Standard English is just a dialect like other dialects of English, then what makes it a standard?

Question

All dialects of English are equally good. Socially the other dialects are stegmatised and thought of as 'bad' . what psychological effects does that have on children with different background dialects ? then is it fair to grade them solely on thier grammar rather than the ideas ?

Answer 1

Standard English is what's considered "correct"...dialects are regional, depending on where you're from.

Answer 2

Dialects are variations of Standard English. I don't feel some dialects are seen as "bad", but some are difficult to understand when accustomed only to Standard English. More and more people are coming to public prominence who speak in a dialect - show business is full of them. Looking to be valued on your ideas, rather than dialect is more likely to succeed if you are widely understood and thus can present your ideas to a wider marketplace. A person with a very broad accent using not-so-widely understood idiom would be at a disadvantage.

Answer 3

I guess I'll just point out the same thing I tell my students: It's okay not to speak grammatically correct (using a dialect or whatever), but you should know how to write grammatically correct for formal papers. Some of the best literature is not "grammatically correct," and when we see it as readers, we should determine why a writer would choose to make those mistakes. Likewise, when we write, choosing to make an error (as a compositional risk) can add to the writing. Nevertheless, it should be a conscience decision for a specific purpose.
Are my students ever graded "solely on their grammar"? No. However, they do need to realize that they may be judged outside of my classroom because of their dialect, etc. A perfect example would be when the principal of the school sends out a memo with errors in it. While no one may directly say anything to him, I know it does make an impression on his faculty.

Answer 4

First, it is important to realize that not everyone agrees that all dialects are equally good. While some linguists have that opinion, that is not the standard feeling of most people. Most people respect two dialects: the one they speak and the "standard" dialect.

The advantage of "standard" English, be it standard American English or the British received pronunciation is that this version of the langauge is essentially understood by everyone with whom the speaker is likely to have contact. People of all socioeconomic groups, all races, and all international backgrounds can understand "standard" English; however not everyone can understand the dialects spoken in inner city ghettos or rural mountain areas. For the purposes of advancement in society, those who speak dialects that are only understood by a subgroup are at a dsadvantage. By teaching all people to speak standard English, we dramatically increase their opportunities.

Answer 5

I'm english, ok (well, almost) living in england. ALL languages "evolved" in the days before anyone could read & write and the only written texts in most of Europe at a certain stage were all in latin.

The English and I'm sure of a lot of other countries at some stage chose to "standardise" their languages, which probably coincided with all sorts of things like the invention of the printing press, ordinary people having some leisure time to be able to read for self-improvement or pleasure, etc.

I'm nobody's expert on this, but I think that around this time the various languages started slowing down their rate of evolution - but a language is a living thing, to a degree.

"English" is today one of the inernationally recognised languages, but if you are (let's say) american, you could travel to england, australia, south africa etc.etc.etc and all would claim to be english-speaking, but have their own dialects - they can CHOOSE whether or not to make themselves understandable to others. If we need one standard, why is ours not a good one - it's been around longer than any of the others.

(there is also a growing lobby in england to have "american" re-classified as a separate language, btw)

Answer 6

I agree with you "all dialects are equally good".

I speak RP and sometimes I've been stigmatised as a result - thought to be posh/rich etc.

I work for my living, teaching English as a foreign language in Turkey. Over the years I've worked with people of many different accents/dialects, what matters is clarity of speech, enunciation, grammar, correct vocabulary - accent doesn't matter at all!

Sometimes students pick up a beautiful scouse/Scots/Essex accent - what that tells me is that the teacher is good at their job and that the students understand them.
That's the most important thing.

Answer 7

No such thing, RP. English: received pronunciation, the Queen's English or King's (when she goes) is the aristocratic pronunciation to which we are all supposed to aspire, colonies included. Over the UK there are hundreds of accents and if you've ever struggled in vain to understand Glaswegian or tried to take a Brummie seriously you'll know that they are only equal in theory and that the best accents/dialects are the educated ones that are intelligible and easily understandable to the greatest number of speakers.

Answer 8

Children don`t get graded so much on their grammar .its the minority of English or British people that speak standard English(whatever that is ) a lot of people think it sounds snobbish and false .In my opinion only a real snob would ever think that a persons accent reflects their intelligence .At least half of the members of Parliament don`t speak standard English ,you can hear different accents even in the Cabinet .In fact i would even say most people are proud of the way they speak and where they come from and why shouldn`t they be.!!!

Answer 9

The problem with Standard English is there's no real definition of it; it's just thought of as language spoken by "educated" people. It's a purely social dialect.

Answer 10

Standard English is our creator's universal gifts of life vital for the survival and advancement of living human kind on planet earth.
The english language use at home is ghostly kitchen's dialect from the graveyards of individual community in planet of apes.
The blunders and slip-ups with human errors was expose in the House of Parliament and the UN in planet of apes.
The standard english does not change with time but stays in time on planet earth.
Look how we created the mess in doing things at own whims and fancy with self lack of knowledge to our creator's universal gifts of life in planet of apes.
Trace back what is the Renaissance period was all about back in the past.
What was those dirty old men was doing at that time in planet of apes?