(PDF) Evaluating Language Teaching Metho

Article Evaluating Language Teaching Methods to the Character Eliza Doolittle in the movie ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964) Hari Madhab Ray Abstract Influenced by Behavioral understanding of language and Audio-lingual method of language teaching Professor Henry Higgins employs various techniques to teach better and standard English to the character Eliza Doolittle, a common flower girl whom he bet “I could pass her off as a duchess at an Embassy Hall’ or ‘the queen of Sheba’. The attitude of Professor Henry Higgins towards the character Eliza Doolittle reflects the deep-rooted prescriptive notions of the English language. Language is not only a mean of communication, it is also a marker of identity, it creates social and class distinction, the way one speaks a language. The standard language of the elite is seen as a marker of social mobility, a prospect for job, as Professor Higgin says, “I could even get her a job as a lady’s maid or a shop assistant which requires better English”. This paper will evaluate the teaching methodologies employed by the Professor Henry Higgins to the character Eliza Doolittle and the results yielded in the movie ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964).It will aslo looks into the prescriptive hegemony of standard English, Eliza’s Cockney English, and influence of behaviorism in language teaching. Keywords: My Fair Lady (1964), English Language Teaching, Second Language Acquisition, Behaviorism, Language Teaching Methods, Applied Linguistics 1. Introduction ‘My Fair Lady’ is a 1964 American musical film based on Bernard Shaw’s play ‘Pygmalion’, starring Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle and Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins. The movie revolves around the central characters Professor Higgins who is a phonetician and revers the language he speaks and Eliza Doolittle, a common flower girl who aspires to ascend the social and economic ladder by speaking better English. Professor Henry Higgins is able to identify the place of a person hearing their accent. In Higgins’ words, “Anyone can spot an Irishman or Yorkshire man by his brogue, but I can place a man within six miles, I can place them within two miles in London. Sometimes within two streets.” He believes that language is an inseparable part of our identity. Its articulation impacts our life too. He takes great pride in his ability looking down on anyone who is unable to speak better English i.e. “the language of Shakespeare, Milton and Bible”. Professor Higgins is not alone, the prescriptive grammarians also share the same view of the language. He is the ultimate epitome of the prescriptive grammar and its approaches. Higgins mourning the death of good English owing to mispronunciation and bad teaching. He calls for elementary education for the British population in the standard language. He blames the poor working class for speaking English differently. Pointing at Eliza, he says,“look at her, a prisoner of the gutters, condemned by every syllable she utters. By right she should be taken out and hung for the cold- blooded murder of the English tongue.” Eliza Doolittle is mocked and called crude by Higgins because of her speech. He Assistant Professor Centre for Linguistics, SLL&CS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. E-mail Id:

[email protected]

Orcid Id: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7635-4756 How to cite this article: Ray HM, Evaluating Language (1964). J Adv Res Eng & Edu 2016; 1(1): 1-9. © ADR Journals 2016. All Rights Reserved. Ray HM makes a bet with his new friend Colonel Pickering that Eliza could pass off as a Duchess among the elites if he taught her manners and proper pronunciation, “in six months I could pass her off as a duchess at an Embassy Ball. I could even get her a job as a lady’s maid or a shop assistant which requires better English” and “yes, I could pass you off as the Queen of Sheba.” In the following, I look into the prescriptive hegemony of standard English, Eliza’s Cockney English, influence of behaviorism in language teaching and evaluate the language teaching methods employed by Prof. Higgins to the character Eliza Doolittle in different areas of Grammar in the movie ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964). 2. Professor Henry Higgins and Prescriptive Hegemony of Standard English Professor Higgins has a general disregard to anyone speaking Cockney or any regional variety of English. Cockney is one of the traditional dialects of the poor working class He was indifferent towards the variety. Also, he believed that standardised English was the only way to gain status and employment simultaneously. Cockney’s phonological attributes are a bit different from that of standardised English (See 3). Prof. Higgins ridicules Eliza, girl because of her English accent, the way she her vowels, her using of words, ‘aoow’ and ‘garn’, sort of word is that? It’s ‘aoow’ and ‘garn’ her place, not her wretched clothes and dirty face.” “A woman who utters such disgusting depressing no right to be anywhere, no right to live.” He advises Eliza Doolittle, “remember, you are a human being with a soul and divine gift of articulate speech. Your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and Bible. Do not sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.” He does not hesitate to comment on Eliza’s English as if he is the the custodian of the