Howard Giles

Contexts of Accommodation: Accommodation theory: Communication, context, and consequence

Introduction When academic theorizing addresses everyday communication phenomena, there are losses as well as gains. Research may, selectively or otherwise, partially represent the full subtlety of contextualized interaction. Methodological constraints may impose their own selectivity, so that we tend to access the accessible and learn what is most readily learnable. The real-time nature of programmatic research will reflect epistemological shifts and disciplinary development. It is altogether likely that academic and lay versions of the phenomena themselves and their boundaries will not perfectly mirror each other at any one point. On the other hand, research can discover regularities within communicative interchanges and identify, and perhaps even predict, contextual configurations that relate systematically to them. If it is amenable to methodological triangulation upon data and research questions, and if it incorporates within its own activities a mechanism for building cumulatively on empirical insights, communication research can begin to impose order on the uncertainty that interaction presents to us. More particularly, research that addresses the contexts as much as the behaviors of talk can tease out the ordering – motivational, strategic, behavioral, attributional, and evaluative – that interactants themselves impose upon their own communication experiences, and the ways in which the social practices of talk both are constrained by and themselves constrain goals, identities, and social structures. In the case of “accommodation theory,” the focus of the present collection, we have a research program that has developed over more than a dozen years, undergoing many extensions and elaborations, as an account of contextual processes impinging on sociolinguistic code, style, and strategy selections.

Psycholinguistic and social psychological components of communication by and with the elderly

Social gerontological journals and texts emphasize the fact that, due to a dramatic increase in life expectancy, the elderly constitute demographically the fastest growing segment of the population (e.g. McPherson, 1983). For example, a British boy in 1875 could expect to live for 41 years and a girl for 45 years. A century later, the same children could look forward to 70 and 75 years, respectively. Thus, approximately 5 million were aged 65 to 74 in 1976 with a further 2.7 million over 75 years; the same pattern has of course occurred in North America. Social gerontologists have argued that psychological health in elderly is a function of C.N.S. activity and higher level cognitive functioning which are themselves mediated by frequent social contacts and communication (Kerstein and Isenberg, 1974; Keidel, 1980; Mindel and Wright, 1982). Yet, the actual study of this communication has received relatively scant attention. This is symptomatic of the fact that, apart from a few important exceptions (Langer ef al., 1979; Rodin and Langer, 1980, h Blank, 1982), social psychology, sociolinguistics and communication science have not been concerned with elderly subject populations or with social issues related to the elderly.

Accommodating the Elderly: Invoking and Extending a Theory.

The article begins by exploring briefly the role of the elderly in sociolinguistic theory and research. After an outline of the parameters of speech accommodation theory together with a new schematic model, it is argued that speech accommodation theory is a profitable framework for elucidating the sociolinguistic mechanics of, and the social psychological processes underlying, intergenerational encounters. A recent conceptual foray in this direction, which highlights young-to-elderly language strategies, is then overviewed with some illustrations. Contrastive data from a case study are then introduced, a discourse analysis of which allows us to conceptualize various elderly-to-young language strategies. This interpretive analysis suggests important avenues for extending speech accommodation theory itself. A revised, more sociolinguistically elaborated version of this framework is then presented which highlights strategies beyond those of convergence, maintenance, and divergence and leads to the conceptualization of over - and under accommodation. Finally, and on the basis of the foregoing, a new model of intergenerational communication is proposed and Ryan et al.s (1986) “communicative predicament” framework duly revised. (Accommodation theory, elderly, overaccommodation, case studies, discourse management, stereotypes, underaccommodation, interdisciplinary)

An intergroup approach to second language acquisition

Abstract In this paper, we shall outline a recent social psychological approach to language and ethnicity which attends to the issue: who in an ethnic group uses what language variety, when and why? More specifically, it allows us to understand the processes underlying group members’ desires to attenuate and even create their own distinctive ethnolinguistic varieties (Giles, Bourhis & Taylor, 1977; Giles & Johnson, 1981). It is suggested that this framework is likely to advance our knowledge of factors influencing successful acquisition of a second language. Two current social psychological models of second language acquisition in inter‐ethnic contexts (Gardner, 1979; Clement, 1980a; 1980b) are then compared and evaluated critically. Whilst these models exhibit significant theoretical advances in the area, it is argued that they nonetheless possess certain deficiencies. Prime amongst these concerns is their failure to take into account explicitly processes (such as ethnic identification) which are accorde...

