The Most Relevant and Useful Aspects of Language Variation Study
Accent and Dialect
Accent and dialect also proved a rich source:
1. Understanding what determines a dialect from a language helps me to teach ‘standard English’ without stigmatizing ‘non-standard’ English.
2.It helped to remove some confusion I had about “correct” English and helped me to regain some confidence when answering students’ questions about language items.
3.Useful / relevant because of the amount of foreign language teachers here in Japan ie USA, Canada, UK, New Zealand, Australia.
4. The discussion of accent and dialect and how one form is selected as a standard variety made me think carefully about which English accent my students want and expect to study and the coursebooks and materials that are available to teach these.
Here, recurrent themes are that prejudices concerning certain varieties of English have been challenged (comments 1 and 2) and practical issues such as being able to answer students’ questions on different accents or choose an appropriate coursebook (comments 3 and 4).