English language. Addressing to Eliza Doolittle, he says, “Look at her, a prisoner of the gutters, condemned by every syllable she utters. By right she should be taken out and hung for the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.” Higgins expresses his disgusting views about the spoken language, “Hear a Yorkshireman or worse hear a Cornishman converse, I would rather hear a choir singing flat—Chicken’s cackling in a barn just like this one” (Eliza Doolittle). It is not only Eliza’s English accent, but pronunciation of the poor working class irritates him. Even someone from the crowd when he says to Prof. Higgins, “What ya tike me for, a fool?” In reply, Prof. Higgins says, ‘No one taught him ‘take’ instead of ‘tike’ (See 2.2)”. He talks about the prescriptive approach, a universal English for all and sundry. Higgins says, “An Englishman’s way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him. One common language, I am afraid we’ll never get. Oh, why can’t the English set a good example to people whose English is painful to your ears. The Scotch and the Irish leave you close to tears. J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) which refers to the pronunciation of ‘You’ as / ju: /. Eliza pronounces you /ju:/ as /jy:/. /r/ Epenthesis Insertion of consonants is also a common feature of Cockeney. Insertion of ‘r’ in the word ‘lovely’; as in the song ‘Oh wouldn’t it be Loverly’! (See 5). Eliza owing to her familiarity with Cockney, kept adhering to its phonetic aspects while learning the standard English. But Higgins, being a keen observer knew the phonological differences between Cockney and the standard English. He formulated his teaching methods accordingly to address those errors in Eliza’s Cockney speech. 4. Behaviorist Psychology and Language Teaching Methods The classical method of language teaching often known as Grammar Translation Method (GTM) was adopted for teaching English and other European languages. After sufficient years of training in this method, the learners could enjoy the classical literature, read and write in a better way but not able to eloquently speak the target language. Grammar Translation Method was challenged by Reform movement and they adopted Direct Method in native language development. The focus on the spoken forms of the language was also the need of the hour. Structuralist and behaviourists view of language mark on the second language teaching. The behaviourists view ‘language as a system of habit formation’ which can be achieved through imitation, repetition and reinforcement. The language teachers adopted an approach which heavily influenced by behaviourist understanding of language. Audiolingual method of language teaching is influenced by behavioural psychology and structuralist understanding of language. In this method, language teaching was not only restricted to reading and writing but focus was given to spoken communication. During this time, the Oral and Situational approaches emphasized on spoken language as well as recognise the fact that the target language should be presented in a meaningful context. Language teaching methods depended heavily on classroom practice, repetition, memorization and drilling. The learning theory of the Behaviourists like Thorndike, B.F. Skinner, Bloomfield represents the original Stimulus Response framework of behavioural psychology. Learning was then essentially considered the result of associations form between stimuli and responses. Stimulus and Response will have to be repeated number of times to condition the habit. Behaviourists showed everything in relation to observable states. The Law of Effect states how responses with “rewarding state of affairs” will strengthen habitual responses. The Law of Readiness could be understood almost akin to the way a runner would prepare or gear up in a position that allows him/her to run. The Law of Exercise could be understood as repeated performances 3 Ray HM instance of drilling practice is when he asks Eliza to say, “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains” and he advises her to say it ‘fifty times’; “Higgins: All right, Eliza, say it again. Eliza: The rine in Spine stays minely in the pline. Higgins: The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain. Eliza: Didn’t I sie that? Higgins: No, Eliza, you didn’t even sie that; you didn’t even say that. Higgins: Now every morning where you used to say your morning prayers, I want you to say, “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain’ fifty times… You’ll get much further with the Lord if you learn not to offend his ears.” 4.2 Hurricane’s hardly ever happen Eliza has to repeat the above sentence many times, as she drops ‘h’ in her speech which is also a notable characteristic of Cockney. Prof. Higgins conducts an experiment and instructs her, “Every time you pronounce the letter ‘h’ correctly, the flame will wave and every time you drop your ‘h’, the flame will remain stationary. That’s how you’ll know if you have done it correctly. In time your ear will hear the difference.” Eliza could not pronounce the word correctly, she once again drops ‘h’ from the words, (H)ertford, (H)ereford ampshire, (h)urricanes (h)ardly ever (h)appen. Prof. pronounces the words and the flame moves; “..now Listen carefully- In Hertford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen.” Eliza is slowly conditioned to say /h/, /eɪ/ instead of /aɪ/. Initially she pronounced ‘rain’ as /rɑɪn/,‘Spain’ and ‘plain’ as /plɑɪn/. He asks her to repeat fifty times, an example of repetition and drilling correct her mistake and practice effectively the that she has learned. Apparently, exercising this instead of saying her prayers would get her “much with the Lord if she learns not to offend His ears.” she self-corrects herself or at least has a scope it is important to note that Professor still monitored progress, she was not left to her own devices at The act of imitation, repetition and drilling are to create a habit i.e. in this case to speak a certain use the correct word or lexical categories. 