Teaching Accents and Dialects

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TeachingAccents and Dialects

• Jason Jones
• Senior Examiner
• AQA English Language (Spec A)

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Language Variation
in the new specifications
AQA (Spec A)
A2 Unit 3 Language Explorations
AQA (Spec B)
AS Unit 1 Categorising Texts
Edexcel
A2 Unit 3 Language Diversity
OCR
AS Unit 1 Dynamics of Speech
WJEC
A2 Unit 3 Language Investigation
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TeachingAccents and Dialects

• Some suggested approaches

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What do we mean byaccent and dialect?

• Accent
• Phonetic phonological (pronunciation) features
  
• Dialect
• Grammatical and lexical (vocabulary) features

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Do you have an accent and/or dialect?
If so, how would you characterise them
linguistically?
What factors have influenced the way that you
speak?
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Accents and dialects can be.

• Regional
• Social
• Occupational
• Stylistic
• Ethnic
• Age-based
• Gender-based
• Sexuality-based
• Any others?

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Some common (mis)conceptions about accents and
dialects

• They are always regionally-based
• They are low or substandard varieties
• They are rustic varieties associated with the
  working classes and rural areas
• They are old forms that are now dying out
• They are not codified

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So who has an accent and/or dialect?
EVERYONE!!
Dia- Greek apart
-lect Greek way of speaking
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Investigating Variation
Getting Started
(see Teaching Materials pp.1-2)
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The accents and dialectsof your local area
(see Teaching Materials pp.3-5)
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bath BAHTH mug MUHG
bare lots of Pikey traveller
South-East English
Regular intonation
Multiple negation
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The accents and dialectsof your local area
and further afield
(see Teaching Materials pp.6-8)
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Regional varieties sound files

• International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA)
  at
• http//web.ku.edu/idea/europe/england/england.htm
  
• British Library sound archives at
  http//www.bl.uk/collections/sound-archive/accents
  .html
• Hughes, Trudgill Watt
• English Accents and Dialects (accompanying CD)

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isoglosses
dialect continuum
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(No Transcript)
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Transition Zones
Mixed lects
Fudged lects
See Chambers Trudgill Dialectology Chapter 8
for more information
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The accents and dialectsof your local area
LEXIS
(see Teaching Materials pp.9-10)
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The accents and dialectsof your local area
GRAMMAR
(see Teaching Materials p.11)
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The accents and dialectsof your local area
PHONOLOGY
(see Teaching Materials pp.12-15)
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Why are thereaccents and dialects?

• The Celts
• Place/river names Avon river, Malvern bare
  hill, Thames dark river, Usk, Exe, Ouse
  water, Kent borderland
• Non-standard dialect words bratt cloak,
  bannuc a bit, cumb valley

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Why are thereaccents and dialects?

• The Anglo-Saxons
• Place names -bury a fort, -stow a place,
  -ingas the descendants of, -ham a home, -ton
  an enclosure

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Why are thereaccents and dialects?

• The Vikings
• Place names -by village, homestead, -thorp
  secondary settlement, -toft building-site,
  plot of land)
• Common nouns leg, neck, bag, dirt, fellow, fog,
  knife, skill, skin
• Everyday adjectives flat, loose, low, odd, ugly
• Everyday verbscall, drag, get, give, raise,
  smile
• Regional forms big to build, hoast to
  cough, laik to play, lait to search, lathe
  barn, lie scythe

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Why are thereaccents and dialects?

• The Normans
• Administration government, administer
• Ecclesiastical matters religion, vicar, creator
• The law crime, judgement, punishment

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The accents and dialectsof the British Isles
A CASE STUDY
(see Additional Materials)
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The accents and dialectsof the British Isles
THE TALK OF THE NATION
(see Teaching Materials p.16)
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Points to ponder (1)

• Its been a long time since the British Isles
  were invaded and/or forcibly occupied by people
  with different languages
• ...Does this mean that the English language is
  now static are accents and dialects no longer
  changing?

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Change and development in accents and dialects
Erosion of distinguishing features of regional
varieties resulting in increased linguistic
homogeneity
Caused by media influences, increased social and
geographical mobility etc
DIALECT ACCENT LEVELLING
Estuary English
Caused by media influences, immigration, urban
culture, youth culture etc
NEW LINGUISTIC VARIETIES
British Black English
Hinglish
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Points to ponder (2)

• So how can we account for the sustainability of
  linguistic variation?...
• Why are people so keen to use different
  accents and dialects?

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Overt Covert Prestige
Social Pressures
Social Networks
Conformity Non-conformity
Tradition
Stereotype
IDENTITY
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Points to ponder (3)

• What do people think about different accents and
  dialects?
• What are the social consequences of using them?

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Attitudes toRegional Varieties
WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
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Attitudes toRegional Varieties
(see Teaching Materials pp.42-45)
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Attitudes toRegional Varieties
MEASURING ATTITUDES
Direct methods
Indirect methods
Matched Guise
Verbal Guise
Modified Verbal Guise
Semantic Differential Scales
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Attitudes toRegional Varieties
MEASURING ATTITUDES
Further discussion of methods for analysing
language attitudes Hudson, R. Sociolinguistics
Chpt 6 Garrett, P. et al
Investigating Language Attitudes
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Food for Thought

• Given what we have talked about today, what
  areas of investigation might be appropriate for A
  Level students?
• What research questions would be appropriate?

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Food for Thought

• What kind of methods might students use?
• Why not try your hand at designing some
  investigations?