Attitudes toward Language Variation Attitudes toward Language Variation and the Liberal Artsand the Liberal Arts11

Anna Merry & Dr. Erica J. Benson Anna Merry & Dr. Erica J. Benson English English University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Attitudes toward Language Variation Attitudes toward Language Variation and the Liberal Artsand the Liberal Arts11

Anna Merry & Dr. Erica J. Benson Anna Merry & Dr. Erica J. Benson English English University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire

Research Focus• The focus of this pilot study is to investigate the language ideology—"ingrained, unquestioned beliefs

about the way the world is, the way it should be, and the way it has to be with respect to language" (Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 2006:9)—of students at a public, regional university with a liberal arts education mission.

• We are especially interested in beliefs about language that relate to larger social issues, in particular, bias and discrimination toward those who do not speak "standard" or "proper" English.

Methodology• 25 undergraduate students at UWEC completed the questionnaire; 1 respondent's data were

thrown out because the respondent did not complete the consent question (N=24). • The questionnaire was on WebSurvey and was open only to those with UWEC login: 1 consent

question, 26 experimental items, 6 demographic items.• The 26 experimental items required respondents to rate claims, judgments, or statements about

different forms of English on a forced-choice 5-point Likert scale: Strongly Agree (5) – Agree (4) – Neutral (3) – Disagree(2) – Strongly Disagree (1)

Discussion & Conclusion• Language as a proxy to make judgments about speakers and groups within the society seems to

persist at least to some degree (e.g., Johnson 2001).• Furthermore, since we are all conditioned against showing prejudices, even though we may feel

otherwise, it is possible that biases exist to a greater extent than these results show (e.g., Reaser 2007).

• Since language is used in every aspect of the baccalaureate program, it is important that the ideas held about language be in line with the university’s core values and goals for a liberal arts education.

• Focused education on language issues and ideology may help to correct false ideas held by students; a preliminary analysis of our results suggests that respondents who had taken a linguistics class held more positive attitudes about language variation and supported fewer language myths.

• This survey is the first phase of a much larger research project. Future work will include a revised questionnaire, interviews, and ultimately, the development of educational workshops on language attitudes.

Attitudes toward Dialects and Accents

Attitudes Toward Minority Dialects

Selected ReferencesBauer, Laurie & Peter Trudgill. 1998. Language myths. London: Penguin.

Finnegan, Edward. 1980. Attitudes toward English usage: The history of a war of words. New York: Teachers College Press.

Labov, William. 1966. The social stratification of English in New York City. Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.

Niedzielski, Nancy & Dennis R. Preston. 2001. Folk linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

Reaser, Jeffrey. 2007. "Evaluating and improving high school students’ folk perceptions of dialects." University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics. 13.179-192.

Wolfram, Walt & Natalie Schilling-Estes. 2006. American English. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

Introduction & Background• Scholars of language have long decried the general tendency to negatively judge other people,

institutions, and society, as a whole, based on linguistic differences (e.g., Bauer & Trudgill 1998; Labov 1966; Wolfram & Schilling-Estes 2006).

• The dominant language ideology in the U.S. ignores decades of systematic inquiry into the history of the English language, regional and social dialects of English, informal and formal styles of English, and differences between spoken and written language (e.g., Bauer & Trudgill 1998; Finegan 1980).

• We question whether the dominant language ideology most often described by sociolinguists (but little studied [e.g., Niedzielski & Preston 2003]) remains prevalent at institutions with a focus on liberal arts education since, at least at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, such an education highly values "diversity and inclusiveness" and strives to cultivate "knowledge of human culture," "critical thinking," "individual and social responsibility," and "respect for diversity among people" ("Strategic Plan" & "Learning Goals").

• The dominant language ideology described above with its lack of critical examination and reflection with respect to the beliefs about language differences and its lack of historical consciousness is directly at odds with UWEC's core values and culture of liberal arts education.

• We are encouraged to see that the majority of respondents acknowledge that they speak a dialect; 94% (23) of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "I speak a dialect of English."

• Understanding that dialects of English are rule-governed, legitimate forms of English is still lacking to some degree, as evidenced by the ratings of the remaining three statements; see Figure 1.

• While the average response to "Some dialects do not have rules" is "disagree," 21% (5) of respondents strongly agree, agree, or are neutral, in effect supporting the myth; see Fig. 1.

• Moreover, 54% (13) strongly agree, agree, or are neutral on the myth that "some dialects are sloppy forms of English"; see Fig. 1.

• Moreover, although nearly all respondents believe they–and presumably everyone–speaks a dialect of English, they continue to believe that some speakers don't have accents (even though accents are the pronunciation element of dialects); 37.5% (9) of respondents strongly agree, agree, or are neutral on the myth, "Some people don't have an accent when speaking English"; see Fig. 1.

4.4

2.0

2.62.4

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

I speak a dialect of English.

Some dialects do not have rules.

Some dialects are sloppy forms of

English.

Some people don't have an accent when speaking

English.

1.8

2.8

2.3

3.1

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

4.5

5.0

African American English (Black English) is a

corrupted form of English.

Minority dialects in America often

contain grammatical errors.

Someone who says, "You funny,"

probably grew up in an impverished

language environment.

Using a sentence like "She be late all the time," makes a

person sound uneducated.

Strongly Agree

Strongly Disagree

Neutral

Strongly Agree

Strongly Disagree

Neutral

• It is encouraging that the vast majority of respondents claim to recognize African American English as a legitimate form of English; 92% (22) disagree or strongly disagree that African American English is a corrupted form of English; see Figure 2.

• Seemingly at odds with this recognition are the responses to the statements that minority dialects contain grammatical errors (50% [12] of respondents strongly agree, agree, or are neutral) and the use of habitual be "sound[s] uneducated" (61% [17] strongly agree, agree, or are neutral) in Fig. 2.

• The connection between (moral) behavior and language use seems to persist for some respondents; 25% (6) agree that laziness is a factor in not speaking English well; see Figure 3.

• In addition, despite considerable evidence to the contrary (e.g., James & Drakich 1993), 42% (10) of respondents agree or strongly agree that women talk more than men; see Fig. 3.

• A lack of historical consciousness is evident in both of the remaining items in Fig. 3; multiple negation, verb paradigm leveling, and epicene they for singular referents have been common (even accepted) in English for hundreds of years.

0%

4%

17%

4%

25%

38%

29% 29%

13% 13%

17%

25%

33%

46%

25% 25%

29%

0%

13%

17%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Some Americans are too lazy to learn to speak English well.

In most situations, women talk more than

men.

The historically correct form of "Bill don't know nothing" is "Bill doesn't

know anything."

Even though "Everyone should bring their

books to class," is used in informal English,

"Everyone should bring his or her books to

class," is really right.Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree

Other Language Myths

Figure 1: Mean ratings of four statements relating to dialects and accents of English

1Acknowledgements & Contact InformationFunding for this research was provided by the Blugold Fellowship.Funding to print this poster was provided by UWEC Differential Tuition.For more information please contact: Anna Merry – merryav@uwec.edu

Dr. Erica Benson – bensonej@uwec.edu

Figure 3: Percentage of respondents that chose each rating for four statements relating to language myths

Figure 2: Mean ratings of four statements relating to minority dialects of American English