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Explore the ways your own spoken language is adapted in different situations and
how the attitudes of other people influence these adaptations
Spoken language is adapted in different situations and scenarios, attitudes and
judgements of other people can influence these adaptations. Everyones accents
and dialect are unique and individual to that person. Due to this, many people
associate certain things with certain accents and make assumptions about people
as a result of their accents. Many peoples accents change around different people,
for example family members or friends at school, I find myself changing my accent
and dialect around certain people. Accents and dialect stem from different things,
for example peers, the region, media and so on. I adapt my speech to suit who Im
talking to, whether that is my friends, older family members or younger brothers,
sisters or cousins. The way I speak may vary depending on the age of my listener,
their authority, or how formal the conversation is. My spoken language changes in
different situations for instance when I am with my friends my sociolect appears and
this type of conversations is more casual with us talking with a relaxed atmosphere
and using slang. My idiolect is also influenced by this because I often pick up certain
words from my friends and I use these words until they become a part of my every
day vocabulary. My dialect is also greatly influenced.
Personally, I find myself changing my accent and dialect the most when around my
family but mainly my mother; she constantly criticises and corrects my
pronunciation and grammar because she is an English teacher. An example of this is
when I always say Ive ate my food which she corrects to Ive eaten or I ate. So
this in turn has affected how I speak around her because I know if I say something
wrong, she will correct it. If I say a regional word usually she doesnt understand
what it means so I would have to explain it, this is why I usually dont use regional
slang around her. However, my dad is Italian so a lot of my accent comes from living
in Italy with him for about 6 years, but over the years my accent has dissipated
from more Italian to more northern. When I talk with him on the phone I tend to
speak a lot clearer, with more Standard English and Received Pronunciation just so I
can be sure he can understand me. But after moving back here to Hartlepool, going
to school and hearing different accents to what I was used to must have started to
alter it.
When on holiday in a foreign country I notice that I feel more self-conscious and
aware of how I am pronouncing certain words. This is because I think sometimes
foreign people cant understand me if I speak how I do around my friends using
slang. So due to this, I notice that I do speak a lot more Standard English using an
R.P accent when on holiday.
People alter their accents for many reasons but the main one seems to be to meet
the expectations of others and to not be judged by them. For example, Tony Blair
started his career speaking with a very stereotypical posh accent and clearly using
Standard English and Received Pronunciation; he spoke with long vowel sounds and
pronounced every letter in a word. However, later in his career he was speaking
with a noticeably less posh and more working class accent; he spoke with
shortened vowels and lots of glottal stops. He could have done this to appeal more
to the working class and not be judged by them to be too posh. Furthermore,
David Cameron is expected to pronounce words properly using correct grammar
and Received Pronunciation due to his political position, the public expect people

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like him to speak a certain way. Moreover, younger people change their accents for
a different reason; mainly from peer pressure or bullying. Bullies mock them and
tease them because they speak posher or worse than themselves, so to
overcome this, younger children and teenagers often change just to fit in and avoid
bullying.
Peoples accents can be affected by a number of things including: region, school,
hobbies, friends and family. Personally, I get a large amount of my dialect from my
hobbies, such as gaming, using social networks, music and reading. I tend to pick
up internet and gaming terms and use them in real life situations, which many
people do not understand. A few examples of these include words such as parkour,
brah, and sometimes I say abbreviations such as pls and gg in real life
situations. This also affects people around me because they ask what these mean
then they pick it up as well. I dont think that I get much of my dialect from this
region, I dont use words such as shan or class like most other people here do.
Similarly with school, I dont really pick up many words from people at school.
However, with family I do get affected by what they say and how they speak, mainly
because they are the people I spend most of my time with. My mother, especially,
continuously corrects my language so this affects how I speak around her. But my
granddad is unlike other grandparents, who might be more old-fashioned, does not
really care about how we speak, in fact, he often says incorrect sentences which I
correct (I picked up correcting peoples language from my mother). I do find myself
correcting my friends grammar and pronunciation as well.
In every area there is regional slang and words understood specifically in that area.
Here in Hartlepool there are a lot of slang words that if said anywhere else they
wouldnt be understood. For example, instead of describing something as good, we
would often say that it is sound, and if this was said around young people from this
area they would immediately know what it means. However, if it was said in another
place it might not be understood. When describing something as bad, we could say
it is crap or sick and again, people would understand. But sick can also mean
that something is good so it could get confusing for other people, however here,
somehow everyone knows which is meant.
Additionally, in every area there are different ways of pronouncing certain words,
depending on where the place is. For example, the word curry here is pronounced
by many as cerry but in other areas pronounced curry, this shows different
accents in different areas. Also, the word tour is pronounced differently in many
places. In the Sunderland area it can be pronounced tore, whereas in Newcastle it
is pronounced toower. These words show how different regions affect how people
pronounce certain words.
As well as different areas speaking differently, often males and females speak
differently, and also older people compare to younger people speak differently. I find
that, in general, when speaking with males or hearing them speak amongst each
other, they seem to use more vulgar terms, more slang and often swear more than
when I speak with females. Many older people or the previous generation do not
understand the vocabulary used by youths. Also, many older people are more oldfashioned and tend to correct youths dialect and slang, this is especially clear when
speaking with my nana, she is very old-fashioned and she corrects me whenever I
use slang. Once I said to her but nana, its gonna be sound, and she immediately

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corrected me by telling me to pronounce my words properly, changing gonna to
going to. She also sarcastically asked me what sound meant, which I replied with
great so she told me to use the word great instead. But after being corrected so
much by her, usually I am careful of what I say. However, she corrects me because
it is how she was brought up and how she thinks English should be spoken.
There are many assumptions made by people towards others depending on their
accents. For example people with Liverpool accents can be viewed by people to be
less educated and less sophisticated which is an unfair stereotype associated with
that accent. Everyone has the potential to be just as good as each other and
accents should not matter. Another assumption can be made for posher people,
just because they speak with Received Pronunciation and using Standard English
they can be viewed as being richer, more sophisticated and better educated. This
can be true in some cases but, again, it is unfair to assume things about people just
due to their accents. However, people do make assumptions and judge people on
their accents so this is why many people change or adapt them.
The media and television reinforce stereotypes associated with different accents by
creating television shows which make a mockery of stereotypical characters. An
example of this is the Armstrong and Miller Sketch. This starts with two World War
II fighter pilots, who look upper class, sat listening to the radio; the broadcaster on
the radio is speaking in Standard English using Received Pronunciation, the
broadcaster is there to show contrast between the situation and the dialect the
pilots will use. As soon as the pilots begin talking the audience is already surprised
by their accents compared to their dialect and topic of conversation. They speak
with a very clear, R.P accent but are talking in todays youth slang and incorrect
youth dialect; this created a comedic affect and achieves its goal of making the
audience laugh and making a mockery of people who actually use that dialect. Due
to their accents, the audience would therefore expect their language to be a
grammatically correct form of English. The humour is from seeing such opposite
factors forced together, the 1940s English upper class characters and modern,
urban, multicultural English, also the anachronistic nature of it also adds to the
comedic effect. They use vague language (such as whatever, plenty, loads) and
many fillers (such as you know and like).