Chapter 5 inquiry

Michael Stubbs chapter about Sociolinguistic Concepts teaches us that people draw conclusions about people’s lives from the way that they speak. He touches on the fact that some teachers wrongfully have negative attitudes about the way their students speak. But overall, as a linguist he believes that all languages serve a purpose where they are used and for the reason they are used. He also believes that no language dialect is inferior to another.
Have you ever noticed how people talk differently when they are talking on the phone? My friends always make fun of me when I answer the phone when I don’t know who I’m talking to, or if it is someone important, they say I’m using my ‘grownup’ voice. If we were in an interview with our best friend sitting next to us, would that affect the way that we spoke to the interviewer? Why does a social occasion, as in talking on the phone or applying for a job, have to affect the way that we speak? Have you ever noticed that when people bring up the issue of differences in skin color, etc. that people seem to speed over the issue? Like when speakers or teachers mention skin color they speed up when they say that people are black/white/purple/yellow/etc. Michael Stubbs brings up the issue that we should teach our students, even though it is a touchy subject, that they will have to change the way they speak in order to not be looked down upon. We, as teachers, have to drop all social prejudices. It should not be hard to talk about the fact that people are different, but it is.