Letter: Dialectics

Sir: The excellent cartoon series lost its northern accent because it had been adapted to the teaching of English as a foreign language. The foreign students studying English are taught using Standard English because the exams they eventually have to take in their own countries, often as conditions of acceptance to further study courses abroad or even immigration procedures, are given in Standard English. The day the venerable examiners of the RSA, Cambridge University and the other numerous examining groups setting standards for foreign students start to set questions in Lancashire dialect, it will be perfectly legitimate to complain that the Wallace and Gromit cartoons have been somehow devalued.

Wallace and Gromit have not suffered some snobby toning-down, but have been transformed into a most enjoyable and effective tool for the teaching of English.

MARTIN WRAGG

Bristol