... member of a particular group: and one way of showing which group you belong to is by speaking its kind of language: 'using a groups language is putting on its uniform'.(Cook, 1979) This essay will analyse the language and dialects spoken by my study group in terms of language and power, language and class, language and hierarchies as well as language and ethnicity. In my study group we had individuals from Nigeria, India, Saudi Arabia and England. Although we all came from different backgrounds, we all spoke English but others had their mother tongue as their first language and therefore studied English as a second. It was also interesting to note that they all felt positive towards the English language as it is a powerful language spoken universally. 'The danger of stereotyping is therefore high. People can be disadvantaged by sounding disadvantaged- by speaking haltingly, or declining to use, whatever language ...

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