Extensive Reader
SPOKEN ENGLISH AND BROKEN ENGLISH
George Bernard Shaw is perhaps one of the most prolific writers of the modern era. Though he is best known as a playwright, Shaw was also a respected critic, journalist, novelist, and essayist. A noted social reformer, Shaw wrote plays which dramatized social commentaries, and in 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“The gramophone will one day be used for language teaching”, prophesied H.G.Wells.
Shaw made a special recording on ‘Spoken English and Broken English’ for Linguaphone Institute. The English language – the way it is written and spoken and the way it should be written and spoken – was a favourite theme of Shaw.
The first thing Shaw likes to impress is that
“There is no such thing as ideally correct English. No two British subjects speak exactly alike”
Shaw was a member of a committee established by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for correcting the pronunciation of the employees, so that they should be a model of correct speech for the British Islands.
The Chairman of the committee was the Poet Laureate, who was a specialist in pronunciation. The other member was Sir Robertson, an actor, famous for the beauty of his speech. Shaw was selected for the committee because he used to superintend the rehearsals of his plays. Yet its members did not agree to the pronunciation of some of the simplest and commonest words in any language, ‘yes’ and ‘no’. No two members of the committee pronounced them exactly alike. Though they all spoke differently, they all spoke presentably.
Shaw presents that no two native speakers of English speak it alike. He confesses that he himself does not speak the same way as a native speaker does.
Shaw goes on to explain the difference in speech, when he addresses an audience and when he speaks to his wife at home. As a public speaker, he has to take care that every word, he says, is heard clearly at the end of large halls. But when he speaks to his wife at a
George Bernard Shaw is perhaps one of the most prolific writers of the modern era. Though he is best known as a playwright, Shaw was also a respected critic, journalist, novelist, and essayist. A noted social reformer, Shaw wrote plays which dramatized social commentaries, and in 1925 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
“The gramophone will one day be used for language teaching”, prophesied H.G.Wells.
Shaw made a special recording on ‘Spoken English and Broken English’ for Linguaphone Institute. The English language – the way it is written and spoken and the way it should be written and spoken – was a favourite theme of Shaw.
The first thing Shaw likes to impress is that
“There is no such thing as ideally correct English. No two British subjects speak exactly alike”
Shaw was a member of a committee established by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for correcting the pronunciation of the employees, so that they should be a model of correct speech for the British Islands.
The Chairman of the committee was the Poet Laureate, who was a specialist in pronunciation. The other member was Sir Robertson, an actor, famous for the beauty of his speech. Shaw was selected for the committee because he used to superintend the rehearsals of his plays. Yet its members did not agree to the pronunciation of some of the simplest and commonest words in any language, ‘yes’ and ‘no’. No two members of the committee pronounced them exactly alike. Though they all spoke differently, they all spoke presentably.
Shaw presents that no two native speakers of English speak it alike. He confesses that he himself does not speak the same way as a native speaker does.
Shaw goes on to explain the difference in speech, when he addresses an audience and when he speaks to his wife at home. As a public speaker, he has to take care that every word, he says, is heard clearly at the end of large halls. But when he speaks to his wife at a