Betsy Evans

Affiliation, engagement, language use and vitality: secondary school students' subjective orientations to Welsh and Welshness

The revitalisation of a minority language implies subjective as well as objective (e.g. demographic) criteria of vitality. School students of around age 16 have been identified as a key group for carrying a revitalised Welsh language through into social life. Our research profiles the feelings of ethnic affiliation and cultural engagement, and perceptions of the vitality of Welsh, of students at four secondary schools in Wales, representing different local sociolinguistic environments. Quite high levels of ethnic affiliation to Wales contrast with variable levels of reported engagement and vitality beliefs. The findings are interpreted as qualifying rather widespread positive assumptions in Wales about the revitalisation of the Welsh language among young people.

Attitudinal data from New Zealand, Australia, the USA and UK about each other's Englishes: recent changes or consequences of methodologies?

Abstract Recent attitudinal research by Bayard et al. (2001) suggested changes in the comparative evaluations of Australian, New Zealand, US and English Englishes, with US English on its way to becoming the preferred variety. We revisit these attitudes after a period of political change in the US, and using a research methodology in line with folklinguistic approaches to attitudes research (e. g. Preston 1996). Convenience samples of respondents in these four countries were asked to identify the countries where they knew English was spoken as a native language, and then quickly to write down their first reactions to those varieties. US English was viewed strikingly negatively in terms of its affective associations, and there were references to ‘excess’ from all respondent groups (e. g. overassertive, overenthusiastic). And, against expectations, the affective profile of English English was not overwhelmingly negative for all groups of respondents. We consider the results in relation to the findings and methods of the earlier studies, and also briefly consider the different statuses of these varieties in terms of the current discussion of late modernity and of different standard varieties (e. g. Kristiansen 2001b) serving different aspects of social life.

Imagining Wales and the Welsh language: Ethnolinguistic subjectivities and demographic flow

A survey of approximately 2,000 informants with links to Wales provided differentiated data on Welsh social identities and affiliation, engagement with Welsh cultural practices, and perceptions of the ethnolinguistic vitality of the Welsh language and of domain priorities for Welsh. The data were interrogated mainly in relation to “flowgroups” (participants with different patterns of lived history inside and outside Wales) and groups based on degrees of Welsh-language competence. Flows and competence were potent factors predicting felt affiliation to Wales and many other subjective stances. Strong affiliation to Wales and moderate levels of optimism about Welshs future were expressed, feelings not restricted to informants within Wales. The Welsh diaspora in North America offers strong symbolic support for the project of Wales and for the Welsh language, as do returning émigrés. Perspectives on cultural flow challenge assumptions about cultural boundedness and authenticity. The data show the need to account for Welsh ethnolinguistic subjectivities in terms of demographic mobility and complexity.

What Does the Word ‘Globalisation’ Mean to You?: Comparative Perceptions and Evaluations in Australia, New Zealand, the USA and the UK

Political leaders, the media, business people, trade union leaders and academics continually refer to how globalisation is impacting on our lives. Governments may at times argue that globalisation benefits us, and at others attribute to globalisation many of the major problems we currently face. What do ordinary people make of all this? We do not have a systematic account of their understandings, in terms of the primary associations they make with globalisation, and how they orient to it in terms of resistance or support. 302 respondents (groups from the UK, US, Australia and New Zealand) were asked to note the first five things they associate with the word ‘globalisation’. Their most salient associations centre on issues of economy, culture, power and communication. Differences emerge in the contrasting priorities that the groups give these categories and how they evaluate them in positive or negative terms, with the US respondents holding a comparatively more positive outlook.

Accessing social meanings: Values of keywords, values in keywords

Abstract Attitudes are by their nature not easy to define and, therefore, to research, and there are constant turns towards methodological reappraisal. Here, we outline an approach to data collection that we call ‘keywords’, considering it in relation to information processing theory and the elicitation of stereotypes, making comparisons with other methodological approaches. We appraise some of our experiences in using this technique in our own recent research, and consider the value of keywords by weighing up some of the difficulties against the advantages relating to their use. In doing this, we also consider the complexities of interpreting keywords data - the values in keywords - due to reduced context and culturally variable semantics. We conclude that one of the main strengths in the technique is that it allows better access to the local vernacular resources that respondents draw upon in their characterisation of language varieties and of their users.

Seattle to Spokane: Mapping Perceptions of English in Washington State.

This research explores perceptions of linguistic variation in English in Washington state (WA). Respondents marked on a map of WA the places where they believe people’s English sounds “different” and provided a label for that type of English. The analysis of the results used digital tools to create composite maps consisting of (1) respondents’ spatial perceptions of English in WA, (2) spatial perceptions of English in WA according to different demographic groups, and (3) affective values associated with regions identified by respondents. The results suggest that Washingtonians perceive that urban areas and eastern WA are places where English is different. The results also demonstrate that when respondents are surveyed about variation within their own state rather than variation across the country, local types of organizational categories, such as an urban/rural dichotomy or belief in a regional standard, can emerge.