BEHIND THE WORDS

VIDEO Nº1: The Inspector needs "a flawless American accent" This is so funny that Inspector Clouseau can not say "I would like to buy a hamburger" in the 2006 movie version of Pink Panther starring Steve Martin. Inspector Clouseau went to America in pursuit of the most world famous American food: the Hamburger. Due to his poor English, the Frenchman Clouseau decided to quickly improve it. However, it is impossible for him to pronounce the words as a native speaker. Both speakers, the teacher and the French man are using forms associated with Standard English, but have different pronunciations. According to George Yule, these differences in pronunciation have to do with their dialects. VIDEO Nº2: Student 'dialects'? This is a scene from the Sketch Show where a group of students, all with a fatal flaw with their writing, attempt to form a study group. It is very clear to see the difference between gendered speech, for example, men seem to "

George Yule has worked as an English teacher in Britain, Canada, Jamaica, and Saudi Arabia. He has also taught Applied Linguistics in the Universities of Edinburgh, Hawaii, Louisiana State and Minnesota. He is the author of several books with Oxford University Press, including Pragmatics , Explaining English Grammar , Focus on the Language Learner and The Study of Language. On his latter book, the author presents information in bite-sized sections, clearly explaining the major concepts in linguistic, from how children learn language to why men and women speak differently through all the key elements of language. These are my study notes on the last three chapters of this book: CHAPTER 18: "REGIONAL VARIATION IN LANGUAGE" The Standard Language: It is an idealized variety associated with administrative, commercial and educational centers, regardless of region. If we think of Stardard English, it is the variety we normally try to teach to those who want to lear