Revised 01/2025

CST 111 - Voice and Diction I (3 CR.)

Course Description

Enables students to improve pronunciation, articulation and vocal quality. Includes applied phonetics. Lecture 3 hours per week.

General Course Purpose

Provides class experiences to facilitate speech improvement. Assist students in understanding how to present voice in various environments and situations. To help students better understand how to connect their voice with their inner needs. Emphasis is on nonclinical speech concerns.

Course Prerequisites/Corequisites

Fluency in Standard American English. Recommend proficiency in reading and writing at English 111 level.

Course Objectives

Upon completion of this course, the student should be able to:

  • General Learning Outcomes
    • Critical Thinking
      • Analyze their vocal barriers and positively address vocal issues
    • Professional Readiness
      • Compare and contrast vocal strategies as applied in different modalities and industries.
  • Course Outcomes
    • Stage Expression
      • Identify barriers to effective vocal stage expression for actors
    • Vocalics
      • Define elements of vocalics (e.g. articulation, rate, pitch, inflection, volume) aimed at producing intelligible speech for the stage
    • Vocal Technique
      • Develop a foundational vocal technique for maintaining vocal expression and/or resolving vocal expression problems throughout a stage career
    • Vocal projection and endurance
      • Release tension, connect breath, voice, and body at the level of sensory and emotional awareness and employ vocal projection and endurance
    • Vocal variety
      • Discover vocal variety in dramatic and non-dramatic texts
    • Professional Performance
      • Care for the voice as a professional performance tool and take responsibility for practicing vocal technique, beyond the classroom, to develop professional discipline

Major Topics to Be Included

  • Breath and Voice:
    • Awareness and freedom of breath
    • Vocal anatomy/Diaphragmatic breathing
    • Channeling sound to increase vocal projection
    • Discovering resonators
  • Speech and Diction:
    • From voice to speech: Turning sound into language
    • Consonants and vowels
    • Diphthongs
  • Language and Text:
    • Linking language to text
    • Scoring a text
    • IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet/American Standard speech
  • Possible approaches:
    • Berry
    • Fitzmaurice
    • Lessac
    • Linklater
    • Rodenberg