“It is important that we teach children that, to get on,
they must speak Standard English with an RP accent”
I agree with most of what the
statement say; that it is important to teach children to speak Standard English
because it makes a person look smart and educated. Also, Lindsay John, a writer
who mentors young people in London, states that slang/improper English “sounds stupid and uneducated”, and he
also said “I want the young people that I
mentor to be taken seriously” (1).
He has a point. If children and young people get used to speaking Standard
English then it would be easy for them to communicate with many different people
as they grow older. Also, during job interviews, speaking proper/Standard
English is really beneficial as it makes you sound clever and knowledgeable. The
last part of the statement, “with an RP accent”, is I think unnecessary. If you
grow up in a particular part of a country, it is expected that you’d pick up
the accent as you grow older, so you don’t need to change or disguise it
because it’s part of who you are. In fact, Esther McVey, Britain’s Secretary of
State for Employment, says “young people with strong regional accents should
not have to change the way they speak when they are trying to get a job” (2).
However, it is understandable
that RP or Received Pronunciation is the easiest accent to understand by many
people. Speaking Standard English with an RP accent makes a person seem more educated
than speaking Standard English with a regional accent. According to BBC, RP is “considered to be the language of elites,
power and royalty” and “RP English is
said to sound posh and powerful” (3). Lindsay John says “under pressure… the young people revert to type. They revert to street
slang and therefore it prejudices their application” (1). Therefore, it would be very beneficial for children if they
learn to speak Standard English with an RP accent at a young age. The Guardian
reveals that “28% of Brits feel
discriminated against because of the way they speak” (4).
Overall, I think the most
important thing to teach children is to speak Standard English. After all, to
be successful in life, it’s how hard they work that matters and not how hard
their accent is.
* * *
Appendix 1: Maynard, P. and Green, L. (2013). Should
schools ban slang from the classroom? Video debate. United Kingdom: [online]
The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2013/dec/09/should-schools-ban-slang-video-debate
Appendix 2: Graham, G. (2014). Don’t drop your regional
accent just to get a job, employment minister says. United Kingdom: [online]
The Telegraph. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/11165178/Dont-drop-your-regional-accent-just-to-get-a-job-employment-minister-says.html
Appendix 3: Hogenboom, M. (2018). What does your accent say
about you? United Kingdom: [online] BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180307-what-does-your-accent-say-about-you
Appendix 4: Dathan, M. (2013). Does your accent really
hinder your job prospects? United Kingdom: [online] The Guardian. Retrieved
from https://www.theguardian.com/careers/accent-hinder-job-prospects
