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AUTHOR Lambert, Wallace E. TITLE 'The Social Psychology of Language: A Perspective for

I, the 1980s. Focus, Number 5. _INSTITUTION. InterAmerica Research Associates.,.Rosslyn, Va.; National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, Arlington, Va: SPONS AGENCY National Inst. of Education (DHEW), Washington,'D.C.; Office of Bilingual Education and Minori,ty Languages Affairs (ED), Washington, D.C. PUB DATE Feb 81 CONTRACT 400-80-004 NOTE, 9p.; Reprint of paper preiented at theInternational Conference on Social Psychology and Language (Brristol, England, July 1979). AVAILABLE FROM InterAmerica ResearCh Associates, Inc., National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education, 1300 Wilson Boulevaid, Suite B2 -11., Rosslyn,VA 22209 ($1.005.

EDRS PRICE MFOl'Plus Postage. PC Not Available fromEDRS. DESCRIPTORS Bias; *Cross Cultural Training; Cultural Pluralism; Ethnocentrism; *Language; *Language Attitudes; Psycholinguistics; *Second Language. Learning; *Social Integration; *Social Psychology; Sociolinguistics 'IDENTIFIERS Quebec 4 ABSTRACT Social prOblems such as prejudice, discrimination, and societal unfairness are examined from, the perspective.of their association with language. Researck*in the psychology of language is reviewed with regard to these issues and with particular referenceto the situation in Quebec. The first-question addressed is therole that attitudes play both, as determiners of the rate'of acquisition of a second or foreign language and as outcome effects attributable to the degree of skill, or lack of Skill attained in the study ofthe other language.. A second issue is the unfairness in educational 'systems and the connection rith language styles and'attitudes. The third topic'addressed i,the decline in interest in the study of foreign languages and the widespread immigration ofspeakers of other languages. A plan is proposed for sharing languages in the community rather than Concentrating on language instruction inthe schools. Finally, the demand far social and political independenceon the part of ciatural and linguistic minorities is looked at;in 'relation,to ',native and second language instruction. One conclusion isthat those t' involved with the psychology of language, need to turn their attention to broad sociopolitical issues that impingeon language in society. (AMH) S

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PoIntS Of view TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES or ocerbons stated In this O0C0 meat do not necessarily represent (Awl NIE INFORMATION CENTERRIC).". position or poky, February 1981 11140141. FOR BILIKRALoucanon Presenting Thought-Provoking Papers onBilingual Education Number 5

The Social Psychologyof Language: A Perspective forthy' 1980s Wallace E. Lambert

attention to,a selection of formaHon of. a propose to do here is to direct your Since the early 'fifties, I have watched the problems which I feel our group serious these old'and stubborn social fraternity of men an4women who have in common a because of the'new and language. What on the is now ready to profitably reexathine interest in the social psychology of that has evolved. international group of powerful sodal psychology of language surface seems to unite this diversified, presented more with language and The selection, of course, is-a personal one, people is an` amazement 'and fascination crystal-ball reading for the field as a life. At a deeper level, as illustration than as the powerful influence it has on social from individual) basic common interest, whole. As you will see, the examples range howefer, I notice another, more attitudes, to broader social issuesinvolving namely an amazement and concern that the processesof pre- issues,like judice, discrimination, and other unattractive aspectsof social life so often get associated with language.It is this deeper level of unification that shapes my perspectiveon what directionsour subfield will likely take in thefuture. From the start of the movement in thefifties, those in- About the Author volved have made substantial contributionsand helped give Wallace E. Lambert is a professor ofpsychology at life and structure to a promising newdiscipline. In this short accompaniments have been McGill University, a fellow in theCanadian Royal time span, language and its social National Academy of explored from various vantage points so tl at now we have a Society, and a member of the Education. He received his training. at BrownUniver- healthy store of facts; theories have moy from the home- Colgate University,the University of North spun, hunch-testing stage torespectable levels of sophistica- sity, Carolina, and, for short periods, atCambridge Univer- tion; and an impressive numberOfmrethodologiesas gogd sity and l'Universite de Paris. Hehas been aksiting as anything in thehard scienceshave been carefullyand professor at numerous American universities aswell as -systematically developed. Ingenuity, vitality,and concern in France, the Philippines, andThailand. . have become the hallmarks of the field. My main argument-in this paper isthat the practitioners Wallace Lambert's interests in social andexperi- psycho-,. of this new field of inquiry, with theirparticular perspective, mental psychology,cross-nationalstudies, his pub- are now well prepared toapply their accumulated skills to linguistics, and sociolinguistics are reflected in stubborn social problems, and I am convincedthat this parti- lications, which include thefollowingtitles:Social cular perspective, shaped as it is by afocus on language, is