Investigage how children develop awareness of social meaning in talk

In spoken language we can say the same word in many different ways. It is well established that this phonetic variation is
socially meaningful; variant phonetic forms hold social associations of class, ethnicity, and geographic region, and these can be
used as a resource in conversation. For example, in her study of adolescents in suburban Detroit, Eckert found that members of
the "burnout" group used the urban and working-class associations of vowel variation to illustrate qualities such as 'tough' and
'street-smart' and to distinguish themselves from the more school-focused "jocks" (Eckert, 2000; Eckert, 2012). I became very
aware of this use of variation to signal class-based meanings, to judge others and to differentiate groups during my time at the
University of Edinburgh. Whilst over a third of the university's population is privately educated, I come from a low-income
background and state school. Not only did I become hugely aware of the constraints on those from similar backgrounds and
interested in ways in which the attainment gap could be closed, but I also witnessed how accent and class interact to affect
identity formation and communication.
Historically, social class has played a large role in variation studies. It was initially assumed that a speaker's accent was
determined by their social class, but more recently sociolinguists have argued that micro-level linguistic choices cumulate into
macro-level class identities and structures (Snell, 2010, p630). Yet with these strong associations between class and the way
we speak, accent often becomes a proxy for social stereotypes and a target for discrimination (Coupland & Bishop, 2007;
Kalin, Rako & Love, 1980). By understanding how children learn to use and perceive the class-based meanings of phonetic
variation in conversation, we can look to prevent linguistic prejudice and the effects it has on a child's development.
However, whilst the acquisition of variation has become a 'hot topic' in recent years, few have researched the ways in which
children use and perceive variation in a socially meaningful way. For example, Smith & Durham explore how and when
children acquire t-glottaling as a variant of the phoneme /t/, but do not question their understanding of what this means socially
(Smith & Durham, 2019). Similarly, Paquette-Smith et al. (2019) find that children as young as 5 years have social preferences
based on accent (see also Kinzler, 2009), but once again do not ask why. Although acquisition research aims to understand
how children gain adult-like communication skills, few studies have considered that the link between language and social
meaning is an essential part of communication.
My project will investigate how children develop awareness of social meaning in talk. In a series of studies, I will investigate
(1) when children recognise the class-based associations between certain features, (2) how this affects their perception of
others, and (3) how they use such variation as a resource in conversation. The idea that adults use variation in this way is now
mainstream in sociolinguistics, but we have little understanding of how children develop sociolinguistic awareness. My study
will not only add to our understanding of language acquisition and developmental research, but also to sociolinguistics.
Outside of linguistic research, my findings will also benefit social class studies in the UK and those working to challenge
accent bias, especially in education. If accent bias limits who children interact with, research can raise awareness of harmful
stereotypes, prevent linguistic discrimination, and support interaction across socioeconomic backgrounds. Similarly, much like
Snell's work has done, this research can be used to challenge the notion that the speech of working-class children is
'impoverished (Snell 2010, 2008).