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A Quantitative Study of the Attitudes of Japanese Learners Towards Varieties of English Speech: Aspects of the Sociolinguistics of English in Japan

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A Quantitative Study of the Attitudes of Japanese Learners Towards Varieties of English Speech: Aspects of the Sociolinguistics of English in Japan A Quantitative Study of the Attitudes of Japanese Learners towards Varieties of English Speech: Aspects of the Sociolinguistics of English in Japan Robert M. McKenzie A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh 2006 Abstract A Quantitative Study of the Attitudes of Japanese Learners towards Varieties of English Speech: Aspects of the Sociolinguistics of English in Japan Language attitude studies focussing specifically on native speaker perceptions of varieties of English speech have demonstrated consistently that standard varieties tend to be evaluated positively in terms of competence/ status whilst non-standard varieties are generally rated higher in terms of social attractiveness/ solidarity. However, the great majority of studies which have investigated non-native attitudes have tended to measure evaluations of ‘the English language’, conceptualised as a single entity, thus ignoring the substantial regional and social variation within the language. This is somewhat surprising considering the importance of attitudes towards language variation in the study of second language acquisition and in sociolinguistics. More specifically, there is a dearth of in-depth quantitative attitude research in Japan concentrating specifically on social evaluations of varieties of English, as the limited number of previous studies conducted amongst Japanese learners have either been qualitative in design or too small in scale. Moreover, the findings of these studies have been somewhat inconclusive. The present quantitative study, employing a range of innovative direct and indirect techniques of attitude measurement, investigated the perceptions of 558 Japanese university students of six varieties of English speech. The results obtained suggest that Japanese learners are able to differentiate between speech varieties within a single language of which they are not native speakers and hold different and often complex attitudes towards (a) standard/ non-standard and (b) native/ non-native varieties of English speech. For instance, the learners rated both the standard and non-standard varieties of inner circle speech more highly than varieties of expanding circle English in terms of prestige. In contrast, it was found that the learners expressed higher levels of solidarity with the Japanese speaker of heavily-accented English and intriguingly, with speakers of non-standard varieties of UK and US English than with speakers of standard varieties of inner circle English. Moreover, differences in the Japanese students’ gender, level of self-perceived competence in English, level of exposure to English and attitudes towards varieties of Japanese all had significant main effects on perceptions of varieties of English speech. However, the regional provenance of the informants was not found to be significant in determining their language attitudes. The results also imply that Japanese learners retain representations of varieties of English speech and draw upon this resource, whether consciously or unconsciously, in order to identify and evaluate (speakers of) these speech varieties. The findings are discussed in relation to the pedagogical and language planning implications for the choice of linguistic model in English language teaching both inside and outwith Japan and in terms of the methodological importance of the study for potential future attitudinal research in this area. i Declaration I hereby declare that this thesis is of my own composition and that it contains no material submitted previously. Robert McKenzie 13 th September 2006 ii Table of Contents Abstract p. i Table of Contents p. iii List of Figures p. viii List of Tables p. ix Acknowledgements p. xii Outline of the Thesis p. xiii Chapter 1 p. 1 The Research Context: a Summary of English Language Contact and Use in Japan Overview p. 1 1.1 English in Japan and the Inner Circle, Outer Circle and p. 1 Expanding Circle of World Englishes 1.2 History of Japanese Contact with the English Language p. 6 1.3 English in the Japanese Education System p. 9 1.4 The English Language Media in Japan p. 13 1.5 The Influence of English in Japan p. 15 1.5.1 The influence of English loanwords on the Japanese language p. 15 1.5.2 Nihonjinron , kokusaika and English p. 19 Chapter 2 p. 23 The Study of Language Attitudes Overview p. 23 2.1 Attitudes in Social Psychology p. 23 2.1.1 Attitudes