in- Psychology, a textbook written in collaborationwith his valuable for the solution of, these problems.My hope is that brother, William W. Lambert, Children'sViews of Foreign 0 the problems weaddress in the 1980s will reflect the more Peoples. A Cross-NationalStudy,written with Otto with G rry general`conceins of behavioral scientistsprejudice,dis- Klineberg three titles written in collaboration Children. The St N,crimination, and societal unfairness, that is,the issues that Richard Tucker, Bilingua! Education of tihelped unite the fraternity members in thefirst place. What I Lambert Experiment, French Speaker's Skillwith Grammatical Gender: An Example of Rule-GovernedBehavior, and Tx, Vous Listed: A Social Psychology of Forms ofAddress, Atha. C.S 1 ' I-Isl. "The Social Psychology of Language. APerspective for the tudes and Motwahmi in Second LanguageLearning, fwrittenain 1980s," by Wallace E. Lambert, waspresented at the International collaboration with Robert C. Gardner,and Language, Conference on Social Psychology and Languagein Bristol, England Psychology and Culture: Essays by W.E.Lambert, edited by in July1979.This paper appears in a collection ofconference with J. Flamers Psychological-Perceptions, by H. Giles, A.S. Dill. His most recent work, written papers, entitled Language: Social Values: A Cross- W.P. Robinson, and P.M.'Smith (eds.),published by Pergamon and N. Frasure-Smith, is Child Rearing Press Ltd. (Oxford) in 1980. This material isreproduced by permis- National Study (New York. PraegerPublishers, June sion. 1979). -The author is greatly indebted to N.Sidoti and D.M. Taylor for advice and suggestions about the substance ofthis paper. schools, the community, and the whole society. In eachcase, telligence, can upset and disturb the motivation needed to language is a critical faCtor. The sixty-four thousand dollar learn the other group's language, just as open, inquisitive and questions, however, are: friendly attitudes can enhance and enliven the language Will we have the courage to "seriously confront these learning process. We also saw that parental attitudes, positive problems, equipped as we,are now? or negative, are picked up by children, so that the pupils bring a family complex of attitudes to the language class with Will we have the persistence to carry through to practi- them. Gardner and Smythe (1975) have gone further in ex- cal solutions? ploring these aspects of attitudes and have found that per- sistence in language study also hinges in large part on the atti- Attitudes as Input and Outcome reatures of tudes the pupil brings to school. Language Study But there is much more to be done in this domain, andwe First of all, it seems to me that we are now in a good position will continue to rely on Gardner and others for more infor- to take a more comprehensive view of the roles that attitudes mation. For instance, Genesee and Hamayan (1979) working play both as _determiners or predictors of the rate oft skill with Grade 1 Anglo-Canadian pupils did not find any neat, amassment in a second or..):reign language and as outcome simple relationship between attitufles and second-language effects attributable to the gree.of skill or lack t :If skill at- achievement, indicating that we need to explore the whole tained in the study of the other language. So far, we have two developmental course of attitudes as applied to language separate streams of research on this important issue, one on learning. Furthermore, Clement, Gardner, and Smythe (1977) the determiner or "input" side, and the other on the outcome and Taylor et al. (1977) extended the domain by studying or "output" side, with only the beginnings of an attempt at Francophone Canadians, showing us, that attitudes affect Ian- integrating the two (Gardner, 1979). Meanwhile, important '`gunge learning in interestingly different ways whencon- policy decisions about bilingual education programs and ed- sidered from the ethnolinguistic minority group's perspec- ucational at'tempts,to improve second-language competence tive. For example, Taylor, Meynard, and Rheault (1977) found require that this integration take place soon so that, with the that for.French Canadian university students, the learnthg of help of uch an integration, guidelines and limitscan be sug- .English can pose a threat to personal and cultural identity, gested to policymakers about what can be realistically ex- which can hamper the progress made in learning that lan- pected We need to know, for example, if hostile attitudes guage. What is important here is that tlireats of this sdrt can toward another ethnolinguistic group hamper acquisition of lead to suspicion and distrust. Other studies have shown that that group's language, and if successful acquisition actually parents' suspicions and prejudices about outgroups as well as promotes more friendly attitudes. their own group can determine the academic route their chil- dren will follow. For example, French Canadian parents who see little value in being French in the North American scene are prone to route their child into an entirely Anglo educa- tional system; whereas if they have hope in the French fact in . ..prejudice, discrimination, and othei Canada and pride in being French, they, without hesitation, unattractive aspects of social life so often keep their children in French academic'settings and create for get associated with language. them a comf rtable French social environment (Frasure- Smith,-Lamrt, and Taylor, 1975). .; On the 'outcome side, the research pace is lust as lively, and in this case too the relationship with prejudi5ed thinking