The role of gender and parental background in language attitudes

Abstract

This paper looks at the role played by social factors in the shaping of language attitudes among adolescents, with a focus on gender and parental background in particular. Many studies emphasise that the mid-teens is a period of change and development as adolescents move from a family identity towards a peer-group identity (e.g. Baker 1992, Garrett, Coupland and Williams 2003). Accordingly, it is likely that the peer-groups' language attitudes become more important to these youngsters than those of their parents. In a study carried out among adolescents in Sogndal 2000/2001 (Haugen 2004), results showed that parental background seemed important regarding both young people's language attitudes and the way they spoke. There were also gender differences. Data collected through indirect methods showed that the girls were the more positive to the local dialect whereas data collected through direct methods showed boys to be the more positive. These results were in accord with a gender difference in speech.