Dialect,power and politics: standard English and adolescent identities

This paper examines the official requirement for the promotion of standard English using Bourdieu's concepts of the production and reproduction of legitimate language. It explores the political drive behind the demand for this standard dialect in England and, through a survey on the views of fifty‐two 14 and 15 year olds, analyses the impact that this is having on adolescent identities in an inner‐city London school. The students perceive non‐standard English as a vehicle through which they can express their ‘true’ selves and construct a collective teenage identity. They use language to construct a division between themselves as teenagers and the adult ‘others’. Although the students do not necessarily want to use non‐standard English in the classroom, or with their teachers, educators need to consider how to afford pupils access to the ‘official language’, which grants privilege and power, without devaluing the identities which they may associate with other dialect forms. The final part of the paper explores the value of Cummin's concept of ‘transformative pedagogy’ (2002) in relation to the study of dialect with adolescents.