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Home > Chapter 13


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Chapter 13 – The Self and Others: Language and Identity


1. Some three years ago, not long after she had been promoted to opposition Shadow Education Minister, a British member of parliament (MP) was criticised over the way she spoke. Look at two of the complaints from a blog discussion and a tweet from the MP in question. What does this tell you about language attitudes and identity presentation. Do you recognise the issues raised here? To what extent is language variation and identity connected in your own experience?

You can also think about other aspects around linguistic misunderstandings we've raised throughout the book: linguistic misunderstanding - spokenness versus writtenness (Chapter 8); correctness, standards and well-formed versus ill-formed (Chapter 2).