NEW ZEALAND SPEECH

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28532, 11 March 1958, Page 18

NEW ZEALAND SPEECH

Faults And Remedies Discussed

There was some disagreement in educational circles, but he believed that the primary reason for the faults in New Zealand speech was that the country had never had a group in society to whom a certain standard of speech was important, said Mr John Thomson, Dominion president of the New Zealand Association of Teachers of Speech and Drama, in Christchurch.

Another opinion was that the faults could be traced to the coming to New Zealand late last century of a large number of teachers from London with a marked Cockney accent. Although this was true to a point, the comparison could not be taken too far, said Mr Thomson. One of the ideals of the association was to make New Zealanders more conscious of the possibilities of good speech and the undesirable qualities of bad speech—its hard, harsh, nasal strain, its monotony .and the tendency to “modify'’ the vowel sounds.

“It appears obvious that there are a great many parents and teachers who are anxious to see some provision made for increased speech work educationally, and I am sure that when more pressing educational problems are overcome the opportunity will be taken,” said Mr Thomson. Overseas, notably in Britain, some educational authorities had appointed speech and drama advisers. and there was a marked increase in the amount of speech work done in training colleges, he said. Eventually, this would mean that every teacher going into a school would be able to use his or her own voice properly and “carry over” good; speech in the teaching of every subject. In this way, speech training would be through all subjects, which it must be if the pupil was not to develop “bilingual” speech—one for the teacher and the. other for everyday UM.