In addition to the role that speaker identification plays on speaker evaluation, a number of researchers have maintained the importance of exploring whether NSs’ and NNSs’ perceptions towards varieties of English are influenced by social characteristics such as age, sex, social class and the regional background of the evaluators (e.g., Cheshire, 1991; Milroy, 1987; Giles, 1970; Coupland et al., 1994; Starks and Paltridge, 1996; Hiraga, 2005; Coupland and Bishop, 2007; McKenzie, 2010; Sykes, 2010; Zhang, 2010). Studies usually obtain listeners’ sociodemographic variables through a questionnaire that requires them to
provide background information. The following subsections will focus specifically on the social factors of gender, occupation and self-perceived competence in English, as these are the sociodemographic variables on which information was gathered in the present study (see Section 3.3.1.3).
2.7.1 Gender
A substantial body of language attitudes research has shown that gender usually turns out to be a salient factor, which suggests that males and females differ systematically in how they perceive varieties of English speech (e.g., Giles, 1970; Callan et al., 1983; Wilson and Bayard, 1992; McKenzie, 2008a; Van Trieste, 1990; Coupland and Bishop, 2007; Moloney, 2009; Sykes, 2010). Nevertheless, some studies have not found the gender of the listeners to be a significant factor in language attitude variations (e.g., Gallois and Callan, 1981; Van Trieste, 1990; Hartikainen, 2000; Ihemere, 2006; Zhang, 2010).
Language attitude studies which found gender to be an influential factor demonstrated that female respondents are more loyal than male respondents in favouring standard speech over non-standard speech (e.g., Labov, 1966; 1972; Trudgill, 1974; Callan et al., 1983; Callan and Gallois, 1987; Milroy, 1987; Cheshire, 1991; Baker, 1992; Andrews, 2003; Bresnahan et al., 2002; Coupland and Bishop, 2007; McKenzie, 2010). This is largely to do with the fact that “the language of women on average and allowing for other variables such as social class and age is closer to the prestige standard than is the language of men” (Ladegaard, 2000:217). According to Williams and Giles (1978), females’ fondness for overt prestige forms of English speech is likely to pave the way for them to achieve greater integration with males. On the other hand, males are generally less influenced by the social stigma against the non-standard forms than females and tend to prefer local accents (e.g., Trudgill, 1974; Giles and Powesland, 1975; Callan et al., 1983; Labov, 1990; Labov et al., 2006; McKenzie, 2010). In this respect, males are more likely to retain covert preference towards the broad speech within their mother-tongue community (Labov, 2001). For instance, Trudgill (1974) showed that while the females in his study favoured the standard variety of RP that is often associated with high status, males tended to desire the local vernacular and less standard pronunciation of Norwich English in
the UK. Possible gender effects will be investigated in this thesis in section 4.2.1 and section 5.2.1.
2.7.2 Occupation
The other salient social factor that affects evaluations towards varieties of English is listeners’ occupation (e.g., Garrett et al., 1999; Garrett et al., 2003). A case in point is the finding that students and teachers who worked perceived British English varieties differently in the educational sector (e.g., Garrett et al., 1999). While Welsh teachers associated the prestige form of RP with success and a high level of education, Welsh students tended to identify with Welsh English as the variety that revealed a higher extent of in-group affinity than RP (Garrett et al., 1999). According to Garrett et al. (1999:345), while students are likely to move away from “family identity toward more individual and peer- group identity”, people in professions or approaching employment tend to “move out of relatively stable and rooted socio-cultural environments and into more fluid-life-patterns”. The study of Garrett et al. (1999) exemplified how attitudes towards varieties of English are likely to differ according to the various professions of the listener-judges.
