30 Minute Talks on Research: "Speak properly!”

In this talk, we will look at language attitudes and ideologies, how they emerge and how they affect society. I’ll discuss my recent research project, investigating how people are judged based only on their accent in South East England. Results show that people who are working-class, from an ethnic minority speakers and/or from London or Essex are evaluated most negatively based on their accent, particularly as less intelligent. In this talk, I will dismantle popular ideas that there is a correct or proper way of speaking English and we’ll see how these ideas can create and maintain inequalities.

This talk will follow Change agent roles: Insights from three case studies of hospital transformations at 1pm with Dr Danielle A Tucker from Essex Business School