Accents and dialects:

Prescriptive attitudes:

Schools now are trying to cause children’s language to ‘evolve’ by trying to reduce the amount of regional language and dialects in their language and instead try and encourage the use of Standard English which is a prestige dialect. Some slang like ‘coz’ and ‘aint’ (dialectal words) are banned from these environments as some believe that it can sometimes create a negative impression. However, some people think that we need to adapt our language and use Standard English in specific environments like interviews to give a more positive impression. If we converge our language it will create a larger sense of success. This is using ideas on synchronic language change, we are now banning language and only starting to see the huge social value of speaking ‘properly’ and are adapting our language to use it more.

Quotes:

• Ongar Academy says it’s not banning words, but “evolving” its pupils’ speech and “may not favourably reflect on them when they attend college and job interviews”
• Bidialectalism: facility in using two dialects of the same language; and the teaching of Standard English to pupils who normally use a nonstandard dialect.

Descriptive attitudes:

Regional dialects are part of a person’s identity and connect us to a community as well as towards our self-image. There also those that argue in some environments we are required to use social dialects in order to fit in and participate with classroom discussions; this idea is encouraging people to use slang, colloquialisms in our idiolect as this makes us who we are. People who use slang and common dialectal words are diverging their language to stand out and be different as well as to fit in with the socialect and connect with those around them. Descriptivist David Almond writes about how slang is part of our identity and we shouldn’t be ashamed of it, one of his articles in particular he wrote only using slang, phonetic sounds and substitution of words (similar to CLA theorists Bruner and Vygotsky idea about social interaction and how children’s language changes depending on what we hear) language to portray his ideas. Descriptivist’s incorporate more diachronic language change ideas because the change of regional soicalects and slang has been happening over a long period of time and the amount of colloquialisms we use (depending on our environment) is slowly increasing with each generation.

Quotes:

• James Sledd: “To use slang is to deny allegiance to the existing order … by refusing even the words which represent convention and signal status.”
• Sociolinguist Julia Snell: “to learn and develop, children must participate actively in classroom discussion; they must think out loud, answer and ask questions”
• Idiosyncrasy: a mode of behaviour or thought particular to that individual and communicating with someone on their level – speaking in slang/socialect/colloquialisms (similar to using diminutive forms to speak to children e.g. ‘doggie’, Bruner’s interactional theory and Vygotsky’s ZPD theory.
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