LINGUAPHONE ENGLISH COURSE

LINGUAPHONE

ENGLISH COURSE

LINGUAPHONE INSTITUTE

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THE SPOKEN WORD

Language is primarily Speech, and speech is dependent ultimately upon one and only one sense organ the Ear. Those parts of the human mechanism that are so regularly mis-termed the " Organs of Speech" are seldom, in books upon language, made to include the Ear, which is, in fact, the most important of all, for without the Ear, audible speech would have been impossible. Speech is acquired through the Ear and through the Ear alone, for it is through the Ear that the mind looks out, so to speak, upon the world of Sound. Sound is, in fact, nothing more than the feature in the world around us of which we become conscious through the Ear. The Eye plays some part in the acquisition of Speech, but its special realm is that aspect of Language which has been designed to approach the mind through the medium of the Eye alone, i.e. the written or printed word. At the root of all practical study of language lies the simple truth that the Ear is in absolute domination, and as a necessary corollary it follows that at least one very important road towards the learning of a foreign language is to hear the language spoken as often as possible, knowing at the same time the meaning of what is being said, and realizing the circumstances that call for it. This means of approach is better provided by the intelligent use of a well constructed gramophone course than by the living teacher.

After many years of experience in the University of London in teaching English pronunciation to foreigners, I advise all students of our language to pay the utmost attention to two features of spoken English that are often imperfectly understood even by those native English people who attempt without special training to teach their language to foreigners. These two features are Rhythm and Intonation, two features of pronunciation upon which intelligibility largely rests. The surest way to become unintelligible in a language is to distort its natural rhythm.

And finally I commend as worthy of special attention the use and function of emphatic stress in modern English; abundant examples will be found in the records.

A. LLOYD JAMES