You wouldn't think this, but someone who sits up or stands up straight usually has better language skills, no matter which language they speak.
That's because standing up straight and speaking clearly are testaments to your confidence and assuredness. They signal that you are comfortable with yourself and with presenting your ideas. And, while you may not be an authority on the subject you speak of, the authority that you show when you speak gives your words legitimacy.
If nothing else, you want to be accepted as legitimate when you speak, no matter what language you communicate in.
So now, let Superprof guide you through building more powerful vocals and exercise to improve and strengthen your posture.
How Posture Affects Vocal Power
Who is your favourite singer?
Right now, all over the world, the Korean boy-band BTS is all the rage but other K-pop idols aren't too far behind them in popularity. Are you a K-Pop fan or do you prefer the classics - vocalists of the Celine Dion calibre? Some of my students like to listen to choir music; so many voices raised together is a heavenly sound!
Have you ever focused on your favourite vocalist as they sing - not what they're singing but how they sing? All vocal performers have one thing in common, even BTS, for all of their snappy dance moves: excellent posture.
Their backs are straight and shoulders pulled back, heads held high and abdominal muscles firm.
Any singing coach would make your posture the subject of their first few lessons because, without proper posture, you have little chance of controlling your air or the strength and power of your voice.
Keeping your spine straight and shoulders back gives your lungs all the room they need to expand to their maximum capacity. Holding your head high allows your vocal cords to stretch and gives them room to vibrate properly, meaning you can expand your vocal range and strengthen your voice box.
And firm abdominal muscles help control how much air you force out as you speak.
Besides the effects good posture has on your body's ability to produce powerful, regulated sounds, it also invests you with confidence.
Standing tall, with your shoulders squared and your head firmly planted gives you the feeling that you are unbeatable - as, indeed, you will be. The confidence boost you get from good posture will make you feel that there's nothing you can't do, including speaking English well.
Now, you may not want to take singing lessons to improve your posture and voice power but elocution lessons might be a good idea.
How Posture Affects Confidence
Take a moment to think about how an animal in the wild - or even a domestic animal asserts dominance. You could watch a few videos of animals attacking prey if your imagination isn't that vivid...
Every animal, from the timid house cat to bears in the wild makes itself bigger. They stand on their hind legs or make their fur stand out, they assume an aggressive posture and they may even make some threatening sounds.
For animals, this behaviour is instinctive. If they don't go on the offensive when they meet a perceived threat, they'd better be fast runners or clever dodgers. For humans, though, these traits must be learned. Our threats aren't life-and-death anymore. These days, humans compete intellectually and psychologically.
That's why we draw on our lizard brain tactics of making ourselves bigger to boost our psychological strength.
Incidentally, that's why so many world leaders have such good posture. Studies show that taller people have a social advantage over their less-tall peers; scientists suspect it's because we too equate dominance with size and height.
And, naturally, if you're a leader, everyone you lead believes in you, which boosts your confidence and makes you stand even taller.
So, even if you don't want to be a powerful CEO or world leader, standing tall, as the best of them do, will give you a sense of confidence.
With such confidence, you could at least consider becoming a public speaker.
How Confidence Boosts Voice Power
The timid kitten mewls while the lion roars. Which cat do you see yourself as?
The lion reigns supreme. He is the top predator; he has nothing to fear. The kitten is a tiny ball of fluff, full of uncertainty and scared of its own shadow.
This imagery might be adorable but the underlying message is true. If you know you have nothing to worry about, you too can roar. On the other hand, if you are overwhelmed by fears, you might run away instead of confronting... anything.
How does that play into boosting your voice power?
Often, people are afraid to speak out for many different reasons. They might be afraid that people will laugh at them. They could be scared of making a mistake; saying something that's not true or something that might make people angry.
One of my ESOL students, who was unfamiliar with British slang, accidentally used a particularly offensive slang word in a debate competition. Nobody made any comment or gave any reaction to his slip-up; he didn't even lose any points for using such a word during his speech.
That's because he spoke confidently. Later, he told me that he realised he said the wrong word just after he said it but he never lost his nerve. Standing at the podium, shoulders back and head held high, he simply continued with his prepared speech - after he insulted every woman in the room.
And, even better: he delivered his speech in a clear, powerful voice, projecting all the way to the back of the room. Even if people had caught onto him accidentally using a naughty word, his strong voice would have drowned all the laughter out.
Clearly, this ESOL student is a lion.
You don't need voice lessons to develop a powerful voice but you do need to develop your confidence. To do that, you need to know how to use your voice as a tool to project your strength. Learning how to modulate your voice can help you with that.
How You Can Build Voice Power Through Better Posture
You can build voice power through a variety of exercises; in a bit, we'll give you some tips on how you can do just that. First, though, we have to talk about a very real stumbling block that some ESOL students have a hard time getting around.
In some cultures, the ideal of the still and quiet female prevails. Although individual families do not (necessarily) believe their daughters deserve less - or are less powerful than sons, more often than not, the cultural norm reinforces the gender role.
If you were raised to believe your voice shouldn't ring out equal with other members of your culture, you will likely have difficulty overcoming everything your culture taught you.
That doesn't mean that all hope is lost for you. Being confident is a personal choice that can exist within any culture. So, if you're ready to find your inner core of strength and let it blossom into confidence, try these tips.
For those ESOL students who are not limited by their culture, these tips work well for you, too.
- sit on the floor, legs stretched out in front of you and back against the wall. Make sure your head, shoulders and the length of your spine touch the wall. Hold the position for a few minutes and then release, rest and do it again. This will train your muscles to hold that straight position even when you're standing.
- You can also do this exercise while standing up.
- Put on formal clothing - a suit and tie or a formal dress. You'll be amazed at how hard it is to slouch when wearing formal clothes! And, while wearing your suit/dress, practise speaking out loud. You'll hear the difference in your voice, guaranteed!
- Take dancing lessons. Some think that ballet lessons are the best but jazz dancing, modern dancing... even breakdancing will help you work on your posture.
- Take martial arts lessons: karate, gong fu and Tai Chi are all great for improving your posture, and they also help you build confidence and focus.
- Give yoga a try; in particular, learn pranayama - a breathing art that helps you centre and balance yourself. No discipline is better than yoga at improving posture and boosting self-confidence.
Once you've worked on your posture - attained the ramrod-straight, Obama way of standing, it's time to work on building your voice.
As mentioned before, learning to improve your singing voice a great way to train your vocal power but, if you're not interested in learning how to sing or if such lessons are out of your reach, you can do what Demosthenes did: head to the ocean and shout at the waves.
If no ocean is nearby, a busy motorway or some other loud environment will do.
Do you know about Demosthenes, the Greek statesman? He was such a terrible speaker that he was laughed out of the senate. In despair, he headed to the ocean, his mouth stuffed full of rocks, and delivered a speech to the water. He continued to practise speaking with a mouthful of rocks until he could speak clearly, with or without rocks in his mouth.
Luckily, you don't need to do such hard work. You only need to follow these tips to correct your posture and learn how to use your voice.
You also need to know all about the importance of intonation to speak English fluently.
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