Language Attitudes Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Mixed methods research (MMR) is currently on the rise in the social sciences. This paper provides a theoretical discussion and a practical illustration of MMR in the social psychological study of language attitudes. First, I review perceived obstacles to MMR -in particular, the 'incompatibility thesis' , whereby quantitative and qualitative methods are assumed to clash epistemologically. I propose an alternative account by which qual and quan research on language attitudes can be integrated on a common theoretical basis that holds attitudes to constitute interactionally processed 'human epistemological constructs' (HECs). I apply this approach in MMR on Austrian German, where I integrate a qual analysis of language-attitudinal HECs found in discourse data with a quan speaker evaluation experiment designed to corroborate the qual exegesis.

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- Social Psychology, Sociology of Language, Sociolinguistics, Critical Realism

This mixed-method (questionnaires and interviews) study investigated the attitudes of teachers of English across different level of institutes in Hong Kong towards HKE; the study includes both local English Teachers (LETs) and Native English Teachers (NETs). By analyzing both qualitative data and quantitative data from 100 questionnaires and 28 individual interviews, it is shown that both NETs and LETs had a generally positive attitude towards HKE although LETs showed a ‘bi-polar attitude’ when it comes to using HKE in class. Results also showed that NETs and LETs had different foci in pronunciation teaching and their teaching may be altered by their attitudes towards HKE. Further research should be done from teachers’ perspective because teachers play an influential role in executing teaching plans; their attitudes towards language may affect their students in long term.

This paper investigates the role of English in Japan, outlining its current status and use. The paper begins with a critical review of the World Englishes model as it relates to the categorization of Japan within the expanding circle of English use and continues with a brief history of English language contact with the country. It then examines the changing role of English in the Japanese education system and media. This is followed by a discussion of the influence of English on the Japanese language as well as the role which the English language plays within the discourses of nihonjinron and kokusaika. The paper concludes with a call for empirical research to be conducted investigating the spread, acquisition and attitudes towards English in Japan.

- by Robert M. McKenzie
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- Japanese Studies, Sociolinguistics, Applied Linguistics, World Englishes

This paper investigates young learners " attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language (EFL) under different learning conditions. It reports on the findings of a quantitative study conducted between two comparable groups of Greek young learners (N=88), following English instruction, while attending Grade 6 in two primary schools with quite distinct approaches to teaching English. The data was collected with the help of a questionnaire, which explored the learners " attitudes towards the English language and learning English as well as their motivation to learn English. The results illustrate clearly that favourable learning conditions can spur learners " positive disposition towards the process of language learning at school.

The present study explores how translanguaging serves as vehicle to (help) re-con gure linguistic attitudinal and ideological structures in a university Spanish course for heritage speakers. Speci cally, it focuses on the links between exposure to (and engagement in) classroom translanguaging and the participants' challenging of  Listen   Log in | Register  In this article 2/7/2020 Exploring the role of translanguaging in linguistic ideological and attitudinal reconfigurations in the Spanish classroom for heritage speakers: Classroom … https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/NJIYBXNBHMYKVBMVYPDW/full?target=10.1080/19463014.2019.1628793 2/34 engagement in) classroom translanguaging and the participants challenging of traditional monoglossic ideologies governing folk imaginary regarding language purity, standard, and appropriate academic discourse. Three class meetings worth of classroom ethnographic observations (among 17 students), and eight semi-structured individual interviews were transcribed and analysed via directed qualitative analysis. Departing from four predetermined categories (i.e. language attitudes, language ideologies, belief change, and translanguaging instances) the linguistic attitudinal and ideological dynamics among the participants were investigated. Results are weaved into a narrative which evolves around three main categories: (1) language attitudes and ideologies prior to entering the classroom, (2) attitudinal and ideological changes and their link to translanguaging, and (3) considerations about translanguaging in academic settings and academic discourse. Findings unveil a double-action whereby translanguaging creates a sociolinguistic frame that challenges widely held linguistic attitudes and ideologies about the nature of exible linguistic practices, as it stimulates their normalization and inclusion in a context that has traditionally been closed to such practices.

