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Why Your Recorded Voice Sounds Like a Stranger

6th grade nonfiction passage about hearing your own voice: 217 words, seven questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction hearing your own voice 217 words

Why Your Recorded Voice Sounds Like a Stranger

Most people cringe the first time they hear a recording of their own voice. It sounds higher, thinner, and somehow less pleasant than the voice they believe they have. The explanation is not that the recording is wrong. It is that you normally hear yourself in a different way from everyone else.

When another person talks to you, the sound reaches your ears through the air. The sound waves make your eardrums vibrate, and the vibrations travel to the inner ear, where nerves send signals to the brain. When you talk, that same path carries your voice too. But your voice also starts in your throat, so vibrations spread through the bones and soft tissue of your head and reach the inner ear directly.

Sound that travels through bone tends to boost the deeper, lower tones. Because you hear a blend of air sound and bone sound, your own voice seems fuller and richer to you. A microphone picks up only the sound that moves through the air, which is the version your friends and family hear.

So the recording is a fairly honest picture of how other people hear you. With practice, most people get used to it. Actors, singers, and radio hosts listen to themselves often, because it helps them improve the way they speak.

Questions

  1. Why do many people dislike the sound of their recorded voice? in the text

  2. How does sound reach your ears when another person is talking? in the text

  3. What second path does your own voice take to reach your inner ear? in the text

  4. What kind of tones does sound traveling through bone boost? in the text

  5. Why does a microphone give a different sound than the one you hear when you talk? think about it

  6. Why is a recording a fairly honest picture of how others hear you? think about it

  7. Why might singers and actors listen to recordings of themselves? think about it

Words to know

eardrums
thin skins inside the ears that shake when sound arrives
vibrate
to shake back and forth very quickly
tissue
the soft material that body parts are made of
tones
sounds that are higher or lower in pitch
microphone
a tool that picks up sound so it can be recorded
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 148 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2

Many people do not like the sound of their own voice on a recording. It sounds higher and thin. But the recording is not wrong. You hear yourself in a different way than other people do.

When a friend talks, the sound comes to your ears through the air. It makes your eardrums shake. Then nerves send the message to your brain.

When you talk, your voice goes that way too. But it also shakes the bones in your head. That sound goes straight to your inner ear.

Sound that goes through bone has deep tones. So you hear air sound and bone sound together. Your voice seems deep and full to you. A microphone hears only the air sound. That is what your friends hear too.

So the recording is how others hear you. Most people get used to it. Singers listen to themselves to get better.

▲ This passage · 217 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 6.2

Most people cringe the first time they hear a recording of their own voice. It sounds higher, thinner, and somehow less pleasant than the voice they believe they have. The explanation is not that the recording is wrong. It is that you normally hear yourself in a different way from everyone else.

When another person talks to you, the sound reaches your ears through the air. The sound waves make your eardrums vibrate, and the vibrations travel to the inner ear, where nerves send signals to the brain. When you talk, that same path carries your voice too. But your voice also starts in your throat, so vibrations spread through the bones and soft tissue of your head and reach the inner ear directly.

Sound that travels through bone tends to boost the deeper, lower tones. Because you hear a blend of air sound and bone sound, your own voice seems fuller and richer to you. A microphone picks up only the sound that moves through the air, which is the version your friends and family hear.

So the recording is a fairly honest picture of how other people hear you. With practice, most people get used to it. Actors, singers, and radio hosts listen to themselves often, because it helps them improve the way they speak.

■ Harder · 237 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.9

Most people feel a little embarrassed the first time they listen to a recording of their own voice. It sounds higher, thinner, and strangely unfamiliar compared with the voice that they imagine themselves having. The recording is not faulty, however. The real explanation is that you ordinarily hear yourself in a way that nobody else ever can.

When someone else speaks to you, the sound waves travel through the air and strike your eardrums, setting them in motion. Those vibrations continue into the inner ear, where nerves convert them into signals for the brain. Your own voice follows that same route when you speak. In addition, because your voice begins in the throat, vibrations also spread through the bones and soft tissue of your skull and arrive at the inner ear directly.

Sound that moves through bone tends to strengthen the deeper, lower tones. Since you hear a mixture of air sound and bone sound, your voice seems richer and fuller to you than it does to the people around you. A microphone, by contrast, collects only the sound that travels through the air, which is precisely the version your friends and family hear.

Consequently, a recording is a reasonably accurate picture of how other people hear you. With repeated listening, most people become comfortable with it. Actors, singers, and radio hosts regularly study their own recordings because doing so helps them refine the way they speak.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put eardrums, vibrate, tissue, tones and microphone on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "Why Your Recorded Voice Sounds Like a Stranger"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 217 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 6.2. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are seven. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 3 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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