Additional questionnaire analysis

I asked just under 20 people a page of questions to find out their thoughts on influences of Standard English and Ethnicity. I also aske questions about how they believe the English Language has changed and adapted over the years. There were many links between respondents and they were usually in the same age group for example people in the age group of 31-40 seemed to all have similar views, this showed that their age and more knowledge helped them compared to teachers in the age group below (20-30).
Out of all the teachers I asked 80% of them believed that their is a correct and incorrect way to speak and that Standard English has been forced to adapt. Their reasoning for these views was because of people from different countries moving to live here and less racism within the country the language has been made to fit around other cultures as well. They also all identified that they believed slang works and negatives to be the incorrect way to speak and someone to speak like this would most likely be from a younger generation and that "the queens English" is well pronounced and posh but is the correct way to speak.
When asking in my questionnaire beliefs of what the word ethnicity would mean many didn't understand and just came to the conclusion that it is from where you originate from.
Also when asking about "proper English" many people couldn't explain what they believed this to be and just said that it was the right way to speak.

Black Vernacular

We looked into Black English vernacular. Black English" can refer to two different language varieties: (1) the type of English used by people of African and Caribbean descent who live in Britain; (2) the language of African-Americans in the United States. This is usually called Black English Vernacular. "Black English" in both senses has its historical roots in a creolised form of English which dates back to the time of slavery. Creoles are languages which evolve from Pidgins when the pidgins become first languages for some or all of their speakers. Black English Vernacular has a somewhat different history and is a different language from British Black English."

It is an error to suppose that Black English is spoken by all African Americans regardless of their background and where they have come from. So quick assumptions shouldn't be made. In fact, the English spoken by African Americans is highly varied—as varied as the English spoken by any other racial or ethnic group. Sometimes Black English is used to refer to other varieties of English spoken by black people outside of the United States, as in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.

Black Vernacular also tends to omit the final -s ending of verbs. For instance, a speaker of Black Vernacular might say, "He hear you" rather than "He hears you." Also Black Vernacular often uses the emphatic done to stress completion of an act. For instance, "He done did it" provides a more forceful alternative to the Standard English "He's already done it."

Questionnaire conclusion

In conclusion it shows that many people create stereotypes of people by the way they speak and take judgemnt of who they are and where people would believe them to come from. Many people have also decided that there is a right or correct way that we should speak and that some people speak incorrectly and come to that conclusion. Standard English is seen as the correct way to speak or as some of my respondants said “the queens English”, people believe this to be the correct way to speak as many think it sounds better and is of a higher class. A lot of people also don’t fully understand the meaning of ethnicity, this shows that there isnt a wide understanding or importance of peoples cultures or where they orginate from, many think it is bad how many people don’t understand the right meaning. Standard English has been believed as the most significant and better way to speak and people have begun to identify other peoples accents and more aware of attitudes towards the English Language. This is because once people started beliving that one way to speak was right then everything else seewms wrong so it is easy to spot. My questionnare supports that many people have similar views and also lack knowledge on the english Language and other cultures. It also shows what people think to be correct and in some circumstances this could be taken as offensive. 

Questionnaire analysis- primary data

I wrote a questionnaire that I gave to teachers of Shenfield High School asking them questions on their thoughts of different cultures, accents and ethnicities. Not all questions had to be answered depending on if the respondent felt comfortable with the questions being asked.

All of the people that I asked were adults and were all teachers from Shenfield High School. Many of them said similar answers to their thoughts of Ethnicity and the way in which people speak. All of my participants where White British and all had similar answers.
The vast majority of my respondents (80%) where in the same age category which was 31-40. All of the participants within this age group believe that there is a proper and correct way to speak and referred to this as Standard English. They all said that the best way to speak is to pronounce all words well and speak clearly to enable everyone to understand what you’re saying. They also all believe that the wrong to speak is with made up words, dropping letters and use of slang. I gave the example of a sense that said “I aint become a part of younger generation’s identity.


The other 20% of my respondents were the age group of 41-50 or I had two participants in the age group 51+ and one in the age group 20-30. The two teachers that were in the age group of 51+ both wrote similar responses and showed that their age made a difference to their thoughts as language has changed over the years that they have been living, they also correct the questions and both say what they would believe to be true. The one teacher I asked in the age group of 20-30 had slightly different views. I think that this because they are younger and follow more current views on things and seemed to struggle with answering some questions.

Questionare

I am an English Language student at Shenfield High School and I am investigating stereotypes and the English Language. At some point in this questionnaire I will be asking about ethnicity and nationality. If you don’t feel comfortable with answering any of these questions you do not have to. There is no pressure for you to answer all or any of these questions. However, this is primary research and is needed as to complete the end results I need my own information.

1. What subject do you teach?

 

 

2. What is your age group? Tick the box that applies.

20-30	31-40
41-50	51+

 

 

3. What is your nationality or ethnicity?

 

 

 

4. Do you believe there is a correct way to speak? If so how?

 

 

 

5. What would you believe to be the wrong way speak?

 

 

 

6. Describe the type of person who would speak poor English.

 

 

 

7. “To whom are we attending dinner with tonight?”  What is your opinion on this speaker?

 

 

8. “I aint doing no more work” what is your opinion on this speaker compared to the last question?

Accents & dialect

Accents

An ‘accent’ is a distinctive way of pronouncing language and the way in which people from a particular area speak. They are usually associated with a particular country or area. Dialect however, refers to a form of language which different to a specific group or region.

The Uk is seen as the most dialect obsessed nation in the world. There are a significant amount of accents shapes by many people throughout history, with only few English-speaking nations with as many varieties of language in such a small space.

ACCENTS:

 Northern English: These are the accents and dialect spoken north of the midlands, in cities like Manchester, Leeds, and Liverpool. Related accents also found in Yorkshire, although there are some unique dialect features. Which are:

• ·         Non-rhoticity, ein most areas.
• ·         The dipthong in words like kite and ride is lengthened so that kite can become something like (i.e. it sounds a bit like “kaaaait”)
• ·         Unique vocab includes use of the word mam to mean mother, similar to Irish English.

Geordie: Geordie usually refers to both the people and dialect of Newcastle, in Northeast England. The word may also refer to accents and dialects in Northeast England in general. I would classify this as a separate region from the rest of Northern England because it’s very different from the language spoken in nearby cities. People can also see this accent as very different and distinct of where it comes from but is also seen as highly annoying.

·         

• ·         Non-rhoticity (in the cities)
• ·         The /ai/ dipthong in kite is raised, so it sounds a bit more like American or Standard British “kate.”
• ·         The /au/ dipthong in “about” is pronounced: (that is, “oo”) in strong dialects. Hence bout can sound like “boot.”

Scottish English: This is the broad definition used to describe English as it is spoken in the country of Scotland. Note that Scottish English is different than Scottish, a language derived from Northumbrian Old English that is spoken in Scotland as well. That being said, Scots has a strong influence on how English in Scotland is spoken. The accent used in Scotland makes many words hard to understand and can be irritating to people from other places.

• ·         Rhotic, with trilled or tapped r’s, hard to pronounce.
• ·         Glottal stopping of the letter t when in between vowels (similar to Cockney and related accents).
• ·         Monopthongal pronunciations of the /ei/ and /ou/