2.7.3 Self-Perceived Competence in English
The social factor of self-perceived competence in English is particularly relevant to NNSs’ attitudes towards English and its varieties (e.g., McKenzie, 2008a, 2010; Makewa et al., 2013). In this regard, the varied extent of ESL or EFL speakers’ self-perceived English level is likely to account for the differentiated perceptions towards varieties of English. It is found that L2 Tanzanian students who tended to perceive themselves with a high level of English proficiency are more likely to hold a favourable attitude towards English (e.g., Makewa et al., 2013). Correspondingly, in the study of McKenzie (2008a), Japanese university students who perceived themselves with a higher level of English proficiency evaluated varieties of the IC such as Glasgow Standard English, Southern US English, and Midwest US English speakers significantly more positively than those who regarded themselves to have a lower proficiency. McKenzie (2008a) interpreted this finding to mean that Japanese EFL speakers who have higher levels of English proficiency are more likely than their counterparts to endorse IC English varieties. In conclusion, it is worth considering the variable of NNSs’
self-perceived English level as a potential determinant of attitude variations towards different forms of spoken English.
2.7.4 The Interaction Effects of the Social Factors
A number of studies (e.g., McKenzie, 2006; Callan et al., 1983; Kraut and Wulff, 2013) that have investigated the role of respondents’ sociodemographic factors in the evaluations of English varieties also highlight the value of examining the interaction effects of these variables. In Wilson and MacLean’s definition (2011: 416) the interaction effect is “the differing effect of one factor on the dependent variable, depending on the particular level of another factor”. For instance, rather than being influenced by one exclusive social characteristic, research (e.g., Callan et al., 1983; Kraut and Wulff, 2013) has found that perceptions of different English varieties are determined by a complex interplay of the listeners’ sociodemographic factors. There is also evidence to the contrary: McKenzie’s study (2010) did not show this kind of interplay. To achieve a greater validity and legitimacy in interpreting the interconnection between social variables of the evaluators and their judgments of different English varieties, it is therefore worthwhile for this research to investigate both the main effects and the interaction effects of each social variable selected for the Taiwanese and British participants (see Section 3.3.1.3).
2.7.5 Summary of the Research into the Effect of Social Factors on
Language Attitudes
Many studies examining the effect of participants’ social factors on their evaluations of English speech (e.g., Coupland and Bishop, 2007; Sykes, 2010; McKenzie, 2010; Zhang, 2010) highlighted the value of taking into consideration the main effects and the interaction effects of the social variables when conducting language attitude research. Studies demonstrated that the social variables of the listeners sometimes generated a mixed result in mediating evaluators’ stereotyped judgments towards different English varieties. To build a more profound understanding of the sociolinguistic framework in the context of Taiwan and the UK, the present study will examine both the main effects and the interaction effects of the social variables when analysing how Taiwanese and British respondents evaluate varieties of English (see Sections 4.2, 4.3, 5.2 and 5.3).
2.8 The Research Questions of the Study
In response to the gaps identified from a careful review of the existing NSs and NNSs studies towards varieties of English, there is empirical value in conducting further in-depth research on how Taiwanese and British people perceive variations in IC, OC and EC forms of English speech by addressing the following research questions. It should be noted that the sequence of the research questions is based on an order from implicit to explicit measurement of language attitudes.
1. What are the Taiwanese and British participants’ implicit attitudes towards varieties of English?
2. Which social variables (if any) appear to be significant in determining the Taiwanese and British participants’ attitudes towards varieties of English?
3. Are Taiwanese and British participants able to identify the origins of varieties of English?
4. What role does the Taiwanese and British participants’ identification of speakers’ origins play on their evaluations of the varieties of English? 5. What role do World Englishes play on the Taiwanese and British
participants’ attitudes towards varieties of English?
6. What are the Taiwanese and British participants’ explicit attitudes towards varieties of English?
This chapter reviewed the main findings of NSs and NNSs attitudes towards varieties of English and set the primary research questions that this study seeks to answer. Before the discussion of the detailed methodology in the coming chapter, it will review the main approaches of examining language attitudes and explain the appropriate techniques that the present research adopts.
Chapter 3
Data and Methodology
Before moving on to discuss the main methodology used in the current study, I will introduce the two research sites of Taiwan and the UK, which this study focuses on. Following this, the chapter provides a comprehensive account of the research design employed in this study, which includes how the participants were chosen, how the varieties of English were selected and how language attitudes are elicited in both NSs and NNSs contexts. It is worth noting that different pilot studies were conducted to test the reliability of the research questionnaire and the various methodologies before the data collection took place (see Section 3.2).