Ronald Eugene Shields, 1984 Dissertation – “Marjorie Gullan: Speech Teacher, Lecturer, Public Reader, and Pioneer in Choral Speaking (Scotland, England)”
A copy of the 1984 dissertation by Ronald Eugene Shields, Louisiana State University. entitled “Marjorie Gullan: Speech
Teacher, Lecturer, Public Reader, and Pioneer in Choral Speaking (Scotland, England), can be downloaded at:
ABSTRACT EXTRACT:
“Historians of oral interpretation and speech education acknowledge Marjorie Gullan as a pioneer figure. However,
they limit their discussion to Gullan’s activities as a pioneer in popularizing choral speaking and neglect her other
professional involvements as a speech teacher, lecturer, and public reader. This study traces Gullan’s career from
the earliest years in Scotland to her death, and illustrates the interdependence between her experiences as a speech
teacher and her experiments with choral speaking as an educational and artistic technique. Born in the late nineteenth
century, Gullan witnessed the waning days of elocution, and throughout her lengthy career, which extended into the
1950’s, she encouraged the revival of verse-speaking and the inclusion of speech courses as part of the standard
curriculum in the public schools and teacher training institutions. As the author of eight textbooks and anthologies;
a pioneer and practitioner of choral speaking with the Glasgow Nightingales and the London Verse Speaking Choir;
the sponsor of a professional speech journal entitled Good Speech and later called Speech News; the president of the
Speech Fellowship, an association formed to promote speech training in the schools; a popular lecturer and public
reader; and a successful teacher in the public schools, teacher training colleges, and in her own private studio and
schools in Scotland and England, Gullan’s diverse activities contributed to her lifelong goal, the promotion of speech
training in the schools and the advancement of the spoken word.”
George Fairfull-Smith, May 2024.