Language and Region

Question 1

Benjamin Zephaniah

Answer 1

• street slang used as survival

- use of language to include and exclude at will

Question 2

Fairclough and Unequal Encounters

Answer 2

• language use in certain situations asserts dominance

- all conversations have a more powerful party which can be seen in language used

Question 3

Bernstein’s Code and Deficit Model

Answer 3

• teachers speak in elaborated code which is why middle-class children do better in education
• restricted code is typical of working-class children - restricted is short, simple sentences, limited vocabulary, ‘empty’ phrases (you know, literally, like, etc…), elaborated code is complex sentences, subordination, extended vocabulary

Question 4

Lindsay Johns

Answer 4

• non-standard forms are self-sabotage

- users are unintelligible, unemployable and ultimately to the dole queue

Question 5

Milroy

Answer 5

• unfair to correct children for use of non-standard forms
• working-class children more likely to use it and encouraging them not to puts them at a disadvantage/reinforces social stigma

Question 6

Aitchson’s metaphors for attitudes to change

Answer 6

• crumbling castle - challenges idea that language change is language decay, says it changes to adapt to society
• damp spoon - challenges idea that some language is ugly, language not lazy
• infectious disease - challenges idea that language is like a virus

Question 7

Workman

Answer 7

• people rated intelligence based on accents
• reinforced strength of stereotypes
• most educated regional accent is Yorkshire, least is Birmingham

Question 8

Wareing

Answer 8

• instrumental power of language used to reinforce norms
• influential power to persuade
• social groups necessarily have hierarchies that use non-standard forms to establish this

Question 9

Honey

Answer 9

Children ought to be taught Standard English at school to ensure equal opportunities

Question 10

Tucker et al

Answer 10

teachers judge students based on their accents

Question 11

Reading Children Study

Answer 11

• children who approved of peer criminality more likely to use non-standard grammatical forms
• negative attitude to the peer group’s criminal activities can be seen as aspirational
• less susceptible to the covert prestige forms (more susceptible to the overt prestige standard forms)