| There is an old story about a girl, who asked her | | | | communication, will tend to be tedious and rarely |
| grand pa whether he keeps his long beard over | | | | more than particularly successful. |
| or under the blanket while sleeping. Until then the | | | | But the more in a later life, a second language is |
| grand pa never thought of this , but from that | | | | attempted to master, the more the learner will |
| moment he tossed and turned every night trying | | | | find resistances and prejudices deriving from the |
| to decide what to do with the beard – the | | | | frame work of his original language. It may be |
| poor fellow had become “beard | | | | said that as we grow older, the acquisition of new |
| conscious”. | | | | language will normally entail a great deal of |
| And this story points to one aspect of learning a | | | | conscious, analytical effort instead of the |
| second language (especially in spoken form with | | | | child’s ready and facile imitation. |
| its odd accent and intonation etc.) that may be | | | | Therefore, learning to speak in a second language |
| foreign to students while learning to master it. | | | | is, as Horace Coon sees it, both a |
| And during this struggle they become | | | | “discipline” and a |
| “spoken conscious” and find | | | | “liberation”. We must at the first |
| themselves in the frame of grand pa, tossing and | | | | case understand that speaking is though a |
| turning every time they attempt to speak in this | | | | creative art, it is also a part of natural expression. |
| alien language. | | | | In fact speech is a kind of emotional release |
| It is natural that we in this age of growing | | | | through self expression. |
| psychological advances and superficial talks of the | | | | But we tend to search for a |
| analysis of human psychological conditions look for | | | | ‘standard’ of in any language and |
| a linguistic standard to be available to use in our | | | | therefore, the questions ‘what is |
| communications. Hence, we find ourselves | | | | correct?’ in speech becomes more |
| increasingly join hands in the so called movement | | | | frequent among all kinds of people. We search for |
| of correctness in English, both in speech and | | | | a ‘standard’ which we can use as |
| writing. | | | | a model, so that we can hide our secondariness |
| We are careful about the proper accent of | | | | to the language. |
| English, while speaking. Even many of us attend | | | | But the one fact which people tend to forget , |
| the accentuation class. The growing industry of | | | | according to C.L.Wren is that when a speaker |
| BPO and outsourcing in Asian region also has | | | | becomes exactly conscious of his speech, that |
| influenced many to talk like Americans, or the | | | | speech will become less natural – less truly |
| British. Because, it is the need of the hour . | | | | the expression of his own personality. And then |
| But fact is somewhat different than this. The child | | | | follows a communication gap. |
| learns from very early age to respond to the | | | | Another thing that we can discuss in this context |
| sounds and tunes which his elders habitually use in | | | | is that what is criteria of good speech . Is the |
| talking to him; and in due course, from a need to | | | | main criterion to be aesthetic or practical? If we |
| communicate, he begins to imitate the re-current | | | | choose beauty as the main criterion and choose |
| sound patterns with which he has become familiar. | | | | the kind of speech that pleases our ear, then we |
| In other words, he begins to make use of | | | | may find that there is no absolute definition of |
| speech; and his constant exposure to the spoken | | | | beauty itself. Then what we can expect here is |
| form of his own language, together with his need | | | | to be practical in using speech. And this means the |
| to convey increasingly subtle types of information, | | | | emphasis of speech in any language should be |
| leads to a rapid acquisition of the frame work of | | | | given to the wide range of propose to which the |
| his spoken language. | | | | speech gives itself. And as the change is taking |
| With all the conditions in his favor, a number of | | | | place in our society at a higher value acceleration, |
| years will pass before he has mastered not only | | | | the variety of propose also increase, and hence |
| the sound system used in his community but also | | | | the use of speech as well as the language itself. |
| has at his disposal a vocabulary of any extent. | | | | So it is wrong to state that a particular kind of |
| It is no wonder that the learning of another | | | | speech in English is the standard for all. Rather |
| language later in life there fore acquired artificiality | | | | what one should do is to understand the role of |
| in belief and sporadic spells of activity and without | | | | his use of language in a given context and |
| the stimulus arising from an immediate need for | | | | accordingly he can use it to achieve his goal. |