Speech books, the least sensible subject matter in book form I have ever come across. They tell you how to speak and
pronounce
words we have never seen before, never heard before, never said before. We rely upon them to know how to speak. We seek them out, or they find us, but either way they are our source of perfect English. Yet, do they speak? Do they
pronounce the words so that we would know how to pronounce them, too? Can we hear the words we read upon the page, that they may go from ear to tongue?
If they do not say the words, how may they tell us how to say them? In order to know the words to speak, the correct pronounciation, we must hear them spoken, see the lips whch spoke them move to form them, all so that we may mimic what we see and hear. But if we never hear them spoken, then we may attempt to pronounce them, and often come close, but the words will never be perfect English.
So why bother with
speech books at all, if they are so not helpful? I bother with them to learn how to spell the more difficult words, and to learn of new words to research. I, however, fortunately am very good at sounding out words and pronouncing them correctly, even words I have never before come across. Unfortunately, most others are not so fortunate, so the speech books offer a tempting reprieve, a false hope that cannot stand up to a thorough investigation, but will instead be inevitably condemned to the fiction shelf in all libraries and bookstores.
I no longer search for speech books, no longer try to find new words that show up on the page of a book but do not tell me without doubt how to pronounce them. If I want a new word, all I have to do is look in the dictionary, and ask my teacher or some adult how to pronounce it. That is a much more efficient way to learn new words. Plus, the teachers in schools get paid to teach us new words, so why not use them?