What are the attitudes towards the afro Caribbean
influence on Standard English Analysis?
I gave my questionnaire to 20 people and the
answers that came back had a range of opinions towards the influences of afro Caribbean
language on standard English, the general consensus was that it had had an
impact on English language but in a positive way as it gave higher amounts of
variety.
Was there a difference of attitude between age
groups of BEV and standard English?
There was a very apparent relation between the
answers given and the age of the person giving the answers, this relation was
that the younger the candidate was the more positive they were in terms of the
way the viewed the impacts of BEV on Standard English. The majority of the
group were between the age of 31-35, 60%, and everyone in this age bracket said
the impacts were positive. The group were all teachers at Shenfield High School
so therefore were well educated and professional in the way in which they
answered the questions.
Responses to the questions
Of the 20 people asked 90% of people said that
standard English had changed and of that group most used the reasoning for this
as the influx of other cultures into the country as to why standard English is
changing. Also of the 20 people asked 70% of people said the impact was
positive and the other 30% said that although there were positive impacts there
were also negative impacts due to these changes in language. When people were
given two options of sentences all candidate chose the standard English example
as the correct way to say the statement. When asked what they would define English
all people said something along the lines of the “correct way to speak” “Queens
speech” or “proper English”. However no one went on to explain what they meant
other than some small additional information saying something like it is the variant
English that should be taught to children, which shows the attitudes towards
standard English and the status it holds even still. This is shown also in the
theory of Peter Trudgill who was a sociolinguist that said that Standard
English was only spoken by a minority of people and was seen by most people as
a prestigious way of speaking and very much linked to the status of the person
themselves if they spoke this way, this is very much translated to the way in
which we think today as we mostly think that posh people or very well educated
or rich people speak in this manor.
Attitudes towards BEV and other variants of English
language
When asked what their opinion on other variants of English Language most
people said that there were some dialects that they did not like and thought
were not proper English but most people felt as though the other variants of
English language were positive and gave “good variety”. Also the main cause of
these variants according to the 20 people asked were the influence of foreign
people and also the different areas in which we live in.
