Jim, please explain why you cannot teach good diction without interfering with dialect or accent."
I think we're talking at cross-purposes here, which rather underlines the point I was making about amateurs teaching Dick.
You seem to be confusing diction with articulation.
A diction teacher will teach you to pronounce 'properly', whatever that means.
Articulating, as I understand it, means saying whatever you have to say clearly, so the listeners can follow it, even though they may not necessarily understand what you have to say because of the words and pronunciation - that's another problem altogether.
We had two singing exercises for developing articulation; Gilbert and Sullivan's "First we polish off some batches.....", and 'Tail Toddle' - a piece of Port a Buel (mouth music)
All this may be a question of semantic misunderstanding, but the point I'm making is, as far as I'm concerned, the best way to learn anything is to work it out for yourself or, in group situation, along with others; the best help you can be given is to be made aware of specific problems in the first place so you know what to aim at.
If you are not being 'taught', the group, whose objectives might all be different than your own, can learn along with you.
Sorry - not sure I'm explaining this articulately - it's something you take on board and adapt to your own changing needs over the years.
Jim Carroll
I gave a talk at MacColl's 70th birthday symposium in which I tried, very nervously, to explain how the Critics Group worked and what it achieved (and didn't)
I still have the script and am happy to dig out relevant bits if you are interested.