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Mrs. Dosomething, Eliza's elderly sidekick in My Fair Lady, was edited out of the final cut of the film. (Source)
Everything can change in the course of a single conversation. For Eliza Doolittle, the female lead played by Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady (based on Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw), her life takes a new trajectory when she meets of a professor of phonetics one evening in London's Covent Garden. Eliza's a lower-class flower seller whose dream of working in a flower shop is out of reach due to her strong Cockney accent.
Eliza's in luck because the professor, Henry Higgins, has just claimed that he can teach anybody to speak in an upper class accent, and he's gone so far to say he would pass this person off as a duke or duchess at an embassy ball.
Enter Eliza and flower shop aspirations. Higgins exposes Eliza to many of his therapeutic speech techniques, including learning how to articulate her words with marbles in her mouth. It's not easy, but eventually Eliza adopts the dialect of the British upper class.
But Eliza's also lost something essential about her identity. She may be able to pose for the aristocracy, but her future is still uncertain. The audience wonders: is Eliza really better off adopting a different dialect than the one she was raised speaking?
The film and Shaw's play explore the ways dialect and accent can influence perceptions of class and intelligence. Moreover, Shaw's themes connect with important aspects of speaking to be heard—specifically, as Julian Treasure noted, speaking with authenticity and from the heart.
In the past few lessons, we've covered lots about what could be wrong with your voice and how you can change it to increase your chances of being heard. In this lesson, we'll offer a few outside perspectives on the ways we continue to judge others based on their dialect or speech patterns and why, just maybe, using your authentic voice can be the most powerful statement of your speech.
CONFRONTING THE CRITICS
For today's first reading, read this article from NPR that includes highlights from a conversation between the journalist Jessica Grose of Slate, Stanford linguistics professor Penny Eckert, and speech pathologist Susan Sankin.
The three discuss how criticism of linguistic trends like vocal fry and upspeak often have sexist undertones, yet they acknowledge that audiences react to these speak habits.
As you're reading, consider the following questions:
What's "upspeak," and how did Grose feel it was impacting her career?
What does Eckert say is the difference between the way listeners react to male and female voices?
How do generational differences influence perceptions of vocal fry and upspeak?
Do you believe vocal fry and upspeak distract from the speaker's message? Why or why not?
UM, AH, YEAH
So like, we've had a lot of fun during this unit of, um, Public Speaking 101, but ah, we've got something to, um, say.
We're almost through. But first, read this article from The New York Times about verbal ticks and fillers such as like, um, ah, so, or you know.
While experts acknowledge that everybody uses verbal fillers to some extent or another, the writer offers tips for working on reducing the reliance on fillers while you formulate your thoughts or pause to steady your breath.
Consider the following questions as you read:
What are verbal fillers, and why do they most often occur? How do high-stakes situations such as addressing an audience in a public speaking situation impact the use of verbal fillers?
What are potential problems stemming from not being mindful of the use of verbal fillers?
How does the use of verbal fillers affect the speaker's perceived credibility?
What tools does the writer recommend to reduce the use of verbal fillers?
And now it's time to sit back, relax, and use as many verbal fillers and linguistic trends as you um, like, want to use? You're done—at least until it's time to pick up the mic in unit 7.
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