Language Attitudes And California

Participants recruited from Texas State University undergraduate psychology students through the Texas State SONA system (via advertisement emails) and through undergraduate psychology statistics courses (via instructor announcement) included 177 (female=146, male=31). Participant’s ages ranged from 18 to 39 (M=20.77, SD=3.50). 47.2 % of the participants were white/Caucasian, 19.3 % were African American, 28.4 % were Hispanic/Latino, 3.4% were Asian and 1.7 % were Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islander.

The film “American Tongues” documents a variety of English accents that are present across the United States and highlights a lot of the opinions people have about accents and people who speak these accents. A large majority of the people who express opinions about other peoples’ accents tend to express negative views, as they see their own accent as the superior one. The film focuses on showing the array of accents found in the U.S., but also how a lot of people who speak these “inferior” accents work to learn “Standard American English” to increase their chances of getting jobs and communicating in more official domains. Although the film was made in 1988, it expresses views still present in today’s society towards different accents, as people tend to continue judging others based not only on what they say, but also how they say it.

The language accent in Mexican people has a particular significance. The accent comes with stress. The Mexican Citizens put effort to learn English as a second language. However, it’s understandable that the accent of an American won’t be the same. As another person who comes from outside of the United States, An Example; in the play “Los Vendidos” Valdez talks about the multiple stereotypes of Mexican

As long as I can remember my accent has always played a role in my life. There have been moments of uncertainty, discouragement, annoyance, and lastly pride. Throughout each emotional stage I’ve learn acceptance and responsibility of what defines me as a women who happens to be Latina. In Tanya Barrientos “Se Habla Español” she defines what resonates within me “Without having to offer apologies or show remorse. If it will help, I will go first. Aqui estoy. Spanish-challenged and pura Latina (45). She beautifully states the acceptance that too many find difficulty fitting in. Especially in a world that will defined you not only by your looks but as well as the way you speak.

Through out history society has created many stereotypes and assumptions based on race and nationality to confine us into categories. The reality is not every individual fits a specific category because we are unique even within the same ethnicity group. In “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person” Allison Joseph illustrates some speech stereotypes that come hand in hand with her racial background and how even people from the same racial background and house hold don’t all sound a like. The author portrays that race and linguistic has a huge impact on our daily life and how society sees her different to others. Also, her own identity is being put in to question base on a linguistic stereotype. Furthermore, base on ones racial orientation society already have a certain expectation of what they assume the person is capable of and an expectation of how one acts like. When we put stereotypes on individuals we discrediting the individuals identity, we are making those people part of a group base on a assumption and stereotypes can not be used to describe a who group because not everyone fits into a certain category.

Accent reduction schemes work on the basis that regional dialect will be viewed negatively in workplace and attempt to change or completely change the way in which someone speaks. Evidence contradicts this as some regional accents can evoke a positive response and can be an asset in some

In Gloria Anzaldúa article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” she shows us how different worlds so close can be so different. Anzaldúa shows that people have restricted freedom in society by the social norms set in them. Anzaldúa pressed her awareness and distraught on how people treat her depending on the type of language she uses. She also explains some of her emotions towards the way people are like with speaking and listening to accents. The article is how Anzaldúa explains how culture and accent shapes a person’s identity by being controlled and oppressed to fit into the social norms, which is how she creates cracks using language and code switching.

I obliged to speak the primary language of a country which is English and retain my main tongue of Burmese with my family. Knowing the primary language is important, however it does not have to be exactly the same like a native speaker. It is because I was not born in the United States and I have not adapted with this culture since my childhood. Therefore, when someone tries to judge me based on my accent, that means they are trying to change my identity. In “ How to Tame a Wild Tongue” Gloria Anaula elucidates that she had been told to speak like an American but not Spanish.

Accents are found around the world. Some are more prominent then others but essentially we all speak the same language. The difference in how we speak can cast a positive or negative view on the person we are communicating with. Where do these associations come from? I believe it’s the encounters and experiences we have with those people that make up our mind. This may even cause us to communicate differently then we would who has the same dialect as us.

Categorizing we all do it. But why?In the article, Friedman:A person's accent doesn’t determine their intelligence, personality.By Christianna Friedman, Friedman says “We start categorizing people by their accents, putting them into groups and making false assumptions about them. No two people are alike and no two languages are alike.We’ve all probably been criticized and/or categorized by the way we speak.For example, I’ve said something in my native language of Spanish before and people always have asked me “are you Mexican?” “Oh, you speak Spanish.You’re Mexican right?”before when I was much younger, this didn’t bother me. But now I’ve realized I’m being categorized, just for the simple fact that I speak Spanish.Yes, I know this isn’t necessarily

In Australia, accent can be an important marker of identity. Users may adapt their accent in order to modify the way that others perceive them. Clothier supports this suggesting that individuals may change the way they speak, depending on the context, ‘to emphasise different identities.’ Historically, the cultivated accent has been given higher prestige than the broad accent. Users may therefore modify their accent to present a more prestigious identity in formal situations such as a job interview or whilst in court. For example, a broad speaker may modify their pronunication of the word ‘bite’ from the broad [ɒɪ] to the cultivated [aɪ], or ensure they avoid the deletion of [h] in lexemes such as ‘helmet’ and ‘happen.’ However, in more recent

When people speak of affective qualities of a language variety, it is not the language that is being evaluated, but an underlying stereotype of the speakers themselves. For this reason, attitudes toward divergent language varieties “are better understood as attitudes towards the members of language communities” rather than the variety itself (Edwards, 1994, p. 89). In this way, then, by judging the speakers of in-group language varieties, respondents are also indirectly evaluating members of these in-groups as well , essentially making qualitative judgments regarding language and their own group identity (Edwards, 1985). Fundamentally, as Edwards (1985) writes, language attitudes “allow some insights into the perception and presentation of identity” (p. 151). Therefore, by looking at attitudes of learners of Mandarin toward regional accented-Mandarin, we can probably understand whether this language variety is more likely to be used, emulated, and accepted throughout learners of Mandarin.

How you do in school, your social ability, and your awareness of others are all guided by how you identify. Identification in one’s gender, race, religion, social class, and ethnicity are all driving forces behind your future self. Identity is a crucial part of who you are, and in recent studies and experimentation researchers have been trying to identify new, untested factors that influence behavior in people. Although, in the past there hasn’t been a strong focus on the positive and negative effects of race and ethnicity, the conversation is now shifting to align itself with the current times. With America becoming increasingly more ethnically and racially diverse, we must take the time to see how certain factors, specifically race and ethnicity, impact a person’s development and behavior.

Language creates spaces where linguistic features are associated with ideas that are attributed to its speakers. The previous is best recognized as language ideologies. In “Western language ideologies and small-language prospects,” on page three, Nancy C. Dorian refers to language ideologies as a vehicle through which certain languages are made unappealing by its mere association to communities of low-prestige. For example, in my hometown, Castroville, Spanish is associated to low-income farmworkers. And as a result, most of the Youth in Castroville stick to English. Despite the fact that most of their parents are Spanish speaking farmworkers, the mindset of Castroville teenagers seems to be formulated around embarrassment. Just like English is adopted in place of low-prestige languages, the opposite also occurs.

A professor from a well-known college is not expected to speak like a person who works in a garment factory. A businessman can never use a beggar's accent while talking with his partner. We can easily identify who belongs to which level. From their professions, we can infer their economic conditions and thus their belonging social classes can be identified. Therefore, a clear distinction of using semantics, syntax, phonology, phonetics, vocabulary or style helps us to distinguish any particular person and his\her position in the society.