Conclusion and link to secondary data

The overall view between men and women is that 17 out of the 18 respondents thought that all children should be taught the ‘Standard English’ rather than any other form of language which is considered to be ‘slang’. This could include the language of those who speak Black English Vernacular which is a result of the mix of cultures in our multi-cultural society. The main conclusion to take from this is that the nearly all of teachers think that the Standard English is the best form and should be the only language taught to children. As they will be taught this from a young age, over many generations, the ‘Standard English’ will be the only thing taught to children, even those from different cultures. As there is so much prestige regarding the Standard English, it could be argued that due to my data, there are still a lot of people who want Standard English to have the importance it did before the influence of other cultures. All of my respondents were aware of what is meant by the word ethnicity, and the difference between that and nationality. As all participants chose the sentence ‘whom shall be joining us for dinner tonight?’ rather than ‘who coming tonight’ it could be argued that as all my participants were at least 20 and over, they would have a better understanding of what the correct phrase would be. If this would carried out on teenagers or students in the lower years, they may have thought they used the second question more on a daily basis. This could be because of the people they mix with, as teachers are better educated and have higher intelligence, the phrases and words they use would be a lot better than those of younger students.  

What can you draw about contemporary attitudes to standard English and ethnicity?

The main attitude I can draw through doing my research is that people are constantly changing their opinions on the status of Standard English as it is evolving. The overall view regarding the status of Standard English was that the majority thought that children should be taught what is known as ‘Standard English’ rather than anything else. In the choice of two sentences in question 8, every respondent chose the ‘correct’ Standard English form and no one chose the one which is used as an example of BEV. This could be due to their ethnicity as all of my respondents were British in some way, or it could be simply because that it what they believe to be the correct form. The status of Standard English in our society today is favoured by many. It could be argued that as all my respondents were adults and my sample was only of 18 that it can not be representative of the attitudes on a wider scale as my results show a general overview. An attitude I found from this is that people’s idea of their own ethnicity varies hugely, with some respondents saying they are just white, just British, white British or even with one saying they were welsh which is a part of Britain. This comes to the conclusion that although many people are aware of what ethnicity is, they do not all have the same view on what ethnic group they are. Some respondents did not mention their skin colour whilst others only wrote their skin colour - this is a contrast. In terms of how ethnic groups influence our language, many respondents claimed that social factors is a key reason as to why our English may be ‘getting worse’. Many participants believed that the English language was not getting worse, but is evolving and will continue to do so. Another attitude is that american media has a big influence on our language and that people from other cultures are using our English incorrectly. This shows that there is a negative attitude to the language used by other cultures.

Relate to theories and concepts about language/society

Peter Trudgill - In 1974, Trudgill estimated that in Britain, 3% were Received Pronunciation speakers. RP speakers generally speak Standard English, therefore Trudgill is suggesting that only 3% of people use this when speaking. This suggests that although it is not used on a large scale, many people believe that it is still the correct form even if they do not use it themselves which is ironic. However, through my research I noticed that all my respondents had an opposing view in that they thought Standard English was the correct way to speak, although there was no evidence of them using it themselves. This shows us that the attitude towards Standard English is that it lives up to its prestige as it could be argued that many people still favour it over other forms of language. All my participants acknowleged that the standard English forms is the correct language which should be used, and although in some cases the respondents showed that they used the correct forms of language, there is no evidence of them using it on a daily basis. Some individuals may have some aspects of the Received Pronunciation and Standard English but this is dependant on who they are mixing with. For example, as all my respondents were teachers, their English would be a higher register than most students, but if these questionnaires were based on how they speak during social times, the answers may have been different.

Another theory is by Holmes who suggested that women are sometimes uncertain when speaking. In my questionnaires, some of the women’s answers began with ‘i think..’ whilst the men went straight to the point in saying their answer which was shown in a more certain and confident way. For example, a female respondent wrote ‘ I think that media can influence the English Language’ whilst a male respondent wrote ‘Cultures have always influenced language..’ the male respondent seems more confident in their opinion. Trudgill also found from Labov’s findings that people who are of a lower economic class tend to use less standard forms whilst those who are have a higher economic status use more ‘correct’ standard forms. As my respondents were teachers meaning they are from middle class, this could be the reason why they use more standard forms as they are from a higher economic professions compared to some students. Trudgill found that it was more often that working class men use non standard variation compared to those from middle class or women. John Honey, the sociolinguist believes that the standards of the English Language are falling and that it is constantly evolving. Slang terms are becoming more widely used and are more accepted. Due to this, it is argued that younger people speak in a entirely different way to those who are older. This relates to my research as my respondents wrote that they thought the use of slang is becoming more widely used which is causing the younger generation to pick up bad habits and the use of standard English is becoming less and less. Fasold and Wolfram suggested that the better the socio economic area of people who use BEV, the more similarities it has with white communities.

How do these conclusions compare/relate with any other studies on this field?

After all of the studies on gender, Deborah Tannen argues that all of these studies dismiss the issue of power. Tannen is very critical of many of these studies in saying that power can often be more important than gender in some cases. This relates to my data as many of the respondents who saw themselves as being a white British person (males in particular) could see themselves as holding more power due to using the ‘proper’ English language which causes them to look down on those who use different forms. Regardless of their gender, some respondents may see their language use as better than those from different ethnic groups.