16 JANUARY 1932, Page 3

Broadcasting the Icing's English The influence of the wireless on

spoken English should be considerable, but has not so far been submitted to a definite test. Now, however, eighty boys in London elementary schools have had gramophone records taken of their reading of a short exercise, and after a year's course of the broadcast lessons in the " King's English " they are to make fresh records. A comparison of the two should show how far their Cockney pronunciation has been modified by voluntary imitation of the B.B.C. reader's dulcet tones. Mr. Lloyd-James, of London tniverSity, who described this experiment at the Con- ference of Educational Associations the other day, seemed hopeful of good results, after his private expe- rience with a single school in Marylebone. But much must depend on the individual child's environment. If his parents and friends all speak pure Cockney, an average boy will find it almost impossible to adopt the elegant pronunciation of Savoy Hill. Moreover, many people are strangely insensitive to the delicacies of language, just as others are to music. We should not overrate the B.B.C.'s chances of success in this particular enterprise.