Using Word Clouds to Teach about Speaking Style

Autor/in	Perry, Lisa
Titel	Using Word Clouds to Teach about Speaking Style
Quelle	In: Communication Teacher, 26 (2012) 4, S.220-223 (4 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1740-4622
DOI	10.1080/17404622.2012.702918
Schlagwörter	Emotional Response; Feedback (Response); Audiences; Public Speaking; Word Frequency; Internet; Visual Aids + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Emotionales Verhalten; Spectator; Zuschauer; Vortrag; Word analysis; Frequency; Wortanalyse; Häufigkeit; Anschauungsmaterial
Abstract	Good public speaking style requires, among other skills, "effective management of the resources of language." Good speakers choose language carefully to create credibility, emotional impact, and logical appeal. If a speaker's language is wishy-washy, dull, vague, or long-winded, the speaker appears less trustworthy. Audience distrust of a speaker inhibits an audience's emotional response. Thus the speaker who cannot manage language effectively is less likely to harness pathos. At the end of a good speech, the audience and the capable speaker are in conceptual sync: the speaker's message, with the intended emphases and qualifications, is what the audience has heard. However, there is often, surprisingly, little correspondence between what people think they say and what their audience hears. Students in public speaking courses learn generalizations about "developing ideas through language" to "create an effective public speaking style," but classroom feedback in public speaking classes usually does not focus on the effect of a speaker's style--especially those elements of style that involve vocabulary, imagery, and word choices--on audience understanding and retention of key concepts. Students' first word choices are often colloquial and imprecise, and their understanding of metaphor and other linguistic tropes is extremely limited. In short, students should be aware that decisions about word choices can implicitly lend support to some positions while marginalizing others. Word clouds make students more aware of these connections. Word clouds use audience feedback to create a visual representation of what was heard (as opposed to what may have been said). Within the word cloud, the words vary in size and appearance based on how frequently a word appears in the text: the more often the word is used, the bigger the word appears in the word cloud. Variations of word clouds place the words in circles or boxes, with bigger ones enclosing the more commonly used ones. Word clouds have been used in popular media critiques of speeches. Word clouds have also been used in scholarly analyses of information. When the speaker sees which words and phrases are frequently-remembered, the speaker can begin to see the speech from the audience's perspective. The speaker can then make a more accurate judgment about whether the speech accomplishes its purpose: i.e. whether the speech succeeded in conveying "the main standpoints held by the writer of the text." A list of references and suggested readings is included. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10