Elocution provided a tool for actors whilst reading to large audiences, they were able to control their voices and hold good gestures. Dating back to the eighteenth century, elocution was used for diction, gesture and posture and would also look at how one should be dressed. Actors/Performers were able to study voice in detail looking at pronunciation, grammar, style, tone and the rhythm of the English language. People soon realised that speaking with clear diction and being able to hold oneself with confidence, would bring about respect and gratitude. In the early nineteenth century, Elocution became popular with middle class citizens who requested taking private lessons and wanting to appear more aristocratic. It suddenly became so widely spread within the western world, everyone wanted to take up Elocution lessons. Schools realised the importance of speaking with confidence and saw what differences it could make to ones career, and so they added Elocution to the curriculum.
Elocution today has changed with times, the core sense of it is still with us, but as you can imaging, people are quite content with their regional accent and do not seem to be too bothered about diction, posture or gesture. In the early to mid nineteenth century, if you were unfortunate not to have had elocution lessons, you would have been treated as lower class, and your chances of a high paid career would be very slim.
Today, some would say that attitude is still with us, and that the only difference being is that we are more careful what we say to people due to fear of claims being issued against us. What people must realise is that we are always being judged and stereotyped in our society and learning a neutral way of speaking or being able to adapt the way you talk to different people, is just as important now as it was a century ago. Elocution has changed, and needs to change as we change, incorporating our modern world.
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