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How do I teach my toddler RP (Received Pronunciation)?

13 replies

MamaMed · 01/11/2014 13:51

I have a mixture of accents (due to having lived in a mixture of places).

How do I teach my toddler RP (Received Pronunciation)?

OP posts:
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Oakmaiden · 01/11/2014 13:54

Huh?

They will copy the accents they hear. Why would that be a problem?

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saintsandpoets · 01/11/2014 13:55

You can't. Accents are learnt from environments.

More to an RP area, where classmates speak with RP if you care that much.

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BikeRunSki · 01/11/2014 14:00

Ime children pick up accents they hear around them, in fact I've noticed adult accents adjust too. I come from South London, spent 7 years in the NE and have lived in Yorkshire for 15 years. When I left school I could have been an extra in Eastenders, but now you might place me as "probably a bit southern". DH still has a bit of his West Country accent, despite his parents coming from Sheffield and Warrington. On the other hand, my dc very much sound like they come from Barnsley, as they do.

I think what I am trying to say, if you want your child to have an RP accent, then you have to surround yourself with RP speakers. Or elocution and constant correction.

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insancerre · 01/11/2014 14:01

You could always send them to live with the Queen

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flowery · 01/11/2014 14:06

Why would you want them to?

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DownByTheRiverside · 01/11/2014 14:06

My daughter spoke RP as a toddler (if you mean standard English as opposed to the mangled poshspeak of the royals several decades ago) because that's what we spoke at home. She hung onto it even at nursery, but then began to code switch.
Broad Lancashire outside the home, RP inside the home. She'd change accents as she stepped over the threshold, like her bilingual cousins do.
Now we're back in the south, she speaks standard English but can do Lancashire even though she's not been there for 15 years.
All without coaching or any pressure from us.
I find a wide vocabulary more important.

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jeee · 01/11/2014 14:17

Find some footage of 'Listen with Mother'. Insist your child watches this rather than cbeebies.

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Seriouslyffs · 01/11/2014 14:20

Where do you live now?
RP is only a prerequisite for working as a receptionist at Sotheby's. I really wouldn't worry.
Good vocabulary and clear speech are a million times more important.

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Madcatgirl · 01/11/2014 14:30

Peppa pig. Ds2 loves it and talks about glarses and carstles. Despite living in and attending school in a leafy east manchester suburb where most people speak nicely, but are definitely northern. Wink

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DownByTheRiverside · 01/11/2014 14:31

Why do you want her to have a specific accent rather than focusing on her vocabulary and enunciation?

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Mampire · 01/11/2014 14:35

Lol at peppa pig! Not rebecca rabbit though.
I have an irish accent and i love my accent. My kids though! I hope their accents improve when they r adults.

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SophieBarringtonWard · 01/11/2014 21:11

I don't think you always get an accent from your peers/wider environment though, although I agree that it generally seems people do. I have an RP accent because my parents did, even though I grew up in the NW and my brothers both adopted regional accents when they went to school.

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Nightboattocairo · 01/11/2014 21:17

Find some YouTube footage of BBC presenters in the 1950s?

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