Language Attitude and Language Degeneration:An Empirical Study Based on the Pearl River Delta of China

This paper conducts a tracking investigation of the dialect speakers in Cantonese,and addresses the impact of language attitude on language degeneration by using OLS models.Results reveal that the stronger the language identity,the less obvious the language degeneration.It’s necessary to maintain the harmonious coexistence of dialects and Mandarin.

The Study on Language Attitudes towards the Protection of Dialects

Researchers attaching great emphasis on language attitudes in sociolinguistic all over the world hold the views that an individual’s or a community’s attitudes toward their own language or other languages will affect how they learn and use a language and lead to a language’s further development or extinction. The research will be conducted on the relationship between people’s language attitude （LA） and the protection of dialects in China, where a great variety of dialects and Standard Chinese （SC） used by the speakers from 56 minorities co-exist and implement each other.With Standard Chinese promoted for 60 years, migration led by the development of social economy after the adoption of reform and opening-up policy, urbanization further promoted since 21st century, the status of Standard Chinese is rising while that of dialects is on the decline, and to some extent regional dialects in some ethnic minorities are dying out, resulting in the disappearance of their unique cultures and cultural forms, such as operas.Based on a review of previous studies on LA, the research will be conducted with questionnaire and interview. The questionnaire will suggest speakers’ conscious, overt attitude towards SC and dialects, the frequency they use SC and dialects, the situation in which they use SC and dialects and so on. Interview conducted indicates the interviewees’ unconsciousness and covert attitudes towards SC and dialects.The questionnaire and interviews conducted, three findings are obtained. First of all, parents’ LA plays a significant part in their children’s language learning or language use, further resulting into the decreasing number of dialect users in China. The second, the promotion of SC in schools varying from kindergartens to universities facilitates the widespread use of SC and extinction of dialects in that kids start to learn and use SC from so early ages that they have fewer chances of picking up a single dialect and the kids’ using SC offers their parents more opportunities to use SC in their daily family communication. The third, different attitudes towards SC users and dialect users from a community have great impacts on what language they will choose to communicate. Although SC plays a significant role in China’s economic development and urbanization, dialects are heritage of regional cultures; therefore, with the promotion of SC, dialects must be sustained and further developed.

A Study on the Differences of Intergenerational Language Attitude of Lichuan Dialect in China

Research on the changes of Lichuan dialect mostly focuses on microlinguistics such as specific vocabulary,syntactic or semantic research,less on the language use and language attitude in sociolinguistics.Therefore,This study mainly discusses the differences of intergenerational language attitude of Lichuan dialect and the reasons so as to protect traditional dialects in China.11 participants were interviewed.The results reveals the reasons:(1)internal reasons of personal dialect attitudes including cultural confidence,social identity,dialect inheritance;(2)language attitudelanguage contact such as educational background,rural-urban migration,study and work with people from different cities and media development.

The Subjectivity of Language Attitudes

From a linguistic point of view, all English dialects are‘equally complex, structured and valid linguistic systems'(Trudgill,1992:26) while non-linguists may find it hard to accept, as they are not holding linguistic attitudes but social language attitudes, which are based on their social and cultural values. The relevant researches on language attitudes show how subjective is language attitudes and the reasons behind that is analysed. The study is significant in that it helps us to understand the factors that influences the language attitudes such identities, personal experience and contexts.

Language Attitudes among International Students and Instructors toward Standard Languages and Dialects in the ESL Language School

In the field of sociolinguistics,language attitude is an important content which reflects the conception and perception of language by speakers.The paper tries to explore different language attitudes towards standard language and dialect among international students and English instructors in the ESL language school.Participants were all interviewed by means of conversation recordings in the ESL language school.The results indicated that the majority of the ESL language school speakers kept a positive attitude towards their standard languages and dialects.The educational methods of parents had an influence on the choice of standard language and dialect towards speakers,and participants also expressed a strong social identity when they talked about their languages.Those findings illustrate the significance of the study of language attitudes in the ESL language school center.

Language Attitude Education as ICC Facilitation: An Explorative Class

This paper reports the design, implementation, and outcome of an action research. The research aimed to examine and improve college students＇ attitudes towards varieties of World Englishes through a mild intervention in an intercultural communication class. Viewing education as a means to facilitate Intercultural Communication Competence （ICC）, of which language attitude was an integral part, the study designed a four-step pedagogical intervention to help students become more open and critical of their attitudes. The four pedagogical steps included language attitude elicitation, deconstruction, reconstruction, and creative solutions to communicative problems. The study found that students largely had conservative language attitudes and prejudices to start with. After the intervention, over 40% of the students acquired more open language attitudes, while some remained ambivalent about embracing linguistic diversity, and a small number of students maintained their previous conservative attitudes. Challenges of attitude change and language attitude education are discussed.

"Nativeness" and Intelligibility:Impacts of Intercultural Experience Through English as a Lingua Franca on Chinese Speakers' Language Attitudes

This paper investigates the impacts of intercultural experience through English as a lingua franca （ELF） on language attitudes, with the focus on Chinese speakers＇ narratives of ELF experience in relation to their views of Englishes. The data retrieved through 769 questionnaires and 35 interviews with Chinese users of English revealed the impacts in four aspects. First, the lack of ELF experience helps to maintain the assumption that conformity to native English is necessary for interactants to understand each other. Second, ELF experience triggers the question about the exclusive connection between nativeness and intelligibility. Third, it raises challenges to the exclusive relevance of native English for successful intercultural communication. Fourth, it helps to develop an awareness of intercultural communication strategies as important for communicative effectiveness in the context of the diversity of English. Attitudes revealed in the four aspects all point to a concern with the issue what is intelligible English. This paper thus discusses intelligibility in relation to （non-） nativeness and the role of intercultural experience in making sense of the issue of intelligibility, which leads to the exploration of pedagogical implications of this study.

