Jeffery Pittam

Pax Americana? Accent attitudinal evaluations in New Zealand, Australia and America

This study describes a series of evaluations of gender pairs of New Zealand English, Australian English, American English and RP-type English English voices by over 400 students in New Zealand, Australia and the U.S.A. Voices were chosen to represent the middle range of each accent, and balanced for paralinguistic features. Twenty-two personality and demographic traits were evaluated by Likert-scale questionnaires. Results indicated that the American female voice was rated most favourably on at least some traits by students of all three nationalities, followed by the American male. For most traits, Australian students generally ranked their own accents in third or fourth place, but New Zealanders put the female NZE voice in the mid-low range of all but solidarity-associated traits. All three groups disliked the NZE male. The RP voices did not receive the higher rankings in power/status variables we expected. The New Zealand evaluations downgrade their own accent vis-a`-vis the American and to some extent the RP voices. Overall, the American accent seems well on the way to equalling or even replacing RP as the prestige—or at least preferred—variety, not only in New Zealand but in Australia and some non-English-speaking nations as well. Preliminary analysis of data from Europe suggests this manifestation of linguistic hegemony as ‘Pax Americana’ seems to be prevalent over more than just the Anglophone nations.

Impact of social group processes and functional diversity on communication in networked organizations

This study examines the role of social group processes in perceptions of effective communication in Australian Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs). Communication professionals in 25 CRCs discussed the barriers and opportunities for communication in their diverse networked organizations. Thematic analysis of the transcripts highlighted the contribution of social group processes to both barriers and opportunities. Communication challenges implicated the social identity of organizational members, many of which were associated with distinct structural aspects of these organizations. Opportunities for communication frequently involved features that implicated social identity, including taking advantage of existing organizational or industry identities, preventing conflicting identities from becoming salient, and promoting a collective CRC identity.

The Long-Term Spectral Measurement of Voice Quality as a Social and Personality Marker: A Review

As a long-term vocal feature, voice quality can function as a marker of individuality, be a carrier of personality characteristics and affect, as well as being characteristic of social and ethnic groups. In measuring voice quality acoustically, therefore, the most appropriate measure is one that reflects this long-term nature, particularly when perceptual judgments are to be related to the acoustic values. One potentially useful long-term acoustic measure of voice quality is the long-term average spectrum. This paper reviews the success of the long-term average spectrum in discriminating voice qualities, and the consequent usefulness to researchers working in such areas as phonetics, communications, cross-cultural studies, personality and the social psychology of language.

Malevolence, stigma, and social distance: Maximizing intergroup differences in HIV/AIDS discourse

Abstract This study examined the intergroup language used by young heterosexual Australians in conversations about HIV/AIDS and safe sex. Sixty male and 72 female heterosexuals participated in four‐person facilitated conversations (same‐sex or mixed‐sex) about HIV/AIDS and safe sex, which were recorded and transcribed. We focused on extracts concerning strangers or malevolent individuals who appear to be group members, along with extracts involving foreign national groups. Discourse analysis showed that groups at lower levels of social distance were constructed mainly in terms of individual responsibility. At moderate social distance, stereotypes were more negative, but sub‐typing was common, whereas at the highest levels, people were constructed entirely in intergroup terms. The findings of this study suggest that HTV prevention programs should make reference to all salient outgroups, so as to neutralize communicative strategies that strengthen intergroup boundaries as a means of reducing perceived personal threat of HIV infection.

Student Expectations of TESOL Programs: Student and Teacher Perspectives.

Sarbari Bordia, University of South Australia Sarbari Bordia is a lecturer in Business Communication for NESB students in the School of Management, University of South Australia. She has a Ph. D. in TESOL Studies from the University of Queensland and an Ed. M. in TESOL from Temple University, Philadelphia, USA. Lynn Wales, University of Queensland Lynn Wales is a Senior Lecturer in The School of English, Media Studies and Art History. She teaches in Linguistics and TESOL studies. Jeffery Pittam, University of Queensland Jeffery Pittam is a retired Associate Professor from The School of English, Media Studies and Art History. He taught in Communication studies. Cindy Gallois, University of Queensland Cindy Gallois is a Professor in the School of Psychology. She is currently the Director of Research, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences.

