ゼミ課題(Summary) Paravocalics（ゼミ生pear）

Summary and my Opinion of Paravocalics

　Paravocalics is the study of vocal effects, such as tone, rate(speed), volume(power), pitch(soprano or bass and so on), pause(stopping), and stress(intensify). These factors determine the vocal quality and communicate nonverbally to listeners. We can get some meanings from the factors, so they are called vocal cues. Vocal cues are useful to guess the sex, age, status and feeling or emotion of speakers. When someone is talking or speaking, we make a judge and reaction to him/her based on the vocal cues, so they are very important for communication.

　As the textbook (communicating) mention the importance of vocal effects in communication, I also think they are important. I have three examples from which I came to realize the importance of them.
　First, in a part-time job, I have to pay much attention to the vocal effect. I work as a cram school teacher and teach English, math etc. to students from elementary school to high school. I am needed to change the rate of speaking especially. If I speak to elementary school student with the rate I speak to high school students, they can’t catch up with my words. On the contrary, if I speak to high school students with low speed as I do to elementary school students, they will get tired to listen to my words. The rate does an important role in this situation.
　Second, in my job hunting, the vocal effects are decisive factors, I think. I pay much attention to especially the rate, volume, and stress. When I get nervous, I incline to talk at faster rate than usual. It is difficult for interviewers to follow my words, so I try to speak as usual rate as possible. The volume is necessary to state my opinion clearly. Having good volume of voice is my strong point, so I want to show it well. The stress is useful to tell my point of the opinion. If I use stress successfully, interviewers will get interested in my story. Various factors are needed in job interviews.
　Third, the voice effects will be very important cues when I can’t see others face. In face-to-face communication, I guess the person’s feeling and mood from his/her face and voice effects, but without face-to-face communication, such as using a telephone, you have to guess them only from voice effect. Therefore, a listener should catch the voice effects and their meanings, and a speaker should also try to use right voice effects not to be misunderstood.
In conclusion, the vocal effects are keys for communication and they all have certain meanings.