Speech is a means of teaching and learning for children of various ages. It shapes the culture of students and serves as the primary model that affects their life path directly. Through words, the educator conveys certain information, develops and enriches learners’ intellects, encourages pupils to act, manages attention, and shapes the world of ideas and concepts. The speech enables to convey the mood, character, intellect, will, and attitude toward the subject matter; therefore, a competent construction of thoughts is necessary. Students primarily remember the professor’s perspectives, but only logical and accurate, grammatically correct, original, appropriate vocabulary is retained. Paula Denton’s book The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language that Helps Children Learn is a guide to pedagogical excellence which educates the construction of quality teacher-student dialogues.
The teacher’s proficiency in the culture of speech is undoubtedly the key to the success of the professional activity. The educator’s oration is a condition of pedagogical excellence and its basis. The book’s most appealing idea is that the pedagogical appropriateness of speech at different lesson stages is diverse. For example, at the scene of studying new material, a professor should activate the reflection activity of students, encourage them to independent, active cognitive training, and pass knowledge. The teacher’s speech should be logical, coherent, expressive, convincing, fascinating, and influence not only the mental but also the sensual sphere of learners. It is also vital that the tone and intonation affect the consciousness and pupils’ feelings because it gives emotional coloring to words and phrases. The teacher should use tone richness rather than deliver monologues in a passionless, monotone voice depending on the situation.
The Power of Our Words is vital to read because professional mastery of oral and written language is essential to all educators. The teacher’s imaginative, literate, lexically and intonationally rich, logical, and lively speech in and out of the classroom and communication with children, parents, and colleagues solve numerous critical teaching and learning issues. Paula Denton promotes the understanding that professional communication can create a favorable psychological climate.
After reading, it becomes apparent that the inaccurate wording generates fear, uncertainty, weakening of attention, memory, performance, impaired speech dynamics. Consequently, the stereotypical statements of students emerge because they have a reduced desire and ability to think for themselves. The Power of Our Words trains that communication, on the contrary, should relieve such emotions, evoke the joy of comprehension, the thirst for activity, contribute to the social and psychological optimization of the educational process. The book’s implications are vital as through words, the educator, like everyone else, expresses oneself and simultaneously influences others.
Teachers whose professional credo is a democratic, personal and humane approach to children must constantly improve and update the external means of pedagogical communication. Every educator should understand that in the center of the verbal interaction, there should be a dialogue that excludes one-sided vocal influence and assumes the maximal activity of the communication subjects. Typical deficiencies in speech activity emerge primarily from the wrong direction of the teacher’s speech, which excludes a high internal culture and professional skill. The infamous monotone is just a consequence of the educator being preserved in the role of a mentor who cannot conduct a dialogue, feel the communication partner, and stimulate one to speak out.
There are no ideas in the book that can be questioned because the culture of speech is an extensive multi-component concept and everyone comprehends its essential function. Knowledge of grammatical rules permits the teacher to express the thoughts accurately, giving the address a coherent, meaningful character, facilitating the perception of the learning material and commands.
Moreover, the book instructs that it is necessary to consider the dynamics of the voice, varying its strength. Insufficient volume of speech hurts the audience and leads to rapid fatigue of students. Consequently, pupils need to either shut down, stop following the content of the teacher’s lesson, or make a deliberate effort to force themselves to listen. Thus, all the book’s ideas are logical because the vocabulary contributes to the imagery of speech and expressiveness. Skillful use of proverbs, sayings, catchwords, metaphors, and hyperboles makes the teacher’s address juicy and emotional and lifts the students’ spirits. Paula Denton instructs that it is necessary to develop the ability to build dialogues and provides many examples of how this can be accomplished. Her clues are rational and precise, backed up by evidence that makes the book even more persuasive.
A person’s general culture is most vividly manifested in the speech. The manner of expressing the feelings and thoughts is a business card of each person and a feature of professionals in a particular activity. Undoubtedly, knowledge of the requirements and rules of vocabulary culture, their observance, and constant improvement of one’s oration is a guarantee of successful work. It is a necessity for a modern educator whose mission is to introduce the wealth of global culture to those for whom these norms are perceived primarily through the affecting word. Every teacher must develop and improve their speech, and The Power of Our Words is a book that helps to understand the basics of the proper dialogue construction between a teacher and a student.