Sociolinguistic Survey Research Articles

Sociolinguistic surveys in Japan: approaches and problems

Sociolinguistic surveys in Japan: approaches and problems

Sociolinguistic surveys in Singapore

Sociolinguistic surveys in Singapore

The Sociolinguistic Survey of Language in Hong Kong: the background to research and methodological considerations

Article The Sociolinguistic Survey of Language in Hong Kong: the background to research and methodological considerations was published on January 1, 1985 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1985, issue 55).

Vitality Perceptions and Language Attitudes: Some Canadian Data

Italian (IC) and English (EC) Canadians, in two school settings, completed the Subjective Vitality Questionnaire (SVQ) and a sociolinguistic questionnaire concerning self-reported usage and evaluations of Italian and English in different domains. SVQ results from the two settings showed that subject perceptions do not necessarily match objective assessments of ethnolinguistic vitality. Both ECs and ICs had more realistic perceptions in a majority setting (study 2) than in an equal setting (study 1). Whereas in both studies, self reports of language usage reflected the dominance of the English language in Hamilton, ECs were more biased against Italian language usage in study 1 than in study 2. Setting and subjective vitality perceptions seemed to affect evaluations of language use rather than self-reported usage. These results show that the SVQ and sociolinguistic surveys, in combination, can prove to be powerful instruments in studying the dynamics of ethnic group perceptions and language attitudes in multilingual settings.

A comparison of phonetically-ordered phonological variables in two major Canadian urban surveys

Sociolinguistic dialect research is based on the assumption that language is a form of social behaviour varying as much with social factors as with geography, which of course, does not prevent a geographical comparison in the current context. The present study deals with preliminary observations which result from testing and comparing the effect of age, sex and socio-economic status on linguistic variables in two recent, major urban sociolinguistic surveys in Canada: that of Ottawa, with 100 informants (Woods 1979), and SVEN, the Survey of Vancouver English with 240 informants (Gregg 1981).

National Language Ability: A Sociolinguistic Survey in East Java, Indonesia

The development of the Indonesian national language has been exemplary. Unlike the creation of a national language in other developing countries, as in Malaysia, the Philippines, and India, the choice has not become a political issue. In Indonesia, no sector of society has sought to promote other local or foreign languages as the national language. In 1962, Takdir Alisjahbana outlined the initial development of Indonesian from Malay, the trade language of the archipelago from the first century AD. and the language of the Sriwijaya Empire (A.D. 700–1200) through the period of rising nationalism to independence. A few of the important steps in this process were: the declaration of Indonesian as the national language by the National Youth Congress in 1928; the flourishing of a national and a Chinese press from the 1920s onward, both of which used the Malay language; the promotion of literary works by the monthly journal, Pudjangga Baru, from 1933 onward; and the standardizing effect of the Indonesian Language Commission established in 1942. These events successfully established the first stage or emergence of the national language.

Language attitudes and self‐reports of French‐English language usage in Quebec

Abstract The aim of this study was to explore the impact of Quebec language planning in favour of French (Bill 101) on self‐reports of language use in cross‐cultural encounters between Francophones (QFs) and Anglophones (QAs) in Montreal. A sociolinguistic survey was completed by QF and QA university students three months after the promulgation of Bill 101. Results showed that whereas QFs were in total agreement with Bill 101, QAs were in complete disagreement with this legislation. Although QAs disagreed with Bill 101, they reported being more likely to use French in conversation with QFs today than they had been in the past prior to the passage of the language legislation. QFs reported they were as likely to maintain French when conversing with QAs today as they had been in the past. However, discrepancies between respondents’ self‐reports of language use and their reported experiences with the language behaviour of outgroup interlocutors did emerge in this study. Finally, results suggest that motivatio...