is just as clear. On the outcome side, one would expect that as Let me briefly review a sample of the researchwe can skill with the other language evolves, attitudes toward the build on in this domain. The need for a social psychology of other ethnolinguistic group should become, less suspicious language learning became apparent to me when OH and hostile. This is essentially what Richard Tucker and I Mowrer in the 'fifties began to examine the emotions .in- found when we studied Anglophone Canadian youngsters volved in the interaction between talking birds and their who had followed a program of immersion-in-French school- trainers, and the effects such interaction hadon the birds' skill ing for four or five years and compared them with control at talk development At about the same time, Susan Ervin groups who had had conventional fnglish-language schooling (1954) started her.work on the role of emotions and attitudes only 1Lambert and Tucker, 1972). In this case we knew that in the child's first! and second- language developrhent, and for both groups the parents' attitudes towards French Robert Gardner and I began to look at bilingual skill develop- Canadians wqre basically the same as of the kindergarten ment from the same perspective (Gardner and Lambert, -1 year. By Grade 5, however, the early immersion pupils rela- 1972). My work with Gardner, exploratciryand factor tive to the controls:liked" French people more, were much analytic as it was, convinced us that negative, prejudiced atti- more prone to say that they would be -just as happy" had tudes and stereotypes about other ethnolinguistic group, they been born into a French family, and saw themselves as quite independent of language learning abilities or verbal in *otnirtg both English and French Canadian in their makeup, ..., 2 3 much more so than the comparison 'children. Apparently, youngople can reasonably ask why it is that their society through their language leaming experience, much of the appar ntly does not want them to learn the other languageor foreignness of the other group was dispelled, and they began to get to know members Of the other ethnolinguisticgroup. to a )preciate the distinctive and the' shared characteristics of Incidentally, in an important large-scale investisation with the other ethnolinguistic group. But other follow , -up studies French Canadian secondary school students, Gignon(1972) (cf. Cziko, Lambert, and Gutter, 1979) using different found that the vast majority thought that.itwas only natural probing techniques and differentage levels sometimes repli, for both French and English Canadians to learn each other's cated and sometimes did not replicate these favorableatti- language, and that, in their views, the language Would best be tude outcomesalthough in no case were the immeiiion learned through schooling plus personal contacts.Over 70. children less favorable to the other group than the controls. percent of Gagnan's sample said they would bevery ap- Thus there is unexplained variability here:and this has preciative of occasions to visit English-landuagesettings. prompted us to ky out variousnew measures of attitudes, Thus, in today's Quebec, young people frdln ,bothFran- such as multidimensiohal scaling. In thiscase we find, as of cophone and Anglophone backgrounds might wonder why. the end of elementary school, that the earlyimmersion lan- society makes it so difficult for them to learn the other ( language or make social contacts with the other guage experience, relative to conventional schooling,seems group. to reduce the perceived social ;distance betweenself and French Canadians (Cziko,LaMbert, and Gutter, 1979). In another study using an open-endedquestionnaire procedure, we find that the immersion pupils at Grade 6see English and ... youngpeople an reasonably ask why French Canadians as being less differentat the psychological level than do the control pupils (Blake, Lambert,Sidon, and it is that their soci ty apparently doesnot Wolfe, 1979), Then we have surveyed in detailstudents' and want them to learn the other language parents' views of the whole immersion experience byasking or to ge.t to know members of the other graduatirig high school students,some with immersion schooling experience and some without,to look back and ethnolinguistic evaluate it all for us (Cziko, Lambert, Sidoti, andTucker, 1978). Our conclusions from thatsurvey are important here because they lead us to a level of understanding thatprompts .4tr man)) new questions about the relation betweenlangliege Because hurdles of this sort are very likely a majorsource learning and attitudes. What weioundis that immersionan of frustration, it is important that educators and poficymakers1 extremely_effective means of developing high degreesof give thought to helping these young people understand their skill in the French language for Anglo'Canadians,and it society and letting'them have a hand in improving it. From leaves these young people witha feeling of confidence, that our survey, there are 'apparently fewways these students can after high school they could work, study, and live,effectively use French outside of school, they would like to be mare in- in a French environment, that, ifgiven simple opportunities volved in basically French activities, but usually aren'tin- to use French more meaningfully in social situations,they vited, friendships with French-speakingyoung people are not could become fully bilingual. They also expresseda strong common or easy to establish, and the majority of both im- willingness and desire to meet andintegrate with French- "mersion and control