By providing an introduction to language attitude theory, this chapter serves as a reference point for the subsequent chapters. The chapter begins by considering attitudes in general (their formation, functions, and components) before focusing specifically on language attitudes. The chapter examines the link between language and social identity, the notion of language attitudes as reflections of social mores and the related issue of language attitude change, and the difference between (and inter-relatedness of) language attitudes and ideologies. The chapter then discusses the implications and consequences of language attitudes at the micro as well as the macro level. Subsequently, the chapter covers the key individual and socio-structural factors that influence language attitudes, and it discusses the evaluative dimensions of language attitudes (and how they are connected to the aforementioned socio-structural factors). The chapter introduces the three types of methods by means of which language attitudes can be investigated – that is, the analysis of the societal treatment of language, direct methods, and indirect methods – and the key overarching issues in language attitudes research which are covered in the book (i.e. regarding different community types, different data types, priming, and mixed-methods approaches). The aims of the book, and its structure and contents, are explained.

Whenever two or more people meet and begin to communicate, subtle or not-so-subtle changes in speech patterns may emerge as a result – including switches to a different language, shifts in pronunciation, speech rate and utterance lengths, as well as non-verbal behaviours. Communication Accommodation Theory deals with interlocutors’ motivations for becoming linguistically more alike or less alike as well as their motivations for not changing their speech at all. As conation constitutes one of the components of language attitudes, these communicative strategies are considered to reflect – at least to a certain extent – the attitudes that interlocutors hold towards each other and their respective social groups. This chapter discusses how analysing communication accommodation as an indicator of language attitudes comes with both strengths (e.g. it reflects actual language use in daily communicative practice) and limitations (e.g. the remaining uncertainty of how affect and conation interact). Key practical issues of planning and research design are addressed, such as the all-important mitigation of the observer’s paradox, which may, by itself, trigger accommodation. The chapter then discusses the analysis of data resulting from communication accommodation studies. It concludes with a case study of communication accommodation between French and English speakers in Quebec’s urban centre, Montreal.

This chapter outlines how the discourse analysis of print media can be used to examine language attitudes and discusses the main strengths and limitations of this method. One significant strength lies in the fact that the printed press is an important means by which ideas about language are (re)produced. Analyses of the metalanguage used in the press can therefore be particularly revealing about language attitudes in a given society. An example of a limitation is the fact that print media texts vary enormously in terms of their context and audience. This makes a restricted practice of discourse analysis problematic, but equally too broad a practice may become effectively meaningless. The chapter provides an overview of the main discourse analytical approaches that have been applied to language attitude studies, and then narrows the focus to examine critical discourse analysis (CDA) in particular, outlining its strengths and limitations, giving examples of how it can be used to analyse and interpret data, and discussing key practical issues in planning and designing CDA research. The chapter concludes with a case study evaluating attitudes towards French using a corpus of language columns in French newspapers, thereby exemplifying the main points made in the chapter.

This chapter provides an introductory coverage of the major issues involved in designing and executing sociolinguistic research with a focus on spoken Arabic in natural settings. It explains the concept of the observer’s paradox and suggests methods to reduce its effects in sociolinguistic interviews. It covers ethnographic, qualitative, and quantitative methods. The use of dependent and independent variables is explained in detail, with a focus on age as a social variable. The chapter ends with ethical considerations as an integral part of research and research conduct.

The chapter looks at the effect of natural barriers on linguistic configuration and diffusion through illustrations of cases from Arabic and other languages. It provides examples of how different types of topographical features either facilitate or hinder communication, thus affecting the diffusion of linguistic features. It also provides a thorough introduction to the Arabic linguistic atlases available, from 1915 into the twenty-first century. The chapter highlights cases of language isolation and language contact involving Arabic.

This chapter provides an overview of how to use focus groups in order to elicit language attitudes. Focus groups allow access to the collective discourse practices of a specified group of participants and can be used as a way of eliciting more natural and spontaneous responses. However, participants may feed off each other’s ideas rather than express their own original thoughts, and certain minority opinions may be downplayed, repressed, or withheld by the participants. Nevertheless, this method can be viewed as an attempt to analyse salient social representations in a communicative conversational situation and can yield otherwise unrevealed strands of research participants’ narratives. After an exploration of the advantages and disadvantages of using focus groups to investigate language attitudes, this chapter offers an overview of key practical issues of planning and research design. The analysis of the data resulting from focus group discussions is explored, particularly from a critical sociolinguistic perspective, involving mapping/categorisation of the data, tracing the circulation of people and resources over space and time, finding meaningful connections, and making valid claims. The chapter concludes with a case study of attitudes towards Breton and Yiddish in a variety of settings.

This chapter examines the significance of attitudinal research in understanding the dynamics of language contact situations in multilingual societies from a cross-disciplinary perspective. This chapter provides practical guidance for the study of language attitudes and ideologies in multilingual communities by discussing issues relating to research planning and design (e.g. identifying which languages are to be explored, whose language attitudes are to be examined in the community), as well as data analysis and interpretation (e.g. quantitative data collected through questionnaires or matched-guise techniques, or qualitative data through interviews or ethnographies). Other important considerations for attitudinal research in multilingual communities are also covered (e.g. the mismatch between positive attitudes towards a language or languages and language use, or links between language policies and language attitudes in language revitalisation projects). The main points made in the chapter are illustrated by means of two case studies. The first relates to language attitudes in multilingual classrooms and the second focuses on language attitudes and ideologies amongst new speakers of minority languages with a focus on Galician in the Autonomous Community of Galicia in north-western Spain.

The chapter focuses on education as a social variable. It critically reviews classical approaches and suggests news ways of integrating education as a variable in sociolinguistic research in Arabic. These approaches are illustrated by examples from qualitative and quatitative studies.

Following on from the previous chapter on questionnaire-based elicitation of quantitative data, this chapter outlines how open-ended questionnaire items can be used to elicit qualitative language attitudes data. These items invite the respondent to freely answer a question with a few words, sentences, or a paragraph of free writing, thereby eliciting idiosyncratic responses. Open-ended items provide complex and potentially unexpected information on the different attitude components and can thus play a complementary role to closed-ended items in the evaluation of attitudes. The chapter guides the reader through a wide range of ways to use open-ended items and discusses their strengths as well as weaknesses. Building on the preceding chapter, key issues of study design are added, including the choice of open-ended question types and factors that inform decisions of participant sampling. The chapter instructs the reader how to pilot a questionnaire and how to conduct (inductive or deductive) qualitative content analysis. Finally, it addresses ethical concerns of privacy and confidentiality. A case study on attitudes towards different varieties of English in Fiji serves as illustration of the main points made in the chapter.

This chapter discusses the analysis of language attitudes as they are expressed in spoken interaction. Although the approach might be considered to have some limitations because it is generally confined to smaller samples of data, it offers valuable insights by providing greater contextualisation of attitudes as they are communicated, whilst also accounting for their fluid and shifting nature as they emerge in discourse. Key points of departure are ideas from discursive psychology and the application of discourse analysis to studying attitudes. The chapter proceeds to outline fundamental developments in this line of enquiry, ranging from work on discourse strategies to more recent research which has placed increasing focus on the elicitation and investigation of language attitudes in the context of interaction between the study participants. The chapter provides information on practical issues of planning and research design for such studies, followed by potential strategies for the analysis and interpretation of the resultant data. The main points arising from the discussion are illustrated by a case study undertaken in the post-industrial urban Ruhr region in Germany, where attitudes towards the local variety – Ruhrdeutsch – were investigated.