Abstract. A questionnaire − and interview − based survey of attitudes toward Anglo- Nigerian Pidgin (ANP) (or ‘Nigerian Pidgin English’) was undertaken on a stratified random sample of 1,200 respondents in six urban centres in southern Nigeria, in relation to perceptions of its language status, its possible use as a subject and medium of instruction, and its possible adoption as an official language in the future, given its ever-increasing sociolinguistic vitality and preponderance. An analysis of the generational variable of the survey findings indicate that, contrary to expectations, the middle age generation (40-49 years) were consistently the most favourable in their attitudes toward ANP, with regard to: 1) teaching ANP as a subject; 2) using ANP as a medium of instruction in schools; and, 3) adopting ANP as Nigeria’s official language, whereas the young generation (15-19 years) - currently considered ANP’s main users and vectors - were the least favourable. The paper discusses and attempts to explain this apparent paradox.

No description available.

Effective communication in English between its two billion users (Crystal, 2008), requires comprehension of others’ English and a willingness to accept differences in English. While some studies have attempted to measure the attitudes of Inner Circle (IC) (Kachru, 1985) respondents towards IC Englishes, and other studies have focused on attitudes of Outer Circle (OC) and Expanding Circle (EC) respondents to IC English, there is a dearth of research on OC and EC respondents’ attitudes to non-IC English. Therefore, this study addressed the need for further research focusing on OC respondents’ attitudes to EC users’ English. Specifically, this study of 31 Singaporeans attempted to gain an understanding of their attitudes towards Expanding Circle Accents of English (ECAE). This study drew on direct and indirect approaches in language attitude research, involving a verbal-guise task using semantic differential scales to elicit attitudes to speakers on a range of solidarity and status traits, and interviews. Descriptive statistics derived from mean scores were used for quantitative analysis of the data from the verbal-guise task, while coding procedures were used for qualitative analysis of the interview data. The findings show the respondents displayed predominantly negative attitudes to eight of the eleven ECAE and slightly positive attitudes to three. Phonological features common to the ECAE, notably mispronunciation of particular phonemes and vowels added to consonant clusters, affected the respondents’ attitudes. Moreover, certain prosodic features and the perceived degree of attractiveness and assertiveness affected attitudes to the ECAE. These findings indicate accent can affect listeners’ attitude to speakers. The implications of this study have relevance to the discussions on World Englishes and English as an International Language to the extent that notions of attitude and intelligibility are central to both. Furthermore, the findings suggest attitude might be of greater significance than intelligibility when evaluating others’ English.

Thesis--University of Michigan. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-151).

博士(学術) / 甲第636号 / 186 p. / Hitotsubashi University(一橋大学)

Research has shown that Utah English is a distinct variety of English, particularly as spoken in the Wasatch front region (Lillie 1998). It is characterized by particular linguistic features, including tense/lax vowel mergers before tautosyllabic /l/ (Di Paolo and Farber 1990) and the oral release of glottal stops in certain environments (Eddington and Savage 2012). The features of this variety have been studied; however, not much research has been done about the positive or negative attitudes people hold toward it. Casual observation indicates that Utahans themselves may judge speakers of this variety more harshly than do people from other regions. The present study was conducted to determine if this is true, and to determine what other factors have an influence on a person's perception of Utah English. A language attitude study was performed using the matched-guise method. Participants were asked to react to recorded speakers, judging how intelligent and friendly they sounded. When multiple Utah English features were combined in a passage, the majority of participants judged the speaker to be unintelligent and unfriendly; also, participants' judgments of the speakers' intelligence deviated significantly based on the participants' location of origin, with significant interactions between location of origin and age group. When Utah English features were looked at separately, participants' judgments of both the speakers' intelligence and the speakers' friendliness deviated significantly based on which feature was being heard and the gender of the participant, with interactions between feature and gender, feature and age group, and feature and location of origin. Overall, Utahan participants judged speech with Utah English features to be worse than did participants from other locations.

The status of English as the language of international communication is by now well-established. However, in the past 16 years, research has tried to emphasize the fact that the English spoken in international contact situations and between people with other first languages than English has different needs than the English spoken locally amongst native speakers, resulting in the emergence of English as a lingua franca (ELF) as a scholarly field. However, the impact of findings in ELF has so far only led to a moderate shift in English language teaching. Especially in expanding circle countries, where ELF should have the biggest impact, change is only gradually becoming palpable. Accent and pronunciation, as one of the biggest factors on both identity and mutual intelligibility (Jenkins 2000; 2007) are at the root of discussion. The scope of this study is therefore to examine accent choices and the extent to which native speaker ideology informs the preferences of ten speakers of ELF and 27 German natives with experience in international communication. Both ethnographical and sociolinguistic methods, as well as auditory analysis have been applied and conducted. The auditory analysis of six variables in the recorded speech production of the ten speakers suggests that there is no significant preference of one norm-giving variety over the other. Rather, speakers tend to mix-and-match General American- and Standard Southern British English-like features in their pronunciation. When reporting their accent ideals, the idea of a ‘neutral’ English accent is mentioned by four participants. Neutral accents seem to have been understood as ‘unmarked accents’. Expressed beliefs on their own English pronunciation show a comparatively high level of reflection on and confidence in their own production. Results from a rating task and a survey given to 27 German participants reveal attitudes that are more negatively stacked. While Germans reported openness towards NNS (non-native speaker) accents and showed awareness of the priority of intelligibility over accent choice in both their own and others’ pronunciation, they still largely reported NS accent preference. The ratings of the production from ten ELF speakers confirmed this and showed that ‘neutral’ is equated with native-like. In the light of these findings, issues are discussed that ultimately relate to the influence of NS Englishes, identity and the development of English as an international language.