studentsare thinking of moving out of speaking Canadians. Conventidhalmeans of teaching the Quebec in the next four years. In spite of current political other language do not reach such standards ofcompetence policies in Quebec that limit` the chances of French-speaking and confidence. Canadian students becoming as competent in Englishas these immersion students are'in French, still there are likely to be At the same time, however, the analysis broughtto light numbers of French Canadians who have similar desires for: various hurdles that these well-prepared and motivated social contacts but who face comparable societal hurdlesin young people face if they try to penetrate the French world their attempts Co make contact, with the Eng14 Canadian around them in Quebec. Some of these hurdlesare very society (cf. Gagnon, 1972). From the perspective of both likely rooted in the English-speaking society itself whichdoes groups, then, we begin to understand how easily ethnic and not seem to provideinodels and examples for makingcontact linguistic segregation can isolate subgroups withina society. with French-speaking people. Some of the hurdlesare also In fact, some argue that this is "to be expectedin complex, very likely attributable to the French-speakipg society of ethnically plural nations isee Rabushka and Shepsle, 1972). It Quebec, which also does not seem to provide models foren- could be argued that, thg societalwariness of social contact; couraging gestures of personal interest coming from English- across ethnolinguistic boundaries represents a search for the speaking Canadians_ In fact,one begins to wonder how peace and comfort which come from being in a setting,witk English or French Canadianyoung people can learn to live one's "own kind" (see Lambert, 1978). If this is true, thee cooperatively as Canadians when, for example, the schools overly enthusiastic attempts to penetrate these boundaries they have attended have teen segregated alongreligious and may be disturbing for both groups. Applied to the Canadian linguistic lines for generations. In such conditions, Canadian. scene, this would mean that young people who have

3 116_,1111." 11/ mastered the other group's language must test cautiously that teachers judge and grade pupils with reference to hciw far anct how quickly they can make social contatts.that their styles of language usage, grading down those whose will be acceptable to the other group. speech contains those features that are usually found among ithildren from lower social class backgrounds, and grading up, Perhaps the most important conclusion to be drawn from those who display stereotyped "proper- features. We were this investigation of the early immersion experience is that convinced that these were biases because we had objective we have been forced to place this innovative form of lan- measures of abilitiand knowledge of subject matter on these guage training in a broader societal context, leading us to the pupils that told a different story. And a teacher can really realization that we must now seek out solutions for thecom- upset a child's schooling and career by giving poor grades, plex but intrigUing problems associated with socialsegrega- especially unfair and unfounded poor grades, just as she/he tion and cleavage within modem societies. The beginnings of can distort the child's reality by assigning inflated grades. In a solution seem to stem natura115, from the early immersion another study (Seligman, Tucker, and Lambert,1972)we also experience itself, especially from what the immersionstu- found that styles of language usage play a more important dents are asking of their society, namely, opportunities to put role in teachers' evaluations of pupils than do actual written their competence in the other language to meaningfuluse. productions of the child, so that a "nice talking" child is given French Canadian students may be asking the samethat is, exaggerated credit that ovemdes a composition or an artistic similar opportunities for social contact across thecommon piece that is independently judged to be only average or ethnolinguistic boundary As parents, educators,or political poor. At the same time "poor talking- children who present leaders.- we must listen to and try to understand what these excellent compositions and artwork are likely to lose credit. young people are asking. The solutions needed are likely to What is more, these -biases of the teacher are apparently be found in the questions being asked. It is our opinion that picked up `by other pupils in the class (cf. S. M. Lambert, Canada, especially Quebec, provides us with a wonderful 1973).The point I am trying to makethere, then, is that it is field station for finding solutions, and in our research we can high time we explored seriously the impact these language- draw. on the good will of these two streams ofyoung people. based biases ha0e on the' academic and social careers of This is not to say that Canada is all that special, because eacli, young people. nation offers equally exciting opportunities. So look where we end up after probing just one little facet of language. We now have a series of new questions to con- tend with. In what ways do ethnocentric attitudes hold ... youngpeople who have mastered tie students back in their attempts to master another language, and how and in what contexts do open and friendly attitudes other group's language must test \help? Does getting to know about another group and its lan- cautiously how far and how quickly they guage improve attitudes or must one get to really know the can make social contacts