4.2 Positive and Negative Reinforcement Eliza would be provided the comfort of bed and enough money to buy chocolates and take ride in taxis if she accomplishes the tasks given to her. The idea of reward to reinforce and habit formation which is essentially what Behaviourists insist on as a method to teach is explicitly seen when Professor Higgins lays down the ground rules of what is to become of her if she follows what she is told or what would be the result if she fails to follow what she is told. The idea of positive and negative J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) further instructs her to keep repeating /ha/ as a means of practicing to pronounce /h/. Perhaps he realizes that what Eliza needed at that moment was a simpler practice and he increases the level of difficulty later. He gives focus to the rhythm and stress pattern and makes her repeat numerous times the expression, “How kind of you to let me come!”. She is unable to correctly pronounce ‘kind of you’ /k/ in word initial takes an aspirated form /kʰ/ and her stress pattern is what Professor Higgins strives to correct. He keeps repeating the correct way of pronunciation whilst producing a tune in a xylophone, he also uses phrases that are rhythmic in order to help her understand the stress and intonation of the language better. Thorndike’s ‘Law of Exercise’ finds ample practice here. He keeps making her practice to say /kʰʌp ɔf tʰi:/. He elucidates further, “Put your tongue forward, squeeze it on top of your lower teeth…”, also making her repeat “cup, cup, cup”, “of, of, of” shows how he theoretically by talking about the articulators and practically tries to achieve his goal. While he makes her practice speaking, he tempts her with her weakness- baked goods, he along with Mr Pickering indulge in some appetizing tart served by Mrs. Pierce all the while exclaiming just how wonderful and delicious it is – a practice to motivate their student to articulate well and earn herself the delicious tart. However, she fails to do so as a result of which the tart is fed to the caged bird. This only makes her need and want to learn the language better as she sees how the comfort and luxury she has always wanted could be well within her reach if she manages to attain the goal. Motivation serves as an important factor on the part of the student that allows the student to go on and achieve her/his goal. Another attempt of Mr Higgins albeit a dangerous one is when he puts marbles in her mouth so that she is able to enunciate well. When Pickering suggests to “start with something simpler like the Owl and the Pussycat”, he does not stop his lessons, he does not want her to learn and practice things that are too simple. He even does not care when she swallowed a marble while practicing her lessons. His methods are at times a little too extreme but eventually after a tiring and hectic period of continuous effort and practice, several drilling sessions when she is finally able to correctly pronounce, it gives her great joy and means a lot to her to be tapped on her back by her Professor as he exclaims “Bravo!”. Prof. Higgins is also insensitive towards Eliza Doolittle, he does not care whether she swallowed the marble while enunciating the words, he does not care whether the sheet of paper on fire while she was pronouncing ‘h’ sound correctly, it only matters whether she has got the right pronunciation or not! 5.2 Teaching techniques in the areas of Morphology and Syntax At the level of morphology and syntax, the Cockney dialect is different from that of standard English. Thus, at the 5 Ray HM standard pronunciation she was taught but this eventually gives way to her speaking in the way she did prior to this training that conditioned her to speak this way. She talks about her aunt’s influenza and forgets the calm and cool manner in which genteel folk speak, instead she uses “done her in” i.e. meaning to kill her and “bit off the spoon”; Eliza continues; “My aunt died of influenza. So, they said, but, it’s my belief they done the old woman in. …Yes, Lord, love you; why should she die of influenza when she come through diphtheria right enough the day before? Fairly blue with it, she was. They all thought, she was dead. But my father, he kept ladling gin down her throat. Then she come so sudden, she bit the bowl off the spoon…… Now what call would a woman with that strength in her have to die of inlfuenza? And what become of her new straw hat that should have come to me? Somebody pinched it. And what I say is, them, that’s pinched it done her in…. Do I not? Then she lived with would have killed her for a hat pin, let alone a hat…... Not her, gin was mother’s milk to her. Besides, he poured so much down his own throat, he knew the good of it.” The lexical categories she uses are very different from the ones that genteel speech uses. Although Professor Higgins manages to get away with