Reporting language use and exploring language attitudes: Questionnaires

Abstract

CHALLENGES OF USING QUESTIONNAIRES IN MULTILINGUAL RESEARCH Questionnaires are widely used to examine various forms of social behaviour and practices. They are the preferred data-gathering tool for macro-scale projects and surveys. Census surveys, discussed in the previous chapter, are a prime example. Questionnaires are also widely used in macro-scale research focusing primarily on language issues: usage patterns and linguistic practices. Typically, scholars investigating questions of LM or LS try to gather data from a representative sample of the group or community in question to make assessments on the state of play. However, questionnaires are also a useful tool in small(er)-scale research, for example, when you want to identify what languages primary-aged school children use at home and with their friends. In such types of research, the questionnaire is seldom the only data-collection tool but is complemented by other modes of data collection, including case studies, ethnography, participant observation, testing and experiments. The use of questionnaires in research on linguistic diversity shares many elements with its use in other types of social research: sampling issues, the distribution and administration of the questionnaire, the formulation of questions. Some of these, however, are more challenging because of the linguistic diversity of the respondents. For example, the standard sampling techniques may not be very efficient for locating participants when the focus is on their bi- or multilingualism. Similarly, a decision needs to be made in which language the questionnaire should be presented. If the questionnaire is to be administered by an interviewer, should this interviewer be bilingual, should he or she be a member of the same ethnolinguistic group or not? These are some issues and questions facing researchers who rely on the use of questionnaires in exploring language use and language attitudes in a multilingual context. In the next sections we will discuss some of the challenges particularly pertinent to research into LM or LS. They include the sampling of participants and the language(s) used in the questionnaire. The rest of the chapter will be devoted to a discussion of the types of questions used to probe both (reported) language use and language attitudes. Finally, we will mention some aspects of data processing.