The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18. NASAL TWANG.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 111, 18 August 1910, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, AUGUST 18. NASAL TWANG.

A school inspector has mentioned that there is a growing tendency among New Zealand school children to speak with "a nasal twang." There is no doubt that this nasal drawl is a very pronounced one, and the reasons may be deeper than educationalists see. Children are very imitative, and are just as much led by the more dominant'of their mates as by their teachers. In lessons where a complete class is made to repeat sentences in order that they may be memorised, it is almost a matter of impossibility to make children avoid the sing-song drawl that seems to be the most convenient method of speaking in unison. If time permitted —and it probably does not —concerted j talking should be dispensed with, and the: individual child trained in the manage-1 meat of its voice. We know that all conscientious teachers—and the majority are conscientious, otherwise they would refuse to teach—try repeatedly to get the children to abandon the sing-9ong drawl. Two or three children of individuality lead, and 1 the rest follow. But there is another more serious aspect, and a possible reason for much of the.im dividual nasal tone in children. A very large proportion of New Zealand children —the same is true of children in some other countries—are afflicted with postnasal growths. The presence of adenoid tissue will almost invariably make a child speak with a nasal "twang," so that before anyone is blamed for the general defect of intonation, it should be ascertained if physical conditions permit individual children to. speak desirably. There is no doubt that the exercise of ■great patience and skill by teachers, individual instruction and constant attention to this detail would make some children lose the nasal tone, but the difficulties are very great. Teachers cannot specialise, and most of them have more children to teach than they can possibly do justice to. It is possible for a teacher to himself have an unavoidable nasal twang. That peculiarity of tone attracts imitators is evidenced in returned travellers from the United Spates. It is necessary only to remain in "'the States" for about a year to return with the native irritating intonation, which is artificial and unmusical. People who admire the genius of the American also apparently admire his peculiarities. "We are but children of a larger growth," and our little ones do not lack the imitative faculty. If the inspector could get at the cause of the nasal twang in children, maybe the finding of the remedy would be easy.