RP: Resent or Present?

RP as an accent is beneficial to those hearing and speaking it, it allows a common ground amongst English speakers to speak in a clear, understandable and appropriate method.

The argument of whether children need to learn RP is one that doesn't have a clear answer, as it's extremely subjective.

There are reasons for both sides of the argument. 

Firstly, it certainly is beneficial to children from a young age as they will be taught to speak how to speak properly and be educated on the correct etiquette. It's important that in the future, in terms of jobs and politeness, that they at least have the skills to approach it in the right way, with an RP accent. We associate accents with different levels of politeness or intelligence and the RP accent has been proven to appear as the most formal and respectable of these. This study proves that its rather important to be able to talk in an RP accent. There is another study, however, which concludes that the Geordie accent is, in fact, the friendliest accent. Whilst it is not affiliated with intelligence, it apparently reflects approach

ability and that is another positive characteristic to be looking for in a job.

However, I do not believe it is particularly necessary at all to use an RP accent. If a person is not leaving their current area or region for work then a regional accent is most likely completely acceptable to have the accent, and so it would not be necessary to teach a child to rid of their accent. I do believe, however, that in this case they should still be able to switch to an RP accent in case it is needed. This would not only be convenient for the speaker’s benefit, but also if ever speaking to a foreigner, as they may have difficulty understanding someone who does not speak well-articulated or clear speech, and if they were raised to have an RP accent they may not have the trouble of this. On the other hand, if they’re in a particular region with a notable or iconic accent, they may face prejudice from other citizens or residents of the area, due to the fact they talk differently, and may appear to be of a different social class, despite the fact they are not.

RP as an accent also could be argued to sound rather pretentious to some people, and people may end up accommodating to the other speaker and diverge from their original accent or go out of their way to ensure that they don’t speak RP and appear to be of a higher prestige than they actually are. Of course, some people would pride themselves on their RP accent and how intelligent they may appear to anyone they talk to. Whether RP is someone’s preferred accent or not is subjective, but I do believe it’s wise to at least raise a child to be able to talk in an RP accent when deemed necessary.

Reuben Morris