Non-standard Dialect in the Formal Speech of 15-year-olds on Tyneside

Abstract

This paper reports a study of the use of non-standard English in the formal speech of 15- year-olds of both genders and of varying attainment levels. The pupils were drawn from two schools on Tyneside which take pupils from catchment areas of markedly different socioeconomic status. Differences were found in the incidence of non-standard lexis and grammar in terms of the variables studied: girls used fewer non-standard forms than boys, lower attaining pupils used more than their higher attaining peers and pupils of lower socioeconomic status used more than those of higher socioeconomic status. However, some complex interactions between the variables are reported. Even among the groups with a comparatively high incidence of non-standard forms, features specific to Tyneside English were relatively infrequent and the significance of this finding for teachers is discussed both via a critique of the treatment of standard English in the National Curriculum and through a proposed model for curriculum development which places use of non-standard dialect in the context of a much wider understanding of language variation