Attitude to accent

and dialect

www.britishcouncil.org.eg 1
Language varieties

• What different varieties are there?

• Why do they vary?

• How do they vary?

2
Prescriptivism

• Spelling

• Can you think of any strange English spellings?

• Why is it difficult for students?

• Do people tolerate non standard spelling?

Why? Why not?

3
Prescriptivism vs descriptivism

•What’s the difference?

•What’s the job of linguists?

•What’s the job of schoolteachers?

4
Changing standards

• Are there any changes to English or Myanmar use

that young people make?
• Should teachers correct them?

• “we was very happy yesterday”

• “I’m going toilet”

5
Researching listener evaluation

• Why might we want to research listener evaluations

to different language varieties?

• What might the listeners say?

• Think about status, height, age, education, regional

origins, social attractiveness

6
Changing standards in the UK

1. Urban accents (Birmingham, Liverpool) are rated

very low for prestige and attractiveness.
2. Accents in the South East (around London) are
gaining prestige.
3. Some accents such as Newcastle and Irish score
much higher than standard English for social
attractiveness.
•What do you think?
•Why do people have different opinions about
accents?
7
Attitudes to English accents

• In the UK, people speak less “standard English” and more with
regional accents.
• Around the world, are people becoming less interested in British
English or standard English?
• Do you want to speak British English, Australian English or American
English? Do you care?