Sergio Rojo (Lund University)

Sociolinguistic research shows that adult speakers have attitudes towards different accents. For example, speakers of Standard British English are considered more ‘competent’ than speakers with a London accent. These associations were thought to appear during middle/late adolescence. Nevertheless, recent research shows that children’s sociolinguistic competence appears during childhood. However, we know very little about (i) how children develop attitudes towards accents and (ii) how linguistic exposure during development affects this process. The findings of a study that aims at answering these two questions will be presented. Data was collected in two British cities from children between the ages of 7- and 11-years. The results suggest that there is a relationship between linguistic exposure, being able to categorize accents and having stereotypes towards them.