English Elocution & Public Speaking

Why I feel passionate about teaching English Elocution, Public Speaking and Accent Clarity.

I came from a fairly privileged upbringing. I was lucky enough to enjoy private education up until I was 19, where speaking up and clearly was part of surviving and thriving in the environment.

I talk like my mother, who went to the same girls’ school I went to – which was a highly academic girls school and had a very good reputation.

It wasn’t Cheltenham Girls, but similar, we played lacrosse and other sports, against them, so it was in that sort of league.

I also came from an unhappy family. My father had numerous affairs, the longest one of which, was a secretary whom he used to take home after work and as I used to like going to his office after school, we would both go to her home at the end of the working day and sit an have a cup to tea with her family.

She came from a very different social background: they had one toilet and it was at the bottom of their small garden. The reason I am telling you this,  is that I grew up realising  money doesn’t necessarily make you happy and secondly that I had a door open to how other people less fortunate than myself lived, opening my heart and mind beyond my own social class and a growing awareness of what can give one better chances: education, a clearly understood accent – in other words –  good English Elocution.

Then, when I went to drama school I was the only girl in my class who had had my sort of upbringing. There was a Jewish Princess but she had had a completely different life again –  massively wealthy  – living in a 6 story house off Regents Park – filled with as much real silver as vaults in London Silver Vaults  – stunning!

We were the only ones within that group of a certain ilk but still very different from each other.

This was so that each group made a good ‘company of actors’ for a play: a good cross section of people with a large variety of accents and manners,  for learning from each other and the casting of plays.

This was absolutely fantastic for me because suddenly within a week, my best friend was a working class boy from the North called Craig, who wore white fluffy socks, had long hair, permed on the top and straggly at the back. He wore sleeveless and neckless t-shirts in the cold October autumn air – before climate warming – it was much colder then!  It was 1985 and I was dressed thick tights under my jeans, a couple of tops and a jumper 🙂

Within a week, we were the best of friends and went on to do some great work together.

This was a fantastic education, suddenly I was mixing with a much greater variety of people than I ever had done before and I loved it.

But it made me realise how some of my closest friends, were really held back by their voice, their particular geographically based accent and their apparent stagnation within that one accent. The accent of their family, social status and original geographical location.

I had always had an ear for accents so I quickly made use of what I was hearing but for those who struggled to learn Received Pronunciation or BBC English or the neutral sound of English it was difficult.

I quickly learned to sound less private school & South Ken secretarial college, where I’d just been studying prior to drama school, to become much more ‘Neutral’  and then laid on other accents appropriate for the parts – Cockney or French – whatever – but alway studying the accents with the utmost respect.

English Elocution is Essential for Great Public Speaking

The French speaking Normans invading in 1066 engendered a very distinct class system.

They established themselves as the conquerors of the land, seizing and controlling  the land as their own.. – These French speaking  barons divided the country up into areas they called their counties which they then rule,  and the inhabitants, like mini kingdoms paying court only to the King.

We, the indigenous population were essentially their surfs.  As a result of these French speaking landowners and the new class system, of the haves and have nots, accents became either a badge of wealth, power and privilege, or a badge of something else.

Then much later came the British Empire and then latterly, effectively, the American Empire – brought about by force and the creation of the ubiquitous computer.

I am very grateful that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs spoke English, because this has ensured English has stayed  the language of commercial business.

The accent in the UK, that we now call RP (Received Pronunciation)  is predominantly a hybrid of the last invaders of 1066 and the rest of the population.

The language we speak now is an amalgamation of Norman French and the English spoken in 1066.

The language and the pronunciation grew together, over the next thousand years, to what we have today.

Both the ruling lords and the indigenous population, had to modify their accents and language and pronunciation, to be able to communicate with each other. And that dear reader, is the point.

English Elocution & Public Speaking = Freedom

The point: we mustn’t get stuck with one or in, one particular accent –  it limits us.

To me an accent should or could be like a coat that one can change or modify.  When I was at drama school I had to learn to pronounce words in a different way to sound more neutral and less posh as I said above.

For example, I used to pronounce year as ‘yer’.

