The Role of Correct Pronunciation

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Correct pronunciation plays a great role in the English way of life. The way individuals speak is influenced by such things as social background, age, level of education and so on. Besides, there are some things about Britain that make sense only to the British. And perhaps the strangest one is social class. There are 3 main class divisions in Britain such as upper, middle and lower or working class with some in-between variations: upper-middle, middle-middle… and people in Britain are very conscious of class differences, because different classes tend to eat different food at different time of the day, they like to talk about different topics, enjoy different pastimes and sports. The easiest way to guess the class to which the person belongs to is to listen to the way he or she speaks. A person’s accent in Britain is an identity card. Your accent and terminology reveal the class you were born into and raised in, not anything you have achieved through your own talents or efforts. In England, for example, a class has nothing to do with money and very little to do with occupation: speech is all important. A person with an upper class accent, using upper-class terminology, will be recognized as upper class even if he or she is earning poverty-line wages, doing grubby menial work and living in a run-down council flat. Or even unemployed or homeless. The most glaring example of the importance of the linguistic codes was described by Bernard Shaw in his outstanding play "Pygmalion". The main character of “Pygmalion”, Professor Henry Higgins, said that men begin in Kentish Town with 80 pounds a year and ended in Park Lane with a hundred thousand, then they want to drop Kentish Town, but they gave themselves away every time they open their mouths. And whatever they do accomplish their position on the class scale will always be identifiable by their speech unless
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