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Elliott Slosarova2018.Pdf (7.317Mb) This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. SCHOOL OF PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY AND LANGUAGE SCIENCES Sociolinguistic variation among Slovak immigrants in Edinburgh, Scotland ZUZANA ELLIOTT A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy June 2018 Abstract This thesis investigates sociolinguistic variation among highly fluent Slovak-English bilingual women and also long-term immigrants residing in Edinburgh, Scotland. The present study adds to existing literature on urban migratory experiences (Block, 2008; Forsberg, Lundell and Bartning, 2015; Howley, 2015), comparing cross-cultural variation of immigrants’ speech with their local peers (Drummond, 2010, 2012; Meyerhoff et al., 2009), by exploring linguistic and social constraints on language attitudes and accent acquisition among bilingual Slovak immigrants. Sociolinguistic interview data were obtained from 32 women, ages 22-46: 20 Slovak immigrants, 8 Edinburgh Scottish participants, and 6 bilingual Slovak teachers of English in Slovakia. By considering linguistic and social factors that influence Slovak immigrants’ variation, in this thesis I ask not just whether and to what extent do local language communities shape immigrants’ identity, but also how their identity affects their language attitudes and pronunciation. The thesis pays particular attention to how implicit and explicit language attitudes combine to establish what Block (2008) called a “multidimensional” identity in immigrants. Further investigation establishes a link between identity and production (Redinger and Llamas, 2014; Podesva et al., 2015) by drawing on the variationist sociolinguistic methodologies set out by Labov (1966, 2001, 2006). Implicit language attitudes were collected via a Verbal Guise Task (VGT), during which participants evaluated speakers of foreign and native English accents (Campbell- Kibler, 2006; McKenzie, 2015; McKenzie and Carrie, 2018). Explicit attitudes were collected via a questionnaire designed to elicit attitudes in a casual setting (Dörnyei and Csizér, 2012). The combination of methodologies revealed that immigrant participants in the study held complex attitudes and motivations in relation to their host country. The results for language attitudes suggested that long-term Slovak immigrants experienced shifts to their identity while residing in Scotland, with most adopting a transnational identity that made them amenable to local language communities while maintaining connections with their home country. Their identity represented a degree of integration with Scottish communities, but transnational immigrants often felt separate from both home and host countries as a result. ii The present study also explores connection between identity and production which is now well recognised (Kobiałka, 2016; Regan, 2016; Regan and Ni Chasaide, 2010; Bucholtz, 2011). Immigrant participants’ pronunciations of FACE and GOAT vowel lexical sets (Wells, 1982) were evaluated in comparison to two language groups that represented different standards of pronunciation: native Scottish participants in Edinburgh, with more monophthongal pronunciations (Schützler, 2015); and English-Slovak bilinguals residing in Trnava, Slovakia, whose vowel productions were highly diphthongal and similar to Received Pronunciation (RP) constructions. Comparative study of pronunciations revealed that the immigrants’ FACE and GOAT realisations were relatively more monophthongal than the non- immigrant Slovak group, yet more diphthongal than the native Scottish group – effectively making immigrant Slovaks’ mean pronunciations separate and distinct from both native standard varieties. However, the immigrant’s pronunciations varied widely, and data modelling revealed associations between key social factors and pronunciation. Settings of high formality, strong European and Slovak identities, and intentions to return to Slovakia were associated with relatively more diphthongal pronunciations. Decreased formality, strong Scottish identities, and lack of formal education before immigration were associated with relatively more monophthongal pronunciations. Key findings in the study reinforce observations of multi-cultural identities in long- term Slovak immigrants. Drawing on work that explores variation in language attitudes (Clark and Schleef, 2010) and production in migratory settings (Meyerhoff and Schleef, 2014), I argue that there is a tendency for immigrants to shape their multi-cultural identities in response to linguistic and social contexts. However, internal contexts such as self- definition were equally important in shaping identities, which in turn affected language attitudes and pronunciation. iii Lay Summary Little attention has been paid to how immigrants’ transnational experiences impact their everyday judgments of their accents and their identity. Shortly upon their arrival, immigrants’ decisions, social networks, and their language use at home shape their professional and personal standings. This study indicates that immigrants who do not hold strong familial ties to the local speech community, e.g. via marriage or partnership, predominantly favour being labelled as European or Slovak instead of Scottish. These “international women” maintain professional ties with the Scottish community while also keeping close social ties to their home country, as well as to other international residents in Scotland. This study builds on existing literature that focuses the extent to which identity and language attitudes are associated with participants’ acquisition of local language norms. The accents under investigation consisted of the English language education standard, Received Pronunciation (RP); the dialect of the local language community, Edinburgh English (marked as Scottish Standard English, SSE); and accented English speech from self-identified “integrated” and “non-integrated” Slovak immigrants. The previously mentioned ties to home and host countries are represented by the immigrant participants’ attitudes toward their local language community, as opposed to the attitudes acquired before immigration, i.e. during formal English language instruction. The results suggest that the immigrants in the study held biases towards accented English in terms of both attractiveness and prestige. They appeared to find a non- integrated immigrant speaker as more socially attractive than an integrated immigrant, although both non-native speakers are rated with low status. Interestingly, Slovak immigrants in this study follow the same general pattern as their Scottish peers, where both groups evaluate RP English as the most prestigious but the least attractive variety. In addition, most immigrants in the study still consider RP as a model accent choice despite their years of residence. The second part of the study investigates the extent to which Slovak immigrants acquire linguistic features of the local Edinburgh English accent variety. The patterns in question are the pronunciation of FACE and GOAT vowel lexical sets (Wells, 1982). The results show that L2 speakers acquired only a limited number of their local variants, regardless of their length of stay in their host country. The immigrants’ mean vowel realisations are significantly different from the native Scottish participants (monophthongal realisations) and fluent native-Slovak bilinguals in Slovakia (diphthongal realisations). The key finding in regard to accent acquisition is the effect iv of speech style, where different speech styles are strongly associated with different vowel productions but for the immigrant group only. However, there is notable variation between immigrants’ speech styles, where less formal styles (interview) are associated with relatively more monophthongal productions and more formal speech styles (word list) with more diphthongal pronunciations. This finding was interpreted as evidence that the immigrants use phonetic inventories that represent a continuous phonetic space between the different types of ‘native-like’ productions learned before and after immigration. Other social factors highlight the complexity behind speakers developing their repertoire. Factors such as accent aim, amount of formal English instruction, and age of first English instruction are influences representing pre- immigration language exposure and education; while factors such as the decision to remain in Scotland, self-evaluated Scottish accent level, and English use in social settings are influences exclusively from the host country. Though individually the factors have small effects on the data models, combinations of these social factors are key to predicting both pronunciation and language attitudes among the immigrant participants. The current study
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