It's a tricky thing finding the boundary between mocking and respecting. I used to read stories at school and do voices, and sometimes there were regional variations in characters which needed to be suggested, so I did. But I had an argument once with another member of staff who was adamant that I shouldn't read "Albert and the Lion", which I believe was performed by Stanley Holloway who was not from the north, in the way it was written. she was of the opinion that it shouldn't be read at all except by native speakers, as it just doesn't sound right in Received Pronounciation, or Dartford Estuarine. But we are supposed to expose children to poems from other cultures, eg those written in West Indian patois - how do we do that if we can't read it as written?

The issue of singing in an accent doesn't affect me, as stated above. Though I have performed carols in Dartford Estuarine, to show the children that they do sound better if they put in the "t"s instead of glo''al stops, and use "th", unvoiced or voiced, instead of "f" or "v". That's not so much an accent, though. I do stress that the Kentish people in Anglo Saxon times spoke with the latter version, so they aren't wrong in their speech, but that singing performance needs to match what the writer intended. Wouldn't want to knock their heritage.

Penny