- by Josh Prada
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- Language Attitudes, Language Ideologies, Bilingualism, Heritage Language Speakers

Language attitude study has proven to reveal students' success and failure in learning language. Attitude is not innate, but learned. Students learn to grow and improve their positive language attitudes towards foreign languages through certain programs at schools. The aim of this research is to investigate the language attitude of students in an Indonesian Islamic boarding school towards English as a foreign Language and to describe why they have the attitude. The respondents were 49 students of 2 nd grade of senior high school classes from HAC (High-Achieving Class) and LAC (Low-Achieving Class). The design of this research was mixed method using explanatory sequential design. To obtain the data, the instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of cognitive, affective and conative components of language attitudes. Interview was carried out to acquire the reason the students had the attitudes. The finding was both HAC and LAC students' language attitudes were mostly positive (91.83%) in cognitive, affective and conative language attitudes. Some (8.17%) had different language attitudes. They showed positive language attitudes, but acquired low scores and showed negative language attitudes, but acquired high scores. The interview revealed this phenomenon.

The present dissertation investigates the Sardinian language policy, focusing on the language beliefs and attitudes of a specific educational institution’s teaching staff. Language policy is considered to be composed of language practices, language beliefs and language management (Spolsky, 2004), and speakers’ beliefs and attitudes are thought to be capable of conditioning the success of language management provisions (Baker, 1992; Spolsky, 2009). The language planning initiatives carried out by the Sardinian authorities have been trying to promote the use of Sardinian in various public settings, especially in schools, and therefore, teachers’ language ideologies and attitudes might be particularly important for their implementation. The data – obtained from questionnaires and interviews – show that participants see Sardinian positively at a general level, because that language is part of their identity and cultural heritage. Furthermore, teachers acknowledge the importance of a plu...

- by Piergiorgio Mura
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- Sociolinguistics, Language Attitudes, Language Policy

Research from populations around the world on attitudes to varieties of English is essential in order to have a better understanding of how the complexities of globalization play a role in the form of English as a world language. To that end, university students in China were asked to name countries around the world where they believe English is spoken and indicate what kind of impression they have of those varieties without the presentation of voice stimuli. This type of data elicitation enables the participants themselves to provide the researcher with evaluative categories and avoids problems associated with using voice stimuli. The results indicate that the effect of the cultural hegemony of US English as a variety is complex, and that, contrary to assumptions, US English is unlikely to be a model for a 'standard' variety of world English in the traditional sense.

- by Betsy E. Evans
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- Language Attitudes, attitudes to English

The purpose of this article is to show the changing dynamics of attitudes toward indigenous languages in the USSR and the Russian Federation. Since language attitudes have rarely become a special object of investigation in Russian sociolinguistics, the article dwells on theoretical issues of language attitudes studies. Then the author briefly describes attitudes to indigenous languages in the USSR and in the Russian Federation and their close correlation with the state language policy. As an argument confirming the change in language attitudes, the author brings results of a psychosociolinguistic experiment conducted in the Republic of Buryatia in 2013. More explicit and detailed argumentation is provided using the case of languages of peoples of the North focusing on boarding schools for northern peoples in Russia and Finland. The author comes to the conclusion that Finland has switched to practical measures to preserve and develop the Sámi language, while in Russia the corresponding changes can be observed only at the level of attitudes to indigenous languages, and the majority of languages of the peoples of the North are in different stages of language shift. Generally, the article concludes about two opposite trends in Russia: one towards the policy of centralization and support of the state (Russian) language, another one is seen in the gradual change of language attitudes towards greater tolerance and appreciation of linguistic diversity and in the increase in language activism.

The study elucidates young Cypriot speakers' attitudes towards the Cypriot dialect by asking them to describe then recognize specific characteristics from all linguistic levels . As it turns out they fail to identify local characteristics as typical of the dialect but instead focus on characteristics that tend to be found in the urban variety of Cypriot.

- by Marilena Karyolemou
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- Dialectology, Language Attitudes, Greek Cypriot Dialect

Standard Dutch, the key to integration in Flanders? About the challenges posed by non-standard Dutch to language learners in Flanders Flanders strongly encourages newcomers to take language courses to learn the official language, on the assumption that certified competence in Dutch will enhance integration. However, in Dutch L2-education the focus lies on Standard Dutch, and this contrasts to everyday spoken encounters in Flanders, where Standard Dutch is rarely used. Despite the perceived importance of learning the official language of the host society, the attested contrast between policy and language reality has up to now not been given much attention. In this publication we go into the results of a linguistic-ethnographic study conducted with language learners living in East-Flanders. We show that non-standard Dutch used by L1-speakers of Dutch sometimes causes comprehension difficulties in their interactions with the language learners. Based on interactional and interview data, we reflect on the question if L2-education should pay more attention to non-standard Dutch in class.

