English language A-level accommodation theory

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  • Accommodation theory
    • Accommodation theory was developed by Howard Giles in the 1970s
      • It suggested that we adjust our speech to accommodate the person who we are talking to through convergence or divergence
        • Convergence- this is when we move our speech closer to that of the other person
          • Divergence- when people's speech moves further apart from one another increasing the social distance between them
            • Divergence has the effect of emphasising the differences between people. two supporters of rival football teams might exaggerate their accents in an argument for example
          • Convergence decreases the social distance between people
          • Someone with a posh accent may tone it down when speaking to someone else and this is downward convergence
          • Someone who isn't very posh may use stronger features in their speech which is called upward convergence
          • If both people converge towards each other than this is mutual convergence

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