Uni Feels Strain Over Strine
The Age
Monday August 27, 2007
If Kath's "look at moy, Kim" jars the ears, Macquarie University may have the answer for its academics and students.
The NSW university is about to provide voice-coaching in an attempt to improve pronunciation and achieve "accent reduction".The organisers say staff and students have requested the course, designed to help academics acquire a "cultivated Australian accent". The director of learning and teaching at the university's division of economic and financial studies, Leigh Wood, said many students and staff were not native English speakers and had difficulty with some accents. Dr Wood said the aim was not necessarily to produce an ABC newsreader's accent but to improve understanding. "We are committed to communication at optimum levels between all staff and students." The course brochure promises that participants will hear an improvement over the eight weeks.The artistic director of the Actors Centre Australia, Dean Carey, said it was possible to train people to develop neutral-sounding voices. "But what's the point?" Mr Carey said."If someone who has a thick accent, Australian or otherwise, who came to our school, we'd say, 'Keep that'. But you could learn a more neutral accent to improve the range of acting opportunities."But what exactly is a 'cultivated' Australian accent?"A speech pathologist, Cecilia Pemberton, said accent training was typically aimed at those from non-English-speaking backgrounds who had a good command of the language but had difficulty being understood. Australian accents have been a matter of debate since shortly after 1788. It has long been a conundrum that people as far apart as Hobart, Sydney and Perth developed remarkably similar accents although there was limited contact between them.The peculiarities and cadences of the accent were explored in the quirky poetry of The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke by C. J. Dennis at the turn of the 20th century. -- GERARD NOONAN
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