UNDERSTANDING LANGUAGE MIND-SET

Understanding Language mind-set

Introduction

Background of the Study

Language is the major means of human communication. It is a powerful social force that does more than express intended referential information. It also indicates both personal and social characteristics of the presenter. Depending on the specific listener, a speaker's accent, talk patterns, language, intonation etc. can serve as markers for evaluating that speaker's appearance, personality, social status and character, among other things. Obiols defines attitude as a “mental disposition towards something”, it acts as a bridge between opinion and behavior (Obiols, 2002:31). Ryan define language attitudes as “any affective, cognitive or behavioral index of evaluative reactions toward different language varieties or speakers” (Ryan et al. 1982:7)

Problem Statement

Attitudes in the direction of language diversity can be substitute for attitudes about other persons, the persons who talk that language that are considered negatively. Factors such as the territory the speakers came from, the sociopolitical connections between the dispatching territory and the receiving territory, the causes for emigration, the extent of stay in the receiving territory, and the prospect of returning to the sending territory leverage people's mind-set in the direction of language range. (Romaine, 1980:213)

Aims of the Study

The aim of this study is to compare the language attitudes with regards to English as a second language. The study will also talk about that if speakers are judged differently depending on the language they use. I also want to see which language is judged more positively. (Levi, 2007:27)

Significance of the Study

The study of language behavior is significant for sociolinguistics because it can, as Marina S. Obiols writes: 'predict a given linguistic behavior: the choice of a particular language in multilingual communities, language loyalty, language prestige...” (Obiols, 2002:21). Suzanne Romaine says that the basis of attitude measurement is that there are underlying dimensions along which individual attitudes can be ranged. However, she also points out that “the translation of attitude from the subjective domain into something objectively measurable is a common problem in any research that involves social categorization and/or perceptual judgments” (Romaine, 1980:213) Many experiments have tried to analyze the complex relationship between people's attitudes and their behavior (see Wicker 1969 for an overview), but the conclusions are far from unanimous. (Levi, 2007:27)

Literature Review

Modern language attitudes research began in the 1930s with one of the pioneers in this area of investigation being Thomas Hatherley Pear (Pear 1931:65). He questioned whether the voice was capable of yielding sufficient cues for dependable and suitable personality assessment. He concluded that the judgments of personality from the voice are based not on any true reflection of personality found in the voice, but that the judges tended to stereotype the personality of the speaker according to the sound of his voice (Pear 1931:30). These findings 5 were further supported by the results of studies conducted by Fay and Middleton (e.g. 1939, 1940). The two most important theories on language study are the behaviorist theory and the mentalist theory. According to the behaviorist theory attitudes are behaviors or responses to ...