14. Attitudes

Attitudes to Language

Language attitudes -- positive or negative -- towards a language or a variety can have great impact on language and education.

What do we know or care about language knowledge and learning? 

What are some different approaches to language learning?

Overt Prestige and Covert Prestige 

from a sociolinguistic perspective

The meaning of overt prestige is reasonably self-evident; it is associated with the standard variety in a community -- 'the best way of speaking in a community'. In contrast the term covert prestige refers to positive attitudes towards vernacular or non-standard speech varieties.



Methods of collecting attitude data

• Direct observation
   
• Direct questions
   
• Indirect measures

Discourse

The term discourse is generally used to refer to stretches of spoken or written language which extend beyond an utterance or a sentence. For philosophers, discourse is a broader term. It is regarded as a means of structuring knowledge and social practice, and language is just one symbolic form of discourse.

Discourse as viewed by pragmatics

Pragmatics are concerned with the analysis of meaning in interaction, context is crucial in interpreting what is meant, and pragmatics extends the analysis of meaning beyond grammar and word meaning to the relationship between the participants and the background knowledge they bring to a situation, which is analyzed in terms of conversation maxims and politeness.

Conversation Maxims

Paul Grice

Paul Grice formulated four maxims of cooperative talk:

1. Quantity: say as much as but no more than necessary
    
2. Quality: do not say what you believe to be false, or that for which you lack evidence
    
3. Relation: be relevant


4. Manner: be clear, unambiguous, brief and orderly

Educational Linguistics

focuses on language learning and teaching, and the role of language in learning and teaching.  

Vernacular Forms

Holmes: "For many minority ethnic group members, ethnic identity is fundamental and colors or infuses everything they say and do, think and believe.  From this perspective advocating bidialectalism is perhaps like asking a woman to pretend to be a man for the duration of each working day, or vice-versa."

"Language is political. That's why you and me, my Brother and Sister, that's why we supposed to choke our natural self into the weird, lying, barbarous, unreal, white speech and writing habits that the schools lay down like holy law. Because, in other words, the powerful don't play; they mean to keep that power, and those who are the powerless (you and me) better shape up --mimic/ape/suck --in the very image of the powerful, or the powerful will destroy you --you and our children." -- June Jordan

Vernacular Dialects and Educational Disadvantage

"Why do working-class children fail in schools more than middle-class children from a sociolinguistic perspective?"

• The criteria for success are middle-class criteria, including middle-class language and ways of interaction;
   
• Many of the children, recognizing that schools are essentially middle-class institutions, deliberately and understandably rebel against all that they represent.

Linguistic Deficit Issues

Sociolinguists study the effect of contextual factors on speech.

Holmes: "Sociolinguists use research about the relationships between language and its users -- and language and its uses -- in order to identify misconceptions which can disadvantage some social and ethnic groups in school."