speech. It is a good plan to have pupils occasionally go through the motions of reading a sentence without making a sound. In this silent reading the mouth should be opened wide for the vowel sounds.

Pupils should give original words and sentences to test their knowledge of the occurrence of the sound in speech.

THE MAKING OF SPEECH

On the opposite page is a diagram of the organs of speech. (Fig. 1.) The front of the larynx or voice box is called the Adam's apple. It may be felt by placing the tips of the fingers on the throat. It moves up and down in swallowing. Stretched across the voice box from front to back are two bands of membrane called the vocal cords. (Fig. 2.) The ends and one side of these bands are fastened to the larynx but the inner edges are free. In quiet breathing these edges are far apart.

The vocal cords are brought close together by the action of the muscles of the larynx. Air from the lungs passing between them causes the free edges to vibrate and produce voice. (Fig. 3.) By means of the muscles of the larynx the vocal cords can also be tightened and the free edges can be brought together so that only a part of their length vibrates. Each of these changes produces a change in the pitch of the tone.

The voice passes from the larynx into the back chamber of the mouth or pharynx. The upper part of this cavity is called the nasal pharynx. In making the nasal sounds (m, n, and ng) the voice passes into this cavity and out through the nasal passages. In making the other speech sounds all or nearly all of the sound passes into the front cavity or the mouth.

It is in the mouth or "vowel chamber" that sound is shaped into speech. The tongue, the lips, the teeth, the hard palate and the soft palate assist in this process but the tongue is the most important of all. It is a muscle and can be developed by use.

CONDITIONS FOR GOOD TONE PRODUCTION

In order to speak well and be heard in a large room certain conditions for producing voice are necessary. Among them are:

1. Erect posture.

2. Open tone passage.

3. Voice support.

As breath is the material of which voice is made it is essential for good tone production that the lungs have plenty of room to expand. The body should, therefore, be erect but not rigid. The head should be held up. The arms should hang easily at the sides. (To obtain this relaxed condition of the arms raise them at the sides on a level with the shoulders, then quickly relax the muscles and allow the arms to fall and swing into position at the sides.)

In order to produce a clear, pure carrying tone the voice passage should be open and free from constriction or tightness. The muscles of the throat and jaw should be relaxed. (The exercise of dropping the jaw quickly and allowing the mouth to "fall open," then slowly closing it, practised several times will aid in securing this relaxed condition.)

The carrying power of a voice depends largely upon its support. Good voice support depends upon lung power and well developed muscles controlling the organs used in breathing. The support should be in the centre of the body, not in the throat. To develop voice support vocal exercise should be practised.

The following drills for voice building with slight changes

and additions are taken from "Manual of Speech Training" by Dr. Frederick Martin, Director of Speech Improvement, New York City, with his permission.

These exercises are designed not only to produce better voice support, but also to develop the vocal organs. The lack of this voice training gives rise to many speech defects.

These exercises should be practised in a clear low or medium pitched tone.

The jaw should be relaxed, and for the ah and aw sounds the mouth should be opened wide.

Each sound should be practised until it can be accurately and easily made. They should then be combined into groups of two, three, four, five and six as follows:

Ah a- -a ee- -ee oo-oo oh-oh aw

Ah a ee

a ee oo-ee oo oh-oo oh aw

Ah a ee oo- -a ee oo oh-ee oo oh aw

Ah a ee oo oh-a ee oo oh aw

Ah a ee oo oh aw

Aw oh oo ee a ah

The sounds of each group should follow each other continuously without break of any kind, as aha, ahaee, ahaeeoo, etc.

When these groups can be given easily and accurately on