SPOKEN ENGLISH.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 18927, 16 February 1927, Page 9

SPOKEN ENGLISH.

EXPRESSION IN SPEECn. Under the auspices of the Canterbury School Committees' Association, Professor James Shelley delivered an address on "Spoken English in Primary Schools" last evening. • English was now a compulsory language in the schools of many countries, said the speaker, and it behoved Englishmen, therefore, to use the language well. There was no dialect in New Zea'and, but the fault in New Zealand 's English was general slovenliness. There was nothing wrong with <lialtct, which often would be as full of expression as standard English, but there was a need to maintain a standard of punctuation. There was, as yet, no standard of pronunciation, but this might possibly come throixuse of wireless telegraphy. A committee of school teachers had been set up for the purpose of making a standard English pronunciation for radio announcing and this might hn\'c the effect of creating a, standard. A language sroperly spoken always nica'it more than a language that was not proptrlv spoken, for in the correct speech much more expression could be obtained Adequate substitutes for national tongues could never Jbe found in Esperanto or other made-«rfi languages because in tnkilithe greatest common factors of a language it was Tobbed of its effectiveness. Languages had to be taught in the schools to retain their expression, and it was necessary to start the young mind with sound images. A rote of thanks was accorded the Professor for his lecture.