As a result of the spread and growth of English as a global means of communication, a new approach to teaching and learning English has recently emerged: ELF – English as a lingua franca (ELF). Graddol (2006: 87) claims that "some of its [ELF] ideas are likely to influence mainstream teaching and assessment practices in the future". Indeed, a shift from traditional EFL goals to ELF has been observed in the documents of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan. Jenkins (2004) suggests that applied linguists and publishers will need to find ways of promoting a more ELF perspective in teaching materials. However, to begin with, the reason why the ELF approach is necessary for Japanese learners of English should be adequately discussed. Also, how people are likely to respond to the new materials in the future should be investigated. The aim of this thesis is two-fold: (1) to examine current English language teaching practices in Japan from an ELF perspective, and (2) to examine the attitudes of Japanese people towards the new ELF-oriented practice. More specifically, the current study will focus on the teaching materials that are currently being used within the country. The research consists of three parts: (1) the identification of the characteristics of ELF; (2) an analysis of the EFL coursebooks and audiovisual materials according to those traits; and (3) an investigation of the attitudes of Japanese learners and teachers of English to ELForiented coursebooks and audiovisual materials by means of questionnaires and focusgroups. EFL coursebooks and audio materials employed in the state and private sectors were analysed. ELF-orientation was found in different forms and to different degrees according to the level and the objectives of individual materials: this was apparent in the nationalities and contexts represented, in the content of texts, and in English varieties in audio materials. There were some differences between publishers in the degree of ELF orientation. 717 students and 28 teachers were involved in the questionnaire survey. Sixteen students and nine teachers participated in the focus-group discussions. The survey data revealed that the informants showed strong reactions to certain ELF features in materials. They had little objection to ELF-features which were related to contextual factors of ELF (e.g. representation of characters in a dialogue). In contrast, they expressed more opinions regarding ELF-features which were closely related to the issues of a target model (e.g. written forms of non-standard English, and audio recordings which included NNS English). The findings are discussed with regard to the implementation of ELF-oriented materials. Pedagogical implications are proposed for the further development of ELF-oriented materials and for possible changes in English language teaching in the Japanese educational system.

<p>Society exhibits a wide variety of different languages with various prominent features. At the same time as we honour diversity, however our civilisation is coloured with prejudice and preconceptions. Even if there is a rather liberal view on language use today, dialects and accents still carry positive and negative connotations for a majority of citizens. Research shows, that we are prejudiced and that we have predetermined ideas when it comes to certain language varieties.</p><p>In this study, I take up four varieties of Standard English: American, English, Australian and Scottish. I focus on the associations Swedish students make when it comes to these four language varieties and how this transforms into attitudes towards the speakers. A language attitude study is carried out by using a modified Matched Guise Test. I explain the difference between dialect and accent, as well as societal attitudes to language varieties and present some prominent linguists and their methods. Finally, I draw some conclusions by comparing my results to previous findings.</p>

<p>In this thesis, I explore the code-switching practices of long-term Angolans migrants in Cape Town when they interact with those who have been here for a much shorter period. In my Honours research essay, I revealed a tendency among those who have lived in Cape Town for some time to code-switch from Portuguese to English even in the presence of more recent migrants from Angola, who have little or no mastery of English. This thesis thus considers the effects of space, discourses of power, language ideologies and attitudes on the patterns of inter- and intra-sentential code-switching by these long-term migrants in interaction with each other as well as with the more recent &ldquo / Angolan arrivals&rdquo / in Cape Town. Twenty Angolan migrants participated in this study. Of these, ten were long-term migrants to South Africa, while a further ten were relative newcomers. While the long-term migrants could claim to be bilingual in Portuguese and English, the newcomers were largely limited to a few English words in their repertoire. However, both groups could speak one or more of the indigenous languages of Angola, like Kimbundu, Umbundu, Kikongo and even Lingala (which is an indigenous language from Republic Democratic of Congo). Some of the long-term migrants had even acquired South African indigenous language such as isiXhosa and Afrikaans. The study made use of qualitative ethnographic methodologies to collect the data. These included recorded conversations, individual and focus group interviews, both general observation and participant observation.</p>