that will be other group? Do we automatically get to like others through knowing them or knowing about them? Perhaps we should acceptable to the other group. reconsider what effects social contact actually has on atti- tudes. If people want to be with "their own kind," thereby contributing to subgroup "solitudes'' within society, what can we egpect from attempts at integration? How can we prepare people for integration inpluralistic societies? When are We have some good leads to go on. For instance, take the, people ready for integration, ready in the sense that they will c rble of language in tests of ability and intelligence. The more be able to follow through with the respect of others that is I study the path analyses of Duncan, Featherman, and called for? Maybe integration is not the answer. Duncan(1972),the more convinced I am that academic achievement -and ultimately occupational achievement. are determined by social-class factors 'as much as, if not more Language and Education than, by intelligence or ability factors,. Daird McClelland In educational systems there are more unintentional and in- (1973) also presents a strong case against these biases that tentional unfairness and preludice than most of us want to be- haunt the less advantaged youngster whenever language lieve. In many cases, language is involved in this unfairness related tests are brought into consideration. Over and above and often its role is so subtle that we never notice it, as the "advantaged" versus the "disadvantaged" speech styles Howard Giles and his colleagues have so splendidly shown just referred to, we must take'into consideration as well the (Giles and Powesland,1975).Tn Montreal we have also ex- influences of home background that can enhance cg suppress plored some aspects of this. For instance, we now know that skills in verbalization and expression because they carry so the ways students use language, including their accents and much weight in assessments of academic achievement. styles, elicit biases from teachers that can be devastating. Furthermore, family "contacts" play important roles .in the In a study with grade-school. youngsters_(Frender, Brown, biases, as when a young person of questionable native.ability and Lambert,1970,Frender and Lambert.1972),we found and/or poor motivationisgiven summer experieAces, through personal contacts, in a lawyer's officeor in a medical Here is my half-baked scheme for bringg- thesetwo laboratory making it almost impossible for himkei not to get trends together, thereby offering possible-sofuhons,foreach \ into and out of a law school or a medical program, because of the groups involved. I refer to thisas an altemahve tothe he/she has learhed the lingo of the lawyeror the doctor. Thus foreign-language teaching profession," starting with the we hale the responsibility to challenge these forms of un- proposition that foreign:. or second-language teaching might fairness because we are so versed in theways of language. be better served if taken out of schools, colleges, anduniver- sities and placed in the hands of conimunity languagere- Another fascinating lead c'o,rnes from the current work Qf source persons" who would be asked to establish prowams of Elizabeth Cohen (1979). She finds that a pupil's status among age exchange" in which community members of all his/her peers within a classroom is determined in large part ageand air walks of life mightserve as both language by an' "ability to read": the better the reader, themore status tea and promise is attributed to hirriiher:-,6f grs and language learners, Thus, one person would stand course, ability to readyto teach,English for three hotirs read is traceable to social-class factors, and again the dis- a week, under the supervision of amaster teacher, in exchange for three hours advantaged child suffers in these comparisons. Furthermore, of Italian, Grelk, French, or whatever, taught by another in mixed-ethnic school, pupils' perceptions of which group, person offering his home-language skills, say Greek, in ex- has power reflect the &tent to which school authoritiesin- change for English, or whatever the other language mightbe. , volve minority-group adults-in administrative and teaching The point here is that some such community-based "alter, 'posts. It turns out'then that pupils' perceptions of power are native" to the foreign-language teaching profession might indirectly linked to their perceptions of status, which in be turn worth hying, and the social psychology okestablishing are linked to simple judgments of "reading ability." Cohen an has devised some valuable ways of Combatting these overseeing such a program could be exciting. debilitating aspects of being disadvantaged. She refersto Briefly, Ihis alternative should take-the following form. these as "status-equiliberatine proceduresfor example, having a good reader take on a teaching role to help others 'It should set its sights on cultural and linguistic divertjty improve their reading skills while a poor reader is asked to at -homefor example, on hyphenated ericans or teach in some other domain of individual expertise (be it -Canadiansfather than exclusivelyon les and lany guages in faraway countries,: needlepoint, basketball dribbling, or makinga crystal radio). Thus, through the teacher, these &her skillsare seen as It should be designed for a broad base of student;repre- meriting equal stat.is and appreciation: Sirrillarly; Elizabeth senting all walks of life, not exclusively for the college- ,. Cohen is also studying ways of improving minority-group oriented elite. children's perceptions of their potentialpower and status by experimentally varying the proportions of minority-group It should be geared for children from the earliest grades adults to be found in the,administrative and teaching staff of public schools. The main point here is, thatwe too can play It should provide a high degree of cOmietencein the lan- decisive roles in following such leads and devisingour own guages taught, for instance the attainment of functional modes of combatting these language- elated biases in schools. bilinguality, literary as well as audiolingual. 