Luckily my voice teacher pointed out to me ‘year’ should be pronounced like ‘ear’.

Another example is ‘our’: if it is pronounced like ‘hour’ not ‘are’,  more people will understand you.

This precision of speech made my accent more accessible to a greater majority of people: and that’s the point – to be understood by the many different nationalities that make up a theatre, or film, or radio audience.

Now with our interconnected world of global and international and multi-language speaking markets, that same rule applies to  you.

English Elocution & Public Speaking Clarifies Your Message

If we all spelt our words differently, it would be incredibly difficult for  us, to understand everybody’s different version of English!

Believe me I have tried:  I am dyslexic.  I tried and failed many times for other people to adapt to my querky spelling 🙂 but rather than being tolerated let alone understood, I was labelled thick or ill-educated, or lazy.

Luckily the educational world has moved on from the 70’s, and dyslexia is now understood as a disability but I only gained my higher education achievements with the invention of spell check, ie help.

And so it is with speech.

We need some neutrality of the sounds, so that the international market and the global population who speak English, can understand us, wherever we originated from.

It’s the same as numbers and measurements. In the 1970’s having metric and imperial measurements caused me immense confusion!  I nearly failed my Cooking GCSE or O’level as it was then, because I thought the cooker was in Farenheight, not Centigrade.

I literally had a fire during my exam.

Don’t confuse, improved English Elocution with Identity Change.

Different pronunciations of words can be terribly confusing and difficult for others unfamiliar with your accent, to understand.

But, this doesn’t mean you have to entirely lose your accent of origin that matches your family’s and friends – just that you develop the international sound that will be understood by any English speaking person from around the world.

You will become bilingual or trilingual or more!

After all – we only talk to communicate – so it’s our job to make it as easy as we can for the listener to grasp our message..

If I spoke Hindi or Urdu in an English accent, it would be very hard for Indians or Pakistanis who only spoke their own language, to understand me.

I would be saying the words in a way they were not used to hearing and this would cause confusion and an unpleasant experience for them.

Elocution & Accent Modification

I was born very short sighted and dyslexic: I’ve had to wear glasses to correct my sight since I was very small – but my eyes look the same – and failed my English Language o’level/GCSE, until I learned to write boring essays with small words.

Now with my laptop’s spell check modifying my spelling for you to be able to read, I can write anything.

My sight and spelling have had to be modified.

We all have to adapt to succeed.

Our accent is not our identity or it needn’t be. We can modify it for our benefit, and, if that is hard for you, let someone like me help you.

Because I couldn’t see clearly or spell I had to become very observant of sound, to survive. So I can tell you where your tongue is just by listening to you and then I can tell you where to put it, to guarantee a clear way of saying that word.

I love being able to do this for people – it’s my vocation – born out of my disabilities –  I’ve turned the lemons into lemonade and feel great empathy for those struggling to improve their voice.

With me you can keep your own accent, but modify it for clarity, then you have choices.

I Repeat: Don’t Confuse, Improved English elocution & Public Speaking Skills With Identity Change

Whether your language is Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Tamil,  think of someone speaking your language with a strong English accent – you would find it difficult to understand!

It would sound strange to you and your listening energy would go into inwardly improving the pronunciation, or trying to work out the last couple of words the person had just said, rather than enjoying the free flow of communication and absorbing their message.

The same goes if you have a very strong UK regional accent: imagine somebody who can only speak in a South East English way, trying to speak in Welsh or Gaelic using the wrong pronunciations – you might laugh, or at the very least be frustrated, not being able to understand all their words.

Good English Elocution does not mean you eradicate your accent: you can just modify it, for increased clarity.

You Are Not Your Accent

Your accent is the result of your past geographical existance and socio economic history.

It has nothing to do with optimising your chances in the particular language you are using NOW,  to communicate with the world, forge your career path and improve your income.

We all need to work on our diction, myself included (daily exercises keep you sharp) practice our elocution and public speaking skills.

But, we can all still maintain our own identity and carry on being ourselves..

It’s easier than you think and I’d love to help you.

Happy 2022 🙂

© Rachel Preece, 2022. This material may not be copied without the written consent of the author.