Ting, S. H., & Puah, Y. Y. (2010, November 23-24). Young Hokkien speakers’ pride in their ethnic language and Mandarin. Proceedings of International Conference on Minority and Majority: Language, Culture and Identity, Kuching, Malaysia. (original) (raw)
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The Eurasia Proceedings of Educational and Social Sciences, 2016
The language policy in Nigeria granted English language the status of being the sole official language, and the language of instruction in the country. This approach influenced the educated people's competence, and subsequently, attitudes towards English and their native languages respectively. The study aims to investigate the perception of the Nigerian university students regarding the dominance of English over their indigenous languages and the role of the language policy of the country in this concern. The qualitative data collected by interviewing eight students from two universities in the Northern side of Cyprus answers the following questions: 1) what is the Nigerian university students' perceptions of the dominance of English over their national languages? 2)How do the Nigerian university students evaluate the language policy in their country and what they think about its potential effect on their national languages?The findings revealed that Nigerian university students use English frequently for both formal and informal contexts in their daily conversations. They also felt that their native language competence decreases gradually while their English mastery develops constantly. Although they hold positive attitudes towards English as the official language of Nigeria, they feel the need to reconsider the language policy and adopt the main national languages as official languages in addition to English. This study contributes to our understanding of multilingual people`s attitudes towards their heritage language and supports the research literature which shows that personal connection to the heritage language plays a significant role in individuals` attachment to the language rather than the actual proficiency of speakers.
The paper examined the attitudes of Hokkien speakers towards their vernacular language and Mandarin. The participants for the study were 50 students at a Malaysian university in Kuching, Sarawak who were of Hokkien parentage and spoke Hokkien. Data collected using the matched-guise technique were analyzed using a paired t-test to investigate whether the participants' attitudes towards these two languages were significantly different. The results showed that Mandarin was ranked significantly higher than Hokkien on both status and solidarity dimensions. The study revealed that, based on the participants' subconscious reactions to selected traits examined in the matched-guise technique, participants with a strong Hokkien identity are likely to perceive Hokkien speakers as less educated, having less leadership skills and more humorous than Mandarin speakers. As a group, the participants were found to have closer affinity to Mandarin speakers. The findings have implications on language maintenance efforts of speech communities concerned with diminished affiliation of the younger generation with vernacular languages.
and sociolinguistic reality of multi-or plurilingual communities (Kramsch
1991
Drawing on critical theories in linguistics (Fairclough, 1989, 1992), the concept of hegemony (Gramsci, 1971/1991) and mostly ecological linguistics, the authors aim to revisit the process of foreign language learning from the perspective of how learners position themselves in relation to the target language they learn/use (Firth & Wagner, 1997). Questioning the native speaker norms in second language acquisition , as indicated by theoretical considerations and empirical research (Cook, authors of the present paper delve into critical language awareness of foreign language speakers. This, as they claim, may be indicative of power relations inscribed in language use and manifested by learner positioning either as a legitimate language user (empowered) or, alternatively, as an incompetent learner/user (disem-powered and self-marginalized). The included research is a replica of the study carried out on foreign language teacher practitioners (see Lankiewicz, Wąsikiewicz-Firlej, & Szczep...