'It should make learning of languages nomore important Language and the Community than learning about other peoples and theirways of life. < The master teachers and acfministrators of the alternative In the North American setting, I see two independentmove- ments under way that could be profitably merged. Each should become fully trained in the behavioral sciencesso is that they can effettivly teach about people's language related and each toucheson prejudices and dis- ways of primination. One is the marked decline in interest in the life along with the languages. lidy of foreip languages, and the other is the largenumber In the alternative, language maintenance and bilingdality of foreign lar*uage users who continuallycome to North should be presented as the maintenance ofprecious America as immigrants and wonder how far they cango in national resources so that immigrants turning to the their attempts to keep "old country" languages alive in their center can feel free to be as Portuguese, Japanese, families and their communities. I am of the opinion that the Spanish, or whatever as they want to be, at the same time decline in language study reflects mainly the feeling that they become as American or Canadian as they want to traditional methods of teaching/learninga foreign language be. My guess is that if they are g contact with Amen- are inefficient and wasteful. I don't believe it reflects a lack of cans or Canadians wanting to become Portuguese or interest in f6reign languages and foreign peoples, since in the Japanese through their interest in these languages, then Canadian,. and American communities where "reallife", they in turn will want to be American or Canadian too, language learning experiences, like immersion schooling,are as well as Portuguese or Japanese, or whatever. offered, large proportions of parents eagerly sign their children up for complete elementary ,schoolexperiences There is already a fascinating example of a closelyre- with a foreign or second language. lated Koject underway in New England under,\ thesuper- 6 vision of Susan Thomas and Rosa Diaz' (1977). They refer to But the world is not ready for logic of this sort, especially their program as language sharing" wherein teenagers from since the empirical facts kola culture similaritiesare, as yet, Italian, Greek, Spanish, or Japanese homes in and around few and far between,-Instead we have tp take senpusly the Boston are asked to take a special course" in language aitl. cdmmon belief that langtiage and culture shape uniqiie styles There they are introduced to the idea that they are to share of thought and personality, and we must study how such be-

their home language with groups of children a few years liefs become exaggerated in the move for separation. In fact, , younger than themselves, under the supervision of a master I haVe been amazed, in my survey of recent research, to find teacher whose task it is to teach them how to teach and to just how important a role language plays in personal identity,

work out with them a program that will be interesting to the in intergroup relations, and in group-to-society relations., younger pupils. The course rung' all year and the adolescent Becausb of the importance attached to language, we should junior teachers" are provided materiels that give a structure, not be surprised to find widespread fears among various but the details are.workea out individually. Oftengross in- groups about the possibilities of losing their "language and adequacies in the adolescent's home language have to be re- culture" in this modern, English-dominated world. These solved at home or with the help of specialists. Pilot testing of types of fears seem to be as common among recent Im- the idea 1.5 underway and the results are heartening, for not migrants as among ethnolinguistic groups of long-term only do the adolescents learn to respect and appreciate a residency (see Lambert, 1979. Taylor, Meynard, and Rheault, home language that, typically had been neglected, but they 197 )"Thinking along these lines has prompted a group of us also seem to get thoroughly caught up in the teaching role at McGill to make a distinction between a "subtractive" fown and school in general. The younger pupils also seem to accept of bilingualism wherein an ethnolinguistic minority group, in enthusiastically the language that is being shared with them. attempting to master a prestigious national or international There 1.5 no end to what the psychologists of language could language, may actually set aside or "subtract out" for $ood do with such an idea. ' the home language, and an "additive" form wherein members of a high prestige linguistic community can easily, and with no fear of jeopardizing home language competence, Language and Society one or more other languages to their repertoire of skills, Finally, at a broader societal level -there is an important reaping benefits of various sorts from their bilinguality. Since phenomenon running its course that is also based on feelings the subtractiv,e route typically leads to the