Language Change Mini-Investigation

Sales pitch – Mini-investigation

How are accents used in TV or radio advertising?

Exploring contemporary attitudes to accents

It is frequently stated in English Language text books that there is a broad consensus about the way in which different accents are perceived. When speakers are judged only on their voice, a league table of accents along these lines would be produced:

1 / Received Pronunciation
2 / Dublin
3 / Edinburgh
4 / Geordie (Newcastle)
5 / Yorkshire
6 / West Country
7 / Cockney (London)
8 / Scouse (Liverpool)
9 / Brummie (Birmingham)
10 / Glasgow

Immediately, this should start to raise alarm bells. There are several indications in the league table that the research upon which it is based may have been outdated:

· Recent research into the Queen’s speech suggests that even the most traditional speakers of Received Pronunciation are modifying their accent, which might either cause or reflect changing attitudes to it.

· Recent research into the apparently inexorable rise of Estuary English is not considered here.

· Considerable change in the population of the East End of London, due to patterns of migration and urban renewal, mean that Cockney is largely a historical accent.

· The table is partial, with no reference to some major regional accents such as Welsh and Northern Irish ones, and major urban accents such as Manchester.

· The table only shows traditional regional accents, with no reference to accents that are the product of different language backgrounds (eg Punjabi) or cultural backgrounds (egBlack Vernacular English).

However, in November 2004 the BBC had a new poll conducted into the nation’s attitudes to accents.

1. Read the Voices poll result at www.bbc.co.uk/voices/yourvoice/poll_results.shtml.

2. Make notes about this piece of research using the standard headings for language research: aims, methodology, findings and analysis, conclusions, evaluation. You will find most of this information on the website, but you may need to elaborate the conclusion and evaluation with your own carefully considered thoughts.

3. Using this piece of research, and any others you can find that have been completed in the last 10 years, produce a revised league table of attitudes to accents.

Tuning your ear into different accents

Once you have compiled your league table of accent preferences, make sure you are able to recognise each accent. Try taking the BBC’s “How good is your ear?” test a few times at http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/languagelab/surveys/accents.shtml? Explore the Collect Britain speech archive of the British Library at http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/. Or compile your own selection of illustrative sound clips from the many other sources of information about accents available on the internet. Once you are confident you can recognise each accent, you will be ready to conduct your investigation into TV/radio advertising.

Thinking about the relationship between accents and TV/radio advertising

The accents at the top of your league table will be those regarded as being the most prestigious and attractive. Given that advertisers are generally seeking to make their products seem prestigious and attractive, so that we buy them, it would be reasonable to assume that there might be a connection between accent and advertising. However, looking at how this works is more complex than simply asking people which accent they like the best. This is obvious if you think about it. If it were simple, then all advertisers would use RP speakers (though perhaps Standard Southern English might be a better description today) to convey their messages, with perhaps a few jobbing actors from Edinburgh and Dublin thrown in to spice up the mix.

The issue here is that there are different kinds of prestige attached to different accents. Firstly, whilst those accents at the top of the list may score highly in terms of the impression of competence, intelligence and authority they convey, those in the middle often score highly in terms of friendliness, integrity and humour. Those at the bottom may stereotypically be associated with lack of intelligence, hostility, and criminality. However, it’s still not a straightforward matter, as advertisers may play on the difference between overt prestige and covert prestige in seeking to sell their product.

Overt prestige is the prestige which comes from conforming to the high status norms and values in society. In speech, this comes from using those accents regarded as being the most educated and wealthy.

Covert prestige is the prestige which comes from conforming to the counter-cultural norms and values in society. Rebellious, going against the mainstream, these norms and values are often regarded as ‘cool’. In speech, this prestige comes from using those accents regarded as being a bit edgy and ‘real’.

Investigating the use of accents in TV/radio advertising

Aims

The primary aim of this investigation is to find out exactly how accents, and contemporary attitudes to them, are currently being used in TV/radio advertising.

· Before you start, develop this section by adding your hypothesis: what you think this investigation is likely to show.

Methodology

Decide first of all, whether you want to investigate radio or TV advertising. Then, develop your methodology, by making and justifying carefully the following decisions:

· How many adverts are you going to use? Bear in mind that you need to keep the project manageable. (Tip: if you do this as a group investigation, you can get a bigger and more reliable sample size, and the potentially tricky business of correctly identifying the accents can be shared.)

· Which radio station or TV channel will you use? Why?

· How are you going to deal with the desirability of a sample that is as representative of your chosen advertising medium as possible, given the small scale nature of the investigation? Is it even possible to be representative, or do you need to make a sensible selection of adverts? How will you do this?

· How are you going to deal with the fact that many multinational corporations produce international adverts using non-British English speakers, and some use no speech at all?

· What factors will you need to control in order to make the data comparable?

· How are you going to capture your advertising data?

When you have made your plans, collect your data.

Findings and analysis

Examine the data carefully and see what you find. Use your imagination, your knowledge of attitudes to different accents, and your interpretation of the contextual factors shaping the adverts, to help you decide on an appropriate analytical approach. Feel free to use some or all of the following questions in this:

· With what frequency do different accents appear in the sample of TV/radio adverts you have selected?

· Is there a lot of variation or is a limited range of accents being used all the time by advertisers?

· Are there any correlations between accents and factors such as the type of product being advertised, the target audience, or the cost of the product?

· What proportion of the sample of adverts uses covertly prestigious accents?

· Are there any surprises?

Conclusions

Now review your findings as objectively as possible and consider these questions:

· What conclusions can you draw about how accents, and contemporary attitudes to them, are currently being used in TV/radio advertising? (Tip: these will quite probably be tentative.)

· How do these compare with your hypothesis?

· What theories and concepts about language and/or society might be helpful in explaining these conclusions?

· How do these conclusions compare with those of any other related studies you can find in this field?

Evaluation

Finally, consider how successful this mini-investigation was:

· What worked well? What didn’t?

· Were you able to answer the research question effectively? Why? Why not?

· Were there any aspects of your analytical approach that seemed a good idea at the design stage but were less effective than anticipated? Why might that have been the case?

· What have you learned about research design that might be useful in future investigations?

· How could the project be developed further?