REQUIREMENT of SPEECH

REQUIREMENTS OF SPEECH

(ADAPTED FROM VARIOUS SOURCES ON INTERNET)

It is very easy to learn how to speak and write correctly, as for all purposes of ordinary conversation and communication, only about 2,000 different words are required. The mastery of just twenty hundred words, the knowing where to place them, will make us not masters of the English language, but masters of correct speaking and writing. Small number, you will say, compared with what is in the dictionary! But nobody ever uses all the words in the dictionary or could use them did he live to be the age of Methuselah, and there is no necessity for using them.

There are upwards of 200,000 words in the recent editions of the large dictionaries, but the one-hundredth part of this number will suffice for all your wants. Of course you may think not, and you may not be content to call things by their common names; you may be ambitious to show superiority over others and display your learning or, rather, your pedantry and lack of learning. For instance, you may not want to call a spade a spade. You may prefer to call it a spatulous device for abrading the surface of the soil. Better, however, to stick to the old familiar, simple name that your grandfather called it. It has stood the test of time, and old friends are always good friends.

To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.

To go back to the number necessary for all purposes of conversation correspondence and writing, 2,000, we find that a great many people who pass in society as being polished, refined and educated use less, for they know less. The greatest scholar alive hasn’t more than four thousand different words at his command, and he never has occasion to use half the number.

In the works of Shakespeare, the most wonderful genius the world has ever known, there is the enormous number of 15,000 different words, but almost 10,000 of them are obsolete or meaningless today.

Every person of intelligence should be able to use his mother tongue correctly. It only requires a little pains, a little care, a little study to enable one to do so, and the recompense is great.

Consider the contrast between the well-bred, polite man who knows how to choose and use his words correctly and the underbred, vulgar boor, whose language grates upon the ear and jars the sensitiveness of the finer feelings. The blunders of the latter, his infringement of all the canons of grammar, his absurdities and monstrosities of language, make his very presence a pain, and one is glad to escape from his company.

The proper grammatical formation of the English language, so that one may acquit himself as a correct conversationalist in the best society or be able to write and express his thoughts and ideas upon paper in the right manner, may be acquired in a few lessons.

It is the purpose of this book, as briefly and concisely as possible, to direct the reader along a straight course, pointing out the mistakes he must avoid and giving him such assistance as will enable him to reach the goal of a correct knowledge of the English language. It is not a Grammar in any sense, but a guide, a silent signal-post pointing the way in the right direction.

The English Language in a Nutshell

All the words in the English language are divided into nine great classes. These classes are called the Parts of Speech. They are Article, Noun, Adjective, Pronoun, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction and Interjection. Of these, the Noun is the most important, as all the others are more or less dependent upon it. A Noun signifies the name of any person, place or thing, in fact, anything of which we can have either thought or idea. There are two kinds of Nouns, Proper and Common. Common Nouns are names which belong in common to a race or class, as man, city. Proper Nouns distinguish individual members of a race or class as John, Philadelphia. In the former caseman is a name which belongs in common to the whole race of mankind, and city is also a name which is common to all large centres of population, but John signifies a particular individual of the race, while Philadelphia denotes a particular one from among the cities of the world.

Nouns are varied by Person, Number, Gender, and Case. Person is that relation existing between the speaker, those addressed and the subject under consideration, whether by discourse or correspondence. The Persons are First, Secondand Third and they represent respectively the speaker, the person addressed and the person or thing mentioned or under consideration.

Number is the distinction of one from more than one. There are two numbers, singular and plural; the singular denotes one, the plural two or more. The plural is generally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.

Gender has the same relation to nouns that sex has to individuals, but while there are only two sexes, there are four genders, viz., masculine, feminine, neuter and common. The masculine gender denotes all those of the male kind, the feminine gender all those of the female kind, the neuter gender denotes inanimate things or whatever is without life, and common gender is applied to animate beings, the sex of which for the time being is indeterminable, such as fish, mouse, bird, etc. Sometimes things which are without life as we conceive it and which, properly speaking, belong to the neuter gender, are, by a figure of speech called Personification, changed into either the masculine or feminine gender, as, for instance, we say of the sun, He is rising; of the moon, Sheis setting.

Case is the relation one noun bears to another or to a verb or to a preposition. There are three cases, the Nominative, the Possessiveand theObjective. The nominative is the subject of which we are speaking or the agent which directs the action of the verb; the possessive case denotes possession, while the objective indicates the person or thing which is affected by the action of the verb.

