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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Should schools 'correct' local accents?

54 replies

darcymum · 08/03/2010 21:30

DD is due to start school in September and I went to visit two local primary schools recently. We live in the west country although neither DH or myself are from here. DD has picked up some of the local accent in some of the words she uses. I explained this to both schools and asked if they would correct her pronunciation. The first school said they would and "she wouldn't get away with talking like that here". They saw it as part of the job of teaching her. The second school made a bit of a joke about it and said "nothing wrong with the local accent".

Am I just being a snob because I don't want her to talk like Pam Ayres?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

SoupDragon · 08/03/2010 21:31

You are being a snob.

doubleinstructions · 08/03/2010 21:33

I'm suprised the 1st school agreed tbh.

totallydifferenttypeofperson · 08/03/2010 21:33

What would be the point of them trying to correct a local accent? She will pick it up from those around her - no amount of vigilance on the school's part will change that.

The thing is, you and your dh are not from the west country but your dd is. Get used to it.

hocuspontas · 08/03/2010 21:34

You're joking, right?

CaitlinMeringue · 08/03/2010 21:36

having a WC accent hasn't held back, oooh let's see

Pam Ayres

Justin lee Collins

Darth vader bloke (admittedly he didn't speak, arf arf)

Bill Bailey

Hulababy · 08/03/2010 21:38

You are being a snob.

Nothing wrong with local accents. And just because school correct it, she will still pick it up and use it anyway.

Correcting slang and sloppy speech (dropping endings, etc) is one thing but to correct the school's local accent is, in my opinion, quite wrong.

SoupDragon · 08/03/2010 21:40

Besides, we all have an accent. Even you. which "local accents" are wrong and which are Ok?

madwomanintheattic · 08/03/2010 21:46

aw bless, they don't even correct local accents in officer training for the armed forces. the most they can do is point out your enunciation during your debrief and say 'but it doesn't detract from your performance' rofl.

course, you might not get through selection.

school correcting? unlikely unless it renders the word incorrect, i would have thought... and even then you'd be lucky...

do it at home. i spent most of my formative years speaking in a pseudo-american drawl thanks to the zillions of tourists that frequented our neck of the woods.

we also used to spend a fair amount of time doing pam ayres impressions. weird.

dd1 started school in glasgow. i thought 'twankle twankle' (little star) and the cow jumped over the 'mun' were quite sweet. since then she has been to an international school, a hampshire primary, a surrey primary, and they are all now attending a canadian school. i track their accents various with interest.

your only option is to move to the home counties, really.

Original poster

darcymum · 08/03/2010 21:47

I do quite like some local accents (as long as you can still understand people). Sloppy speech, dropped endings etc are what characterise a lot of local accents though. If we lived in Yorkshire I wouldn't want her going round saying 'eyup', (although that would be quite funny).

OP posts:

Hulababy · 08/03/2010 21:52

I am in and from Yorkshire, as is DH and DD. We still don't say eyup!!!

With regards the slang aspects it is better to teacher your DD as she gorws up that slang and lazy speech is fine when talking with mates, etc, but in some situations it is less appropriate and you need to talk clearly and accurately then...and take it from there.

You can't expect your child to grow up without picking up some form of accent local to the area.

To us Yorkshire folks it is you who has the accent remember. Everyone has some form of accent - what you mean is that you want your DD to just speak one specific accent.

missmoopy · 08/03/2010 21:58

Are you serious?

Would you prefer if we all spoke like the Queen?

Local accents and dialects are fascinating and part of a persons identity and as I point out to my daughter regularly, if everyone was the same the world would be a very boring place.

I am amazed that you want to "correct" your childs speech. I am happy for you that you have nothing worse to worry about.

Heated · 08/03/2010 21:59

Accent no, schools will not correct something that is an integral part of who you are but there will be an emphasis on SE at primary over dialect.

I'm very RP, dh is northern, the dcs are mostly RP with a smattering of Midlands. I will correct sloppy pn like "free" rather than "three" now that ds at 5 can hear the difference but not the accent. We are the major influencing factor in the way they talk anyway.

