When learning a foreign language, it is disconcerting to think of regional variation. RP is regarded to be the form of English pronunciation most widely recognised and understood within the British national community. Very few British people speak with a strict RP accent but most would recognise and understand it. This makes it the most suitable form of the spoken language to teach to those learning English as a foreign language. This is not to say that alternative pronunciations are to be regarded as wrong or invalid. Regional accents are well preserved in many parts of Britain. Modern linguists tend to prefer to take a descriptive rather than prescriptive approach to studying language, and as a result no one is likely to try actively to 'suppress' such regional variations. A number of regional accents are used in Britain. One major distinguishing feature is the pronunciation of certain sounds. For example, the Scots and Irish pronounce the 'r' consonant in all positions, whereas in RP 'r' is dropped before a consonant. In some dialects 'h' at the beginning of a word is often dropped. In England we can distinguish Northern, Midlands and South Western dialects. .
Different accents mark social class, speaker's life and career, and indicate the speaker's community values, with which he or she identifies. Subsequently, if accents mark social class, accents must have more or less social acceptance. That is why RP speakers are thought to be polite, well educated or ambitious. Dublin Irish and Edinburgh ranked next in social acceptance, and the table descends through Newcastle, Yorkshire, Cockney, Liverpool Scouse, Birmingham and Glaswegian accents. Take, scouse for example. Scouse is the dialect, which developed in Liverpool, an industrial town, in the nineteenth century. Scouse is very different form RP in its intonation. In scouse, there is a significant difference. A fall is regularly preceded by a preliminary rise, and a rise by a preliminary fall, which makes the language sound uneven.