Chinese views on Erhua I'm already well acquainted with erhua (儿化) in putonghua, essentially appending 儿 to the ends of words (or reading it when 儿 isn't written, as sometimes people do with 花 or 八点 etc). Many of these words are infact standard in putonghua, as in 这儿, and 花儿 and so on, and erhua's usage is seen mainly in Beijing. Southern speakers often have replacements for these, such as a simple 花 for 花儿, and 这里 for 这儿.

In northern dialects, this is sometimes taken further, to words such as 事儿, 板儿砖, and even 明儿 sometimes to replace 明天.

This leads me to ask specifically how accepted erhua is. As a key element of the Beijing dialect, it's often seen on TV, and although not used as much in formal broadcasts, it is heard in words such as 这儿, as mentioned before. How do most speakers perceive erhua? Is it viewed as just dialectal differences, and non-standard, or is it more to the extent of being slightly more prestigious than other dialects (though obviously not truly standard and formal putonghua)?

Are there any native speakers who can try explain their sentiments towards erhua, and the opinions they draw from a speaker who uses it more than average?
Disagree on FortCpp's answer. 

Surely Beijing dialect is not putonghua, none dialect is considered as putonghua if you put it this way. 

I'd say Beijing dialect is very close(if not the most) to putonghua. 

Back to the question, erhua is part of the putonghua standard, no question about that. For instance, "小孩" sounds (really) strange without a '儿', in fact even if '儿' is not appear in the reference, you should pronounce it unless you're from Taiwan or something :)

I can't tell you the grammar rules but cases like above are not rare.

My opinion is, avoid using erhua in general and pay attention to those cases that must have it