ENGLISH AS SHE IS TAUGHT

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 251, 16 April 1910, Page 5

ENGLISH AS SHE IS TAUGHT

*fhis is what G. N. Baeyertz, in the current "Triad," says of New Zealand's prpnounciation: —"I am almpst too weary of the theme to write much more about the need of proper tuition in English in . our [irimary schools. There i 3 a crying need for teachers able to give children some idea of proper voice-production. It is an absurd and preposterous thing that so very few of the children in our schools can read aloud with the least pretence of intelligence. It is the vile habit of reading lessons in unison that is most destructive of children's voices A child cannot possibly read with intelligence and expressien when it is all the time bawling with a crewd. . . . Can pne wpnder that the veices pf these unfortunate State schepl children are usually sp atrocious? No| gpjy js this abpminatipn pf reading ip unison "quite' general, but teachers generally never dream pf imprpving the veice-* pf the children, Even the matter ef pronounciation is shocks ingly neglected. The New Zealand twang is coming surely enough. On all hands ene hears harsh accents, vpwels brpadened and flattened, liquids gebbled and slurred. The New Zealand accent is coming and it will be very vile. One is driven to decide that mest pf the teachers are hppelessly incapable, mere machines for destroying the purity oE English speech. And so the chiHren are taught npthing pf pitch, nothing of rising and falling inflectipns nothing that will in the end enable fhem to speak meledipqsly and daintily, nothing' that will" stir in them a proper respect and affectipn fpr their mother tongue."