The differences between visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning have been distinguishable since our first day at school. Being more of a visual or kinesthetic learner to begin with, reading my portion of chapter 23 of Northanger Abbey out loud was a positive experience for me, however, listening to it performed via the audio book, made my comprehension of the pages less than productive. When I listen in class, I find it intensely easier to understand what is being said, if I am doodling or otherwise occupying my hands. Most of the time I?ll take notes, just to be able to listen. In addition, my experiences reading the chapter out loud, silently, and listening to it were all very different. I had to prepare to read it out loud and the experience was much more pleasing than having to listen to it. There were also differences in my ability to read silently imbedded in my ability to read out loud. My understanding of the pages also took different shape and form as performance and voice took a toll on how the story was unfolding. I learned that to persuade an audience is to be heard, as to be heard you must talk and inform the audience.
First, in preparation for reading aloud, I read the passage twice before taking on the actual reread of reading it aloud. By doing this, I found and prepared my voice which allowed my creativity to flow freely and it was fun. Being a creative writing major, my voice is something I find naturally but silently via my writing. I reread my papers aloud prior to turning them in so that I can hear the actual voice come off the paper but now, a new theory in hearing my voice is allowing others to read it aloud to me. Also, I picked out the important quotes that I wanted to place emphasis on and heavily concentrated on those while I practiced reading each page over and over again. In addition, I also wanted to recognize at which points the attitude changes from one to another and I wanted my voice and emphasis placement to reflect such changes and differences. When the story switches up tempo or emotion, the tempo, volume, and overall narration of the story should be recognized as well. When I listened to the audio book, the attitude shifts weren?t very apparent because the shifts in voice weren?t very vivid or noticeable and I sought to perfect this area in my narration. I worried that such concentration would divert from the story and I might overdo it but then I thought that I would prefer to over-emphasize then to fall flat.
In terms of tempo, I wanted to give listeners time enough to respond to what was going on the story and I wanted them hear every detail. Normally when reading aloud, students tend to read at a quicker pace which doesn?t allow time for listeners to catch up. In order to perfect this snag, it is important to allow plenty of room for pause and drama. It?s important to pay attention to punctuation in this aspect because a comma is a breathe and a pause and is meant to be read as such. Contrary to reading it silently, where such pauses are generally ignored.
Another thing I did was have an audience of three people so that it wasn?t simply me reading aloud to the computer. That way I won?t have to fake devotion to inspiring an audience because I will actually have people to inspire and with such an old novel, inspiration is not easily faked. Also, an audience allows me to read emotions and reactions to the text and that feeds my ability to read the story accordingly or change voice and characters to make sure they are not confused. Prior to reading to said audience, I read it to my roommate, allowing her to ask questions and point out areas in which seemed confusing or flat. Being an honest, unbiased party, her feedback allowed for me to change things up and make the corrections I needed to like peer editing in a workshop environment, always a very helpful part of anything literature related.
Besides voice, tempo, and rhythm, I tried to enjoy the assignment. Reading aloud is generally something I only expect from professors so this assignment allowed for a change of pace, one in which I am quite unfamiliar with. Actually, I had a final for a creative writing workshop class in which we had to read a story or a compilation of stories out loud to the classroom, illustrating our ability to bring our writing off the page. Unfortunately, we had a time constraint on this presentation and it made me nervous because my story was a couple minutes over and so I hurried my nervous presentation along, not making necessary pauses or allowing for much needed emphasis. The story didn?t necessarily fall flat but I was glad when it was over. This time I took time and effort to make sure I perfected such things and took the time to enjoy what I was reading, making it my own. I am always the one to volunteer to read my own writing aloud in class but I know how to make that mine, a novel, especially 19th century, was a new experience for me and took practice and patience.
In order to dramatize the chapter, I concentrated on my feedback from my roommate and by gauging reactions from the audience. Also, I took breathes as they were necessary, not just for pauses but pauses for other forms of punctuation since it is necessary to do so in order to separate the ideas in the text. Referred to as stops in Cox?s The Arts of Writing, Reading and Speaking, are often ignored and emphasis is thus not placed correctly. The point here is to not rush and follow the punctuation on the page while reading aloud as you would follow traffic signs while driving. I kept this metaphor in mind as a drove through my four pages in Chapter 23.
In addition to punctuation, I also gave each character a voice of their own, trying as hard as a I could to make them distinguishable to my audience, especially those unfamiliar with the first 22 chapters of the story. Though my first couple attempts included changes in accents, I forwent that idea since it just turned into me not being able to keep up with them all, and if I can?t keep up then neither can my listeners. So, instead of committing to accents, I committed to tone and tempo. Some characters had slower more distinct voices, while others had lower and less significant voices. I worked on these for awhile before my listeners could distinguish between who each character was. It turned into them distinguishing characters based on how I read dialogue more so than them distinguishing because I said so and so said this and whoever said that. This is also important with early literature because sometimes it becomes a back and forth, without writing who said what (Hemingway is a big fan of this style).
