Sujet 1 - Partie 1 · Bac Anglais, monde contemporain Métropole remplacement 2021
Thème : Faire société – Unité et pluralité · Tiré du sujet Métropole France remplacement (2021)
Énoncé
SUJET 1
Le sujet porte sur la thématique « Faire Société ».
Document A
The most attractive accents in the British Isles – mapped
YouGov asked British adults to say whether they think each of the 12 main accents of the British Isles are attractive or unattractive.
[YouGov is a private company conducting opinion polls and market research and operating mainly in the UK.]
Document B
Accent discrimination: you are what you speak
“It is impossible,” writes George Bernard Shaw in his preface to Pygmalion, “for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him.”
Pygmalion was first performed in 1913, and adapted into the brilliant Broadway musical My Fair Lady in 1956, but the play’s views on accents are more relevant than ever. An ITV/ComRes survey of 6000 adults across the UK found that 28% of British people feel discriminated against for their regional accent. Research by the law firm Peninsular concluded that 80% of employers admit to “making discriminating decisions based on regional accents.”
Why is this peculiarly niche 1 form of prejudice so widespread? Well, to start off, a distinction needs to be made between international accent discrimination and accent discrimination within the UK.
I get the pressure to sound “normal.” I moved from India to Canada when I was ten, and within two years I had lost my accent entirely. If you just heard me over the phone, for all intents and purposes I was a bona fide 2 Canuck 3. Being uprooted and transplanted into a different country at such a formative, impressionable age had some profound effects on my priorities – above all, I wanted to assimilate, and the best you can do as a visible minority is talk and act like people around you. [...]
Researcher Alex Baratta, author of a study on teacher accent and identity in schools in the south of England, calls accent discrimination in the UK “the last acceptable form of prejudice.” This might, in part, explain why it’s such a prevalent problem among so many people in the UK.
I’m not privileging one form of discrimination over the other, but I am making a distinction here: where international accent discrimination is fuelled by a predictably racist fear of the other, accent discrimination in the UK is motivated by classism and cultural connotation. That is to say, in Britain, it’s not so much what you sound like – it’s what’s associated with your accent, most notably socioeconomic class and education but also concepts as nebulous as friendliness and morality. The ITV/ComRes poll revealed that the Liverpudlian or Scouse accent was regarded as the least “intelligent,” the least “trustworthy,” and the least “friendly.” Cockney also ranks poorly in “intelligence” and “trustworthiness.”
It’s hardly a coincidence that five of the twenty most deprived areas of England are in Liverpool, or that the Cockney accent is inextricably associated with the working class.
The “Queen’s English”, or received pronunciation (RP), is ranked by far the highest in terms of “intelligence,” while Devon 4 is apparently the most “friendly.” The survey reveals a discrimination that runs along the fault lines of class and the north-south divide – which are to some extent synonymous biases, given that ten of the UK’s twelve most struggling cities are in the north and none are in the south.
The Saint, 10 November 2016
[ The Saint is an independent newspaper based in St Andrews, Scotland]
1 niche: (here) specialised
2 bona fide: real
3 Canuck is an informal word for “Canadian”.
4 Devon is located in the South West of England.
Document C
Partie 1
[16 pts] Prenez connaissance du dossier proposé, composé des documents A, B et C non hiérarchisés, et traitez en anglais le sujet suivant (500 mots maximum):
Taking into account their specificities and viewpoints, say what the documents show about the impact of both regional and foreign accents on how people are perceived by others. Pay attention to the different types of social pressure and discrimination which this creates.
Corrigé
Corrigé proposé par AprenAI (non officiel)
Taking into account their specificities and viewpoints, say what the documents show about the impact of both regional and foreign accents on how people are perceived by others. Pay attention to the different types of social pressure and discrimination which this creates.
Réponse : Sample Synthesis: Language and accent are often viewed as vital markers of individual identity and cultural heritage. However, the three documents under study reveal that spoken accent can also trigger prejudice, social stratification, and systemic discrimination. First, the dossier demonstrates how accents establish an implicit social hierarchy. Document A, a YouGov map measuring the perceived attractiveness of British accents, illustrates a stark contrast: standard Received Pronunciation (RP) and melodic accents such as Southern Irish or Welsh obtain strong positive scores, whereas urban, working-class dialects such as Brummie (-53), Scouse (-33), and Mancunian (-31) are overwhelmingly disliked. Document B, an analytical article from *The Saint*, echoes these findings by drawing upon George Bernard Shaw’s *Pygmalion*. It highlights that British linguistic prejudice is intrinsically linked to classism and a north-south socio-economic divide: Northern and working-class accents like Cockney or Scouse are systematically stereotyped as less intelligent or untrustworthy, whereas RP and affluent Southern speech denote high social standing and competence. Moreover, this perceived hierarchy leads to tangible discrimination and social pressure. As Document B points out, an alarming 80% of employers admit to discriminating based on regional accents, turning linguistic prejudice into what researcher Alex Baratta terms "the last acceptable form of prejudice." In addition, international and non-native accents are confronted with xenophobic attitudes and a persistent "fear of the other," leaving foreign speakers feeling permanently alienated and questioned about their belonging. Consequently, individuals experience intense pressure to conform. Document B's author recalls shedding his Indian accent within two years of moving to Canada in order to assimilate and survive as a visible minority. This societal anxiety is further capitalized upon by private enterprises, as illustrated by Document C, a commercial website advertising "accent reduction lessons." Both non-native speakers seeking to avoid repetitive questioning and native regional speakers striving to bypass negative stereotypes are encouraged to erase their linguistic particularisms to achieve social acceptance and career progression. In conclusion, the documents show that regional and foreign accents are rarely judged on purely phonetic terms; instead, they serve as proxies for class, geographical, and racial biases, forcing individuals to homogenize their speech in order to navigate an exclusionary society.
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