{"title":"Attitudes of Educated Nigerians towards Varieties of English","authors":"Temitayo Olatoye","doi":"10.1080/10228195.2022.2067216","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This study examines the attitudes of 102 Nigerians towards six varieties of English in terms of status and solidarity: Southern British, Scottish, General American, Acrolectal Nigerian, Non-acrolectal Nigerian, and Ivorian. Using the verbal guise technique, attitudinal evaluations were obtained via an online questionnaire with a six-point semantic differential scale and eight traits. A speaker identification task was also included to examine dialectal awareness. Results indicate that the British, American, and Acrolectal Nigerian varieties received more positive evaluations in terms of status, while greater solidarity was expressed towards the American and both Nigerian varieties. An examination of participants’ responses reveals that accent familiarity and the speaker’s degree of accentedness enhance the listener’s ability to make fine-grained distinctions. These findings are discussed in relation to the acceptability of an endonormative variety in Nigeria.","PeriodicalId":43882,"journal":{"name":"Language Matters","volume":"53 1","pages":"81 - 102"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5000,"publicationDate":"2022-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Language Matters","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10228195.2022.2067216","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Abstract This study examines the attitudes of 102 Nigerians towards six varieties of English in terms of status and solidarity: Southern British, Scottish, General American, Acrolectal Nigerian, Non-acrolectal Nigerian, and Ivorian. Using the verbal guise technique, attitudinal evaluations were obtained via an online questionnaire with a six-point semantic differential scale and eight traits. A speaker identification task was also included to examine dialectal awareness. Results indicate that the British, American, and Acrolectal Nigerian varieties received more positive evaluations in terms of status, while greater solidarity was expressed towards the American and both Nigerian varieties. An examination of participants’ responses reveals that accent familiarity and the speaker’s degree of accentedness enhance the listener’s ability to make fine-grained distinctions. These findings are discussed in relation to the acceptability of an endonormative variety in Nigeria.
期刊介绍：
The purpose of Language Matters is to provide a journal of international standing with a unique African flavour focusing on multilingualism in Africa. Although the journal contributes to the language debate on all African languages, sub-Saharan Africa and issues related to multilingualism in the southern African context are the journal’s specific domains. The journal seeks to promote the dissemination of ideas, points of view, teaching strategies and research on different aspects of African languages, providing a forum for discussion on the whole spectrum of language usage and debate in Africa. The journal endorses a multidisciplinary approach to the study of language and welcomes contributions not only from sociolinguists, psycholinguists and the like, but also from educationalists, language practitioners, computer analysts, engineers or scholars with a genuine interest in and contribution to the study of language. All contributions are critically reviewed by at least two referees. Although the general focus remains on multilingualism and related issues, one of the three issues of Language Matters published each year is a special thematic edition on Language Politics in Africa. These special issues embrace a wide spectrum of language matters of current relevance in Southern Africa.
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