Received Pronunciation was integrated in schools and the teachers had “training in ethnographic methods of participant observation that allow him to hunt out the phonetic ‘defects’ peculiar to each locale and, once identified, to eliminate them within the classroom.”(pg. 263). I wonder how effective this ‘technique’ was in ‘correcting’ pronunciation in children if children usually imitate their peers’ speech and not those of authority.

On page 253, it states ‘They formulate speech and accent as ‘passports., as means of gaining access to ‘good circles”. I wonder how far can one get solely on speaking a certain way? Where does race, ethnicity or class interrupt the access this ‘passport’ provides?

Speech chains through mass media can exponentially speed up the rate of the chain, but not everything we hear is used. Do we only begin to adopt new vocabulary if we identify with the speaker or is it arbitrary? How?

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