Paul Roberts Speech Communities Summary

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In his essay "Speech Communities," Paul Roberts mentions the importance and impact speech communities have on an individual's form of speech. According to Paul Roberts language is always changing due to three distinct features: age, social class, and geography. All which are the basis for forming speech communities and causing then to eventually adapt and evolve.

When discussing the speech communities of a child, Roberts makes an intriguing point. He states that no matter what speech habits were engraved in a child from birth through its parents, they are all prone to change once they interact with a different speech community such as school. It is a change that exposes a child to a completely different form of speech from the one spoken