Five year olds 'link accents with intelligence'

Children as young as five already associate a "middle class" accent with being clever, a study has found.

Researchers at the University of Essex played samples of three accents - Yorkshire, Essex, and standard southern British English (SSBE) - to a group of 27 children to see how closely they link accents with intelligence.

The study found the children all associated the SSBE accent - typically described as middle class - with being clever.

The team of linguistic experts also measured the children's brain activity, looking at the speed of their answers to see how embedded their attitudes towards accents were.

Dr Ella Jeffries, from Essex's Department of Language and Linguistics, who led the research, said the study was a "vital first step" in understanding how attitudes towards language develop through childhood.

The study found that children who were exposed to a range of accents at home were more positive towards different accents.

"Our findings will add weight to calls for a better range of accents on children's TV and films to help address this bias," Dr Jeffries said.

The children involved in the study were all from Colchester, where the main University of Essex campus is located, and did not show any bias towards their home county's accent.

Other studies have shown that the children are likely to develop negative feelings towards Essex accents as they grow.

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