Experiencing Oral Posture

Module Thirteen , Experiencing Oral Posture , begins a unit that carries through to the end of the text. While previous modules explore contexts that are certainly connected to the acting task, this module and the three that follow specifically focus on speechwork as part of acting work. The Knight-Thompson Speechwork term “oral posture” is introduced. This term denotes the configuration of tenseness and laxness in a speaker’s articulatory home base. Readers are asked to define the oral posture of their secret language sample as distinct from their own posture. Then readers are led through a series of exercises in which they analyze and exaggerate their own oral posture. They are asked to do this with both Omnish and what they discover is really a type of Somenish, when the oral posture is exaggerated enough. It is revealed to readers that their secret language sample was a Somenish, rather than a real language. Pedagogical reasons for that obfuscation are explained. The module culminates in readers transitioning from Somenish into their Acting Language (another KTS Term of Art).