Spoken English Broken English - G.B. Shaw by Dr. A.D. Kherdekar

1. SPOKEN ENGLISH BROKEN ENGLISH
G B Shaw
BCOM II
Compulsory English
PPT
Dr Anuradha Kherdekar
Department of English

2. • Introduction
George Bernard Shaw is a well-known writer. He prepared and spoke
on the topic ‘Spoken English and Broken English’ on a gramophone
recording for the Lingua-phone institute. In his speech the provocative ideas
are couched in a simple but sparkling rhetorical style.
• Advantages in learning to speak well
Bernard Shaw says that when we travel in the British Commonwealth or
in America or when we meet a native of these countries, we have to speak
English well for enough understanding. If we speak in a provincial or
cockney dialect it may prevents us from obtaining some employment which
is open to those only speak what is ‘correct English’.

3. • No such thing ideally correct English
No two British subjects speak exactly alike. Even educated persons, the
Poet Laureate and trained speakers do not pronounce of some of the
simplest commonest words in the English language exactly alike. Members
of the committee who are selected as models of correct speech speak
differently. They differ according to the country in which they were born.
• Confession of Bernard Shaw
Bernard Shaw confesses that he himself does not speak English in the
same way. When he speaks to audience, he speaks carefully. If he were to
speak carefully to his wife at home, she would think he was going mad. As a
public speaker he has to take care that every word he says is heard
distinctly at far end of large halls containing thousands of people. At home
he speaks to his wife like mumbling. His wife also a little careless and so he
sometimes has to say “What?”

4. • Advice to foreign students of English
Do not try to speak English perfectly because native speakers
of English won’t understand. In London nine hundred and ninety-
nine out of thousand people not only speak bad English but speak
even that very badly. No foreigner can ever stress the syllables and
make the voice rise and fall in questions and answer, assertion and
denial, in refusal and consent, in enquiry or information, exactly as a
native does. Therefore, the first thing they have to do is to speak
with a strong foreign accent, and speak broken English.
• Conclusion
Bernard Shaw criticizes that it is an insult to the native speaker
of English who cannot understand his own language when it is too
well spoken.

5. • In a lively, witty and conversational style G. B. Shaw in
his essay (a transcript of a radio talk and was recorded
in 1927. The talk was broadcast over Manhattan's radio
station WNEW) ‘Spoken English and Broken English’
gives some instruction to a foreign student of the English
Language in regard to speaking English when he travels
in the British Commonwealth or in America or when he
meets a native of those countries or it may be that he is
himself a native but that he speaks in a provincial or
cockney dialect of which he is a little ashamed, or which
perhaps prevents him from obtaining some employment
which is open to those only who speak in correct
English.

6. • The essay is divided into three sections. The first part rightly stresses that
there is no single model of correct speech in English. Whether he is a
foreigner or native, the first thing that he must remember is that there is no
such thing as ideally correct English. Shaw discusses notions of ‘correct
English,’ that is, the proper way in which English should be spoken. No two
British subjects speak exactly alike, according to G. B. Shaw. He himself is
a member of a committee set up by the BBC for the purpose of deciding
how the utterances of speakers employed by the corporation should be
pronounced in order that they should be a model of correct speech from the
British Islands. The committee is comprised of Irish members, Wales’s
members, Scottish members, Oxford University members, American
members all recognizable by their differences of speech. They differ also
according to the countries in which they are born. Though they all speak
differently they all speak presentably and if a foreign student of the English
language speaks as they do he will be understood in any English speaking
country and accepted as a person of good social
standing. Shawdemonstrates that even among the educated and the
specialists on language; the manner of speaking is determined by one’s
origin, background, training and workplace.

7. In the second part, Shaw illustrates how everyone, irrespective of whether they are
educated or uneducated, speaks differently in public and in private.
Teaching English
G.B. Shaw, an Irishman, says that as a public speaker he has to take care that
every word he says is understood by his hearers. But at home when he speaks to his
wife he takes very little pains with his speech. He shows that in familiar surroundings
and in one’s exchanges with close friends or relatives, one is quite careless, both in
one’s articulation and in framing full- bodied, grammatical sentences. This is because
they are confident of being understood in these circumstances without seeming rude
or uncivilized. In the public sphere however, there is no such assurance. So we are
much more careful with our speech while speaking with strangers or on formal
occasions. This section is particularly amusing and most of the instances are drawn
from Shaw’s own life, namely his conversations with his wife. By directing laughter at
himself and presenting himself as the guinea pig he makes his arguments more
convincing. His suggestion of spying through the keyhole is a good- hearted jibe at the
reader’s human weakness that cleverly maneuvers the reader into a position of
complicity with the author. Although Shaw is concerned only with the English
language, his arguments in both the first and the second section are applicable to any
language. Everyone has company manners and home manner. At home people speak
in a careless manner but when they speak in the presence of a stranger they have
speak very carefully. Even when their home manners are as good as their company
manners they are always different and the difference is greater in speech than in
anything else.

8. • In the last section Shaw advises
foreigners on how to communicate in
English while travelling in English
speaking countries. Shaw now gives to
foreign students another warning of quite
a different kind. If they are learning
English because they intend to travel in
England and wish to be understood there,
they must not try to speak English
perfectly, because if they do, no one will
understand them.

9. • The native speaker of English, therefore, is accustomed to hearing
several kinds of people speaking English in different ways.
Significance in today’s time Classified as borderline boring or a
sheer waste of perfectly good time by many of the modern day
students, Spoken and Broken English’s relevance in today’s time
cannot be more emphasized upon. With Globalization taking hold of
the world and the need of learning multiple global languages out of
which English stands at the very helm, has led people to seek out
the ‘Correct’ form of the language. G. B. Shaw explains to us that
although it is an insult to the native speaker of English who cannot
understand his own language when it is too well spoken, times have
changed and we simple have to accept the fact that Good English is
more important than ‘Correct’ English. India, which carries in it
English of different accents and pronunciations, could very well
benefit by adding this piece to its education curriculum in order to
make people realize the true sense of the word language. India is
one of the chief exporters of human resource to the world. Thus, a
study of this recording can help people overcome their obsession for
correct and start focusing on the good aspect of English.

10. Websites
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsothuitxDw
https://youtu.be/spTC1Dn7Uy8