I attended a seminar led by Dr. Alex Baratta, Reader in Language and Education at the Manchester Institute of Education in the UK, titled "How Does Accent Change Our Identity? Can It Determine Our Future?" 

The talk centered around the distinction between linguistic realities and linguistic stereotypes. Dr. Baratta shared his research findings regarding prejudice against “broad accents" in both primary and secondary education settings in the UK. He reported instances where teachers were instructed to modify their accents or risk losing their jobs. He concluded by emphasizing the need to protect British English accents and called for individuals who speak non-standard varieties to be treated equally to those who use posh or standardized variants of English. Additionally, he stressed the importance of public education in debunking folk linguistic beliefs about linguistic capital as opposed to stigmatized forms of language.​