The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1910)

20 THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. We said it was going to be a Grafonola year. Proved already. All three Grafonolas going like cakes—" De Luxe," "Regent" and "Elite." much the understanding of a passage is helped by the play of the features, hands and shoulders, how well we generally understand the dumb language of a pantomime. If we are engaged in a lively conversation with a man, we see him speak no less than we hear him. There cannot be any doubt that the living word of the living native who speaks his own language with artistic perfection is the ideal to which the phonograph can never approach. .But then it mu:t be asked: How often can the average scnoolboy have such a treat? Again, a very clever and interesting man may speak very badly, too quickly, too indistinctly, without ever opening his mouth or moving his lips, or without taking the trouble to raise his voice or to articulate his words and phrases. Such cases, as we all know, are not uncommon. Even teachers, snail I add, even modern language teachers, for whom there is less excuse than for anybody else, are not invariably free from these blemishes; are sometimes good scholars but poor speakers. Here the phonograph comes in. It always speaks well and with spirit, it does not mind being interrupted or made to repeat itself over ,and over again. Its speaking capacity and its patience are alike inexhaustible. If we make our own records — as is perfectly easy with a phonograph—this has the advantage that by means of it, provided we have a good ear and some phonetic training, we may detect the defects of our pronunciation of our own as well as foreign languages. The instrument takes instantaneous and faithful snapshots of speech sounds and fixes them for many years. It is as honest as a mirror and as outspoken as a true friend. It has never yet stooped to flattery, it shows us as we are. It allows us to hear ourselves as others hear us, and also to hear others who are bodily far away from us, at any moment we wish, and in any place, and for any length of time. Thus you see, if a teacher can never be superseded by the instrument, he can yet be very materially helped by it. It saves his voice, his strength, and also his time, as it relieves him from the monotonous but necessary task of constantly repeating to the class the same sounds and phrases. The various uses to which the phonograph may be put in the teaching of modern foreign languages are the following: Above all it is helpful in teaching the proper intonation of connected speech, the right phras ing of groups of words, and the idiomatic play of the stresses. The faithful exhibition of the idiomatic foreign intonation is even more important than mere correctness in pronouncing individual foreign sounds. It must be admitted that — at least at present — a few sounds are not yet reproduced by the machine with absolute perfection, a difficulty which can be partly met by altering the pitch of the machine, though this may have to be done at the cost of a slight deviation from the natural pitch of the voice. No such reproach can, however, be made against the phonograph with regard to intonation, which is in all cases remarkably well reproduced. In first-rate records, and only such should be employed, the articulation of each single word can also most profitably be studied. Lists of model words should be drawn up and spoken into a good machine — records should thus be obtained giving examples of difficult sounds, combinations of sounds or words, such as the French nasal sounds, the English impure vowels, the German modified vowels or che voiceless palatal or guttural spirants (loch, tuch, tucher, kiichengeriiche), or the peculiar German glottal stop, such as is heard in abandern, durchaus, alliiberall, Oberammergau. Such difficult sounds must be repeated over and over again, in many lessons, slowly and distinctly. This is quite easy, as the machine can be stopped after each word and put back again for repetition. It is also a great help to precision; for the precision of the machine impresses upon the student the importance of precision in speaking. For elocution the phonograph is evidently very helpful, as it allows students who have few or no opportunities of hearing great speakers or actors to study model records spoken by them. Certain meters, for instance the stately blank verse, the splendid roll of the hexameter, and the expressive, rugged old ballad verse, can be studied to perfection in good records. One drawback in some of them is caused by the fact that records must inevitably be rather short — hence, in the endeavor to get as many words as possible on one cylinder, the record makers sometimes curtail the natural pauses between certain words more than is desirable. Those who make records for their own use or for the use of their classes, should beware of speaking too rapidly. Most cylinders easily take what can be spoken in two and a half or three minutes, which time is sufficient for many small poems or the important parts of dramatic monologues. Teachers who use the phonograph in class will obtain the best results if they allow the scholars to have the text before them, in order to follow the words that are spoken by the machine on the pamphlets that should be given to each pupil. Thus the eye and the ear are trained at the same time, while until recently appeal was made almo:t entirely to the eye. It is also desirable that the student's ears should become accustomed to hear in a number ot varied records the different voices of different speakers, and thus not be limited, often for years, to the one voice of his school teacher. The greater the variety of speakers, the more useful is the practice afforded. Dictation of pieces of foreign prose may also not unprofltably be given by means of the phonograph. Apart from speaking the machine can also be used for records of singing. English nursery rhymes and ditties, French chansons, and German Volksleider may with little trouble be obtained for use in the classroom, and will, if judiciously used on proper occasions, give variety to a lesson. They may even be used in teaching pupils to sing the foreign songs, and they may also be given to specially interested pupils during leisure hours. Much depends upon the skill and rerourcefulness of the teacher, who can, by means of characteristic foreign songs, initiate his pupils into the understanding of some of the most characteristic manifestations of foreign life, feeling and thought. In discussing in this lecture the u:e of the phonograph for the teaching of modern languages, I have mainly referred to its manifold uses for the school teaching of English, French and German. But, apart from school teaching, there are the uses of a good talking machine for private study, on the one hand, and for university teaching and scientific research on the other. Private students with no means of hearing foreign languages well spoken by natives can first of all learn the sounds and the intonation of the foreign idiom from a number of well-chosen records. They may afterward proceed to making their own records, and constantly compare their utterances with those of their models, noticing and accounting for any discrepancy, and cor(Continued on page 22.) C m H II BERLIN, S. O. 9 U» "* BOUCHE ST. 35 Manufacturers of the cheapest and most popular Disc Talking Machines and Phonographs PUPPEL MACHINES INSURE BEST RESULTS EXPORTED TO ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD Catalogues sent post free on application .Our "Elite" 9 Machines One of the Best TELEGRAPHIC ADDRESS: " PVCKAWO ' Our Famous "Puck Phonograph.'