Student Broadcasts to Europe

Realizing that some kind of a recording machine is indispensable in modern language teaching, our department, some time ago, decided for the acquisition of a Magnetic Taperecorder on account of its practicability, demonstration value, frequency range (up to 10,000) and high fidelity. Anyone hearing his voice for the first time on a record, wire or tape is-to say the least--surprised, for he is unable to identify the recording with what he believes to be his own voice as he hears it while he actually speaks. As a rule he is disagreeably impressed, feeling provoked to deny the identity, claiming that the sound is distorted, and frequently he is quite disgusted. The argument that the machine is imperfect can be quickly dispelled by means of a recorded conversation whereby the skeptic will readily admit the fidelity of his partner's recorded voice, and by inference he can not help but being convinced that the same must be true with regard to his own. Having resigned himself to the validity of this conclusion he will be eager to learn the explanation of this unbelievable fact. He will realize that while speaking he hears his own voice subjectively, i.e. that he hears it partly from within due to the vibration of his vocal cords and his bone structure, so that his ear actually has two sources of reception. He then may point out himself that the sound waves he produces strike his ear differently from those other persons issue. These two important factors do not accompany his recorded voice when heard by him. Whereas he may trust or distrust his instructor's judgment of his pronunciation and diction, he now becomes the judge of his own voice and delivery which he will not fail to compare to the correct way of speaking as he has learned to accept it, may it concern his native tongue or a foreign language. His judgment then will be as objective as it individually can be. At this time the actual work

Political science · History · Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition