Recitation Auditions

Interclass Solo Recitation Contest on January 22nd

The time has come to recruit members to take part in the annual Interschool English Recitation Contest. Our solo speakers are all winners of an internal contest held previously. But the formation of the choral speaking groups entails some complications. With the help of a co-worker, I am in charge of the Senior High Group. We invited applications weeks ago and responses have been very enthusiastic. To choose fifty five members out of more than ninety applicants, we could not do without an audition. And we actually organized two, one for Senior 1 and the other for Senior 2.

I had prepared a number of tongue twisters targeted at the correct pronunciation of the vowels, consonants and consonant clusters. After the guided practice, the students were invited to read the lines aloud one by one. Except for a few nervous ones, most of them performed quite well. However, there were certain consonant sounds that few could manage accurately. I decided to gear more attention to those sounds during the choral speaking training.

It was easy to decide on the best performers and the least gifted. But to get the required number from those of average ability posed some difficulties. We had to be careful not to disappoint some who may not have performed well during the audition but were hopeful of quick improvement under guidance.

The list is now finalized. Inevitably, quite a few have been refused admission. I hope they do not regret taking part in the audition. Instead, they ought to have learned from the experience about their inadequacy and try to seek improvement accordingly. I am glad to know that some of them have decided to pay more attention to pronunciation and intonation in future.

Even though only a small number of students will take part in the choral speaking contest, I believe that there is already a general awareness of the need to focus on pronunciation, which is a key element of learning English oral skills.