Using this extract as a starting point, analyse and evaluate social attitudes to accent and dialect.

Look at the four key highlighted phrases. Consider how these have been identified as the key aspects of the springboard.
Then based on your classroom studies, briefly note the different points you would make for each of the four highlighted areas by clicking on them and typing into the notes box for each.

Social accents are not bad in any linguistic sense. Nor are any individual vowel and consonant pronunciations bad in themselves. It must be clear that, if it is not bad to pronounce hour and our identically, it cannot be bad to pronounce hill and ill the same either. The only bad thing about lower-social-class accents is that they symbolise low social status. The majority of people who do not speak with a BBC accent therefore run the risk of being discriminated against by undemocratic individuals and institutions in certain social and occupational situations.

Bad Language by Lars-Gunnar Andersson and Peter Trudgill, Chapter 7, 1992 © Penguin Random House UK (the use of this extract qualifies as fair dealing https://bit.ly/2reGZhD).

Suggestions

Social accents: consider the different accent variations you have studied in class

Not bad in any linguistic sense: consider the links between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ as judgements and linguistic concepts you have studied

Lower-social-class accent and low social status: consider the links between accent, dialect and social status

Discriminated against...in certain social and occupational situations: consider how non-Standard English accents and dialects are perceived

Now organise your notes using the following method:

  1. introduce the concept
  2. illustrate the concept
  3. develop the critical discussion
  4. widen the context of the debate

Extension Tasks

  1. Self-assess the quality and usefulness of your own notes by comparing them to the Teacher Notes.
  2. Use a different coloured pen to add any details, concepts of examples you had not already considered.
  3. Use the notes you have compiled to write an extended paragraph for one of the sections.
  4. Using three different coloured highlighters (one for each AO), identify where you think you have addressed the requirements of each AO.