- by Chloé Lybaert and +1
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- Second Language Acquisition, Language Variation and Change, Linguistic ethnography, Language Attitudes

Authenticity in global reggae and dancehall music: Jamaican attitudes toward the linguistic appropriation of Jamaican Creole The global spread of Jamaican Creole (JC) has been accelerated by the growing international popularity of reggae music, Rastafarianism, as well as the globalization of the sound system in dancehall culture. Eventually, non-Jamaican artists began to "cross" (Rampton 1995) into JC during their performances (Gerfer 2018). While crossing has already been extensively studied in the context of hip-hop music (Eberhardt & Freeman 2015), attitudes toward the use of JC by non-Jamaican reggae and dancehall artists and the question of authenticity are still understudied fields in sociolinguistic research. In the context of music performances, authenticity proves to be a highly complex concept which depends on multiple factors, such as music genre, an artist's origin and linguistic background, and audience expectations. In order to elicit Jamaicans' attitudes toward the linguistic appropriation of JC by non-Jamaican reggae and dancehall artists, interviews with Jamaican university students are conducted. The participants listen to seven sound samples (six non-Jamaican artists and one Jamaican one) which provide the basis for questionnaire-based interviews. These interviews serve to answer the following research questions: 1) Do the Jamaican participants notice that the majority of the sound samples are taken from non-Jamaican artists? Which linguistic and non-linguistic factors trigger their perception? Do they find the artists' language behavior authentic? 2) How do the Jamaican participants evaluate the use of JC by non-Jamaican artists? Preliminary results show that those artists who use a wide range of phonological, morpho-syntactic, and idiomatic expressions as well as Dread Talk (Pollard 2009) are perceived as more authentic than others. Especially songs dealing with Rastafarian topics are thought to be authentically Jamaican. Jamaican university students tend to welcome the use of JC by non-Jamaican reggae and dancehall artists. They feel the artists appreciate the language, use it successfully, and promote a positive image of Jamaica. Those who perceive it as negative state that the artists do not treat JC with respect but take advantage of it for the purpose of amusement without considering the historical context of Jamaican culture and language. References Gerfer, A. (2018). Global reggae and the appropriation of Jamaican Creole. World Englishes, 37(4), 668-683.

- by Anika Gerfer
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- Sociolinguistics, Language Attitudes, Jamaican Creole, Dancehall Music

Media are powerful tools in influencing public opinions and attitudes, and issues surrounding language(s) are no exception (e.g. Kelly-Holmes 2012). Without questioning this impact, this study attempts to examine more closely the link between popular ways of thinking and textual media representations, by taking as an example the representations and attitudes towards multilingualism.
Studying representations of multilingualism in British public discourse is an endeavor of high social relevance. Britain is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Europe and this diversity is sometimes celebrated (Milani et al. 2011). At the same time, the knowledge of languages is considered problematic and, sometimes, iconically associated with negative events or undesirable forms of behavior (Blackledge 2004). In addition, research concerned with the thematising of multilingualism has shown that media are vehicles of such ambiguous representations, in that they tend to reduce the complexity of multilingual practices to a few essentialist images or myths (Ensslin and Johnson 2006, Lanvers and Coleman 2013). These different representations projected in the media have therefore the potential to influence the public attitudes towards multilingualism.
There is already a considerable body of sociolinguistic research on language attitudes in multilingual settings. However, most of this work either focuses on specific language varieties or it is mainly concerned with language learning and educational policies (Siemund, Gogolin, Schulz & Davydova 2013; Rindler Schjerve & Vetter 2012; Varcasia 2011; Ibarraran, Lasagabaster & Sierra 2008; Lasagabaster & Huguet 2007). The focus of this study is not on a particular linguistic variety, but on multilingualism as a social phenomenon and on attitudes towards living in a multilingual speech community.
Firstly, we are interested in the discourses about bi- and multilingualism disseminated in British national newspapers. Secondly, we examine the extent to which the media representations are shared and/ or refuted in the views of general public. To do so, we adopted a multi-method approach which combines the tools of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis (CADS) with a sociolinguistic attitude survey. A large corpus of 664 articles from the major British national newspapers discussing bi- and multilingualism and published since 1990 was compiled and explored by studying keywords and their collocational profiles. Salient discourses identified in this way were then fed into the creation of an online survey, which was distributed to 200 mono- and multilingual people living in a large urban city in the South of England.
The analysis and cross-checking of the results have demonstrated that certain media discourses surrounding multilingualism, especially those related to ‘elite bilingualism’ seems to be endorsed by the general public. At the same time, the general public seems to agree with some of the ‘concerns’ that are often linked with multilingualism in the media, including social cohesion and immigration. Differences in the attitudes of monolingual vs. multilingual participants were also identified.
The results of this study emphasise the importance of raising the general public’s awareness about multilingualism through the media, in order to further boost positive attitudes and to encourage linguistic and cultural integration in a multilingual city.