it by calling it “new small talk” of the town but she keeps talking in that manner asking questions like “What are you sniggering at?” to Freddy Buxington but actually he is an admirer of hers, hears her speak in what he finds rather charming; “Eliza: Here, what are you sniggering at? Freddy: It’s the new small talk. You do it so awfully well. Eliza: Well, If I was doing it proper, what was you sniggering at? Have I said anything I oughtn’t?” The pronunciation, lexical categories and improper syntax would ordinarily raise suspicion but she still manages to charm some people. Higgins tested her very soon she learned to say, “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”. He wanted to know how Eliza uses the knowledge and skills in a sociological context and so he took her to the horse race. When she screams /kʌm ɔn dɔvə! muv jɔ blumin a:s/ in her typical way of pronouncing. These words /blʊmin/ and /a:s/ one would not speak at such an event being a ‘lady’, especially in that order where publicly /a:s/, a term mostly unheard of in the gathering of the genteel with an added adjective /blʊmɪn/ before it, “Come on, come on Dover. Come on, come on. Come on Dover, Come on. Come on Dover. Move your blooming ass.” This can be seen as another instance of how Behaviouristic learning unlike Cognitivist learning allows little room for divergence as the student is taught a particular thing and is expected to almost produce it in a parrot-like manner whereas the latter involves problem solving techniques. This would mean that Behaviourist’s way of learning will not allow J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) it right. The articulation of a sentence with proper rhythm and stress was also practiced repeatedly. After multiple attempts, her diphthong alteration from /ei/-/ai/ stopped. As a result of which she could pronounce – ‘The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain’ correctly. 54.1 Error Correction Error correction is a teaching technique quite useful during the second language acquisition. Prof. Higgins makes use of this method during his teaching. In the process of error correction, one needs to understand- ‘What is the reason for the error?’ and ‘What kind of error?’ The reason of the error can be systematic, pre-systematic and post- systematic. The type of error could be lexical, phonological, syntactic, interpretative or pragmatic. In the movie, Eliza makes a number of phonological, morphosyntactic errors and also do not do well in social and pragmatic aspects of the language. She pronounces her vowels differently. In Cockney way, she pronounces /ai/ instead of /ei/ in the words ‘rain’ or ‘Spain’. Higgins keeps repeating the vowels again and again to correct her. Each time, she is wrong he corrects it and reprimands her. He corrects her in different levels of the grammar. 5.4.2 Tongue Twisters The phrase “the rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain,” incorporates the [ei] diphthong five times, giving Eliza an opportunity to use the sound in sentence context, rather than in isolation. And “In Hertford, Hereford Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen” she practices the sound /h/. These two sentences were taught by Higgins because they had stress and intonation in them. In this way, Eliza could develop a good command of rhythm which facilitated her English language learning. 5.4.3 Reading Aloud and Recitation Once Eliza has made progress with the pronunciation of vowels and the aspiration of the /h/ sound, Higgins introduces more advanced elements of dialect acquisition: stress and intonation. Higgins teaches intonation, using a xylophone; he plays a single musical note for each word in the phrase, “How kind of you to let me come”. He aims for Eliza to understand that the most important word in the phrase is “kind,” which one communicates by speaking the word on the highest pitch. But he doesn’t succeed, thereafter he gives a description to articulate the sound properly, “put your tongue forward until it squeezes against the top of your lower teeth” and she succeeds. of this experiment, it is clear that the repetition exercise was not much effective for Eliza. Addition of visual and kinaesthetic exercises helped her more. 5.4.4 Rote learning and Memorization Higgins tested her very soon she learned to say, “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain”. He wanted to know how Eliza uses the knowledge and skills in a sociological 7 Ray HM Aow, Woudn’t be loverly? Aow, so loverly sittin’ also abso-bloomin’-lutely still I would never budge still spring Crept over the windsill Someone’s ‘ead restin’ on my knee Warm and tender a ‘e can be ‘e takes good care of me Aow, woudn’t it be loverly? Loverly, loverly, loverly.” Before the training, the poor flower girl Eliza Doolittle is a matter of ridicule for Professor Henry Higgins because of her English accent not because of her dirty clothes. On a semantic level, one finds this particular description as an idea or behaviour associated to the fact that being of ‘low- birth’, she had no ethics and moral values. Interestingly enough, her changing into a ‘lady’, that is after she is able to speak in the standard form, she no longer feels the need to assert the same. The ability to speak well, showing that one belongs to an affluent part of the society seems to have done a lot to bridge the gap that existed among the two different social classes that the Professor and student belonged to. In fact, it was after