‘They’re very singing English isn’t it’: Attitudes towards varieties of English

Examining language attitudes is important to understand the acceptance and distribution of linguistic forms within a society (Jenkins 2007). The majority of research of attitudes in World Englishes has tended to focus on the attitudes of speakers in the outer and expanding circles of English. However, increased migration is creating superdiverse environments in inner circle countries with English speakers arriving in the UK who already have established norms of usage (Vertovec 2007, 2010). This means that it is becoming increasingly essential to understand the diversity of views within inner-circle countries towards varieties of English.
The participants in my study were multilingual British-Asian English language teachers and encountered different Englishes in several different contexts such as within their family, with friends, in the local community, in the classroom and while travelling abroad. Despite this I found differences within the group in their attitudes towards varieties of English. Half of the participants in the group are second generation migrants and the other half are 1.5 generation migrants, arriving in the UK in their early to mid-teens. What my study suggests is attitude research has to take into account language ideologies, and supports the argument that opinions of correct language are formed during school years (Niedzielski and Preston 2009). The implication my research is that more consideration should be given to the language background of participants when examining language attitudes, and to the ideologies which underpin attitudes. It also further demonstrates the necessity of including a critical language awareness component in English language teacher training (Seidlhofer 2011).

Jenkins, J. (2007) English as Lingua Franca: atttiude and identity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Niedzielski, N. and D. R. Preston (2009) Folk linguistics in N Coupland and A Jaworski, (eds) The new sociolinguistics reader 356-373. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Seidlhofer, B. (2011) Understanding English as a Lingua Franca. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Vertovec, S. (2007) Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies 30 (6), 1024-1054.
Vertovec, S. (2010) Towards post-multiculturalism? Changing communities, conditions and contexts of diversity. International Social Science Journal 61 (199), 83-95.