- by Christiana Themistocleous
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- Media Studies, Multilingualism, Corpus Linguistics, Language Attitudes

The objective of this study is three-fold, namely (1) to describe the language attitude of the students of the German Education Department and the English Department towards Sundanese; (2) to describe their language choices between Indonesian and Sundanese in communicating in both formal and informal situations that represent their language attitude, and ; (3) to describe the implications of these attitudes for Sundanese language maintenance. This is a survey with the 39 respondents from the German Department of UPI and 36 respondents from the English Department of STKIP Subang. This study used a random sampling technique. The instrument used was based on the Likert scale. Data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and interpreted qualitatively. This study shows that (1) the students a positive attitude towards the Sundanese language. This is indicated by the mean of the scores of the students' language attitude, namely 86.2% which is higher than the mean of the scores, 72%. The positive language attitudes consist of language faith (36%), language pride (34%) and consciousness of language norms (30%); (2) the students tend to speak more Sundanese to communicate in informal situations, particularly among family members, neighbours and students from the Sundanese ethnic group. Meanwhile, Indonesian was chosen as a communication tool in formal situations, particularly in education settings; (3) it is important to sustain efforts to nurture good and correct Sundanese and develop Sundanese in order to absorb modern science and knowledge.

- by Iman Santoso and +2
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- Language Attitudes, Sikap Bahasa

This paper focuses on the variety of Italian spoken in Bozen (South Tyrol, Italy) by Italian L1 speakers. Due to the peculiar multilingual situation of South Tyrol, Italian speakers are concentrated in the big towns of this area (e.g. Bozen), whereas the majority of Tyrolean people speak German or German dialects. Leaving apart the interaction problems between the two speaking groups, this work focuses on Italian community settled in Bozen by emphasizing the composition of their linguistic repertoire, and the differences among the districts of the town, also in terms of linguistic identity.
For this purpose, the few data actually at disposal on this linguistic variety will be analyzed, in order to highlight the presence and use of Italo-Romance dialects by Italian speakers. A field work on this variety has never been carried on before, thus all previous statements were based only on aprioristic assumption (i.e. they were not data-driven). Without data of sort, scholars assumed the absence of spoken Romance dialects in the variety of Italian spoken in Bozen, basing on the belief that Italian speakers were not originally settled in this town.
Arguing against those previous assumptions, this paper will show how dialects constitute a central part of Italian linguistic identity in the multilingual setting of South Tyrol, as it emerges from a collection of expressions collected in the so-called “Slang of Bozen”, and from speakers’ linguistic perceptions recorded during face-to-face interviews. The results of this study point out that a large number of dialects are used inside the family, and sometimes also for informal communication, whereas some words and expressions are more largely used as part of a we-code characteristic of the Italians of Bozen.

- by Loreta Vaicekauskienė
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- Social Identity, Language Variation and Change, Media, Language Attitudes

