Analytic Reading and Writing: Standard English's Societal Impact

This essay delves into the societal impact of the 'ideal' Standard English, examining how it affects individuals in real-world situations. The author introduces the concept of language privilege, highlighting that those proficient in English often assume others share their linguistic understanding. It explores the prestige associated with Standard English and how non-standard dialects are often viewed as less sophisticated, leading to discrimination in various settings. The essay draws on several articles and the case of Robyn Kina to illustrate the challenges faced by individuals whose language use differs from the standard, particularly within legal and professional contexts. The conclusion suggests that reducing the negative impact of language variations requires a shift in societal attitudes toward language and its diverse forms. The essay also discusses the importance of language in justice and the legal system and highlights the discrimination faced by individuals whose language use differs from the standard.

Running head: ANALYTIC READING AND WRITING
Analytic Reading and Writing
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Essay Question:
How does the ‘ideal’ of a Standard form of English affect people in real situations?
Introduction
Language privilege is something that most of the society does not talk about. This
term may seem to be a surprise to many who are not familiar with travelling abroad.
However, to others, who have had travelled abroad at least once in their lives, it is not really a
surprise. The global field is extremely accessible for them who can speak English. This is
also because most of the English speakers have considered in their minds that others are
familiar with their languages (Rapoport, 2016). However, this mindset also tends to limit the
minds where they do not really understand knowing a different language can be of an
advantage too. However, other than that, different dialects of English are not considered as a
part of the ‘sophisticated’ genre of language. This essay triggers this issue of language
privilege in the light of four articles.
Discussion
Language is always associated with a sense of prestige within any speech community.
The prestige provides the explanation for one specific variation within the language. That
particular prestige variety is the one which is considered by the society to be correct or the
superior one. Therefore, the speakers of a specific variety are considered to be the
sophisticated ones, even if others are speakers of the same language. However, there are
several speakers of English who tend to choice grammatically correct phrases and words
while talking in a prestigious situation, while in other places, they use the colloquial version
of English (Bauer, 2014). Most of times, the fractured and the broken parts of English have
been considered as the ‘limited English’ as well (Tan, 2017). It has been observed in different

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situation, that the people who are speaking the broken English are considered to be less
prestigious and they are not treated well in places such as banks, departmental stores,
restaurants etc. As English has always been associated with a sense of prestige, especially on
a global level, the people who are not capable of speaking good English because their mother
tongue is not English, they have been considered to be inferior.
Even though the government has the rules and regulations forbidding that the
employers should not discriminate on the basis of the color of their skin or any personal
preferences, there have been several highly qualified applicants who have been rejected on
the basis of their language traits (LIPPI-GREEN, 1994). Most of the employers have a blind
preference for a certain standard language variation. This can be considered as the linguistic
discrimination which is based on the accent of the candidate most of the times. Due to this
discrimination, there are several potential candidates whose mother tongue is not English,
have been rejected on a global level.
If the case of Robyn Kina is considered, she was unable to communicate well with her
lawyers due to the language difference. This also indicated to the fact that the lawyers are
never trained to communicate in a non-aboriginal way. The entire education system has
trained them to communicate in the standard form, while on the other hand her counselor and
journalists could communicate to her easily. This may also indicate that the lawyers did not
bother to communicate with her due to the non-prestigious stigma associated with her dialect.
Conclusion
The more this stigma get detached to the accents of language, it will not affect people
in reality. However, this can only be done with the change of the worldview regarding
language variations.

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Reference List
Bauer, L. (2014). Watching English change: An introduction to the study of linguistic change
in standard Englishes in the 20th century. Routledge.
LIPPI-GREEN, R. (1994). Accent, standard language ideology, and discriminatory pretext in
the courts (2nd ed., pp. 163-198). Language in Society, Vol. 23.
Rapoport, A. (2016). Human aspects of urban form: towards a man—environment approach
to urban form and design. Elsevier.
Tan, A. (2017). Mother Tongue, 1-5.