Book contents
- Research Methods in Language Attitudes
- Research Methods in Language Attitudes
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 An Introduction to Language Attitudes Research
- Part 1 Analysis of the Societal Treatment of Language
- Part 2 Direct Methods of Attitude Elicitation
- Part 3 Indirect Methods of Attitude Elicitation
- 12 The Matched-Guise Technique
- 13 The Verbal-Guise Technique
- 14 The Theatre-Audience Method
- 15 Experimental Methods to Elicit Language Attitudes among Children
- 16 The Implicit Association Test Paradigm
- Part 4 Overarching Issues in Language Attitudes Research
- References
- Index
- References
15 - Experimental Methods to Elicit Language Attitudes among Children
from Part 3 - Indirect Methods of Attitude Elicitation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 June 2022
- Research Methods in Language Attitudes
- Research Methods in Language Attitudes
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- 1 An Introduction to Language Attitudes Research
- Part 1 Analysis of the Societal Treatment of Language
- Part 2 Direct Methods of Attitude Elicitation
- Part 3 Indirect Methods of Attitude Elicitation
- 12 The Matched-Guise Technique
- 13 The Verbal-Guise Technique
- 14 The Theatre-Audience Method
- 15 Experimental Methods to Elicit Language Attitudes among Children
- 16 The Implicit Association Test Paradigm
- Part 4 Overarching Issues in Language Attitudes Research
- References
- Index
- References
Summary
Although language attitudes are typically studied among adults, research at the intersection of developmental psychology and sociolinguistics suggests that the capacity to view language as providing social meaning emerges early in development. This chapter provides a developmental overview of research on infants’ and young children’s attention to language and accent as conveying social meaning, and reveals the process by which children begin discriminating languages, forming preferences, and ultimately expressing social attitudes that reflect societal input about linguistic status and stereotypes. Studies of infants rely on non-verbal responses such as looking behaviours. As infants grow into young children, both verbal and non-verbal methods are used to assess children’s preferences, inferences, and attitudes about people who speak in different ways. This chapter introduces different experimental methods that can be used to study infants’ and young children’s language-based social responses, including a discussion of the methods’ strengths and limitations. The chapter addresses key practical issues of planning and research design (e.g. recruitment and sample size) as well as data analysis and interpretation (e.g. how to interpret the meaning of infants’ looking responses). To illustrate these points, the chapter concludes with a case study of American children’s attitudes towards Northern and Southern American English.
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- Research Methods in Language Attitudes , pp. 234 - 249Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022