scientific, literary, oral or written report. Speeches may differ in content, vocabulary, rhetorical design but their general methods-approaches must be preserved. Keeping to them, a good speaker also achieves success due to his professional knowledge, special training and adequately composed integral speeches. Integrity is a logical category of speech as a meaningful communicative unit. Integral speeches, long or short, abridged or extracted must be logically complete in their form and meaning.
The paper is based on the works of researchers, the book "The Principles of Speech" [3] proved most effective. Some of its items were adapted by the authors and especially the authentic character of wording the principles and methods of speech to help avoiding making mistakes by English learners and teachers while translating the speech into English. It also accounts for the fact that this article is written in English.
СПИСОК ЛИТЕРАТУРЫ:
1. Rees N. The Guinness Book of Humorous Anecdotes. - Guinness Publishing Ltd., 1994. 224 p.
2. Гальперин И.Р. Стилистика английского языка. - М.: Высшая школа, 1981. - 316 с. [на англ.яз.]
3. Ehninger D., Monroe A.H., Gronbeck B. E. Principles and Types of Speech Communication. - 8th ed. - Scott, Foresman & Co., 1978. - 492 p.
4. Nunan D. Introducing Discourse Analysis. - Penguin English, 1993. - 134 p.
5. JFK: In praise of public service. Режим доступа: http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion/2010/11/in_praise_of_public_service.html (дата обр.: 12.11.2015).
6. Tips for Public Speaking. Режим доступа: http://icebreakerideas.com/10-tips-for-public-speaking/ (дата обращения: 10.12.2015).
7. Brooks C., Warren R. P. Understanding Poetry. - 3rd ed. - New York: Holt, Rinebart and Winston, 1964. - 184 p.
8. Elia and The Last Essays of Elia / Charles Lamb, by Charles Lamb [web edition] - Режим доступа: URL: http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/lamb/charles/elia/book1.7.html (дата обр. 10.11.2015
9. Hendrickson R. British literary anecdotes. - Facts on File, NY, 1990. - 328 p.
10. English-Russian dictionary of stylistics (terminology and examples). Режим доступа: http://stylistics_en_ru.academic.ru/124/phrase-epithets (дата обращения: 08.02.2016).
11. Алмазова Н.И., Попова Н.В. Теоретические и прикладные аспекты вузовского инновационного процесса (на примере дисциплины иностранный язык). // Инновации в образовании. 2014. №3. С.5-17.
Кузнецов Николай Иванович - кандидат филологических наук; кафедра иностранных языков Украинской академии книгопечатания; 79020, ул. Пидголоско, 19, г. Львов, Украина; www.uad.lviv.ua
Kuznetsov Nikolai L. - Ph.D. in Philology, Associate professor, Dep. of foreign languages, Ukrainian Academy of Printing (Lvov), 79020, Pidgolosko str.,19, Lviv, Ukraine; www.uad.lviv.ua
Ферсман Наталия Геннадиевна - кандидат педагогических наук, доцент, кафедры «Лингводидактика и перевод» Гуманитраного института, Санкт-Петербургский политехнический университет Петра Великого, 195251, ул. Политехническая, 29, Санкт-Петербург, Россия; e-mail: natdia@list.ru
Nataliia G. Fersman - Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University; 195251, Politekhnicheskaya Str. 29, St. Petersburg, Russia; e-mail: natdia@list.ru
МЕТОДЫ ПОДАЧИ ИНФОРМАЦИИ В УСТНОМ И ПИСЬМЕННОМ
ДИСКУРСЕ
Статья посвящена основным принципам структурной организации, типам и методам произнесения информативных речей разных жанров и тематики. Рассматриваются классификации информативного дискурса; особое внимание уделяется вопросам его ключевых характеристик. На примерах речей известных персоналий обсуждаются разные стилистические средства как факторы привлечения и удержания внимания реципиентов устного и письменного дискурса.
ИНФОРМАЦИЯ; ИНФОРМАТИВНЫЙ ДИСКУРС; ДИСКУРСИВНЫЙ АНАЛИЗ; СТИЛИСТИЧЕСКИЕ СРЕДСТВА.
© Санкт-Петербургский политехнический университет Петра Великого, 2016