The Problems of Classifying the Population Sample in the Socio-Linguistic Survey of Orleans (1969) in terms of Socio-Economic, Social and Educational Categories

The Problems of Classifying the Population Sample in the Socio-Linguistic Survey of Orleans (1969) in terms of Socio-Economic, Social and Educational Categories

The Pronunciation of English in Cannock, Staffordshire: A Sociolinguistic Survey of an Urban Speech Community

The Pronunciation of English in Cannock, Staffordshire: A Sociolinguistic Survey of an Urban Speech Community

Review of Heath, (1980): The Pronunciation of English in Cannock, Staffordshire – A Socio-linguistic Survey of an Urban Speech-Community

Review of Heath, (1980): The Pronunciation of English in Cannock, Staffordshire – A Socio-linguistic Survey of an Urban Speech-Community

Procedures for Improving Sociolinguistic Surveys of Language Maintenance and Language Shift

Article Procedures for Improving Sociolinguistic Surveys of Language Maintenance and Language Shift was published on January 1, 1980 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1980, issue 25).

Reviews - Sirarpi Ohannessian, Charles A. Ferguson and Edgar C. Polomé (eds), Language surveys in developing nations. Papers and reports on sociolinguistic surveys. Arlington, Virginia: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1975. Pp. vi +226.

Reviews - Sirarpi Ohannessian, Charles A. Ferguson and Edgar C. Polomé (eds), Language surveys in developing nations. Papers and reports on sociolinguistic surveys. Arlington, Virginia: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1975. Pp. vi +226. - Volume 7 Issue 1

A Practical Approach to Assessing Bilingualism in Young Mexican-American Children

This article presents a practical approach to assessing bilingualism in children entering school. It includes the general aim of bilingual assessment, and an overall approach, which includes a method of selecting subjects, the use of a sociolinguistic survey, and tests for measuring bilingual communicative competence. It also suggests variables to be included in the analysis of data, as well as some limitations of the tests discussed.

Language Surveys in Developing Nations. Papers and Reports on Sociolinguistic Surveys

Language Surveys in Developing Nations. Papers and Reports on Sociolinguistic Surveys

A Sociolinguistic Survey of Friulian as a ‘Minor Language’

A Sociolinguistic Survey of Friulian as a ‘Minor Language’

A Sociolinguistic Survey of Friulian as a ‘Minor Language’

A Sociolinguistic Survey of Friulian as a ‘Minor Language’

Further report on the sociolinguistic survey of multilingual communities: survey of Cayo District, British Honduras

ABSTRACTThe sociolinguistic survey of Cayo District, British Honduras is here further reported upon (cf. LinS i. 155–72 (1972)). We are concerned with acquisition of language habits in a situation in which the child' verbal behaviour reflects its search for identity and social role. For 280 children, the incidence of five linguistic features in from three to five sections of an interview has been calculated. The linguistic profiles of the children were examined by a computer-programmed cluster analysis. In addition, each child' family and each child were interviewed at home, providing socio-economic data. Analysis is incomplete but does suggest an analogue to the child' acts of identity. The paper illustrates a methodological approach that may be useful in other social situations. (Sociolinguistic identity, multilingualism, creole languages, sociolinguistic survey, cluster analysis, British Honduras.)

Preliminary report on the sociolinguistic survey of multilingual communities, part I: Survey of Cayo District, British Honduras

The sociolinguistic survey of Cayo District, British Honduras, is planned as one of a series to be carried out by the same methods and as far as possible by the same team, so that comparable results can be obtained from a number of territories, and hypotheses about the relationship between patterns of verbal behaviour and other social factors based on one territory tested in the next. The hypotheses to be tested were formed (somewhat pretentiously) within a general ‘law’ with four riders in ‘Problems of description in multilingual communities’ (Le Page 1968a), and the practical ends of the survey also adumbrated there — viz., to help improve the quality of education in multilingual communities by illuminating the problems, the motives and the performance of children, by training the teachers and by helping in a basic way with the preparation of materials. The scientific aims are to gain an understanding of linguistic processes in relation to other relevant factors and modes of behaviour, so as to improve both linguistic and sociolinguistic theory.