Language is neutral but with social factors will become significant to people’s background and their impression to others. Different gender, socioeconomic status, as well as religion will have different language choices and language preference, so-called language attitude. Apart from these reason, nationality is also an influential variable. Language is divided into superiority and inferiority such as English is the most popular and people are eager to learn. Because of military power, economy, and international status if its adapted countries, it acts as lingua franca that mean a common medium of communication for the speakers from different countries. It indicated that people tend to choose advanced countries’ language. Nonetheless, this is just an observation to English by sociologist. This research was designated to study the feelings and perceptions of people towards some rare and strange languages, like Kanuri and Welsh. Supposedly, Kanuri that used in Nigeria would not be welcomed so much by people while Welsh that used in United Kingdom would be positively thought by others. Then, through the pattern of interviewees’ description on the languages, and the contrast of interviewees’ reaction after letting them know the origin of the languages, one of discussion in this research that was to find whether the reputation of countries affect people’s perception of the languages would be revealed. Also, this research would like to study the relationship between the degree of acceptance of various language of the interviewees and the number of acquired languages besides the biliteracy and trilingualism in Hong Kong.
Inhaltsverzeichnis (Table of Contents)
- Introduction
- Literature Review
- Research Methods
- Research Results
- Findings
- Discussion
Zielsetzung und Themenschwerpunkte (Objectives and Key Themes)
This research aims to investigate the relationship between language attitude and the perceived nationality of the speaker. The study focuses on how Hong Kong tertiary students' perceptions of an unknown language are influenced by labelling it with a specific country's name, specifically, the United Kingdom and Nigeria.
- Influence of country labels on language attitudes
- Relationship between language perception and nationality stereotypes
- Impact of socio-economic status and cultural influence on language preference
- Gender differences in language attitude
- The role of historical and political factors in shaping language perception
Zusammenfassung der Kapitel (Chapter Summaries)
- Introduction: Introduces the concept of language attitude and its influence on individual perceptions. Highlights the impact of factors like gender, socioeconomic status, and nationality on language preference. Explains the research's focus on studying attitudes towards unfamiliar languages like Kanuri and Welsh, investigating the role of nationality labels in shaping perception.
- Literature Review: Reviews previous research on language attitudes and their relationship to social identity. Discusses the influence of speaker characteristics and cultural stereotypes on language perception. Explores the importance of understanding language attitude in different cultural contexts, particularly in Asian countries.
- Research Methods: Outlines the methodology employed for the study, which involves a survey targeting Hong Kong university students. The survey uses audio recordings of the Jesus story in Kanuri and Welsh, with varying labels attached to the recordings to examine their influence on attitude.
- Research Results: Presents the survey results, showcasing the responses of male and female participants to different language recordings with and without country labels. Highlights the trends observed in language attitude towards Kanuri and Welsh.
- Findings: Discusses the key findings of the research, specifically examining the effect of country labels on language attitude. Compares the responses to recordings with different labels and analyzes the impact of specific labels like the UK and Nigeria on participants' perception of the languages.
- Discussion: Explores potential explanations for the observed trends in language attitudes. Analyzes the role of colonial history, cultural stereotypes, and historical events in shaping the participants' responses to the UK and Nigeria labels.
Schlüsselwörter (Keywords)
The main keywords and focus topics of this research are: language attitude, sociolinguistics, nationality stereotypes, country labels, unfamiliar languages, Kanuri, Welsh, Hong Kong, gender differences, historical influence, cultural perception, and social influence.
- Quote paper
- Bachelor of Education (Music) Kwan Lung Chan (Author), 2017, Hong Kong Tertiary Students’ Language Attitude towards an unknown language with and without UK and Nigeria labels, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/448230
