The role of dialects and accents; and the barriers they pose in the language learning class

2. Dialects, Accents & ELT
By: Prakruti Bhatt

3. Dialect..?
• A particular version or form of a language
specific to a region or social group.
• The term is also used to refer to a socially
subordinated status of a language to another
language.
• Not an actual variety of the national or
dominant language, but rather, a separate,
independently evolved but often related
language.

4. Accent?
• A manner of pronunciation peculiar to a
particular individual, location or nation.
• A distinct emphasis given to a syllable or word
in speech by stress or pitch.
• Accents typically differ in quality of the voice,
pronunciation and distinction of vowels and
consonants, stress, and prosody.

5. How do they differ?
Dialect:
• Regional Speech Variety
• Refers more to the differences
in vocabulary and/or grammar.
• Are often contrasted with the
‘standard’ language of a
country.
• Generally influenced by
historical factors.
Accent:
• Local pronunciation of either
the speaker’s own language or
the way they pronounce a
foreign language, influenced
by their mother tongue.
• Specific to an individual
• Can be a subset of a dialect
• Covers the sound of speech

6. Dialects, Accents and Language
Teaching
• A learner’s dialect may become a major
barrier while learning a foreign language.
• Accents are developed, once the learner is
able to communicate in the Target Language.
• It is a teacher’s responsibility to help the
learner overcome the struggles posed by
his/her dialect, while acquiring the foreign
language.

7. Works Cited:
• Contributors, Wikipedia. Accent (sociolinguistics). 10 September 2019.
web. 2 October 2019.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accent_(sociolinguistics)>.
—. Dialect. 15 September 2019. web. 2 October 2019.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialect>.
• Devlin, Thomas Moore. What's the Difference Between a Language, a
Dialect and an Accent? 25 July 2018. web. 2 October 2019.
<https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/accents-and-dialects/>.
• Jackson, Matt. What is difference between accent and dialect? 5
December 2017. web. 2 October 2019. <https://www.quora.com/What-is-
the-difference-between-accent-and-dialect>.