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Planning a project
What we’ve learnt so far…
1. Accents and Dialects
• What is an accent?
• What is a dialect?
EVERYONE has an accent and a dialect
(even if it’s just a ‘standard’ one)
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
What we’ve learnt so far…
2. Language Attitudes
• How do we judge language varieties?
• What do people commonly associate with
• nonstandard dialects?
• standard dialects?
Judgements about language tend to be
subjective: based upon what people associate
with accents and dialects
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
What we’ve learnt so far…
3. Standard English
• How did Standard English come about?
• What is Standard English useful for?
• What are nonstandard Englishes useful for?
Standard English has some very important
functions but so do nonstandard Englishes
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
What we’ve learnt so far…
4. The Survey of English and Martha’s
Vineyard studies
• What did these two studies tell us about how
people use language?
Studies like the SED and Martha’s Vineyard have
shown us how different groups speak differently
and how language changes
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
What we’ve learnt so far…
5. Young people and ‘diffusion’
• What did these two studies tell us about how
young people use language?
Language change studies have suggested that
there are certain features spreading through
young people across the UK
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
Studying language variation
• Could we use anything we have learnt
from these studies to investigate language
in your local community?
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
TASK: Designing a project
• Are there any sounds, structures or words which
are often heard in your community?
• Do different groups in your community speak
differently?
• Do you think young people in general use
language differently to older people?
• And is your community any different to anywhere
else?
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
Resources you could use
• The identity
questionnaire you
devised
• Do people who more
strongly identify with
your community
speak using more
local features?
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
Resources you could use
• Recorded interviews
• What language features can you hear when
you interview people?
• How do people talk about their own accents
and dialects? How do they talk about the
accents and dialects of others?
24/05/2017 © The University of Sheffield / Department of Marketing and Communications
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