she learnt to speak ‘properly’ that she insists on being treated the right way by her Professor. The attitude of the poor flower girl at the end changes and she looks at life in a different way, boasting with confidence that she can be married to Freddy Buxington, or she can be a shop assistant, a lady’s maid or an assistant to the Budapest Hungarian Professor or she herself can teach phonetics to others. Miss Eliza Doolittle challenges the stereotypical notions, prejudices and prescriptive views deeply rooted in the society as Eliza mourns; “What a fool I was, what a dominated fool to think that you are the earth and sky! I know my reverberating friend, You are not the beginning and the end” The lines are directly addressed not only to Prof. Henry Higgins but also established typical prejudices of the languages, the hegemony of the standard language over the spoken varieties. Prof. Higgins is astonished to see transformed Eliza and in a surprising tone as he says, “such an idea in your head or a word in your mouth that I haven’t put there.” Miss Eliza Doolittle continues her moaning as she sings; “There will be spring every year without you England still will be here without you There will be fruit on the tree and the shore by the sea Art and music will thrive without you Somehow Keiths will survive without you And there still will be rain on that plain down in Spain even that will remain without you I can do without you J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) 9. Stacy, Cabaj. “the eliza-higgins model: the rapport and methods of dialect acquisition.” Virginia commonwealth university, 2012.. https:// scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/318 10. Projects relevant to master student’s careers aspirations.” celea journal, 31: 2008; 8–10. 11. My Fair Lady, an analysis.” UKEssays.com. 11 2013. https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/ my-fair-lady-george-cukor-english-literature-essay. php?vref=1 9 Teaching Methods to the Character Eliza Doolittle in the movie ‘My Fair Lady’ ISSN: 2456-4370 J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) There even are places where English completely disappears, why in America they have not used it for years! Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?” He continues his mourning of the English language, “Norwegians learn Norwegians, the Greeks taught their Greek, in France every Frenchman knows his language ‘A to Z’, the French don’t care what they do actually- as long as they pronounce it properly. Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightening. The Hebrew learn it backwards which is absolutely frightening.” He also talks about the way the Indians and Slavs use their English; “Does the same thing hold true in India Pickering? Is there the peculiar habit of not only dropping of a letter ‘h’ but using it where it doesn’t belong like ‘hever’ instead of ‘ever’ or like the Slavs who when they learn English have a tendency to do with their ‘g’s they say ‘linner’ instead of ‘linger’, then they turn right round and say ‘sin-ger’ instead.” of London. Prof. Higgins’ disgusting attitude towards the other varieties of English is abominable. He uses words, phrases and sentences which are derogatory and in general should not be uttered by a gentle man. It is only a pedantic, erudite, egoist, insensitive Prof. Higgins who can say this the poor flower to a common flower girl, “You see this creature with her pronounces curbstone English, that’ll keep her in the gutter till the end “.. what of her days” and “you squashed cabbage leaf! You disgrace that keep her in to the noble architecture of these columns! You incarnate He says, insult to the English language.” noises, has 3. Eliza Doolittle and her Cockney English Eliza Doolittle mostly used the linguistic features of Cockney while speaking English. In the song, ‘Why can’t the English’, Higgins mentions some notable phonological features of the Cockney variety. guardian and Dropping of ‘h’ Sound Higgins talks about the dropping of ‘h’ sound, “Hear them down in Soho square, dropping “h’s” everywhere. Speaking English anyway they like.” Eliza drops her ‘h’s too when she is asked to pronounce – ‘In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happen’. She pronounces it as – ‘In ‘artford, ‘ereford and ‘ampshire ‘urricanes ‘ardly hever ‘appen.’ The Alteration of Diphthongs ‘ei’ to ‘ai’ The alteration /ei/ to /ai/ in /teik/ ‘take’ to /taik/ ‘tike’ is seen below; Higgins: “You sir, did you go to school? A man in the crowd: Wadaya tike me for, a fool? Higgins: No one taught him ‘take’ instead of ‘tike!’ The diphthong alterations from /ei/ to /ai/ are also seen in Eliza’s speech when she pronounces /rein/ as /rain/, / spein/ as /spain/ (rain and Spain respectively). learn to Goose fronting Another notable feature of Cockney is goose fronting 2 Ray HM of this stimulus and response cycles, repeating leads to strengthening of connections between stimulus and lack of practice leads to the weakening of connection. Interestingly enough, the character of Eliza Doolittle mentally prepares herself for what could possibly make her life and position in society considerably better. The techniques that Professor Higgins uses finds ample use of ‘The Law of Exercise’ because he insists on practice by drilling and repetition. In ‘Pygmalion’, George Bernard Shaw seems to have created the character Henry Higgins on the model of Henry Sweet (1845- 1912), a philologist and phonetician of