Avec un nombre croissant de nouveaux arrivants chaque année, le Québec est devenu la société d'accueil de milliers d'immigrants de diverses origines culturelles dont plusieurs ne maîtrisent pas le français (Amireault, 2011). Il est important d'outiller adéquatement ces immigrants pour faciliter leur intégration; le ministère de l'Immigration, de la Diversité et de l'Inclusion met à leur disposition différentes stratégies pour atteindre cet objectif. Également, Calinon (2010) mentionne que les cours de français langue seconde du gouvernement du Québec visent à favoriser «l'insertion sociale et économique des immigrants grâce aux connaissances linguistiques et culturelles dispensées » (p.129). D’ailleurs, plusieurs chercheurs se sont déjà questionnés sur la relation entre un apprenant en langue et le monde social qui l'entoure (McKay et Wong, 1996; Norton Peirce, 1995). La langue n'est pas un moyen neutre de communication, elle est étroitement liée au contexte social dans lequel les gens l'utilisent (Norton, 2000).
Une entrevue individuelle semi-dirigée avec des apprenants au stade intermédiaire, inspirée des études d'Amireault (2007), Jaidev (2011) et Norton Peirce (1995), a été réalisée. C’est une étude qualitative, empirique et exploratoire, en lien avec le Programme-cadre de français pour les personnes immigrantes adultes au Québec du ministère de l'Immigration et des Communautés culturelles (MICC, 2011). Selon les données obtenues, tous les participants affirment parler davantage en français dans leur vie quotidienne que lors de leur arrivée au Québec. Par contre, ils ont majoritairement des difficultés en compréhension orale, ce qui démontre la nécessité de l'enseignement d'une variété plus familière du français québécois afin de les aider dans leurs interactions avec les locuteurs québécois à l'extérieur des salles de cours (Veilleux, 2012; Boucher, 2012). Ils ajoutent qu’il leur faudrait avoir un travail ainsi qu'un réseau social pour arriver à s'intégrer (Pagé et Lamarre, 2011; Calinon, 2009; Lapierre-Vincent, 2004; Renaud, 2001; Piché et Bélanger, 1995).

- by NILOUFAR ATAEEPOUR
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- Second Language Acquisition, Francophonie, France, Language Attitudes

Data on the perceptions of language utility held by church leaders, missionaries and church members in south-western Burkina Faso illuminate a complex use of language ideology in an ongoing intra-church conflict. I suggest that the discourses used by missionaries and church leaders reflect competition over the theological resources needed to address linguistic diversity within the church. Many Western missionaries hold to an essentializing ideology that connects the vernacular with identity and spiritual authenticity, thus functioning to contain diversity within the church through the idealization of linguistically homogenous congregations, and to obscure unequal access to resources for ideological legitimization by re-casting missionaries as agents of cultural revitalization and dismissing alternative conceptions of church as insufficiently indigenous.

- by Anicka Fast
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- Sociolinguistics, Mission Studies, Ecclesiology, Language Attitudes

Parents' assessment of children's development in the first and the second language is an essential part of their family language policy (FLP) and an important component of parent–child communication. This paper presents a pilot study focused on Russian-speaking immigrant parents' assessment of their children's language knowledge in Russian as a first language and Hebrew as the second language in the context of their FLP. The research questions were as follows: How is parents' assessment of their children's bilingual language development linked to their choice of bilingual versus monolingual preschool education? To what degree are parents' reports of their children's language knowledge similar or different to their children's actual language knowledge? Which domains of language knowledge do parents relate to or ignore when assessing their children's language development? The sample consisted of 27 children (14 from bilingual and 13 from monolingual kindergartens), and their parents. Two sets of measurements were used, one to obtain parents' reports on child's knowledge of Russian and Hebrew and the other to assess children. The finding points out parents' insensitiveness to the length of the children's utterances and their tendency to rationalise FLP by overestimating their children's general language knowledge.

Die Studie untersucht den Zusammenhang zwischen Sprachverwendung, sozialer Positionierung und kollektiver Identitätsbildung in Weißrussland zwischen dem Weißrussischen, Russischen und der weißrussisch-russisch gemischten Rede (Trasjanka). Die soziodemographische und ökonomische Struktur der drei „Kodes“ wird mittels Umfrage und Interviews bei drei Generationen erfasst. Die Konstellation ist grundlegend diglossisch: Russisch herrscht im öffentlichen Raum, die Trasjanka viel stärker als bisher angenommen im privaten (besonders bei der älteren Generation). Weißrussisch ist völlig marginalisiert. Für die spezifisch weißrussisch-kollektive Identität, die durchaus festzustellen ist, spielt keiner der Kodes eine nennenswerte Rolle, bestenfalls das Weißrussische auf symbolisch-musealer Ebene.

- by Jan Patrick Zeller and +1
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- Sociology of Language, Sociolinguistics, Language Variation and Change, Slavic Languages

The topic of this study is the language situation of third-generation Turkish immigrants in Germany with a focus on heritage language maintenance, language shift, language choice, and attitude. Third generation Turkish immigrants will fill out a questionnaire where they will be answering questions regarding their extent of language use of Turkish and German, their language proficiency in each language, the domains in which they use Turkish or German, their attitudes towards the two languages, and the factors that support the use of either language.

