Language Attitudes in a Lingua Franca: The Case of Black South African College Students

2020 ◽  
pp. 0261927X2095190
Author(s):  
Pedro Álvarez-Mosquera ◽  
Alejandro Marín-Gutiérrez
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Access To Higher Education ◽  
African Students ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Development Of Language ◽  
Methodological Considerations

In a context of transformation where South African students have started to confront issues of alienation and access to higher education institutions, the role of language is not a minor issue. This study explores the implicit language attitudes of a sample of 80 young L1 South African indigenous language speakers toward Standard South African English and black accented English in a university context. In using a mixed-methodological approach that investigates the interrelation between participants’ Implicit Association Test (IAT) results toward the two selected accents and their linguistic background, language exposure, and social distance levels, this study found mixed results with important sociolinguistic implications. More specifically, the notion of intersectionality (race and gender), the relevant role of the language of instruction in the development of language attitudes, and further correlations between the above-mentioned sociolinguistic variables provided valuable insight with significant social implications as well as methodological considerations.

Young Coloureds’ implicit attitudes towards two historically White English accents in the South African context

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-344
Author(s):  
Pedro Álvarez-Mosquera
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Distance ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Historically White ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
African Context ◽  
Accented English

Abstract This study explores the implicit language attitudes of a sample of 84 young Coloured South Africans towards two historically White accents in the country: the Standard South African English accent and Afrikaans-accented English. In order to shed light on the role of language in the process of social categorization among the younger generations, I present a mixed-methodological approach that investigates the interrelation between the results of an Implicit Association Test (IAT) towards the two selected accents and the participants’ linguistic background, language exposure, and social distance levels. Within the target demographic, the data confirm the existence of an overall positive implicit attitude towards Standard South African English, although positive attitudes towards Afrikaans-accented English were not uncommon. Correlations between IAT effect and the variables “social distance levels with Whites” and “places of residence” provide potential explanations and valuable sociolinguistic information about the language dynamics in this diverse ethnic group.

A sociolinguistic approach to implicit language attitudes towards historically white English accents among young L1 South African indigenous language speakers

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (260) ◽  
pp. 131-153
Author(s):  
Pedro Álvarez-Mosquera ◽  
Alejandro Marín-Gutiérrez
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Potential Role ◽  
Language Attitudes ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Historically White ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Language Exposure ◽  
Accented English ◽  
Type Of School

Abstract This study investigates the potential role of context-relevant sociolinguistic factors in explaining young L1 indigenous South African language speakers’ IAT (Implicit Association Test) scores towards two varieties largely associated with the white group: Standard South African English and Afrikaans accented English. To this end, a post-IAT sociolinguistic survey on participants’ linguistic background, language exposure and intergroup social distance levels (among other social factors) was used. Separate ANOVAS were performed using the IAT reaction times as a dependent variable and sociolinguistic variables as factors. Notably, the sociolinguistic approach revealed that more positive attitudes towards Afrikaans accented English are correlated with the language range of participants, the dominant languages spoken in their places of origin, and the type of school they have attended.

Exploring Higher Education Students’ Technological Identities using Critical Discourse Analysis

2013 ◽  
pp. 181-198
Author(s):  
Cheryl Brown ◽  
Mike Hart
Keyword(s):  
Discourse Analysis ◽  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
South African ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Education Students ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Analytical Device

This chapter applies a critical theory lens to understanding how South African university students construct meaning about the role of ICTs in their lives. Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has been used as a theoretical and analytical device drawing on theorists Fairclough and Gee to examine the key concepts of meaning, identity, context, and power. The specific concepts that inform this study are Fairclough’s three-level framework that enables the situating of texts within the socio-historical conditions and context that govern their process, and Gee’s notion of D(d)iscourses and conceptualization of grand societal “Big C” Conversations. This approach provides insights into students’ educational and social identities and the position of globalisation and the information society in both facilitating and constraining students’ participation and future opportunities. The research confirms that the majority of students regard ICTs as necessary, important, and valuable to life. However, it reveals that some students perceive themselves as not being able to participate in the opportunities technology could offer them. In contrast to government rhetoric, ICTs are not the answer but should be viewed as part of the problem. Drawing on Foucault’s understanding of power as a choice under constraint, this methodological approach also enables examination of how students are empowered or disempowered through their Discourses about ICTs.

scholarly journals The role of parents in the perfectionistic tendencies of university music students

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 217-229
Author(s):  
Madaleen Botha ◽  
Clorinda Panebianco
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Music Students ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Parental Criticism ◽  
Institution Type ◽  
Role Of Parents ◽  
Main Instrument ◽  
Academic Year ◽  
Insight Into