neglect of the of injustice and socialneglect, namely the widespread home language, sometimes to "semilingualism" (Skutnabb- demand of social subgroups, as in Scotland, Wales, Brittany, Kangas and Toukomaa, 1976), and often to poor chances of success in academic pursuits., a great deal of attention must be Frehch Canada, and Puerto Rico, for politicaliand social "in- dependence" or "separation" the larger nations with directed to attempts to convert or transform subtractive lin- guistic experiences to additive ones. which they have been assodia .The contributions that we can make in this case can take many forms. For instance, we could explore in detail the sentiments and' feelings of those who opt for separation and search for the motivational roots of such sentiments. My guess is that separatist feelings are an In What ways do ethnocentric attitudes exaggeration of the all-too-human belief that one's own cul- hold students back in their attempts to tural and/or linguiltic group is distinctive and unique, the dif- ference being that in this instance the separatist is worried, master another language, and how and in often justifiably so, that this distinctiveness is being threat- what contexts do open and friendly ened. In my'experience, there typically is a ma?ked degree of ethnocentrism, coupled with a certain amount of Xenophobia .attitudes help? and paranoia, associated with separatist feelingsBecause these sentiments seem to depend so much on beliefs in the distinctiveness of one's culture and language, one might be tempted to challenge these beliefs on logical and empirical So far we have few e)amples of how such transformation grounds so that an alternative view could be at least con- can be carried out (see Lambert, 1979), but for a Franco- sideredthat cultures may not be as discrete as most people American community in northern Maine and a Hispanic think and that neither culture nor language may in fact hive American community in the San Diego area, the possibilities all that much impaFt on either personality styles or thought of circumventing the debilitating aspects of being an ethno- (see Lambert, 197.0) these matters, emotions tend to linguistic minority are promising. Essentially, these attempts cloud thinking s© that I uage and dialect distinctiveness, at transformation provide children of ethnolinguistic minority vIhich are real enough, often-tarry with them all the excess groups the chance of being schooled in their home language meaning associated with "culture." Thus, the claim that 'We for a substantial part of the curriculum, thereby permitting must fight for the maintenance of our language and culture" them to keep up witFr course content in a comfortable lan- may be no more than a demand for language rights, since so guage and developing reading and writing as well as audio- much or so little may be implied by "culture." lingual skills in that lahguage. Simultaneously. we have found ... 7 a -)t that the youngsters develop a deep appreciation for thehome conflict and tension,eluding conflicts between and within language and Pride in being Franco-Americanor Hispanic ethnolinguistic gro bu t by working through conflicts, American which is not reflected in the control children who new and fairer forms of society canbe forged. Reverbelieves do not have the opportunity for home-languageinstruction. that only in America has history provided' all the nght condi- As signs appear that the home language is being thoroughly tions for this new society to emerge. Popper provide&me mastered, then we propose that a separate program of English with a Philosophy of the "open society" and of itsenemies "language arts" in the form of immersioninstruction by who flame defeatist attitudes- and' separatist sentiments by native speakers English be introduced as earlyas possible. promises of conflict-free utopias, set aside from the real Thtis the important goal of bilingual development istmet world, where' things will.be like they were 'in the good old through separated monolingual routes whereinpreference in days." My point here is that wehave to learn to handle time and order is given to the likely-to-be-neglected home changetAnd conflict as we proceed in our work and learn to language. The assumption underlying 'this approachis that fight against the enemielof open societies. / minority-group members will be more promptedto embrace and identify with the prestigious national languageand the associated society once it is clear that childrenwith other- than-English home backgroundsare given a program that (a) References keeps them up with national normson the all-important con- tent matter, and (b) reflects a respect for the home langyage, w. Blake, L; Lambert, W.E.; Sidoti, N.; and Wolfe, D. Students'views which can come to beseen as a valuable national resource of English Canadian, French Canadian tensions in Canada: The worth protecting, and a respect for the ethnicgroup itself influence of immersion schooling. McGill University, mimeo, which permits members to be themselves, throughthe main- 1979. Clement, It, Gardner, R.C., and Smythe, P.C. Motivational tenance of their language and their "distinctive"stylesof life. vari- To the extent that Anglo yonngsters in the community ables in second language acquisition, A study of Francophones take learning English. Canadian Journal of Behavioral Sciences., 1977, 9, - the Opportunity to "add" French or Spanish or whatever to 123-133. - their repertoires, then the possibilities for developinga Cohen, E. Design and redesign of the desegregated school. Prob- genuinely bilingual societyopen up. It is