Browsing by Subject "Language attitudes"

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A multidisciplinary approach to studying language attitudes and language use in the Ottawa-Gatineau region
(2020-03-25) Neupané, Rozen; Bullock, Barbara E.; Blyth, Carl S; Epps, Patience; Li, Junyi J; Toribio, Almeida J
This dissertation focuses on the language behavior of individuals from the Ottawa– Gatineau metropolitan region (OGR) and the ways in which it correlates with their language attitudes as expressed in social media and in person. Although attitudes are believed to be intrinsically related to behavior, there is a lack of consensus among social psychologists regarding the nature of this relationship. Furthermore, there is a paucity of work exploring the link between language attitudes (LA) and language behavior. I intend to address this gap through my dissertation. The OGR is a fertile ground for such a study. It is a largely stable bilingual region where a total of 48.5% of the population speaks English and 30.3% speaks French as their mother tongue (Statistics Canada, 2016). However, the region is not a homogenous linguistic community. It is linguistically divided by the Québec-Ontario provincial border with the largely francophone Gatineau on the Québec side and the mainly anglophone Ottawa on the Ontario side of the border. The two cities are also different in terms of language policies and language planning measures adopted by their respective municipal and provincial governments. In this study, I established language use patterns through ethnographic observations in local cafés, farmer’s markets and grocery stores and through people’s use of French and English on Twitter. Language attitudes were assessed through a language attitude questionnaire (Kircher, 2009) distributed among people in different public spaces in the OGR and through a study of tweets from individuals in the region. The analysis reveals important differences in language attitudes and language use among francophones and anglophones. We also noticed that the two official languages do not enjoy the same status and that attitudes towards Québec/Canadian French (QF/CF) are more negative than attitudes towards European French (EF) or the French language in general. Finally, we discovered that language attitudes and language use had an important influence on each other, but this relationship was dependent on other factors as well.
Language attitude and change among the Druze in Israel
(2012-05) Isleem, Martin A.; Brustad, Kristen; Raizen, Esther; Al-Batal, Mahmoud; Mohammad, Mohammad; Shemer, Yaron
This study examines language attitudes and behaviors among the Druze in Israel in order to assess the roles of Arabic and Hebrew in this community. The study utilizes four different approaches: attitude surveys, a survey of linguistic landscapes, a study of language choice in the Internet and an analysis of codeswitching. The results of the language attitude survey indicate that a significant number of Druze exhibit inconsistent attitudes toward their first language and linguistic behavior patterns that are in line with general sociolinguistic patterns of language change. Young people, those with less education, and females all express significantly positive attitudes toward Hebrew. As reported in the literature, these groups have been instrumental in the process of language change. Patterns of language production and consumption in both street signage and websites affirm Bourdieu’s (1991) ideas regarding linguistic market capital as Hebrew is found to have greater value than Arabic in the Mount Carmel area, where the Druze maintain a strong connection with the Jewish-Israeli economy. In contrast, Arabic has a stronger presence in Druze neighborhoods in the Lower Galilee area. This is also true of Druze websites, particularly those that address the Palestinian-Israeli community, the majority in the Lower Galilee area. The study finds that while mixed language is the most common code of younger Druze Internet users, a relatively high percentage of cultural tradition and creative writing works were posted in Arabic. This study also investigates Druze spoken and written codeswitching behavior within the framework of Myers-Scotton's MLF model (1993, 2002). The analysis reveals that Arabic is the Matrix Language of the mixed constituents, although it is not the most common code in overall language produced. Although Arabic does not show signs of waning in the mixed languages’ syntactic structure, and is dominant in cultural tradition and literary works, there is manifest evidence of a language shift toward Hebrew, and the leading groups are: youth in general, and speakers in Mount Carmel.
The language attitudes of second-generation North Africans in France : the effects of religiosity and national identity
(2015-08) Oprea, Megan Grace; Bullock, Barbara E.; Blyth, Carl; Wettlaufer, Alexandra; Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline; Brower, Benjamin
This dissertation explores the language attitudes (LAs) of second-generation North African immigrants in France toward Arabic and French, focusing primarily on women. I explore how these attitudes are correlated with religiosity, national identity and proficiency. Although numerous LA studies have been done in the Maghreb, none have examined the attitudes of the highly marginalized North African community in France. Previous research in LAs and in sociolinguistics has also neglected religion as a variable, a gap in the literature that this dissertation addresses. French and Arabic have powerful language ideologies making them an ideal language pairing to study. Muslims believe Arabic is the only language through which the true message of the Qur’an can be transmitted (Suleiman, 2003). Previous LA studies in the Maghreb indicate that people there strongly associate Islam with Arabic (Benrabah 2007; Chakrani, 2010). It is also the national language of most Muslim majority countries and is linked with both national and pan-Arab identity (Dawisha, 2003). The French language is seen as the vehicle of French culture and is an important symbol of national identity that is used as a tool for the assimilation of immigrants (Weil, 2010). There is evidence to suggest that LAs are stronger in a diaspora context (Garrett, Bishop & Coupland, 2009). Language attitudes may be especially potent for the North African diaspora because of the colonial history between France and the Maghreb, and the strained relationship between France and its immigrant population. Given that language can act as a symbol of culture (Choi, 2003), participants who more closely identify with their North African cultural and religious heritage will express more positive attitudes toward Arabic. In order to explore these topics, I constructed an anonymous language attitudes survey that was distributed online to second-generation North Africans in France, ages 18 to 30. The survey included questions concerning attitudes toward religious and national identity. The results indicate positive attitudes toward Arabic, Islam and North Africa, while expressing relatively neutral attitudes toward French, and negative attitudes toward France. Correlations did emerge that suggest a relationship between religiosity, national identity, and language attitudes for this population.
