Language Attitudes in Hawick: An Empirical Study
(Sprache: Englisch)
Since the referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014, interest on national and local identity in Scotland has soared.
Anticipating this interest, the present analysis focuses on two major aspects: the local vernacular as employed in...
Anticipating this interest, the present analysis focuses on two major aspects: the local vernacular as employed in...
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Since the referendum on Scottish independence in September 2014, interest on national and local identity in Scotland has soared.Anticipating this interest, the present analysis focuses on two major aspects: the local vernacular as employed in Hawick/Scottish Borders and its usage in the school context at Hawick High School. The emphasis lies on the present linguistic situation in terms of language usage and attitudes of both pupils and teachers.
The study supplies a brief social, linguistic, and historical outline of the Hawick community and Southern Scots.
The main part of the thesis is subdivided into two sections. Firstly, the linguistic situation in Hawick in general is illustrated and extralinguistic variables are taken into account whenever they prove to be statistically significant. Secondly, language use and attitudes towards the vernacular in the school context are explored.
The conclusion summarizes the most important results and might serve as an impetus for further dialect and attitude studies.
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Text Sample:Chapter 3, Methodology and attitudes:
Chapter 3.1 Attitudes and their measurement:
Since the present study tries to shed some light on language attitudes in a Scottish town, an overview of the major concepts underlying the word attitude shall be given here. Being very prominent in sociolinguistics studies today, research on language attitudes, however, did not begin until the seventies of the last century (Deprez & Persoons 1987: 125). Although there are at least two important and fundamentally different theories, practically everybody agrees that attitudes are learned from previous experience, and that they are not momentary but relatively enduring (Agheysi & Fishman 1970: 139).
The mentalist theory defines attitudes as a mental and neural state of readiness , and as such they are not directly observable but have to be inferred from the subject s introspection (Agheysi & Fishman 1970: 138). Plausible as this view is in theory, it often shows deficiencies when applied to empirical measurement. Since an attitude is rather an internal readiness than a measurable response, the scholar must depend on the person s reports of what their attitudes are, or infer attitudes directly from behaviour patterns (Fasold 1984: 147).
The behaviourist view simply explains attitudes as responses people make to social situations (Fasold 1984: 147), i.e. attitudes are overt responses or behaviour to a certain stimulus (Agheysi & Fishman 1970: 138). This theory of course does not pose too many problems in practice as the researcher only has to observe, collect and analyse the explicitly overt data. Critics, however, claim that if one accepts an extreme behaviourist approach, the collected data are not sufficient to predict other behaviour or responses as attitudes are seen as dependent variables (Agheysi & Fishman 1970: 138; Fasold 1984: 148).
Another difference between the two theories consists in the underlying structure of attitudes. While
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behaviourists regard attitudes as single, uni-dimensional units, mentalists distinguish between cognitive (knowledge), affective (feeling) and conative (action) components (Agheeysi & Fishman 1970: 138; Fasold 1984: 148). However, the interrelation between the components is neither simple nor straightforward, especially [t]he cognitive and affective components of attitude may not always be in harmony (Baker 1992: 12). Nevertheless, the present study mainly adopts the mentalist approach, i.e. the distinction between three components, outlined, amongst others, by Lambert & Lambert in 1964 and modernised and refined by Baker in 1992.
Having discussed the theoretical background very briefly, it is of equal importance to talk about the how of data acquisition, i.e. the measurement of language attitudes. Generally speaking, one can distinguish between three techniques: (1) Analysis of societal treatment of language varieties, (2) indirect measures of language attitudes and (3) direct measures.
The first technique has been widely ignored in discussions of attitudinal research as it does not involve inquiries. It includes, for example, observational, participant-observation, ethnographic studies, demographic and census analyses, analyses of government policies, and analyses of broadcasting media, etc. (Giles et al. 1987: 1068f).
Any research designed so as to prevent the subjects from knowing that their language attitudes are under scrutiny is labelled an indirect study (Fasold 1984: 149). The matched-guise technique, developed by Wallace Lambert and colleagues in 1960, is the most widely used indirect method.
The direct method, i.e. interviews, questionnaires and observation, is applied in the present study and will thus be explained in more details. Questionnaires have undergone a high level of formal development mainly because of their extensive use in sociolinguistics over the years (Agheysi & Fishman 1970: 147). Typically, one distinguishes between open and closed question items.
Having discussed the theoretical background very briefly, it is of equal importance to talk about the how of data acquisition, i.e. the measurement of language attitudes. Generally speaking, one can distinguish between three techniques: (1) Analysis of societal treatment of language varieties, (2) indirect measures of language attitudes and (3) direct measures.
The first technique has been widely ignored in discussions of attitudinal research as it does not involve inquiries. It includes, for example, observational, participant-observation, ethnographic studies, demographic and census analyses, analyses of government policies, and analyses of broadcasting media, etc. (Giles et al. 1987: 1068f).
Any research designed so as to prevent the subjects from knowing that their language attitudes are under scrutiny is labelled an indirect study (Fasold 1984: 149). The matched-guise technique, developed by Wallace Lambert and colleagues in 1960, is the most widely used indirect method.
The direct method, i.e. interviews, questionnaires and observation, is applied in the present study and will thus be explained in more details. Questionnaires have undergone a high level of formal development mainly because of their extensive use in sociolinguistics over the years (Agheysi & Fishman 1970: 147). Typically, one distinguishes between open and closed question items.
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Autoren-Porträt von Christian Dietz-Verrier
Christian Dietz-Verrier was born in Bad Mergentheim in 1977. He graduated from Heidelberg University with a 1st Staatsexamen in English and Mathematics in 2004. During his studies, he spent a year as a Language Assistant in the Scottish Borders. In 2006, he completed his teacher's training in Heidelberg with a 2nd Staatsexamen. He currently works as a Studienrat for English and Mathematics at a grammar school in Mannheim. Since his early adulthood, the author has been passionately interested in Scottish culture, language, and literature. Apart from anything Scottish, the author s academic interests range from Old English Linguistics and Literature to writings of the Romanticist movement. He also spent a three-year period as a teacher at the Deutsche Höhere Privatschule in Windhoek, Namibia. He lives in Mannheim with his wife and his daughter.
Bibliographische Angaben
- Autor: Christian Dietz-Verrier
- 2015, Erstauflage, 104 Seiten, Masse: 15,5 x 22 cm, Kartoniert (TB), Englisch
- Verlag: Anchor Academic Publishing
- ISBN-10: 3954893681
- ISBN-13: 9783954893683
Sprache:
Englisch
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