England. He specialized in Germanic languages, particularly Old English and Old Norse. Sweet published works on larger issues of phonetics and grammar. It included the first scientific description of educated London speech, later known as Received Pronunciation (RP), with specimens of connected speech represented in phonetic script. He also developed a version of Short hand called, Current Short Hand. He was a leading opponent of Grammar translation language teaching, described them as ‘a bag into which grammar and vocabulary are crammed without regard to meaning.” In ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964), Professor Higgins attempts to take up a seemingly impossible task of teaching his young student the proper way of speaking English. He uses the various methods of imitation, repetition, drilling, positive and negative reinforcement. also left a 4.1 Imitation, Repetition and Drilling Professor Higgins makes use of several teaching methods while trying to teach Eliza. This comes off as a more teacher- oriented learning. He asks Eliza Doolittle to start with the vowels and slowly builds up on that to allow her to learn more. Instead of starting off with something extremely complex, he allows Eliza time to adjust accordingly to be able to make the most out of the learning process especially as this was to be done in a particular time-frame of six months. The episode where she learns to properly articulate the vowels also shows how Professor Higgins teaches by way of example. He himself articulates the vowels and lets her repeat several times although she continues to make mistakes as she mispronounces the vowels. She is made to sit on a chair and as she speaks, the apparatus (phonograph) which is connected to a sheet automatically draws a graph. The improper pronunciation is at once reflected in the curvy productions of the graph lines. The apparatus’s output tells her of the outcome which she is keen on correcting albeit it does not work completely until much later after a lot of drilling sessions. The importance placed on drilling sessions can be further seen in Colonel Pickering’s request in being gentler and not reproachful in his method Prof. Higgins says,“It is no use explaining Pickering; as a military man, you should know that drilling is what she needs.” Higgins warns her and lets her know, “…No dinner, no chocolates if the vowels aren’t correctly learnt.” Another J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) reinforcement can be seen in the following utterances when Prof. Henry Higgin says to Eliza; “If you are good and do whatever you are told, you could sleep up in a bedroom, have lots to eat and money to buy chocolates and take ride in taxis but if you are naughty and idle, you shall sleep in the back kitchen among the black beetles and be walled up by Mrs Pierce by a broomstick.” Professor Higgins treats Eliza Doolittle akin to a subject of his experiment, firm in his belief that reprimanding her for her mistakes and inabilities would correct her and lead her to the right way. For all the repeated statements by Eliza “I am a good girl, I am” it did not have any impact on Prof. Higgins. Reinforced learning involves rigorous and regular practice. In order to increase the spontaneity while using of language, reinforcements are necessary. We can clearly say that Higgins used repetitive drills and audiolingual method through imitation to teach Eliza. He used to articulate the sounds and ask Eliza to articulate them too. He also used explanatory diagrams to educate Eliza about the placement of articulators while producing vowels. 5. Language Teaching methods in different areas of Grammar Professor Higgins primarily uses repetition, drills and and (H) Audiolingual method of language teaching. One of the Higgins advantages here is, Prof. Higgins is himself a native speaker of the standard English and also an expert phonetician. He knows the areas of language where his student needs practice, drilling or improvisation. 5.1 Teaching techniques in the areas of Phonetics and as /spɑɪn/ Phonology the sentence Prof. Higgins teaches Eliza to properly articulate the vowels in order to . He himself articulates the vowels first and lets her repeat new forms several times although she continues to make mistakes as at night she mispronounces the vowels (See 4.1.). To teach her to further correctly pronounce /h/, he makes her use an apparatus Although set-up which includes a flame that shall waver upon the to do so, correct pronunciation of /h/ and an incorrect pronunciation her will keep it stationary, this set-up includes a rotating mirror such a time. as well that allows the student to look at the condition essential of the flame. As an example, he speaks first saying, “In way or Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire, hurricanes hardly ever happen.” As he speaks, the audience or viewer observes that he clearly pronounces /h/ which leads to the flickering of the flame every time he pronounces the sound /h/. When Eliza attempts to speak the same, she omits the /h/ in ‘Hartford’, ‘Hereford’ and ‘Hampshire’. Habit-formation could be a lengthy and tiresome process, thus Eliza is unable to correctly pronounce /h/ right away. In fact, as she speaks, it is when she utters the word ‘ever’ in the phrase that the flame flickers further suggesting that she has acquired a wrong way of pronunciation which is done away with firm treatment and negative reinforcement. Professor Higgins 4 Ray HM beginning