Language Attitudes of Polish Youth in Lithuania

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of Polish youth in Lithuania towards the Lithuanian, Russian, English, and Polish languages. The material has been drawn from qualitative research conducted through questionnaires. In order to summarize the results of the research, 147 questionnaires completed by respondents aged 16–34, who declared Polish nationality, were selected. The survey was done between February 20 and March 3, 2023, via Google Forms. Results of the 2023 attitude survey were compared with those of the 2010 sociolinguistic survey. 98.6% (n = 145) of the young respondents consider Polish to be their mother tongue or one of their mother tongues, which is 18.4% higher than the result obtained in the 2010 survey. Preferences for the most beautiful, the necessary, the most common, and the most prestigious language were compared with the preferences that were described in my article (Geben 2013). Results of the statistical analysis show that Lithuanian is the most frequently mentioned language among the most necessary languages, but English is still the language the most in need for young respondents (63.9%, n = 94). Polish retains its position as the most beautiful language for those whose mother tongue is Polish. Polish has become the most common language for young respondents (67.3%, n = 99), with Russian still in a second place in this category (47.6%, n = 70).
 The aim of this study is to determine the attitudes of Polish youth in Lithuania towards the Lithuanian, Russian, English, and Polish languages. The material has been drawn from qualitative research conducted through questionnaires. In order to summarize the results of the research, 147 questionnaires completed by respondents aged 16–34, who declared Polish nationality, were selected. The survey was done between February 20 and March 3, 2023, via Google Forms. Results of the 2023 attitude survey were compared with those of the 2010 sociolinguistic survey. 98.6% (n = 145) of the young respondents consider Polish to be their mother tongue or one of their mother tongues, which is 18.4% higher than the result obtained in the 2010 survey. Preferences for the most beautiful, the necessary, the most common, and the most prestigious language were compared with the preferences that were described in my article (Geben 2013). Results of the statistical analysis show that Lithuanian is the most frequently mentioned language among the most necessary languages, but English is still the language the most in need for young respondents (63.9%, n = 94). Polish retains its position as the most beautiful language for those whose mother tongue is Polish. Polish has become the most common language for young respondents (67.3%, n = 99), with Russian still in a second place in this category (47.6%, n = 70).