Also, dramatization stems from how dramatic your physical features get while doing the physical act of reading aloud. There is a lot involved. Mouth, lips, tongue, and lungs are all working together to give the words on the page a physical presence. This makes the words come alive and become more than just words. In addition to what you physically have to do in order to get these words out, I also committed to certain facial expressions when the emotion warranted, these actions reflected in my voice. For example, if I scrunched my eyebrows together and scrunched my nose up, my voice would compensate for these changes in mood and take on an incredulous character. Though it is simply a voice recording and not a video recording, changes in physical appearance and recognition of such attitude changes shows in your voice; it?s a part of getting into character.
While I am experienced with reading my own writing aloud, trying to make my own words come alive is something I can do as a gifted writer but trying to make an established narrative come alive is a different matter. So, in order to make this difference not so evident, I got into the character I try to incorporate into my own writing. This helped ease the tension and gave me a foundation for how I wanted to dramatize the story.
Contrary to listening to the audiobook read by Elizabeth Klett, reading the book silently allowed for more details to jump out at me, ones that I had earlier missed and ignored while listening. Since I am a reader as an extracurricular activity, I was enraptured when I got to take matters into my own hands. It gave me more power over how the story was read and how the characters were interpreted. I am a fan of a wide variety of genres and can read anything, even if written poorly. Austen?s language, though so very different from modern day literature, was alive and dramatic. Since I am not accustomed to reading such style, I also read it slower which allowed for punctuation and changes in attitude to become noticeable. With this project in mind, I tried to enjoy the writing, thinking about how this would sound if I read it out loud. Since I am not an auditory listener by nature, I actually slipped into a dazed manner of listening, where I was listening but wasn?t hearing what was being said. It sounded like long, indistinguishable drolls that ceased to have a point or direction. The manner in which Elizabeth Klett read the story was substantial and she was well-articulated and she paid attention to pause, punctuation, and character differentiation but lacked in voice, tone, and expression, in my opinion. Lacking these things in her oral presentation made me anxious to make sure I put them into my presentation. I knew that I wanted to correct her flaws even it meant making ones of my own. All I know is that I wanted to act, become her characters and her narrator while distinguishing the two.
The differences between my reading aloud and listening to the audiobook were drastic also but both held more emphasis than silent reading because Austen meant for her books to be read aloud especially since in that day and time, books were rare and meant to be read aloud to each other. It used to be a favorite pass time. Unfortunately such privileges are hardly practiced these days. Parents may read aloud to their children but that is even a rare occurrence these days, too. Another thing that hampers such a practice from taking place is the technology of audiobooks, since their availability people have read out loud even less because someone could do it for them. Anyway, I believe that this project reflects the way Jane Austen would have pictured a class? reflection on her writing. While reading aloud, I wanted to be different from Elizabeth Klett, though I soon realized I hardly had to try since every reader has their own distinct characteristics that make the story come alive. I noticed that the audiobook emphasized the words whereas I emphasized differences in characters and action words. I also tried to picture Elizabeth making facial expressions and using her physical being to determine where the attitudes of the story were going but couldn?t quite put a facial expression to her tone. I wanted to reflect that in my presentation.
The differences between reading silently and reading aloud were drastic to the learning process. I read chapter 23 once while I read the whole book, and twice again before practicing reading it aloud and every time a read it aloud I noticed something more I could do with voice and how I imagined things going on while my silent imagination reviewed the literature. I am a good reader and but that didn?t necessarily mean I was going to be a good reader, that takes practice. So I practiced. Words lack a certain luster when they are simply understood with the eyes, when the eyes, mouth, and other physical aspects come into place, the words glow and have more of a presence, more meaning. I wondered if I could read the whole book aloud and see it in a brighter light. When I was younger and read books, my mouth would move over each word and it made the words more real, like I could grasp them. I think this practice could be a happy medium for reading out loud and reading to yourself. My voice, body, and mind responded to the words and I became more in touch with this particular chapter because of it.
In conclusion, everybody learns differently. Auditory learning is not my cup of tea but oral and more hands on means of learning stick with me. This assignment taught me the difference between the characters that I thought I?d read about and the characters that I could actually create using my voice and own manner of speaking. I also learned how to involve my body and become devoted to bringing an audience alive using my voice, something that didn?t happen for me when I listened to the audiobook of Northanger Abbey. Though I didn?t enjoy that part of the project, it allowed me to pinpoint what not to do and concentrate on things that I would want to hear out of an audiobook as I read the pages of my chapter aloud. It?s not as easy as it sounds and it take practice to be both a good reader and a good speaker. It is a talent not often exercised. Since Austen wrote in a time where books were often read aloud, I think that we got a look into what this book was truly capable by visiting every aspect of how it can be read: to you, by you, and silently. I think that my favorite experience was reading it silently as I do many books and losing myself in the silence of that affair, but I got in touch with a the actor part of my personality and tried to make words become more than just words. I succeeded.
Source: http://www.rogerwhitson.net/britnovel2012/2012/09/15/chapter-23-project-1/
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