Opinion article

Teacher ‘Told to sound less northern’ after southern Ofsted inspection

A school in Berkshire has argued against their recent Ofsted report due to the southern Ofsted inspector telling a one of the school’s female teacher to tone down and sound less northern as a result of criticism towards the school by the inspectors.

Many would see that a teacher being told to tone down her accent as a positive thing. This is due to the fact as teachers being seen as role models and a figure within the school to look up and aspire too. This results in the students especially in the younger years to pick up on the teacher’s accent, pronunciation, variety of words and sentence types therefore use this variety of language for themselves. This helps students to reach their target which enhances their performance due to adults using a wider range of vocabulary. With students spending around 7 hours a day within school the school from the age of 4 to 18 then students are more likely to pick up habits due to secondary socialisation occurring within the school environment. An example of this could be the Essex accent. Imagine a teacher with a strong Essex accent in a local school, the child are very likely to have similar accent therefore will pick up much more of their pronunciation. The Essex accent is very rural, most people seem to think that people from Essex have a cockney accent. Nowadays due to the East London overspill. For example people from Essex say ‘gunna go’ instead of ‘going to go’. The accent usually miss out letters such as “t”. This is due to the high amount of slang that people from this area occasionally use. Regardless of is your child has picked up on a teachers accent, they must like the teacher due to this meaning that they are learning and picking up knowledge from them.

Paul Watkins, executive member of the National Association of schoolmasters declined the name of the school due to it being uncomfortable towards the teacher. This shows that the teaching is delivered to a high standard but the criticism from the southern Ofsted inspector is due to how his way of speech is widely different from the northern accent. It has been said that the school has had ‘a number of on-going issues in the school’ such as a potential transportation into the academy. This shows how the developments within the school are on-going within the school for the advantage of the students at the school.

Louise Green, the editor of the Lakeland Dialect society, added that the Cambrian accent was the most wonderful thing meaning that it should be embraced within the county. She quoted that “To try and remove it is like trying to remove the Beefeaters”. She decided that “we should be celebrating our different regional ways of speech, prompting and protecting them.” This allows to be beneficial with many different children as it creates a greater chance of the being more unique and specific while they are growing up.

As an alternative the school given their pupils a list of ten banned regional phrases such as “ya cor”, “you can “and “ay” instead of “pardon”. This helps for the school to get their students ready for job interviews helping to benefit the in the future.

In contrast, this statement by the Ofsted inspector, “it could be written off as humorous at first sight – but the more you think of it the more it can make your blood boil and should stagger you”. This shows the statement about ‘told to sound less northern’ after southern Ofsted inspection’ is unprofessional and inappropriate as accents are natural not put on. This strong statement was strongly disapproved as it was about an ethnic minority group then the inspector would have been accused of racism due to the discrimination of an individual. Accents are always advanced and is a natural way of speech therefore trying to sound less northern is heard as the “most ridiculous thing ever heard of”.

Within this specific school, the incident has gone down like a lead balloon in Cumbria. Eric Robson the chairman of the Cumbrian society said “That the school should be put into special measures immediately. It’s ridiculous”. This extreme statement does not support the views of how the school is improving such as the process of the school turning into an academy. Therefore it shows how much impact that this recent issue has caused.

Overall my opinion on the opinion piece on the ‘Teacher “told to sound less northern” after southern Ofsted inspection’ is that it doesn’t matter of the accent of the teacher but the Ofsted should be more interested in the value of the teaching within the school. Due to all things considered, the amount of appropriate education that the students in the school are receiving is much more important. This is due to the grades received by the students within the school from the age of 4 to 18 which will stay with them for the rest of the life benefitting them with their job and everyday life in the future.

By Megan Wibrow

 

Research Task

Task One

Eckert Study

Eckert study was a focused on her observational research on the social practices which are the ways in which people in groups habitually behave. She done this study of American high-school students.

In order to study language usage, she identified two distinct groups, the jocks and burnouts.

Jocks – Students who participated enthusiastically in school life such as sport and social events.

Burnouts – Students who were rebellious and refused to take part in school activities

She found that people tended to speak more like those with whom they shared social practices and values.

The ‘burnouts’ used exaggerated pronunciations associated with the urban accents of their Detroit neighborhood, while the ‘jocks’ were more concerned with speaking in a socially prestigious way- sometimes reflecting their middle class backgrounds.

Eckert also studied attitudes to language- the ‘jocks’ were critical of the ‘burnouts’ for their ungrammatical language, lack of articulation and frequent swearing, whilst the ‘jocks’  were seen as sounding like their parents. 

Cheshire Study

She used long-term participant observation to gain data about the relationship between use of grammatical variables and adherence to peer group culture by boys and girls in Reading. She gained acceptance from three groups (two of boys, one of girls) in two adventure playgrounds in Reading and recorded how often they used each of eleven variables

For the girls she made a distinction between the girls who did not have positive attitudes to such group activities as carrying weapons, fighting, participation in minor criminal activities, preferred job, dress and hairstyle and use of swearing (Group A) and those who approved of these features and activities (Group B).

Similar findings when boys against boys and when boys against girls were compared, showed clearly that those who conformed to the conventions of the group also used the linguistic standards of the group - and that conforming boys conformed most of all.

Eckert study within school

To a certain extent I agree that the Eckert study is within each school in the UK. In these schools there are many different social groups and friendship groups within each year. People more likely now become friends by personalities not sport groups like in America.