Perfectionism is a complex multidimensional state with positive and negative outcomes. Research has identified that parents could influence perfectionistic inclinations, which may lead to increased levels of anxiety and ultimately lead to maladaptive tendencies. The aim of the study is to explore the role of parents in the experience of perfectionism in South African university music students. A total of 93 BA (Music) and BMus music students from four South African university music departments participated in the quantitative study by completing the Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (FMPS). The data were analyzed according to the variables of academic institution, type of music degree, academic year of study, gender, home language, and main instrument. The results showed significant differences in BA (Music) students who scored significantly higher than the BMus students in the dimensions Parental Expectations and Parental Criticism, along with students from the African language group. The study provides valuable insight into the perfectionistic trends of South African undergraduate music students, with particular emphasis on the parental dimensions of perfectionism.

Maternal Perception of Infants’ Expressions of Emotion

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 173-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Krippl ◽  
Stephanie Ast-Scheitenberger ◽  
Ina Bovenschen ◽  
Gottfried Spangler
Keyword(s):  
Response Pattern ◽  
Electrodermal Activity ◽  
Startle Amplitude ◽  
Caregiving System ◽  
Parental Caregiving ◽  
Opponent Process ◽  
Opponent Process Theory ◽  
Valence And Arousal ◽  
Methodological Considerations

In light of Lang’s differentiation of the aversive and the approach system – and assumptions stemming from attachment theory – this study investigates the role of the approach or caregiving system for processing infant emotional stimuli by comparing IAPS pictures, infant pictures, and videos. IAPS pictures, infant pictures, and infant videos of positive, neutral, or negative content were presented to 69 mothers, accompanied by randomized startle probes. The assessment of emotional responses included subjective ratings of valence and arousal, corrugator activity, the startle amplitude, and electrodermal activity. In line with Lang’s original conception, the typical startle response pattern was found for IAPS pictures, whereas no startle modulation was observed for infant pictures. Moreover, the startle amplitudes during negative video scenes depicting crying infants were reduced. The results are discussed with respect to several theoretical and methodological considerations, including Lang’s theory, emotion regulation, opponent process theory, and the parental caregiving system.

Challenges of Fear Conditioning Research in the Age of RDoC

2017 ◽  
Vol 225 (3) ◽  
pp. 189-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽  
Jan Richter
Keyword(s):  
Fear Conditioning ◽  
Clinical Diagnosis ◽  
Research Domain Criteria ◽  
Major Focus ◽  
The Future ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Methodological Considerations ◽  
Research Domain

Abstract. As the criticism of the definition of the phenotype (i.e., clinical diagnosis) represents the major focus of the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) initiative, it is somewhat surprising that discussions have not yet focused more on specific conceptual and procedural considerations of the suggested RDoC constructs, sub-constructs, and associated paradigms. We argue that we need more precise thinking as well as a conceptual and methodological discussion of RDoC domains and constructs, their interrelationships as well as their experimental operationalization and nomenclature. The present work is intended to start such a debate using fear conditioning as an example. Thereby, we aim to provide thought-provoking impulses on the role of fear conditioning in the age of RDoC as well as conceptual and methodological considerations and suggestions to guide RDoC-based fear conditioning research in the future.

Learning Zulu

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Language Learning ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
South African ◽  
Press Coverage ◽  
African History ◽  
African Culture ◽  
The Past ◽  
Correct Form ◽  
Linguistic Purism

When this book's author began studying Zulu, he was often questioned why he was learning it. This book places the author's endeavors within a wider context to uncover how, in the past 150 years of South African history, Zulu became a battleground for issues of property, possession, and deprivation. The book combines elements of analysis and memoir to explore a complex cultural history. Perceiving that colonial learners of Zulu saw themselves as repairing harm done to Africans by Europeans, the book reveals deeper motives at work in the development of Zulu-language learning—from the emergence of the pidgin Fanagalo among missionaries and traders in the nineteenth century to widespread efforts, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, to teach a correct form of Zulu. The book looks at the white appropriation of Zulu language, music, and dance in South African culture, and at the association of Zulu with a martial masculinity. In exploring how Zulu has come to represent what is most properly and powerfully African, the book examines differences in English- and Zulu-language press coverage of an important trial, as well as the role of linguistic purism in xenophobic violence in South Africa. Through one person's efforts to learn the Zulu language, the book explores how a language's history and politics influence all individuals in a multilingual society.

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