Habbibu · 08/03/2010 22:03

West country accents are lovely. Yes, you're being a snob, and linguistically mistaken to think that an accent can or should be "corrected".

Goblinchild · 08/03/2010 22:09

There's a difference between getting a child to write in standard English and asking them to change how they speak. So no, I wouldn't correct a child for a dialectal difference when they were speaking freely.
Correct grammar for writing, spelling etc, that's a different teaching focus.
So although they may say
wiv
uvr
bo'ul
parst
I'd correct the pronunciation and grammar when they are writing, looking at articulation, tongue position and the rest.

islandofsodor · 08/03/2010 22:09

Agree with the others.

Dd goes to a private school and there are many posh accents there but also many local ones including some of the teachers.

I would expect correction of poor diction but not accents.

janeiteisFedUp · 08/03/2010 22:09

Oh for goodness sake. Of COURSE they shouldn't. And if the first school told you they would condemn accents, they are probably going against ECM and all sorts of things.

Schools have a duty to teach Standard English for the purposes of writing and for English speaking and listening assessment but Standard English can be spoken in any accent and their is absolutely no duty for schools to insist on received pronunciation.

Move house and go and live on a cloud, if this is such an issue for you. Grrrr.

For a fantastic poem on this theme, see here: Unrelated Incidents

janeiteisFedUp · 08/03/2010 22:11

There not their - my crossness overtook my ability to spell!

islandofsodor · 08/03/2010 22:13

Dd does LAMDA speech and drama exams and even they don't insist on RP. She has got 3 distinctions so far in her poetry all spoken in broad potters.

MrsTicklemouse · 08/03/2010 22:13

if you mean the accent then no of course not, if you mean local slang terms then i can see your point slightly

Clayhead · 08/03/2010 22:15

My dc are little potters...ds (6) told me in all seriousness today teacher spent some time explaining that tally charts have nothing to do with the telly

[islandofsodor might get this one]

[where's saggar when you need her??]

islandofsodor · 08/03/2010 22:19

At our meet your childs new teacher evening at the start of the school year a parent worriedly asked how they were going to pronounce words such as book and look for the spelling tests as they worried their child might get confused if it was pronounced to rhyme with duck.

displayuntilbestbefore · 08/03/2010 22:20

It's unrealistic to think they won't pick it up a bit but if you are not from the area they go to school in then you will probably find, as I do, that during the school holidays the local accents tend to disappear a bit, only to return again once they are reunited with their school friends! I find it rather endearing tbh!
My DCs would fail miserably if DH and I were bothered about them picking up local accents.
I'm from the north, DH is from the south, we have lived in several different places throughout the UK since the DCs were born and all of them speak with a slightly different twang!

We ask them to tone down some of the more whiny characteristics of certain accents but only because we don't tolerate whining

iggi999 · 08/03/2010 22:24

Go and live on the moon
Surely this should be an AIBU. (You are).

maizieD · 08/03/2010 22:26

Even if the school did 'correct' their accents they'd still talk 'local' with their mates and not take much notice of correction.

My partner and I are from the South East; our children were born in Yorkshire. they were 5 & 7 when we moved to the North East. Their Yorkshire accents (never very strong at home) disappeared within weeks! But, the 'local accent was never as strong when they were at home as it was when they were with their friends. They learnt to adapt the accent to the circumstances. The only thing I ever corrected was bad grammar.('No, you cannot lend a pencil, you can borrow one...')

I wouldn't make a big issue of it. They could well grow up having a 'thing' about it and, horrors, despising you as a snob (and the teenage years are bad enough without adding self inflicted grief...)

SE13Mummy · 08/03/2010 22:31

As a teacher I have better things to do with my time than to try and 'correct' my classes out of their SE London accents. I do however expect them to use standard English in their writing and will happily teach them to make sense. The claim, "I ain't done nuffink innit" is perfect for teaching about the dangers of double negatives....

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