Spanish is the first or heritage language of many Latinx in the U.S., whether speakers are fluent in it or not. Even though Spanish is the most frequently spoken language after English (U.S. Census), it continues to be publicly repressed and stigmatized. Since the 2016 elections, there has been an increase in anti-immigrant climate and Anglo-centric rhetoric, as well as an explicit attack to Spanish and bilingualism in the U.S. Ironically, Spanish has functioned as a resource exclusively for those in positions of power, for political or economic advantages, yet it is considered unpatriotic to use Spanish as a “symbol of a positive Latino ethnic identity” (García, 1993).
Given the current political climate, in this paper we study Latinx’s use of Spanish in public spaces since Trump became president. We examine whether there has been a recent shift in the attitudes of young Latinx heritage language speakers toward using Spanish. Data from Arizona and California helps us shed light on how diverse Latinx communities are negotiating language use in the face of immigrant stress, especially as there are increased racial attacks, linguistic discrimination and linguistic profiling since the last elections (Flores, 2018; Holguín-Mendoza, Oliver Rajar, Vergara-Wilson, 2017; Zarate, 2018).

Studies of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) suggest that some speakers of ELF are willing to mark their (national) identity in their ELF pronunciation, while others want to strive for native models (e.g. Jenkins 2009). A recent study (Stanojević and Josipović 2010) confirms this, suggesting that liberalism vs. non-liberalism towards ELF among Croatian university students is based on their major. In this paper we show that there may be a more pervasive process at play behind the liberal vs. non-liberal attitudes to ELF, namely identity construction. Based on the results of a questionnaire conducted among secondary school pupils, university students and employees of a company, we show that different attitudes to one’s own accent, the accent of one’s collocutors and teaching models primarily hinge on belonging to different groups of participants: learners vs. speakers of ELF. Our results support a non-monolithic, stratified ELF model, which changes along with the needs and identity construction of its speakers.

- by Višnja Smojver and +1
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- Sociophonetics, Language Attitudes, Identity Construction, English Pronunciation

This paper presents the results of a survey on the attitudes of young British people (age range 18-25) towards the learning of the UK’s regional languages. A combined quantitative and qualitative questionnaire was administered to 71 respondents, who were all born and spent the majority of their youth in Britain. It was found that overall attitudes to regional languages are largely positive and that a great proportion of the target group reported they were potentially willing to learn one of the regional languages. Cultural identity and a desire to integrate with the community were identified as major contributors to willingness to learn. A major factor for unwillingness to learn was “lack of real need” (i.e. the ability to get by with English). The paper also looks at the distribution of these attitudes against gender, age and education, all of which were significantly related. Further, respondents already speaking a regional language were found to have more favourable attitudes overall.

there is a community in which members consider themselves a cultural and linguistic minority with ASL as a language. The members naturally gravitate toward each other because of their shared experience of deafness and of the bond they share through communicating in ASL. Nevertheless, the Deaf community is not entirely composed of deaf ASL signers who were born to deaf parents, exposed to ASL during the critical age of language acquisition, and attended deaf school. Many members of the community have hearing parents and have attended mainstream education programs that might use English-based signing systems or contact signing instead of ASL. Some members are late deafened, meaning that they were exposed to spoken English in the earlier years of their lives before they lost their hearing. Some members were raised to communicate orally before they decided to learn ASL. With the diversity in the Deaf community in terms of education, family, and social backgrounds, it is likely that they have different ideas of what ASL is and who uses ASL and the differences may explain the attitudes they possess about ASL. This raises the research question in the study: What are the linguistic and social factors that govern attitudes toward signing in the American Deaf community? Deaf Studies Today! 2012: Beyond Talk, Utah Valley University 2 This question is important to consider because nowadays there are different viewpoints in the American Deaf community regarding the acceptance of the signing forms and features that are deemed standard or vernacular as ASL and the rejection of the forms and features as not ASL (typically English-based). The social factors are also important to consider because identities are stereotypically associated with the types of signing possessing particular forms and features. Attitudes toward language varieties are generally influenced by the process of language standardization (Garrett 2010: 7). When one language variety is deemed "standard," that impacts (usually devalues) the status of other language varieties and of social groups using those language varieties in a particular context (ibid) and members of society, regardless of their social status, consciously or unconsciously "subscribe to the ideology of the standard language" (Milroy 2001: 535)

- by Joseph Hill
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- Deaf studies, Sociolinguistics, American Sign Language, Language Attitudes

The optimal language for literature and educational materials is not the same for all Zay areas. The data gathered during the current study points to Zay as optimal for the islands on Lake Ziway and Oromo as optimal for the lakeshores. However, the Zay people living on the islands would probably be well served by Amharic literature and educational materials until most of them immigrate to the shore or the Oromo educational system causes a shift in preference to Oromo. Zay’s case is one of an endangered language that could prove to be a development success story, but only if the level of motivation for a language development project is high enough to initiate and sustain the effort.

