2. Discourses on languages

Discourses in Europe

Discourses on languages

PProf. Dr. Raúl Sánchez Prieto, global director of the master, University of Salamanca

Presentation

Possible seminar papers on this topic

1. Introduction: the study of language perceptions 2. Attitudes to languages (language as the object of assessment) 3. Perceptions and attitudes to language learning

Presentation

1. Introduction: the study of language perceptions

Study of language perception:

• analogous to the study of country brands
• attitudes of speakers of one language community towards the language of the speakers of another other language community
• origins in Allport (1935, see Ianos 2014: 94ff. for a bibliography review)
• concept of perception or attitude towards a language can only be inferred through its manifestations
• terminological discussion: "attitude" and "perception"
• linguistic attitudes are open manifestations of an implicit ideology (Sallabank 2013) and are framed within the social conventions of a given national culture.

Sharp distinction between perceived images of a given language and the perceived image of a language we have to or we would like to learn.

2. Attitudes to languages (language as the object of assessment)

Attitudes towards a given language are closely linked to the culture and nation or nations related to that language. Eagley/Chaiken's (1993) distinction 'attitudes towards object' and 'attitudes towards target'. Types of linguistic/language perceptions:

• perception of one's own language
• perception of different national variants of the same language
• perception of co-languages
• perception of migrant languages
• perception of foreign accents
• perception of the language of the neighbours
• perception of languages which are part of the school curriculum.

3. Perceptions and attitudes to language learning

Attitudes "towards target". Attitude means here the set of values which a student brings to the Foreign Language Class. Variables:

• the experience of learning the target language
• the perception of the target language community
• the experience of travel
• the influence of parents and friends.

Types of language learning perceptions:

• perception of the difficulty of the language
• perception of the usefulness of the language
• perception of the usefulness of the language in terms of communicative valence.

Different paradigms and methodologies when studying language perception:

• language evaluation paradigm
• speaker evaluation paradigm
• language learning paradigm

Possible seminar papers on this topic

• Atttitudes on foreign languages among BA students
• Historical language perceptions in a given text
• Attitudes on migrant languages in a given country