Broadcasting
English
LANGUAGE
ADVISER
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BBC CORRESPONDENCE
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BBC From the Director-General 12th May 2006 The Rt. Hon Nick Raynsford MP Dear Nick Thank you for your letter of 27 April, addressed to John Smith, the BBC’s Chief Operating Officer and forwarded to me as Director-General and Editor-in-Chief of the BBC for response. In your letter you expressed the concerns of your constituent Mr Ian Bruton-Simmonds of ********** regarding the standard of English used at the BBC. Your constituent has enclosed a letter printed in The Independent on 1 April 2004 which refers to his suggestion that the BBC appoint a language advisor to monitor “the syntax, vocabulary and style” of our presenters. While I am grateful to him for taking the time to consider these issues this is not a solution which the BBC is considering adopting. The BBC aims to uphold the highest standards in all aspects of our output. In the case of on-air presentation, we benefit considerably from the work of the BBC Pronunciation Research Unit. This unit (the only one of its kind in the U.K. broadcast media) is staffed by a team of full-time linguists, all of whom have extensive language and phonetic training. It provides advice on the pronunciation of any word, name or phrase in any language required by anybody in the BBC, based on extensive research which follows an agreed set of procedures. This process maintains the high quality of their advice and helps to ensure accuracy and consistency across the BBC. Much of the pronunciation advice given by the unit is prompted by requests from programme-makers – however they also anticipate the needs of the BBC by producing a daily list of news-related pronunciations, and special themed lists for sporting events, general elections etc. They may also contact individual broadcasters, or send out a general message, if a mispronunciation is being used, or where there is inconsistency in a particular pronunciation. You will appreciate that our broadcasts offer spoken English at many levels of formality and in the natural tones of many parts of the United Kingdom. Presenters are expected to have a good command of standard English, but it may also be important that they are approachable and (particularly in the case of our programming for children) easy for our audiences to identify with. In such contexts, speaking “colloquially” rather than “badly” is considered appropriate. We have an obligation to serve society as a whole and our aim is to reflect as much as possible the many accents, cultures and activities which make up the population. I appreciate that some sections of our audience consider that the BBC should adopt the role of “preserver” of a particular form of English language and that some would like us to prescribe particular usages and accents to be used in broadcasting. However, we believe that this would be rigorously opposed by the majority of those who finance the BBC through their licence fee. The appeal of many of our programmes relies on the character or idiosyncrasies of mood or humour of their presenters, and these traits will naturally be reflected in their speech. Your constituent suggests that a network of volunteers be used to inform our work in presenting spoken English. In fact the BBC already relies on the feedback of our audiences in this area. We receive many letters, emails and phone calls from audience members about pronunciation matters and language standards more generally, and this feedback is captured in a daily log which is made available to senior management and programme-makers within the BBC. Additionally, the Pronunciation Unit monitors audience complaints that relate to pronunciation or English language matters via a dedicated feedback report on this subject. Where appropriate, they would get in touch with programme-makers in order to correct any pronunciation mistakes and work with them to avoid the same problems in future. Should a serious complaint regarding language be made, it would of course be addressed in line with the BBC’s complaints-handling policies. I hope that my response has served to assure you of the due care with which the BBC approaches the issue of spoken English, and will allow you to respond to your constituent. Best wishes,
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Ian Bruton Simmonds 26 May 2006 The Rt Hon Nick Raynsford BBC Language Advisor Dear Mr Raynsford, In his letter Mr Thompson upholds at length what I have never
attacked. Pronunciation is not my concern. Accent certainly not.
I am not averse to colloquial English (nor was Charles Dickens).
I am not certain what Mr Thompson means by a “particular form
of English”, so shall not comment on that. My English-language status is established by my book MEND YOUR
ENGLISH or WHAT WE SHOULD HAVE BEEN TAUGHT AT PRIMARY SCHOOL, and
by that lecture, which is now around the world on Internet. The
book is in its 10th printing with scores of thousands sold over
the UK. Again with warm thanks for your help, |
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BBC From the Director-General 17 July 2006 The Rt. Hon Nick Raynsford MP Your ref: BRUT01100101060284 Dear Nick Thank you for your further letter of 5 July, in response to mine of 12 May, regarding the concerns of your constituent Mr Ian Bruton-Simmonds of ********** regarding the English language at the BBC. In his most recent letter to you Mr Bruton-Simmonds reiterates his view that the BBC should appoint a language adviser. As my letter of 12 May stated, while we are grateful to your constituent for taking the time to consider these issues this is not a solution which the BBC is considering adopting. Given the wealth of existing resources available to staff, which I described at length in my last letter, I’m afraid we cannot agree that such an appointment would constitute a sensible use of the licence-fee. Mr Bruton-Simmonds also suggests that he might be interviewed on BBC Radio for this subject. While we appreciate your constituent’s offer of availability we cannot agree that to fail to air the views of an individual on National Radio would constitute “blocking debate” on the subject. I appreciate the sincere efforts of Mr Bruton-Simmonds towards ensuring that the high standards of the BBC are maintained. However I can assure him that we firmly believe that the staff of the BBC are in fact sufficiently equipped to safeguard those standards in all aspects of our output, including presentation. I hope that my response will allow you to respond to your constituent. Best wishes, |
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The Rt Hon Nick Raynsford Language Adviser BBC Dear Mr Raynsford,
Thank you for Mark Thompson’s letter of 17th July. It has
an insolence of power that would disgust any fair-minded person
who has followed my Churchill Lecture, and the 7-Letter of The Independent. |