especially one finds several instances where she speaks in a manner that would be considered wrong in the standard form. The ‘wrong’ usage of tenses and using of double negatives. The contracted form “I’m” and usage of words like “ain’t” and several clitics is observed. Towards the beginning after having bumped into someone, Eliza with her Cockney accent says /luk wei jy: gawin/ “look where you are going”, she omits “are” and speaks in a very different manner indeed. Syntactical difference can be seen in /if jy: dʌ djuti bai ɪm …/ which given her almost incoherent pronunciation would be “If you done your duty by him as a mother should…”, is quite different from what would be acceptable say “If you did your duty by him as a mother should…”. The usage of “ain’t” and double negative is observed when she says “I ain’t done nothing wrong by speaking to the gentlemen.” Or the time Eliza goes to meet Prof. Higgins for the first time at his house, “I ain’t coming to ask for any compliment”. When she is cautioned by a passer-by, she talks about ‘her character’ as “me character”. What especially stands out is how during her practice, these mistakes lessen and towards the end in her emotive cry as she explains to her Professor why she had been acting the way she did does one clearly find the distinction as she corrects herself thus making it obvious for the viewers the Cockney way and the Standard form “What I done- what I did was not for the dresses and the taxis……I come-came to care for you”. Having grown up speaking the Cockney variety, it is under distress that her training sways and she speaks what comes naturally to her. But it is also true that she is aware of the variation and knows the differences which one is standard and which is not and given situation she can correct herself with the right morphosyntactic forms. It suggests that there is an internationalization of grammar has taken place in her and it goes through developmental stages the way children go through trial and errors while acquiring their native languages. 5.3 Considering Social, Psychological and Pragmatics aspects in Language Teaching The learner’s satisfaction is visible as she is excited and unable to sleep after having been congratulated by her Professors. As her success makes her teachers happy, she is further driven to not let them down by not performing well. At the same time, Professor Higgins decides it is time that she is ready to be tested. He wants to now see how she performs when she has to put her knowledge to use in a social context. He prepares her for conversation in two topics- the weather and health. Her limited capacity to converse with another is by and large exposed after she manages the initial social niceties by means of using “How do you do?”, or upon being asked about weather, she instantly replies with “The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plains” and “In Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire hurricanes hardly ever happens.” She says these with the J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) the student to be able to speak out of the context she/he has been taught. Mrs. Higgins, Prof. Henry Higgins’ mother warns him not torture the poor girl anymore. Colonel Pickering also wants to call of the bet and Prof. Higgins is adamant to go ahead with his experiment, he wants to teach her the standard English with its niceties, he wants to pass her off as a duchess. Here is the conversation; “Colonel Pickering: I am trying to tell you that I want to call off the bet, I know you are a stunt man but so am I. This experiment is over and nothing sort an order from the king... You understand Higgins, it’s over and what about the girl you act as though she doesn’t matter at all. Higgins: Oh! Rubbish Pickering. Of course, she matters, been doing all these months what could possibly matter more than to take a human being and change her into a different being by creating a new speech for her. It’s filling up the deepest gap that separates class and class and soul from soul. She matters immensely.” Thus, the imitation, repetition, drilling sessions and reinforcement fail her when she moves onto subjects that have not been ventured upon by her Professors. While the student stands a little shaky and ashamed, the enthusiasm she sees in Professor Higgins allows her to have faith in her and the next time she is able to hold herself well enough to fool others of her real identity. Even as an ex-student of Mr. Higgins whom he calls as ‘heavy hound of Budapest’ investigates the situation by trying to interact with Eliza, he is unable to tell her apart and says that she is the royal blood of Hungaria. However, interestingly yet again when the Professors do not congratulate her upon her success, she is agitated enough to leave the house wondering what shall become of her. This further proves that for reasons of neglect perhaps Eliza looked up to her teachers and their happiness on her success stemmed a motivation within her, a desire so strong that in spite of not having done well the first time she was taken out, she takes that failure in stride, rises above that and is more careful the next time she exercises whatever she has been taught in a social context primarily to prove herself as a worthy student. She also develops some feelings for Professor Higgins and she says, “I want a little kindness, I know I’m a common ignorant girl and you’re a book learned gentleman but I’m not dirt under your feet, but