"Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things."

Flora Lewis

English as an international language BBC English. Received Pronunciation (RP)

- "Received" is understood "accepted in the best society"
- is a prestige accent of an Englishman
- RP was at first typical for London area then it lost its local characteristics and was finally fixed as a ruling-class accent, often referred to as "Queen's English"
- It is also the accent taught at public schools
- A more broadly-based and accessible model accent for British English is represented as ВВС English**
- BBC is concidered to be the 'model' for English learners because it is easily understood

Task 3. Why was BBC English accepted as a international model language?
There is an enormous variety of accents of English in addition to those of 'British English', 'American English', 'Australian English' and so on, and you may be more likely to speak to people with 'Indian English', 'Singaporean English' or 'Russian English' pronunciation. It would be impossible, however, to learn to 'switch' your pronunciation each time you were talking to a speaker with a variety of English different from your own - to use an Australian English pronunciation with an Australian, or Chinese English pronunciation with a Chinese person. Consequently, it is useful to 'model' your pronunciation on one variety - but also recognise that this is just one of many equally acceptable varieties.

Task 4. You will hear speakers within international accents of English from five countries talking about their families. Where do you think they are from? Listen and write the name of the country in the space.
Speaker 1 is from______________________
Speaker 2 is from______________________
Speaker 3 is from______________________
Speaker 4 is from______________________
Speaker 5 is from______________________

Poland China India Japan Spain
*RP is widely regarded as a model for correct pronunciation, particularly for educated formal speech.
**This is the pronunciation of professional speakers employed by the BBC as newsreaders and announcers.

Published in Guidelines for Phonetics
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