Towards a theory of interpersonal accommodation through language: some Canadian data

The study was designed to investigate the process of speech accommodation between bilinguals from two ethnolinguistic groups. It was hypothesized that the greater the amount of effort in accommodation that a bilingual speaker of one group was perceived to put into his message, the more favourably he would be perceived by listeners from another ethnic group, and also the more effort they in turn would put into accommodating back to him. Eighty bilingual English-Canadians were divided into four groups and individually tested. Ss heard on tape a French-Canadian describe a picture and they were required to sketch this while listening. Ss were made fully aware that their speaker had a choice of language for his description. The four groups heard the same male speaker describe the drawing but each

Notes on the construction of a ‘subjective vitality questionnaire’ for ethnolinguistic groups

Group ‘vitality’ was recently proposed as a framework for objectively categorizing ethnolinguistic groups in terms of their ability to behave as distinctive collective entities in intergroup settings (Giles, Bourhis & Taylor, 1977). ‘Objective’ accounts of group vitality using status, demographic and institutional support data gathered from secondary sources appear a useful tool for comparing ethnolinguistic groups in cross‐cultural research. This article describes a new questionnaire designed to assess how group members subjectively perceive their owngroup position relative to salient outgroups on important ‘vitality’ dimensions. Group members’ ‘subjective’ vitality perceptions may be as important in determining interethnic behaviours as the Groups objectively assessed vitality. The article includes a discussion of how ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ vitality information can be combined to better account for the dynamics of interethnic relations in multilingual and multicultural settings.

EVALUATIVE REACTIONS TO ACCENTS

ABSTRACT Lamberts use of the “matched‐guise” technique to study stereotyped impressions of personality characteristics from contrasting spoken dialects and languages has been extended to investigate three other evaluative dimensions in relation to British regional and foreign accents. 177 Ss were required to rate the “aesthetic”, “communicative” and “status” contents of various accents presented both vocally and conceptually. Although a generalised pattern of ranking accents across these dimensions emerged, the factors of age, ser, social class and regional membership were found to be important determinants of evaluation. The social and educational significance of these findings were discussed.

Intergenerational Communication Across Cultures: Young People's Perceptions of Conversations with Family Elders, Non-family Elders and Same-Age Peers

Young adults from three Western (Canada, U.S.A., and New Zealand) and three East Asian (The Philippines, South Korea and Japan) nations completed a questionnaire regarding their perceptions of interactions with family elders, non-family elders, and same-age peers. Results showed that East Asians perceived family elders to be as accommodating as same-age peers, whereas Westerners perceived family elders as more accommodating than their same-age peers. Participants in both cultural blocks indicated an obligation to be most deferential towards non-family elders, followed by family elders, followed by same-age peers. Whereas both groups perceived interactions with same-age peers more positively than with the two older groups, the Western group perceived the older age groups more positively than did East Asians. Intergenerational communication is reportedly be more problematic than intragenerational communication and, consistent with previous findings, this pattern is more evident in East Asian nations on some variables.

Accommodating intergenerational contact: A critique and theoretical model

Abstract Over the last 25 years, there have been over 50 studies examining the attitudinal effects of contact between older and younger people. Comprehensive reviews of these intergenerational contact studies are rare. This article critiques a large sample of these investigations pointing to a wide range of crucial methodological and theoretical inadequacies. Our intergroup approach explores the motivations and communicative behaviors likely occurring during intergenerational contact and a new model is formulated amalgamating and elaborating intergroup contact and communication accommodation theories. This framework not only enhances our understanding of why outcome inconsistencies between studies are evident, but also sets the stage for a new era of theoretically-driven, communication-oriented studies and intergenerational programs.

Development of Sex-Trait Stereotypes Among Young Children in the United States, England, and Ireland.

The Sex Stereotype Measure II (SSM II), a 32-item revision of the Williams, Bennett, and Best Sex Stereotype Measure, was developed to assess childrens knowledge of conventional, sex-trait stereotypes defined by American university students. The procedure employed brief stories and human figure silhouettes which were individually administered to 5- and 8-year-old children in the United States, England, and Ireland and group administered to 11-year-olds in the United States. In the United States, knowledge of sex-trait stereotypes was found to develop in a linear fashion between the ages of 5 and 11, with more male traits than female traits being known at each age level. Cross-nationally, there was a high degree of similarity in the nature of the sex stereotypes being learned by the children in the 3 countries, although the rate of learning appeared slower among the Irish children. In all countries there was a clear progression in sex-stereotype learning from age 5 to age 8. English boys had greater knowledge of stereotypes than English girls, but this was not true in Ireland and the United States. Generally, knowledge of male stereotype traits appeared to develop earlier while knowledge of the female traits increased more rapidly between ages 5 and 8. The similarity in sex-stereotype learning in the 3 countries is discussed, and studies in progress in other countries of greater cultural diversity are noted.