- by Linda Jordan
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- Multiculturalism, Languages and Linguistics, Semitic languages, Multilingualism

Multilingualism is the absolute norm in the everyday-experienced life of participants in German language courses in the field of adult education (Council of Europe 2001). Yet, this does not seem to have direct effects on the didactic implementation of this multilingual resource. In light of relevant approaches to foreign and second language education, this article discusses the attitudes towards multilingualism of course instructors for German as a Second Language in Germany, drawing on a quantitative study with 884 participants. The study shows that one third of the respondents present a consistent and marked monolingual habitus.

This book offers fresh insights into secondary school students' attitudes to learning modern foreign languages in different countries. In a clear and evidence-based manner, and with the power of a comparative perspective, it draws out... more

- by Brendan Bartram
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- Modern Languages, Education, Learning and Teaching, Curriculum Studies

RESUMEN Esta investigación analiza las actitudes lingüísticas de Ñani Migrante, una comunidad transnacional de San Jerónimo Xayacatlán-Staten Island, frente a la lengua mixteca, mediante la observación de las dinámicas lingüísticas, así como del uso real y simbólico del mixteco, para comprender cómo estas actitudes afectan la vitalidad de esta lengua en la comunidad de origen. Para esta tesis, se entrevistó a 15 miembros de la comunidad transnacional: cinco residentes en Staten Island, Nueva York, fundadores de Ñani Migrante, y diez habitantes de San Jerónimo Xayacatlán, Puebla. A partir de la entrevista a profundidad y de las observaciones realizadas durante el trabajo de campo, se propone una tipología de las actitudes lingüísticas encontradas en la comunidad, las cuales se engloban en cinco temas y están relacionados con diferentes factores, donde el más predominante es el social. De esta manera, se concluye que la interacción entre los residentes de la comunidad de origen y la comunidad de llegada da lugar a una "importación" de actitudes lingüísticas positivas hacia el mixteco, lo cual ha producido un cambio de actitud en la comunidad de origen, lo que ha generado iniciativas comunitarias de preservación de la lengua. (Palabras clave: mixteco, actitudes lingüísticas, comunidad transnacional, vitalidad lingüística)

This article applies the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2007) and the Extra-and Intra-territorial Forces (EIF) Model (Buschfeld & Kautzsch 2017; Buschfeld et al. 2018) to Standard English in Trinidad based on the findings of a large-scale attitude study. The results suggest that, in the educational domain in Trinidad, a multidimensional norm orientation with coexisting standards that incorporates exo-and endonormative tendencies is prevalent. The Dynamic Model is not fully able to explain the findings, but the EIF Model can account for this norm complexity. However, the assumption underlying both models that postcolonial Englishes prototypically achieve (full) endonormativity unless their development is stalled at an earlier stage or even reversed is unlikely to fully capture the norm developmental processes in Trinidad and other complex postcolonial speech communities. We therefore propose an extension of the EIF Model that, depending on the constellation, directionality, and continuity of different sets of forces, allows for multinormative stabilization as an alternative development. We also introduce translocality as an alternative theoretical framework for the conceptualization of forces and argue for a more comprehensive understanding of intra-varietal heterogeneity. An extended and modified version of the EIF Model that takes these further complexities into account can help explain the norm developments in highly complex postcolonial speech communities.

Die Sprachsituation in der Deutschschweiz mit ihrem funktionalen Nebeneinander von Dialekt und Hochdeutsch und die Plurizentrizität der deutschen Sprache begünstigen die Entstehung von ambivalenten Gefühlen gegenüber dem Standarddeutschen: Einerseits erachten Schweizerinnen und Schweizer das (bundesdeutsche) Hochdeutsch als Instanz für ‚gutes Deutsch', andererseits empfinden sie eine emotionale Distanz zur ‚Quasi-Fremdsprache' Deutsch. Bisherige Studien in der Einstellungsforschung haben denn auch gezeigt, dass ein gespaltenes Verhältnis und negative Einstellungen zum Hochdeutschen entstehen können.