An Article is a word placed before a noun to show whether the latter is used in a particular or general sense. There are but two articles, a or an and the.

An Adjective is a word which qualifies a noun, that is, which shows some distinguishing mark or characteristic belonging to the noun.

Definitions

A Pronoun is a word used for or instead of a noun to keep us from repeating the same noun too often. Pronouns, like nouns, have case, number, gender and person. There are three kinds of pronouns, personal, relative and adjective.

A verb is a word which signifies action or the doing of something. A verb is inflected by tense and mood and by number and person, though the latter two belong strictly to the subject of the verb.

An adverb is a word which modifies a verb, an adjective and sometimes another adverb.

A preposition serves to connect words and to show the relation between the objects which the words express.

A conjunction is a word which joins words, phrases, clauses and sentences together.

An interjection is a word which expresses surprise or some sudden emotion of the mind.

Three Essentials

The three essentials of the English language are: Purity, Perspicuity and Precision.

By Purity is signified the use of good English. It precludes the use of all slang words, vulgar phrases, obsolete terms, foreign idioms, ambiguous expressions or any ungrammatical language whatsoever. Neither does it sanction the use of any newly coined word until such word is adopted by the best writers and speakers.

Perspicuity demands the clearest expression of thought conveyed in unequivocal language, so that there may be no misunderstanding whatever of the thought or idea the speaker or writer wishes to convey. All ambiguous words, words of double meaning and words that might possibly be construed in a sense different from that intended, are strictly forbidden. Perspicuity requires a style at once clear and comprehensive and entirely free from pomp and pedantry and affectation or any straining after effect.

Precision requires concise and exact expression, free from redundancy and tautology, a style terse and clear and simple enough to enable the hearer or reader to comprehend immediately the meaning of the speaker or writer. It forbids, on the one hand, all long and involved sentences, and, on the other, those that are too short and abrupt. Its object is to strike the golden mean in such a way as to rivet the attention of the hearer or reader on the words uttered or written.

Spoken English-Frequently Asked Questions

LEARNING ENGLISH                                                                                                                                                                       Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

WHY LEARN ENGLISH?
Because 400 million first language speakers, 700 million second or foreign language speakers, over a billion people learning it right now!  And over 80% of the information stored in the world's computers is in English, more than half the world's scientific journals are in English, it's the main language on the internet, and so on.  The result is that more and more people expect you to know some English. Also, 80% of the English used in the world is used between non-native speakers.  In short, it has become the main way you get around, the main way you get things done, the way you make friends, the way you do business with a foreign country, the way you get information.                     

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO LEARN ENGLISH?

·         You must be positive about learning English. It doesn't matter why you're positive - because you enjoy language, or because you hope to get a better job - but you must feel enthusiastic about it.

·         You must feel relaxed, comfortable and secure - not only in the classroom, but outside it too

·         You must accept that quantity matters as much as quality - in other words don’t worry about the best way to learn English or that you want to speak correct English.  Just spend time reading, writing, talking or listening to English instead!  Doing a lot of language is better than doing one little bit perfectly.

·         Understand that people are different - different people learn better in different ways.  So the really important factor is to find the best way for you to learn English.

SO HOW DO I FIND THE BEST WAY OF LEARNING ENGLISH FOR ME?
You need three things - all easy to say, but a little more difficult to do or get:-

·         You need good advice.  The best advice is of course from your English teachers & the people who know you.

·         You need to ask yourself what things you really like doing which use language - reading, using the web, writing to friends, listening to songs, etc. - then you need to find ways of doing as much as you possibly can of those activities in English.

·         You need to ask yourself what ways of learning you find best for learning - not only languages, but math or history. Do you like to learn by heart? Do you like to learn rules?  Or do you just like to 'pick things up' with no definite plan? Use the same method to learn English also.

DOES MY NATIVE (= FIRST) LANGUAGE MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE?
Yes, it does.  However, English may seem different language to you, but a lot of people have learned it, and some of those have learned it well.  So don't worry too much if your progress seems slower than that of others - it may just be easier for them than it is for you, and that is not your fault.
 

