Page 272 - Essentials of Human Communication

Step 10: Deliver Your Speech 251

SkIll DevelOpment experIenCe

Checking Your pronunciation

Here are 50 words that are often mispronounced. Consult an online audio dictionary to check on the correct
pronunciations: abdomen, accessory, across, arctic, ask, asterisk, buffet, candidate, clothes, costume, diagnosis, Mispronouncing words may
dilate, escape, especially, espresso, et cetera, ethnicity, February, federal, film, fiscal, herb, hierarchy, jewelry,
library, miniature, mischievous, nausea, nuclear, often, phenomenon, potable, prerogative, probably, prostate, significantly lessen your
realtor, relevant, remuneration, repeat, salmon, sandwich, similar, statistics, substantive, supposedly, thesaurus, credibility, and your own
ticklish, xenophobia. uncertainty about
pronunciation may increase
your apprehension.

fast, you deprive your listeners of the time they need to digest what you’re saying. If Communication
it’s too slow, your listeners’ thoughts will wander. So speak at a pace that engages but Choice point
doesn’t bore and that allows listeners time for reflection. Mispronunciation
In giving your speech you re-
articulation and pronunciation Articulation results from physiological alize that you mispronounced a key word
movements of the speech organs as they modify and interrupt the air stream from twice and saw that some members of the
the lungs. Different movements of the tongue, lips, teeth, palate, and vocal cords audience noticed the mistake. What are some
produce different sounds. Pronunciation is the production of syllables or words of your options for dealing with this?
according to some accepted standard, such as that of a dictionary. The most com-
mon problems associated with faulty articulation and pronunciation are these:

● errors of omission (articulation): Omitting sounds or even syllables is a common articula-
tion problem that you can easily overcome with concentration and practice. Some exam-
ples include saying gov-a-ment, studyin, or comp-ny instead of the correct gov-ern-ment,
study-ing, and comp-a-ny.
● errors of substitution (articulation): Substituting an incorrect sound for the correct one is
also easy to fix. Among the most common substitutions are d for t and d for th—for
example, wader, dese, bedder, and ax for the correct: waiter, these, better, and ask. Other
common substitution errors include ekcetera, congradulations, and lenth for the correct
et cetera, congratulations, and length.
● errors of addition (articulation): These errors involve adding sounds where they don’t
belong, as in saying acrost, athalete, and Americar instead of the correct across, athlete,
and America.
● errors of accent (pronunciation): Every word has its own accepted accent, or
stress pattern. Examples of words that are often accented incorrectly in-
clude New Orleáns, ínsurance, compárable, and orátor for the correct
New Órleans, insúrance, cómparable, and órator.
● errors of adding sounds (pronunciation): For some words, many peo-
ple add sounds that are not part of the standard pronunciation, in
many cases because they are part of the written word. Such errors
would include pronouncing the s in Illinois or adding a syllable to
evening instead of Illinoi and evning.

pauses Pauses are interruptions in the flow of speech. Filled pauses
are gaps that you fill with vocalizations such as er, um, and ah. Even ex-
pressions such as well and you know, when used merely to fill up silence,
are filled pauses. These pauses are ineffective and detract from the
strength of your message. They will make you appear hesitant, unpre-
pared, and unsure.