Attitudes Towards the Official Recognition of Hong Kong Sign Language by Hong Kong Citizens

This paper is a pilot study that investigates the attitudes towards the official recognition of Hong Kong Sign Language(HKSL)by Hong Kong citizens.We used video-chat software(mainly WhatsApp,and Facebook Messenger,but also FaceTime)to conduct long-distance semi-structured interviews with 30 participants grouped as deaf,hearing-related(hearing people that are closely involved in the Deaf community),and hearing-unrelated(hearing people that have little contact with deaf people and the Deaf community).Results show that the majority of participants(N=22)holds a supportive attitude towards the recognition of HKSL;Five participants hold a neutral position,and three participants hold a negative attitude towards it.We discussed each type of attitude in detail.Results show that participants’attitudes are positively related to their awareness of deaf people’s need,the understanding of‘language recognition’,and personal world views.In other words,the more participants are aware,the more they foster official recognition,at least as a general trend.Results also indicate that hearing people who are not involved in the Deaf community know very little about deaf people and the Deaf community,in general.At the end of the paper,we also reflect on two issues:we argue that the standardization of HKSL plays an important role in deaf education and empowering citizenship awareness and participation.

Research on the Students’Attitudes Towards Multilingualism:Li Minority Students in Hainan

Recent research has emphasized that attitude is key to language learners’learning outcomes.More specifically,language learners’feelings about languages and language learning may affect their study behavior and willingness to engage with a second or foreign language.Few studies on language attitudes have been conducted with ethnic minority groups in China.As such,influencing factors(e.g.,gender,language proficiency)have not gained sufficient attention.The present study aims to explore language attitudes,especially towards multilingualism,among members of the Li minority group in Hainan,China.First,we conceptualized and validated a questionnaire on attitudes towards multilingualism.Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis verified the survey’s validity.Then,we examined how selected sociodemographic variables(e.g.,gender and language proficiency)influenced students’attitudes towards multilingualism.Hierarchical regression was performed to ascertain the contribution of each predictor variable to learners’attitudes towards multilingualism.Results revealed no significant relationship between gender and language attitudes but found a significant impact of students’language proficiency level on their attitudes towards multilingualism.Implications for minority students’multilingual learning were discussed based on the findings.

French versus English: A sociolinguistic study of Moroccans’ foreign language attitudinal tendencies

The complexity of the Moroccan language landscape sparks off a power struggle between languages. The focus in this chapter is on the apparent French/English language contest over supremacy. Here comes the current investigation that aims at gauging Moroccan’s perceptions of French and English through a language questionnaire.Responses were subjected to statistical analyses to support or reject the hypothesis that gender, age and language proficiency affect Moroccans’ evaluations of French and English.The study reveals that Moroccans’ attitudes towards English are significantly more favorable than those towards the French language. Age, but not gender, has turned out to have a statistically significant difference in the overall evaluation of French and English.These evaluations have also been shown to correlate with the respondents’ French and English language proficiency. The result of this study is an indication that Moroccans’attitudes toward French and English are undergoing a change from a conventional preference for French to a recent favor of English whose phenomenal growth globally may have affected language attitudes locally.

Reading “the Word” and “the World”: Promoting Learner Agency through an Engagement Model of Literacy Instruction

Learning to read in English is not just about learning to decode words, but about learning to make sense of the world through the language. However, EFL reading instruction tends to focus on developing decoding and word knowledge in an isolated manner, neglecting learners’ sense making beyond the text. This text-based approach of reading instruction often leads to students’ low interest and engagement in English learning and low profi ciency in English achievement. Drawing on examples from current research and practices in K-12 schools in the U.S. and Canada, this paper introduces an engagement model of literacy instruction, INSPIRE, that focuses on involving students in reading and writing for meaningful purposes beyond learning to decode. This integrated model of literacy instruction capitalizes on students’ personal interests and lives of school, allows choices in materials, and follows students’ lead to promote learner agency for deeper learning and comprehension. When students are more engaged in learning the world through the words, they achieve better learning outcomes in both language skills and attitudes.

Study on the Status Quo of Yichang Dialect-A Case study in Xiling District

Dialect is threatened by the increasing language contact. In Yichang, seldom young students speak its dialect. In this preliminary research, the author tries to clarify the actual language use and language attitude in the community of family by the means of interviewing the parents living in Xiling district, both of whom could speak the dialect. It is found that the profession,education background of parents would influence their language attitude and actual choice of language to their children. The result shows that there exists significant disparity between the parents' language attitudes and the actual communication with their children. Reasons of such disparity and the public prediction of the tendency of Yichang dialect and provided. In the end, suggestions towards language policy are presented.

"Oh My Gosh! The Expression Is Too Chinese" :Attitudes of University Teachers and Students towards China English

With the wide spread of English in the global context, scholars increasingly call for the reshaping of English education towards teaching English as an international language. One oft-mentioned proposal is to increase students＇ exposure to more English varieties, in particular the variety of English used in their country or region. Against this backdrop, this study investigated the attitudes of Chinese university students and teachers towards China English （CE）, an emerging variety in China and the ideological underpinnings beneath their attitudinal responses. In the study, 33 English teachers and 31 students were asked to first evaluate the understandability and acceptability of CE features that are identified in literature and then provide reasons justifying their choices in a questionnaire survey. Results show that both teacher and student participants were reluctant to accept CE as a legitimate variety but their attitudes diverged as regards specific CE features. The in-depth exploration of their justifications revealed that native speaker English ideology, Chinglish stigma and the communicativeness of CE to the outside world were their major concerns in evaluating CE. Findings in this study have implications for educators who attempt to localize English language teaching.