'Correcting’ speech in the classroom?

As a linguist, I wholeheartedly believe that there is no “correct” way of speaking. My views are open and I embrace dialects and accents in all shapes and forms. In fact, I love them.

In the classroom however, I have found myself facing a dilemma:

Well, one thing I know for certain is that I have found it is really hard to have both.

Throughout the 20th century there was a strong belief that standard English grammar and a received pronunciation (RP) accent was the “correct” way of using English in speech.

This perceived correctness (to simplify socio-history hugely) was a by-product of the strong class system in the UK – we as a society decide what is correct and what is not. The difficulty is that regional accents and dialects are stereotypically associated with somewhat negative ideas (Trudgill 1970, Petyt 1985).