Write an opinion article on attitudes to people changing accents PDF

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Imogen Goode

Paper 2 Question 3 16.03.17 Write an opinion article on attitudes to people changing accents. There are individuals and groups of people who adjust their accent according to the people around them, the region they are in or in a particular occupation. But, let’s be honest, is it really such a big deal to change your accent around people, simply just to fit in? Would it be wrong to change your accent to abandon your stereotype, to be treated equally? Certain accents can have negative labels tagged onto them. For instance, if you came from an area of society where the typical dress code was tracksuits, with stigmas attached such as lazy or thug, you would go and buy a more smarter set of clothing. Likewise with an accent, you are free to have whatever accent you like, as you are free to buy any clothes you like too, and if it were to remove bad labels, anyone would take that chance. Theorists Dixon, Mahoney and Cocks (2002) performed a study to look further into accents and stereotypes. They took a ‘matched guise’ approach to the study, basically meaning that participants in the study would listen to the same speaker using a range of different accents and would pass judgement on each variant, and their results made it apparent that their suspect was more likely to be perceived guilty when he spoke with a non-standard Birmingham form. So, if you had a Brummie accent, would you continue to use that accent if you were a suspect of a crime, more likely to be found guilty? Arguably, if people have a problem with a person changing their accent, then they shouldn’t be judging people from their accents in the first place. In addition, changing your accent may be the key to getting your next job. Studies have shown us that the Geordie accent is apparently of the ‘most friendly’, yet Brummie and Asian accents are so called ‘unpleasant to listen to’, moreover, the top five accents that are ‘most likely to hinder your career’ were; Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Middlesborough and London, according to the ‘CitySocialising’ survey, these accents are likely to be turned down by an employer over someone who doesn’t have one of them. With that in mind, should anyone with these accents just give up all together then? Not achieve their dream career, because of an accent? No. Many people may use different lexis to present themselves as more formal, perhaps in an interview, which is no different to people changing their lexis phonologically in order to present themselves as formal too. In addition to that point, there is a similar process made in schools, with accent being used as a representation of the person. Theorists Choy and Dodd (1976) argued that teachers will make judgements on school children’s abilities and personalities based on the way their speech sounds. Consequently, even children are being filtered into a stereotype, while they are still learning their personalities and abilities. Have you ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy? If children keep being labelled something then they are going to become that label, we should be treating all children equally, not matter what their accent sounds like. However, this still happens in present day and not just in schools, so

Imogen Goode

attempting to change your accent seems to be the only solution to remove possibly incorrect judgements. Received Pronunciation... haughty and unfriendly? Intelligent and reliable? Whether you change to RP or from RP due to positive or negative associations, there are viable reasons which suggest it is perfectly ok to do this. Someone may want to change to an RP accent to impress or to converge with a particular group, like I mentioned earlier, occupation could be a reasonable explanation for this. Changing an accent to fit in with a professional atmosphere; there’s no problem with that. Theorist Giles studied RP accent on seventeen year-olds, his studies concluded showing that people who spoke in Received Pronunciation were portrayed as more intelligent than people with a Brummie accent. Alternatively, diverting from an RP accent and converting to a local accent, used by possibly a group of friends, may be the answer to being accepted into a friendship group. In order to steer away from negative, ‘posh’ stereotypes that comes with RP, using your friend’s accent may help them feel more comfortable around you due to having a similarity, all the more reason to converge with the regional accent. Therefore, isn’t it a human right to express yourself however you want? If you want a different accent, use a different accent. Whether it’s for occupational purposes, abandoning stereotypes, to fit in socially with peers, or even just because you take a strong favour towards a particular accent, it’s down to you and is utterly one’s choice....