This paper investigates the relationship between language and ethnic identity of Pontic Greeks who currently reside in Cyprus. More specifically, I examine how ethnic identity is perceived and reflected in language preference by Pontic Greeks. The Pontic Greek community in Cyprus, however, does not seem to be homogeneous in terms of ethnicity and language choice since the majority of Pontic Greeks coming from Georgia and those from Russia show different patterns of linguistic behavior. The geographical distribution of Pontic Greeks, which divides them into two groups on the principle of their respective country of origin, has some effects on their ethnic affiliations that are expressed by the different ethnic labels they self-identify. The obtained results and the relevant analysis suggest that Pontic Greeks from Georgia assimilate more actively into the Greek social and linguistic contexts than those from Russia, who seem to wish to preserve their Russian social, national as well as linguistic ties.

Perceptual dialectology studies have shown that people have strong opinions about the number and
placement of dialect regions. This study uses the ‘draw-a-map’ task to examine perceptions of language variation in
South Korea, where relatively little perceptual dialectology research has been conducted. Respondents were asked
to indicate on hand-drawn maps where people speak differently and provide names, examples, and comments. The
map data were aggregated and analyzed with ArcGIS 10.0 software and the qualitative data were categorized using
the ‘keywords’ method. An analysis of these data suggests that South Koreans’ perceptions of dialect regions are
not necessarily limited by administrative boundaries; in fact, the data reveal not only perceptions of dialect variation
unassociated with geographic borders, but they also tap into the way people connect ideas about language and place.
Results from this study have implications for language attitudes research, perceptual dialectology methodology, and
the relationship between language and place in South Korea.

- by Lisa Jeon and +1
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- South Korea, Language, Space and Place, Language and Ideology, Perceptual Dialectology

Uno de los factores más importantes que determinan la vitalidad de una lengua es la actitud de sus hablantes y el ambiente general en el que se desarrolla el proceso de la interacción lingüística. El trabajo presenta los resultados de un estudio piloto realizado en 15 comunidades shuar durante el año 2010. Los temas que forman el eje del presente estudio son la vitalidad de la lengua shuar, la actitud de los hablantes hacia su lengua vernácula, y la posición de la lengua shuar en el sistema educativo. Aunque la lengua shuar no se encuentra entre las más amenazadas, los resultados del análisis documentan una transición muy rápida del bilingüismo hacia la pérdida completa de la lengua vernácula. A la vez, la mayoría de los miembros de esta etnia no son conscientes del peligro que corre la lengua, puesto que no correlacionan el idioma que transmiten a sus hijos con la situación general de la lengua vernácula. El tema subyacente del estudio es la relación entre los conceptos de lengua, cultura e identidad. Por esta razón, la posible pérdida de la lengua vernácula supone a la vez alteraciones sustanciales en la identidad de cada individuo.

- by Miroslav Valeš
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- Sociolinguistics, Endangered Languages, Minority Languages, Ecuador
- by Argiris Archakis and +2
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- Dialectology, Sociolinguistics, Language Variation, Language Attitudes
- by Donald L Rubin
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- Language Attitudes

Kriol, an English-lexifier contact language, has approximately 20,000 speakers across northern Australia. It is the primary language of the remote Aboriginal community of Ngukurr. Kriol is a contact language, incorporating features of English and traditional Indigenous languages. The language has been perceived both positively and negatively, although recent literature suggests a shift towards more favorable views. This paper investigates how community members in Ngukurr responded to the question of non- Indigenous residents (known locally as Munanga) learning Kriol. Interviews with local Indigenous residents showed positive attitudes to Kriol, with respondents providing a number of perceived benefits for outsiders learning the language. Our interviews provide empirical evidence for pride in the language, affirming a shift to more positive attitudes.

This research investigates the English lecturers' attitude toward the variation of English in the process of English learning. The purpose of this study is to discuss the types of English variations uttered by English lecturers who are considered as respondents in this study and their attitudes toward the variations of language that appear to their speech during the teaching-learning process. This research is descriptive by using a qualitative approach. The data to be presented in this research is taken from several words of Indonesian lecturers at several universities in Padang West Sumatra by distributing some questionnaires and also interviews. The method of data analysis is divided into two types, first, methods which related to the correlation of external language objects with a non-linguistic element called correlation method or method of matching, and secondly, methods which related to surgical, processing or internal verbal tampering called the method of operation or distribution method.

- by Rahma Yanti
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- Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, World Englishes, Language Variation