Work

Accent the positive: An investigation into five-year-olds’ implicit attitudes towards different regional accents

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Regional accent biases in 27 Essex five-year-olds are investigated. This study is the first to analyse implicit language attitudes by measuring children's neural activity (event-related potentials) while they take part in an Implicit Association Test. Both measures find a preference towards the prestigious accent, Standard Southern British English (SSBE), which is associated with cleverness (CLEVER). A late positive potential in the brain data for the association of the familiar, low-prestige Essex accent with CLEVER suggests the children also have a positive association with their home accent. The association between the less familiar, low-prestige Yorkshire accent and either CLEVER or NOT-CLEVER depends on the measure. Differences in the results are found relating to the children's accent exposure; those with a more heterogenous group of caretakers show more positive bias towards all three accents overall. Consequences for modelling the development of language attitudes are discussed.

Source: Journal of Child Language

DOI: 10.1017/s0305000925000170

Authors: Ella Jeffries, Laurel Lawyer, Amanda Cole, Stephanie Martin Vega

Institutions: University of Essex, University of California, Davis

Language: English

Topic: Linguistic Variation and Morphology

Subfield: Linguistics and Language

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,550

Funders: Leverhulme Trust, British Academy