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.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
3. Research Methods
4. Research Results
5. Findings
6. Discussion
7. Conclusion
8. Reference
Research Objectives and Themes
This research aims to investigate how social labeling and the perceived origin of a language influence the attitudes of Hong Kong tertiary students toward unfamiliar languages, specifically Kanuri and Welsh.
- The influence of national reputation on linguistic perception.
- The impact of "UK" versus "Nigeria" labels on language attitude.
- Gender-based differences in language attitude formation.
- The relationship between colonial history and perceived prestige of languages.
- The role of social bias versus phonological features in listener judgment.
Excerpt from the Book
Findings
The research question is whether giving a language label to an unknown language would affect the listener’s attitude towards the language they are listening to. In question 11 we labelled Kanuri as a language of the United Kingdom. It is found out that after the recording is given the label that it come from the economically-strong and culturally-influential country, the United Kingdom, the listeners held a more negative attitude towards the language, when compared to question 8, in which the Kanuri recording was not given the United Kingdom label. (54 out of 85 held positive attitude towards non-labelled Kanuri, i.e. 63.5%, while 46 out of 85 held positive towards UK-labelled Kanuri, i.e. 54.1%). The same also happens on Welsh (66 out of 85 held positive towards non-labelled Welsh, i.e. 77.6%, while 40 out of 85 towards UK-labelled Welsh, 47.1%).
By giving either languages a label that it is a language of the economically-impoverished and culturally-non-influential country, Nigeria, the listeners also held a more negative attitude towards the them. When compared with question 9 in which the Welsh language was not given any labels (66 out of 85 held positive towards non-labelled Welsh, i.e. 77.6%, while 46 out of 85 towards Nigeria-labelled Welsh, i.e. 54.1%), as well as when compared with question 8 in which the Kanuri language was not given its country label. (54 out of 85 held positive attitude towards non-labelled Kanuri, i.e. 63.5%, while 52 out of 85 held positive towards Nigeria-labelled Kanuri, i.e. 61.2%)
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Outlines the research focus on language attitudes in Hong Kong, questioning if perceived nationality affects the evaluation of unfamiliar languages like Kanuri and Welsh.
2. Literature Review: Discusses existing research on language identity and the social influence of perceived accents and national background on speaker evaluation.
3. Research Methods: Describes the survey design using the Jesus Story in over 200 languages to test listener attitudes with and without specific country labels.
4. Research Results: Presents the quantitative data collected from respondents regarding their positive or negative responses to the different language-label combinations.
5. Findings: Analyzes the data to reveal that labels significantly alter listener attitudes, with UK labels surprisingly triggering more negative reactions than expected.
6. Discussion: Explores the potential impact of colonial history and social sentiment in Hong Kong as explanations for the unexpected negative reception of the UK label.
7. Conclusion: Summarizes that historical and political context influences language attitudes more than simple economic power, challenging initial expectations.
8. Reference: Lists the academic sources used to support the research, including studies on language attitudes and sociolinguistics.
Keywords
Language Attitude, Sociolinguistics, Hong Kong, Kanuri, Welsh, National Identity, Linguistic Perception, Colonialism, Social Bias, Speaker Evaluation, Language Labeling, Phonology, Listener Perception, Speech Perception, Cultural Influence
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental focus of this research paper?
The paper examines how Hong Kong tertiary students form attitudes toward unfamiliar languages and whether labeling these languages with specific countries of origin shifts those attitudes.
What are the central themes discussed in the study?
The central themes include the impact of national reputation, colonial history, speaker perception, and the role of social biases in linguistic evaluation.
What is the primary objective of the research?
The primary goal is to determine if the reputation of a country (e.g., the UK vs. Nigeria) affects how listeners perceive the language associated with that country, contrary to standard expectations of prestige.
What scientific methods were employed to gather data?
The author utilized a survey-based methodology, where students listened to the same content (the Jesus Story) in Kanuri and Welsh, with and without misleading country labels attached.
What does the main body of the work cover?
The main body covers the theoretical background, the survey design and implementation, the presentation of survey results, and an analytical discussion regarding the unexpected negative sentiment toward UK-labeled languages.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include Language Attitude, Sociolinguistics, Hong Kong, National Identity, and Speaker Evaluation.
Why did the UK label lead to a more negative response than the Nigeria label in some cases?
The author hypothesizes that this is due to the colonial history between the UK and Hong Kong, as well as modern local sentiments regarding social inequality and wealth distribution in the region.
How did gender influence the results of the survey?
The study found that female respondents generally showed more empathetic attitudes toward languages labeled as originating from economically impoverished countries, potentially linked to traditional social roles.
- 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
