The Use of the Implicit Association Test (IAT) for Sociolinguistic Purposes in South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis exploratory study seeks to contribute to the study of the role of language in the process of social categorisation in South Africa. Specifically, we present an innovative mixed-method approach which establishes correlations between reaction times (RTs) towards selected accents obtained by the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and participants’ linguistic background, language exposure and social distance levels. The study has two main objectives: (1) test the viability and efficacy of IAT in methodological and sociolinguistic terms and (2) study language attitudes towards two accents largely associated with white South Africans, Afrikaans-accented English and Standard South African English. The results of this methodological approach show overall consistency between the IAT results and the participants’ sociolinguistic background, which enables researchers to extend the use of this cognitive tool to the study of different sociolinguistic realities in the South African context.