I done what I did was not for taxis and the dresses but because we were pleasant together and I come, I came to care for you not to want you to make love to me.” 5.4 Other inherent techniques used by Prof. Henry Higgins Eliza was given regular practice with vowels and other alphabets continuously. She was made to sit in the language laboratory and say those sounds again and again till she got 6 Ray HM context and so he took her to the horse race. She has used phrases and sentences which are being taught to her as for example, ‘How do you do?’ and ‘How kind of you to let me come?’ 6. Conclusion Thus, from the above observations we can conclude that Higgins’s methods were effective for dialect acquisition. After her training Eliza is aware of the variation and knows the differences which one is standard and which is not and given situation she can correct herself with the right morphosyntactic forms. It suggests that there is an internationalization of grammar has taken place in her and it goes through developmental stages the way children go through trial and errors while acquiring their native languages. However, some harsh techniques that he used like putting marbles into Eliza’s mouth were ghastly and unreasonable. The rapport between both of them was not very good either. Higgin’s prejudices and discrimination played a major part in their relationship. The treatment of Eliza as a subject rather than a person was a drawback on Higgin’s part. Forcing a person to learn again and again continuously without a break does not sound realistic and also ridiculing a person for his/her accent is also not acceptable. But as a teacher Prof. Higgins made a tremendous effort to transform her student with better pronunciation along with niceties of the language as it is sung by Mrs. Pierce and other help; and “Poor Professor Higgins Night and day, he sleeps away All day long on his feet Up and down until he’s numb Doesn’t rest, doesn’t eat Doesn’t touch a crumb.” The methods used by Prof. Higgins is teacher centric but as a teacher he does not sit idle and simply does not assign the exercises to Eliza, but also takes part in accomplishing the exercise with Eliza. This paper provides support for the contention that a single language can have a number of different spoken variants and the usage of each one leads to an entirely different personality and position in society. Higgins’s behaviour also throws light on the prejudice and status quo associated with the standard variety of language and how it impacts people’s lives. How the poor working class and downtrodden view life and language which is again depicted beautifully in the following song; On the basis “Wouldn’t be loverly All I want is a room somewhere, Far away from the cold night air With one enormous chair Aow, wouldn’t be loverly? Lots of chocolate for me to eat, Lots of coal makin’ lots of ‘eat Warm face, warm ‘ands, warm feet J. Adv. Res. Eng. & Edu. 2016; 1(1) You dear friend you talk so well You can go to Hartford, Hereford and Hampshire They can still rule the land without you Wins a car sorest and without you Without you much ado we can muddle through without you Without your falling at the tide comes in Without your twirling into the earth can spin without you pushing them the clouds or more If they can do without you, duckie How can I? I shall not feel alone without you I can stand on my own without you So, go back in your shell I can do bloody well!” The movie ‘My Fair Lady’ (1964) strongly proves that second language learning however, is always possible and the film can be used as an effective tool to learn a second language. The notion of standard languages has led to the emergence of a class whose hegemony over the larger masses is primarily of that of the dominant elite with their class, cultural and religious ideologies. According to D.P. Pattanayak (1999:149), “ Inequality has many faces. Giving recognition to a single language variety as standard creates a cadre of people who through various controls gain from the acquisition, processing, storage and transmission, retrieval and other manipulations of the language as the language of education, administration and mass communication in a plurilingual society bestows advantages on the speakers of that language.” 7. References 1. Carter, Alice T. “Accents, Dialects Play Big Role in ‘My Fair Lady’.” TribLIVE.com, 16 Sept. 2007, triblive. com/x/pittsburghtrib/ae/theater/s_527544.html. 2. Cook, Guy. Applied Linguistics. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. 3. Davies, Alan. An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: from practice to theory. 2nd edition. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2007. 4. Drobot, Irina-Ana. “Phonological Features of Cockney English Illustrated in My Fair L a d y . ” T e c h n i c a l University of Civil Engineering, Bucharest, David Publishing: 2011. 5. Hammarstrand, Anna. ‘I’m Come to Have Lessons, I Am’ – Pygmalion, Power and Pronunciation.” University of Gothenburg. 2011. 6. My Fair Lady. Dir. George Cukor. Audrey Hepburn and Rey Harrison. Warner Bros.Pictures. 1964. 7. Richards, Jack C and Rodgers, Theodore S.. Approaches and Methods in LanguageTeaching: A description and analysis. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge: 1999. 8. Pattanayak DP. Multilingualism in India. Multilingual Matters. 1999. 8 Ray HM ideology,

(PDF) Evaluating Language Teaching Methods to the Character Eliza Doolittle in the movie 'My Fair Lady' (1964)