Cheshire Study within school

Within school this is relatable as people often change their language depending on the different social groups they are with. This can be done due to the person changing their voice, words and grammar to feel more like they are fitting in with the specific group.

Task 2 – Research Task

Investigate the following academic linguistic research blog and write notes about any interesting pieces of research you find.

http://linguistics-research-digest.blogspot.co.uk/p/about.html

Accent and Dialect

What is a dialect?

•      A dialect is a specific variety of English that differs from other varieties in three specific ways which are lexis, grammar and phonology (pronunciation or accent).

•      English dialects may be different from each other, but all speakers within the English-speaking world can still generally understand them.

•      Birmingham - words are heavily emphasized and dragged out, the largest emphasis tends to be in the middle of each word.

•      The Essex accent is very rural, most people seem to think that people from Essex have a cockney accent. Nowadays due to the East London overspill. For example people from Essex say ‘gunna go’ instead of ‘going to go’.

What is an accent?

•      An accent is a distinctive way of pronouncing words in a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area or social class.

•      For example, a speaker from Newcastle-upon-Tyne may say something such as gan from someone in Essex would say “to go”

Overview

•      Accent only relates to pronunciation and intonation rather than grammar and vocabulary.

•      Listeners can make judgements on peoples’ intelligence, ethnic and warmth socioeconomic and geographical background purely by listening to a recorded accented speech.

•      Listeners can also make judgements on others’ intelligence

•      Two people speaking the same language, who use the same grammar and word choices will give different cues about their social and regional origins, ethnic group membership or class

•      Engagement with TV programmes, radios etc. seems to have an influence on young’s people speech as they can pick up from the presenter’s accent and pronunciation.

Accent and Dialect Task - Miss Kelly

What is a dialect?

• A dialect is a specific variety of English that differs from other varieties in three specific ways which are lexis, grammar and phonology (pronunciation or accent).
• English dialects may be different from each other, but all speakers within the English-speaking world can still generally understand them.
• Birmingham - words are heavily emphasized and dragged out, the largest emphasis tends to be in the middle of each word.
• The Essex accent is very rural, most people seem to think that people from Essex have a cockney accent. Nowadays due to the East London overspill. For example people from Essex say ‘gunna go’ instead of ‘going to go’.
• A Newcastle example of dialect is 'eeeh man ahm gannin te the booza. this actually means okay ive had enough im going to the bar. This is due to their accent and how they speak.

What is an accent?

• An accent is a distinctive way of pronouncing words in a language, especially one associated with a particular country, area or social class.
• For example, a speaker from Newcastle-upon-Tyne may say something such as gan from someone in Essex would say “to go”
   

Conversation Analysis Homework

English, Conversation Analysis – Megan Wibrow

Conversation - 

Darcy – because when we was there we decided that we was going to have a silver theme this Christmas (.) So mum brought a silver runner, silver plates, like silver cutlery (.)

Amelia – you get new cutlery for Christmas?

Darcy - yeah /

Georgia -         / special

Darcy – so yeah (.) anyway we had all this silver nice stuff for the day and then when we got to the fair we saw all this white embroider but it was actually gold.

Georgia – hmmm yeah (.)

Amelia – I bet your mum was raging. (Laughs)

Darcy – (Laughs)

Georgia – (Laughs)

Amy – ermm (.) this Christmas decorations?

Darcy – yeah (.) but ah it was so peng.

Analysis - 

The influence of this conversation was in the place of school at a lunch time. This meant that the conversation was on a random subject but had occurred lately which is why someone started telling the story about what happened with them and their family. The relationship of the conversation is a good and close relationship as it is between a group of friends. The conversation consisted of 4 people. Darcy was the most dominant speaker as it was her story which she was telling. The exchange structure which is the series of turn between the speakers is uneven. This is due to the turn taking of the conversation varies due to a dominant person talking. The 3 other participants are less dominant as they are listening to the story. The purpose of the conversation was social as it was a chat during a lunch time. Due to a good relationship between the speakers allows the register of the conversation to be informal. This is due to a group of good friends having fewer boundaries in what they talk about as they know each other well.

The conversation starts when Darcy uses a declarative sentence as she was informing her friends about a recent event which happened. The conversation continues in the format of exchange of information and the turn taking in the informal conversation. After this Amelia uses the interrogative question which was

There is an ellipsis used which is ‘ermm’. This is used as someone has just joined in the conversation and is clarifying what the conversation is about. The question ‘You get new cutlery for Christmas?’ due to her questioning the dominant speaker as she is in shock by her statement. Darcy goes to carry on by replying an answer showing she is an active listener. Georgia then cuts off Darcy’s reply by inputting her thoughts saying ‘special’ which shows that she and her family do not do this.  The dominant speaker which was Darcy then uses another declarative sentence as she is further explaining her story. Georgia replies ‘hmm yeah’ showing she is an active listener. This encourages the speaker to continue. Amelia then adds in an exclamatory sentence as she is stating something. Everyone in the conversation laughs due to the sarcastic comment. Amy then joins the conversation and by interrupting and questions the story to check she is correct. She says ermm which is a non fluency feature and an interrogative question. The dominant speaker replies to her question and then uses the word ‘peng’ which is an ephemeral language due to slang lasting a short period of time as it comes in and out of fashion. This creates informality as it is only used in some parts of the world as it has to be used contextually for it to make sense.