In the present society we should not have to force a person to speak a certain way. Americans are ensured free speech by the constitution, and I interpret this to mean that American citizens have not only the right to speak anything on their mind but also say those thoughts in any way they please. However, there are many aspects that I believe affect why a person would speak with an accent or without one. The biggest reason that people talk with an accent is for solidarity reasons with a certain group. Many minorities develop their own way of speaking in a way to distinguish there group from the rest of American society.
The way that accents determine the way a person views another person is somewhat exaggerated. In this day and age it is general knowledge that there is a great mix of people across the country and that most people are not going to make assumption from how a person talks. No one thinks that all people speaking a British accent are highly intelligent. This reason for eliminating non standard dialects is not valid. Eliminating dialects is not going to eliminate regional discrimination.
The biggest tool for changing dialects in America is the economy. If standard English is seen as a way to make more money a vast amount of Americans will want to speak standard English. Because of this reason, there would be no value in forcing people to stop speaking dialects. Dialects will always exist in American society because there will always be small minority groups that will try to establish their own identity. However, because of the economy and market, standard English will always be seen as a way to improve yourself economically and therefore will be the way of speaking for the vast majority of the population. Because of this no reason exists to why it would be preferable to force people to speak standard American English.
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You make really great points and I did not view the situation this way until reading your blog. What is great about your argument is that it demonstrates that the situation overall is basically ridiculous. Why would we try to get rid of non-standard dialects? Are we trying to get rid of every language that exists? I suppose unless we are trying to make English the only language of the world, then this situation is irrelevant.
ReplyDeleteLike Elisha said, I did not consider some of your ideas before saying that we should encourage people to switch over to higher dialcets. As you said, people have freedom of speech in this country, so we should let them speak with whatever dialect they are comfortable with. In addition, standard English will probably always be the dialect of economic success in America -- it's not like there's any threat to its position -- so we shouldn't be concerned if people want to speak their own dialect. I have to disagree, however, with your second paragraph. During my research, I have come upon some studies that show that even today, people still make first impressions of people solely based on their accents. If we were to encourage people to learn SAE, maybe we would eliminate some of the prevalent dialectal stereotypes in America.
ReplyDeleteYour interpretation about freedom of speech meaning that people can speak in any way they like is a strong argument. In my opinion, I also feel that the government has no right or authority to force people to switch to the standard dialect. Furthermore, research shows that students who are forced to switch to the standard dialect often resist and cling to their heritage language. However, I believe that even without forcing people to abandon their non-standard dialect, there will be an automatic tendency to switch over because of the numerous economic, social, and political benefits and opportunities that are bestowed upon speakers of the standard dialect.
ReplyDeleteI like how you extended the freedom of speech to dialects as well. I do agree with you that the government has no right to say how its citizens should speak and should not force them to speak the standard dialect. However I am going to have agree with Cameron, people today are still judged by the way they speak and thus are viewed differently. People who make the switch to the standard dialect. If forced to change these people will tend to be resistant; therefore they should be encouraged and not forced.
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