Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
go along with it. I also learned why it originated and discovered more about my identity within it. I grew up on a farm in a small town and almost my entire family had southern accents. So I personally grew up with a country accent myself, as time passed by, the accent faded. However, I still have an identity within this community because I can relate, interact, and understand this community. When Im around certain members of my family, my accent seems to come out more. Specific speech characteristics important to this community includes slang, improper English, dragged out vowels, ending of words being cut off, and the necessity to use words that are not in the dictionary. These words include yall, and aint. A couple questions I developed while studying my speech community included: where did this community develop or originate? Why is there a typical stereotype that goes along with this community? And finally, why does talking to specific people or groups change the way we talk in our community? In regards to the first question, I learned that the 'southern' accent is the largest accent group in the United States. The linguistic southern regions include: South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Southern Delaware, most of Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Missouri. I learned that the southern accent originated mainly because of the immigrants from the British Isles who moved to the South in the 17th and 18th century. When the immigrants settled, there were large numbers of Protestants from Ulster, Scotland, and Ireland. These settlements to the Unites States occurred as a result of major events such as the Dust Bowl, the Great Depression, and World War II. Its fascinating to see how certain accents are formed and in this case it was because of geographical location and of major historical events that forced the relocation of settlers. If these particular settlers settled in a different location and a different group settled the southern states, my family and I would have different accents today. If predominately French people choose to settle there, a southern accent would have evolved to something much different then what it is today. This helped me understand how this community developed, where it originated from and especially how it originated. I learned that my geographical location had a major impact on why Im apart of this community today. In regards to the answer of my second question, I learned that this accent is affiliated with many stereotypes like southerns are uneducated "hicks" or dumb "rednecks." This stereotype is common because of certain characteristics used in this community such as using improper English and slang words. This community uses saying such as That dont make no sense, and you dont know nutin. Because these sentences are improper, people infer that people who belong to this community are uneducated because they cant form properly structured sentences and assume they have a limited vocabulary. I discovered the answers to these questions by writing in my daybook, creating the wikispace and creating my speech video assignment. My daybook allowed me to express my views, ideas, and opinions about my community and my identity within it. Creating the wikispace allowed me to research and learn in detail about my community. This research answered the main questions I had about my community
and allowed me to better understand where it came from, how it originated and how I relate to it. My video allowed me to capture these ideas and confirm my research to be true and accurate. I was able to capture proof of how people within this community interact and talk. As I stated before, the most effective inquiry process that helped me better understand my speech community included the community video and the wiki readers guide. The wiki readers guide required me to do research which helped me learn more and understand my community better. The research allowed me to answer all my questions about the community and my video further demonstrated those answers. My video was simple and realistic because it was just two southern guys having a casual conversation. They had country accents and used the stereotypical southern words and phrases related to this speech community. It wasnt scripted so it gave a very raw and realistic idea of how this community talks and interacts with each other. I have learned that this speech community has many critiques and stereotypes that go along with it. When I was in elementary school, I remember raising my hand and telling my teacher that there was a spider on my desk. After I told her, I could hear faint giggles and fellow students mocking the way I pronounced spider. This personal experience taught me that different communities have different ways of speaking and communicating things. After I was made fun of, I attempted to get rid of my accent and talk like my fellow students. However, I learned not everyone talks the same so I wasnt an outcast. As I got older I found that there are many different speech communities and I shouldnt be ashamed of the one I belong to. This project only confirmed those beliefs and opinions and allowed me to evaluate and break down speech communities and increase my language awareness. My membership within this community is important because of that fact that half of my family are members and my geographical location creates the opportunity to remain apart of it. The different processes and sources I used to help me learn more and discover my community helped raised my language awareness. I never thought twice about the way people pronounced words and how those can identify people from different speech communities. Doing research increased my awareness of the language within my own community. My curiosity of this community lead to further knowledge of how it developed and why I am apart of it today.