What Are The Disadvantages Of Received Pronunciation?
Linguists, such as Professor David Crystal, say: “Speech came first, why relearn?” Trudgill says that the loss of the “H” sound causes very little confusion. Some consider that the social status given to RP is the result of prejudice and stereotyping. The National Association of the Teaching of English recognises the difficulty of teaching speech. “It is below the level of conscious control,” they say. The National Curriculum contains no requirement to teach RP. It asks only for an accent which is “clear and comprehensive”. Only 3 per cent of the English population speak RP. It is no longer socially acceptable to judge by accent. To change ones accent means a loss of identity. The Martha’s Vineyard Study found that increasing numbers of the younger male generation on an island off the Massachusetts coast were using low-prestige forms of pronunciation. They had a desire to identify themselves as native “Vineyards” and a resentment towards the influx of tourists from the mainland.
