Reflection

I have learned that many people try to sound more intelligent by changing their dialect. The survey went really well. The writing was a little hard because it is not easy to write about something based on numbers and survey data. Next time I would probably choose a research question that has more information to write about.

Recommendations

Further Research
I think new research questions about which dialect is used most needs to be investigated. I think we need to study how intelligent different dialects sound to different people.

Social Change
Based on what I have learned, I think we should change how we judge people with dialects other than our own. For example, we shouldn't think that someone is stupid just because they have a Southern accent or use Southern slang.

Conclusion

My conclusion is that the majority of people do change their dialect to sound more intelligent. Only 18 percent of everyone that took the survey said that the never change their dialect. 36 percent of everyone that took the survey said that they sometimes change their dialect to sound more intelligent. I think that for the majority of people who do change their dialect to sound more intelligent it depends on where they are and who they are with.

Survey

How often do you change your dialect to sound more intelligent?

Total Responses/Percent of Total
a. Very often 8/8.33%
b. Often 14/14.58%
c. Sometimes 36/37.50%
d. Rarely 20/20.83%
e. Never 18/18.75%

Total Not Answered: 0/0.00%
Total Respondents: 96/100.00%

There were a total of 96 participants in the survey. They are all 9th graders in Mrs. Bergman's class. There were 48 males and 48 females. 40 were black, 40 were white, 2 were asian, 2 were latino, 7 were mixed, and 5 were other.

Sources

These are the sources that I used and the information that I got from them.

:. "Do You Speak American . Words That Shouldn't Be? | PBS." PBS. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
-Social scientists estimate the number of U.S. dialects range from a basic three - New England, Southern and Western/General America - to 24 or more . Some researchers go so far as to suggest it's actually impossible to count the number of dialects in the United States because under a loose definition of the term, thousands of cities, towns and groups have their own varieties or dialects.

"Dialect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 Mar. 2010. .
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers.[1] The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors, such as social class.[2] A dialect that is associated with a particular social class can be termed a sociolect; a regional dialect may be termed a regiolect or topolect. The other usage refers to a language socially subordinate to a regional or national standard language, often historically cognate to the standard, but not a variety of it or in any other sense derived from it.
I also used Wikipedia for all of the different dialects.

How are dialects similar???

Many dialects sound the same. What makes those dialects different is slang and the order of the words. For example, Southern and Texan sound similar but Texans say "Fixin' tah" when Southern speakers say "Fixin' to". Someone who has a New Jersey accent will say "New Jeewrsey" bt the typical American will say "New Jersey".

What are dialects and what are all the dialects of English????

The definition of dialect is a variety of a language peculiar to a particular region or group within a larger community.Cultural
African-American Vernacular English (Ebonics), Latino, Pennsylvania Dutch, Boston, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Chicago, New York, Appalachian, Ozark, Southern, Cajun, Texan, Californian, and Hawaiian.