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE ME TO LEARN ENGLISH?
In particular, it depends on:-

·      the level you start from the level you want to finish at

·      how good a natural language learner you are

·      how good and how motivated a student you are

·      how much of your non-studying time you spend using (reading, talking, studying, etc.) English
 

 WHICH IS BETTER - A BIG SCHOOL OR A SMALL ONE?
People’s needs are different.  Some prefer big schools. The advantages of a big school are very obvious: you have more of many important things -more teachers, more students to choose friends from, more facilities &more equipment (computers, videos...), more books, cassettes and CD ROMs.
However, with a small school one advantage is very clear: there will not be so many students and it is easier for the school's teachers to put pressure on students to speak English all the time. Most of all, a small school can provide the relaxed and friendly atmosphere in which you feel more confident, and which is such a basic condition for good progress in language learning 

DO SMALL CLASSES MAKE A DIFFERENCE                                                                                                                                                                                                Yes, they make a big difference.  The mathematics is clear: 6 students in a one-hour class give a maximum of 10 minutes per student for contributing. 10 students allow 6 minutes each.  The teacher and the students are much more aware of what is happening - who understands and who does not, or who wants to speak and who wants to hear a little more first. In choosing your language school, therefore, the size of the classes is one of the most important factors in relation to the price 

 DO I NEED TO STUDY GRAMMAR?
The easy answer is 'Of course not'.  You learned your first language, as all young children do, without the help of a grammar book.  You could use verbs correctly for many years before you knew what they were.  But, you are now an adult.  Children spend more hours than you can, learning their first language, so it is a good idea to look for some more direct, quicker ways of learning.  If you look at the answer to above, you'll see that grammar is just part of the bigger question.  The important thing is to decide if you feel it helps you.  Your state of mind is the most important factor. If you feel it helps you, it probably does, and if you feel it's a waste of time, it is 

HOW DO I LEARN ENOUGH ENGLISH WORDS?
Words are the very first thing you have to have in a language (pronunciation is the second) Systematic learning is specially good for learning words - making lists of words related to each other, putting labels on things, writing words on cards, making your own dictionary, and so on.  In other words, you learn words best by hard work; you remember or reinforce them by use.  It's important to remember that speaking is not the only form of use.  Reading and studying are also use. For everyday words, you will probably meet a lot of new ones while doing your English course.  The best way to learn them is to write them down when you first hear them, then in the evening do some systematic work on them - rewriting, reorganizing, them.  And all the time, whenever you have a spare moment, keep reading in English - read anything that interests you.  That way you will have a good chance of meeting again the words you have learned.

HOW IMPORTANT IS PRONUNCIATION?
It's the next most important after vocabulary.  You need words first, but then you need pronunciation, because it's no use having words if people can't understand the words when you say them!  But people often get too worried about pronunciation and want to pronounce English 'correctly'. But there is no such thing as 'correct pronunciation'.  It doesn't exist.  The best answer to correctness is that if you are a Japanese using English; there is nothing wrong with sounding like Japanese using English - it's much better than sounding like a Japanese trying to sound like an American but just can't quite do it! But there is another side to pronunciation, that you want people to understand you.  Don't by the way always think it's your fault if people don't understand you.  Your English may be better than theirs, and anyway even native speakers fail to understand each other quite often.                           

        So what you need if you want people to understand you is really the most 'neutral' kind of accent.  Most countries have a more neutral form of their different accents or dialects - one that everyone can understand - often the form used on national television or radio - and usually it's the form that people from other countries can understand too.  

 DO I NEED TO TAKE AN ENGLISH EXAM?
You only need to do an exam if it is must.  But there can also be good reasons for doing one: If you're doing an English course, why not take an exam at the end of it?  There will be no better time

·         A certificate can always be useful.  You never know what's going to happen in your career. It may be required if you want to migrate to a country in which first language is English.

·         Motivation.  Many people find that the feeling that they have to pass a test gives them greater motivation.  If you think this is true for you, don't hesitate: the money you spend on entering and doing the exam will be money very well spent, even if you don't pass it.  Just think that you have bought motivation!

DO I NEED TO FOLLOW AN EXAM COURSE?
Yes, it's a good idea, but be careful!  Some exam courses have a very narrow focus - getting you through the exam.  Problem is that a continuous diet of test exercises is comforting, because you concentrate, so you feel you are working hard.  But the ease and comfort are - unfortunately - not really helping you to develop your language in the interesting but complex, demanding ways you need.

In any preparation for an exam, never lose sight of the basic truth: Good English + a little Exam Technique has far more chance of success than Poor English + a lot of Exam Technique!   

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