at this point that lems of status, power, and conflict. In Aronson, E. (ed.), Desegre- viable bilingual education gation, Past, Present, and Future. New York. Plenum Publishing programs can be planned and Compapy, 1979. organized. Cziko, G.A.; Lambert, W.E.; and Gutter, R, The impact ofprograms The main point of this example is that an education 1 of immersion-in-a-foreign-language on pupils' social attitudes. pro- McGill University, mimeo, 1979. gram that speaks to the feelings of neglect, to the fearsf lan- Cziko, GA., Lambert, W.E.; Sidoti, N.; and Tucker, G.R. Graduates guage and culture loss, and to the marginality that so often of early immersion. Retrospective views of grade 11 students characterizes ethnoliriguistic minority groups may also speak and their parents. McGill University, mimeo, 1978. to many of the underlying concerns of separatists. A question Duncan, 0 D, Featherman, D.L., and Duncan, B. Sonoeconomii. Back- remains, however, as to the adequacy of such programs, be- ground atvl Achievement. New York: Seminar Press, 1972. Ervin,S.Identification and bilingualism. Harvard University, cause the roots of separatism and independence may be much mimeo, 1954. drpet than we think. We end up, therefore, with the need 'Frasure-Smith, N., Lambert, W.E., and Taylor, D.M. Choosing the for those of us involved with the psychology of languageto language of instruction for one's children. A Quebec study. turn our attention to broad sociopolitical issues that impinge journal of Cross-Cultural Psychollogy, 19756, 131-155. on language- in society. Whether.or not we think of these Frender, R.; Brown, B, and Lambert, W.E. The role of speech issues as within our field.of expertise, they apparently characteristics in scholastic success. Canadian Journal of Behavioral are Science, 1970, 2, 299-306. becoming part of our field. Thus, we must begin to contend Frender, R., and Lambert, W.E. Speech style and scholasticsuccess. with questions of a new sort. Ifwe become champions of Georgetown Monographs on Language and Linguistics, 1972, 25, 237- minority languages, whether from a Leninistor a liberalist 27A. political position, may we not berunning the risk of marking Gagnern, M Quelques facteurs -determinant l'attitude vis-a-vis and isolating ethnolinguistic minority l'anglais, langue seconde. In Darnell, R. (ed.), Linguistic Diversity groups and thereby in Canadian Society, volume 2. Edmonton: Linguistic Research exposing them to exploitation and segregation? And howare Inc., 1972. we to respond to the assimilationism involved in statements Gardner, R.C. Social psychological aspects of second language like. If my ancestors came here and gaveup the old-country acquisition In Giles, H, and St. Clair, R. (eds.), Language and Said language, that's ale way it should be!" or "Howcan we ever Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell, 1979. Gardner, R.C., and Lambert, W.E. Altitudes and Motivationin Second have unity in this country with all these different languages Language Learning. Rowley, Mass.: Newbury House, 1972. going strong?" ardner, R.C., and Smythe, P.C. Second Language Acquisition. A Social Psychological *mach. University of Western Ontario, Research For my part, I am finding help in the writings of two im- Bulletin No. 232, 1975. portant theo4ists, jean - Francois Revel (1972) and K O Popper Genesee, F, and Hamayan, E. Individual differencesin young (1966). Revel is a modern-day revolutionist who aitguesvery second languagelearners.McGillUniversity,Psychology convincingly that an)/ so.*1 movement which is directed Department, mimeo, 1979. Giles, H,and Powesland, P.F. Speech Style and Social Evaluation. toward greater freedom ari, justice automatically engenders London: Academic Press, 1975.

8 7 Lambert, S.M. The role of speech in forming evaluations. A study Taylor, D.M., Meynard, R., and Rheault, E. Threat to ethnic identity of children and teachers. Tufts University, unpublished MA and second-language learning,, In Giles, H. (ed,),Language, thesis, 1973. Ethniiity, and Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press, 1977. Lambert, W.E. Language as a factor in intergroup relatiops. In Giles, Thomas, S., and Diaz, R. A Languageto Share /Un Lenguaie para H., and St Clair, R. (eds.),Tanguage and Social Psychology. Oxford. Comparhr.Newton, Mass.: Education Development Center, Inc., Blackwell, 1979. 1977. Lambert, W.E. Some cognitiv'e and socioculturalconsequences of being bilingual. In Alatis, J.E. (ed.), International Dimensions o/ lingual Education. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1978. Lambert W E and Tucker, C R Edu..ation of ChildrenThe 5, Lvnbel 5ttuiy Rowley Mass Newbury House,172. McClelland, D C Testing for competence rather than forintent- gence." American Psychologist, 1973, 28, 1-14. Popper, K.R. 71e Open Society and Its Enemies, volumesI and 2. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966. Rabushla, A., and Shepsle, K.A. Pohn.sin Plural Societies. A Theory of Democrahi Instability Columbus, Ohio. C.E. Merrill, 1972. .Revel, J F Without Marx or Jesus The New American RevolutionHas Rrgur New York Dell PublLshir,g Company, 1972 Seligman -C F Tucker C R. and Lambert, W E Theeffects of speech style and other attributes on teachers' att*tudestoward 'pupils+ Language and Society, 19Z21, 131-142. Sk ut-nabb Kangas T and Toukomaa, P Tea..hingMigrant Children Mother Tongue and Learning the Language of the Host Countryin the C7ntert -1 Li.'41.7.-t: 4 tuah. n tthe\figrant F ami;yHelsinki The Finnish National Commission for UNESCO,1970.

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