TeachingEnglish
Is RP necessary ?
Submitted by nadishka on 21 July, 2009 - 04:54
I teach Elocution in Sri Lanka. A recent hot topic here is whether we should attempt to teach RP or just go for a close standard that allows easy comprehension. What do you think?
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Personally, I think that a close standard is fine. RP is very rarely used these days, only among very specifc social and professional groups, and I think it's unlikely that all of our learners are going to end up having to communicate with these specific people. Even among the British broadcasting media, various regional accents are heard and accepted nowadays.
Of course, I don't suggest that teaching learners a specific regional dialect or accent is particularly beneficial, especially since they're likely to have to communicate with English speakers from many other areas and, especially for beginners, too variant accents may be confusing and/or difficult to understand. Nonetheless, I don't think there's any urgent need for learners to be taught to speak in a very strict RP accent - in fact, a lot of the time, they may end up sounding like a rather ridiculous imitation, which probably wouldn't go down too well with anyone!!
CMF
I suggest that you focus on eliminating the mother tongue influence and gradually get the students to speak in a neutral accent. Focusing purely on getting your students to understand RP and its pronunciation would tantamount to imitating an accent and the originality is lost. There is every possibility that the listener may get distracted and lose out on the message which is being conveyed. Moreover pronunciations vary from city to city within the same country, so practically it is difficult for you to set a benchmark.
Neutral accent is nothing but globally understandable and comprehensible accent which enables the speaker to get the message across to his listener in the way he wants the listener to understand the communication.
Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language (specifically British English) which has long been perceived as uniquely prestigious amongst British accents. About two percent of Britons speak with the RP accent in its pure form.
Received Pronunciation may be referred to as the Queen's (or King's) English, on the grounds that it is spoken by the monarch. It is also sometimes referred to as BBC English, because it was traditionally used by the BBC, yet nowadays these notions are slightly misleading.
Ref: http://www.neutralaccent.com
RP is not a 'natural' accent; the 2% of Britons who speak it have been specifically taught it for use on the stage, the BBC or for use in the armed forces. The Queen does not, in fact, speak 'RP', but rather an upper-class South-Eastern (English) dialect- her vowels are sharper than in standard RP and she 'swallows' ws and ys.
The clue is in the name: it is 'received' (trained). I know this because I qualified with a Master's Degree from one of the establishments famed for teaching it to the BBC and helping define it (The Central School Of Speech And Drama) - it was actually harder for those with a 'posh' accent to perfect it than those of us with humbler accents- I assume because it it so close that self correction is tricky.
'RP' is not really required anymore- it is only really used onstage, in (some) TV and at ceremonial events. A clear, neutral accent is far more valuable.
“It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman despise him.” (George Bernard Shaw, Preface to Pygmalion, 1910)