Mother daughter tongue : the language use of North African women in France
(2016-06-23) Dow, Anna Troyansky; Bullock, Barbara E.; Toribio, Almeida J; Blyth, Carl; Brower, Ben; Brustad, Kristen
This study of GEN 1 and GEN 2 Maghrebi (i.e. Tunisian, Moroccan and Algerian) women’s socialization into French and Arabic and/or Berber explores mixed methodologies for capturing language use and attitudes. The bidirectional and longitudinal nature of processes of language socialization are prioritized in the design, which values all contexts of natural language acquisition. In a mobile survey task, nine participants reported language use in their two most recent interactions and the circumstances surrounding those interactions when prompted by an SMS invitation at randomized times over the course of a 5-week period. The results reveal the significance of factors of proximity, generation, sex, linguistic ability, and individual variation (explained primarily as one’s generation of immigration, whether or not one is married to a speaker of the heritage language (HL), and whether one works or not). This creates a picture of language use in the women’s communities of practices at the present time. A drawing task illustrating the languages used in eleven participants’ social networks highlights the participants’ awareness of their practices with different interlocutors and confirm the effectiveness of self-reporting. An additional drawing task to create a timeline representing one’s use and proficiency in French and HL(s) over the lifespan illustrates moments of change that the participants deem important in their personal history. For GEN 1 women, we see profiles of maintenance and attrition in HL alongside acquisition of French. For GEN 2 women, we see unstable socialization into HL alongside stability in French. Sociolinguistic interviews with multiple generations of 26 families further ground the analyses. The connection between language, language ideologies and identity is explored through questions regarding how one defines one’s mother tongue and how one identifies (e.g., as French, French of Algerian origin, Tunisian, Arab, etc.). Answers reveal the malleability of these concepts, the variety of experiences that shape these attitudes and the integration of these women and their families into French society. Through this approach, I go beyond treating L1, L2 and HL socialization as distinct, emphasizing that they influence each other, and I highlight how language socialization is more complex than “experts” socializing “novices.”
The Madrileño ejke : a study of the perception and production of velarized /s/ in Madrid
(2017-05) Wright, Robyn, Ph. D.; Toribio, Almeida Jacqueline, 1963-; Bullock, Barbara E.; Nishida, Chiyo; Hinrichs, Lars; Carvalho, Ana M.
Aspiration of coda /s/ has been widely studied throughout the Spanish-speaking world, although within the Madrid dialect there have only been two studies quantifying /s/ realization (Momcilovic, 2005; Turnham & Lafford, 1995). In the first, Turnham and Lafford (1995) examine the extralinguistic factors that condition /s/ realization, considering the nonstandard variants of velarized and elided /s/ in their analysis. In contrast, Momcilovic (2005) does not include the velarized /s/ as a specific category in her study, but rather quantifies rates of aspirated, elided and assimilated /s/. In this way, the actual variants present and their distribution within the Spanish of Madrid has not been clearly established. The velarized /s/, of particular interest in this dissertation, is distinct from most cases of /s/ weakening because it does not fit into the typological weaking paradigm of [s] > [h] > [ø], and furthermore may not be a case of lenition at all (Henriksen & Harper, 2016). Given the curious /s/ variant present in the Madrid dialect, the current investigation sought to learn more of the social meaning and perception of the velarized /s/, utilizing the matched guise language attitudes technique to do so. It is found that the velarized /s/ is a marker of Madrileño identity, and that it is mainly associated with negative connotations, most strongly observed among the Madrileño participants. This dissertation contributes the first language attitudes study conducted on /s/ in Madrid, revealing both the social meaning attached to velarized /s/ and the importance of the speakers’ social characteristics in their perception of this variant. Secondly, a production study was conducted in order to offer a clearer picture of the coda /s/ variants present in the Madrid dialect and their respective distribution. The significant factors found to condition /s/ realization include syllabic position, reading time, reading order and the number of Madrileño grandparents a speaker has. Most importantly here, it is seen that the aspirated variant actually appears more frequently than the velarized /s/. Together these studies contribute a greater understanding of velarized /s/, filling a lacuna in what was previously known of coda /s/ in the Madrid dialect.