Oral Interpretation

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Oral interpretation is the art of communicating to an audience a work of literary art in its intellectual, emotional, and aesthetic entirety" (Lee et al. 1997). It is the process whereby the presenter takes a piece of text, analyses it, and presents it to an audience, keeping true to the author's intended tone. It is important for a presenter to truly empathise with the text, to accuratly portray it to the audience.

1 The Process of Oral Interpretation
2 References

[edit] The Process of Oral Interpretation

[edit] Choosing your piece

You must read many different texts to locate your own. You will quickly narrow your choices down, due perhaps to your personal taste, perhaps to your goal, whatever it is, try not to splurge with too many pieces, but don't be too picky, you want a good few pieces to look into further. Once you have narrowed down your search, read the texts aloud, to insure that its level of spoken difficulty is not too difficult or easy for you. If you have troubles with tongue twisters, perhaps avoid texts with twisters in them. It is important to contemplate on three main touchstones described in Lee's Oral Interpretation, Universality, Individuality and Suggestion.

[edit] Universality

Examine how the text may appeal to the general public. Will it offend? Will it be too confusing? Keep in mind your target audience, and the purpose of your piece. If you wish to instill a sense of disquiet in your audience, then avoid cheery, simple pieces such as limericks.

Appeal is not the only factor in universality, you should also consider how people will empathise with the piece, will they understand the emotion that the piece and you, the interpreter are trying to convey? The piece is of course not the only factor in this empathisation, but also your skill.

[edit] Individuality

Does the piece appeal to you? Can you empathise with it? Do you understand what the narrator is feeling? These are the main questions you must ask for this section.

[edit] Suggestion

The most tricky of the touchstones, a piece with good suggestion makes you think. The text is not purely logical, metaphor or controversy is employed. Do you, as the reader need to think about the meaning of the piece for a moment? Will the audience?

Another angle on suggestion, is not if you need to think on the piece, but if you do, do you get further meaning from the piece?

[edit] Analysing your piece

Bring a dictionary with you when you look at a piece. If there are any words that you don't know, or are not sure the meaning of, consult your dictionary, this will greatly help in your understanding of the piece. Try to locate any metaphor in the piece, discover the hidden meanings beneath the literal meaning. This will greatly inhance your view of the piece, and influence your presentation, even if it isn't a conscious change. It may also be useful to scan the piece, to get better acquainted with the sound of the piece, identifying the metre of the piece can help you find where you may want to emphasise words or phrases in your final presentation.

[edit] Presenting your piece

When presenting your piece, it is best to be highly familiar with it. This serves two purposes. Firstly, if you are familiar with your piece it is much easier to relax, and focus on the presentation (intonation and body language for example) of your piece instead of merely getting the words off of the paper and out of your mouth. Secondly, by knowing the piece very well you are able to read it without looking down at your paper so much. The time you save not directly reading from the paper can then be used in your presentation. For example, you can look at the audience, a specific member of the audience, or perhaps to a character in your piece that you are reading to.