and related terms p. 23 2.1.2 Mentalist and behaviourist theories of attitudes p. 26 2.1.3 Functions of attitudes p. 30 2.2 Language Attitudes p. 32 iii 2.2.1 The importance of language attitudes in second language p. 33 acquisition 2.2.1.1 Language attitudes in cognitive theories of second p. 33 language acquisition: Krashen’s monitor model 2.2.1.2 Language attitudes in social-psychological theories and p. 36 approaches to second language acquisition 2.2.2 The importance of the study of language attitudes in p. 46 sociolinguistics Chapter 3 p. 50 Relevant Language Attitude Research Overview p. 50 3.1 The Measurement of Language Attitudes p. 50 3.1.1 The societal treatment approach p. 51 3.1.2 The direct approach p. 51 3.1.3 The indirect approach p. 58 3.1.4 A mixed methodological approach p. 66 3.2 Previous Language Attitude Research p. 67 3.2.1 Attitudes of native speakers towards the English language p. 68 3.2.2 Language attitudes and non-native speakers p. 74 3.2.3 Attitudes towards the English language in Japan p. 79 3.2.4 Attitudes towards varieties of English in Japan p. 81 Chapter 4 p. 91 Methodology Overview p. 91 4.1 The Aims of the Study p. 91 4.1.1 The research questions p. 92 4.2 The Varieties of Speech Selected p. 93 4.2.1 The recording of the speech varieties p. 96 4.2.2 Background of the selected speakers p. 97 4.2.3 Transcript of speakers p. 100 4.3 The Choice of Background Variables in the Study p. 102 4.4 The Choice of Informants p. 105 4.5 The Research Instrument p. 108 4.5.1 Part one: the verbal-guise technique p. 108 iv 4.5.2 Part two: dialect recognition item p. 110 4.5.3 Part three: perceptual dialectology p. 111 4.5.4 Part four: background information of participants p. 112 4.6 The Pilot Study p. 112 4.6.1 The initial pilot study p. 114 4.6.2 The final pilot study p. 116 4.6.3 Learning from the pilot study p. 117 4.7 Procedure: The Administration of the Research instrument p. 118 Chapter 5 p. 121 Results and Preliminary Discussion Overview p. 121 5.1 Description of Participants p. 122 5.2 Overview of the Statistical Techniques Employed in p. 124 the Data Analyses 5.2.1 Analysis of variance p. 126 5.2.2 The t-test p. 127 5.2.3 Multivariate analysis of variance p. 128 5.2.4 Principal components analysis p. 129 5.3 The Verbal-Guise Study: Results of the Speaker Evaluations p. 130 5.3.1 Speaker evaluations: preliminary data p. 131 5.3.2 Speaker evaluations: all traits p. 133 5.3.3 Principal components analysis: the reduction of the p. 136 data collected 5.3.4 Speaker evaluations: analysis of components extracted p. 139 5.3.4.1 Competence p. 140 5.3.4.2 Social attractiveness p. 143 5.4 Main Effects of Background Variables on Speaker Evaluations p. 147 5.4.1 Main effects of gender on speaker evaluations p. 147 5.4.1.1 Speaker competence p. 148 5.4.1.2 Speaker social attractiveness p. 151 5.4.2 Main effects of regional provenance on speaker evaluations p. 152 5.4.2.1 Speaker competence p. 153 5.4.2.2 Speaker social attractiveness p. 154 5.4.3 Main effects of self-perceived competence in English p. 156 on speaker evaluations 5.4.3.1 Speaker competence p. 157 5.4.3.2 Speaker social attractiveness p. 160 v 5.4.4 Main effects of previous exposure to English on speaker p. 162 evaluations 5.4.4.1 Speaker competence p. 162 5.4.4.2 Speaker social attractiveness p. 166 5.4.5 Summary of main effects of background variables on p. 168 speaker evaluations 5.5 Interaction Effects of Background Variables on p. 169 Speaker Evaluations 5.5.1 HJE speaker competence p. 169 5.5.2 GSE speaker competence p. 170 5.5.3 SUSE speaker competence p. 173 5.5.4 MWUSE speaker competence p. 175 5.5.5 Summary of interaction effects (and interpretation p. 178 of main effects) of background variables on speaker evaluations 5.6 Effects of Perceptions of Non-Standard Japanese on p. 179 Speaker Evaluations 5.6.1 Preliminary analysis p. 179 5.6.1.1 Main effects of perceptions of non-standard Japanese p. 182 on speaker competence 5.6.1.2 Main effects of perceptions of non-standard Japanese p. 186 on speaker social attractiveness 5.6.2 Interaction effects of perceptions of non-standard Japanese p. 188 and background variables on speaker evaluations 5.6.3 Summary of effects of perceptions of non-standard Japanese p. 191 and background variables on speaker evaluations 5.7 Identification of (Speakers of) Varieties of English p. 191 5.7.1 Recognition rates p. 192 5.7.2 Analysis of identifications and misidentifications p. 195 5.7.3 Speaker evaluations and misidentification p. 207 Chapter 6 p. 217 Discussion Overview p. 217 6.1 Research Question One: Are Japanese learners able to p. 217 identify varieties of English speech? 6.2 Research Question Two: Do Japanese learners of English hold p.
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