Perceived change in ethnolinguistic vitality by dominant and minority subgroups

Abstract This paper reports work on perceived ethnolinguistic vitality of Vietnamese‐ and Anglo‐Australians in Brisbane, as well as differences based on sex, level of education and, for Anglo‐Australians, residence in areas with either high‐ or low‐concentrations of Vietnamese‐Australians. As expected, Anglo‐Australians were perceived as much higher in vitality than Vietnamese‐Australians by all groups, while the latter were perceived as increasing markedly in vitality over the next 25 years. Non tertiary‐educated Anglo‐Australians from high‐concentration suburbs had an exaggerated perception of the vitality of the Vietnamese, relative to their own group.

Predicting Impressions of Speakers from Voice Quality: Acoustic and Perceptual Measures

This study examined the relationship of an acoustic measure of speech based on the Long-Term Average Spectrum (LTAS), expert ratings of five voice qualities (breathy, creaky, nasal, tense, and whispery voices), and naive ratings of status and solidarity. Six male and six female speakers recorded a standard passage in the five voice types; these recordings were then analysed acoustically using the LTAS, judged by expert coders, and rated by undergraduate students. A two-stage path analysis revealed significant prediction from the LTAS to expert ratings on all voice qualities except nasality. In addition, creaky, nasal, and tense voices were negatively related to solidarity judgements, and nasal voice was negatively related to status judgements. These results point to the usefulness of the LTAS in measuring voice quality, as well as to the importance of perceptual judgements in connecting physical measures of the voice to impressions of speakers. Finally, the results suggest that the ‘ideal’ voice may be characterised by only small amounts of all these voice qualities.

Accuracy of perception and production of compound and phrasal stress by Vietnamese-Australians

This study considered the accuracy of perception and production of the compound-phrasal contrast by Vietnamese-Australians learning English and examined phonological, demographic, and speaker normalization factors that might influence acquisition of the contrast. In the study, 32 Vietnamese subjects took part; their performance on the perception part of the study was compared to that of 32 native English-speaking Australians. Complexity of phonological environment, in terms of number of syllables and consonant clusters alien to Vietnamese phonology, and length of residence in Australia were found to be the major factors influencing both the perception and production of the contrast. Accuracy of perception and production were highly correlated. Australian subjects, while performing significantly better than Vietnamese subjects on the perception task, nevertheless demonstrated the same pattern of accuracy across different levels of phonological complexity as had the latter.

Perceived Ethnolinguistic Vitality of Vietnamese and English in Australia: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis.

Abstract Confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to examine the goodness of fit between theoretical models proposed by ethnolinguistic vitality theory and data derived from a study of the perceived ethnolinguistic vitality of. Anglo‐Australian and Vietnamese‐Australian ethnic groups in Brisbane, Australia. This study aimed to test the viability of vitality as a uni‐dimensional construct, as well as to test the viability of the three proposed underlying factors of status, demographics and institutional support, as measured by the Subjective Vitality Questionnaire (SVQ). Results of the confirmatory factor analyses provided support for the applicability of the SVQ to both high and low vitality groups. The suitability of confirmatory factor analysis as a useful statistical method in vitality research is discussed, and the need for careful consideration in the selection of variables included in such analyses is emphasised.

Dimensionality and national function in australian and japanese ethnic stereotypes

Abstract This study provides an update on ethnic stereotypes in Australia and Japan. It measured the differences between the auto- and heterostereotypes held by Anglo-Australians and Japanese for themselves and each other, respectively, particularly as they related to perceived status and solidarity. It compared these with heterostereotypes held by these two national groups for one other Asian (Taiwanese) and one other non-Asian (Canadian) group. Forty female and 40 male Australian students, and 40 female and 40 male Japanese students completed a questionnaire consisting of 14 semantic differential scales. Factor analyses revealed two underlying dimensions: status and solidarity. Results of multivariate analysis of variance and bivariate correlations among the dependent variables indicated that Australians seemed to hold individual national hetereostereotypes for the Japanese and Taiwanese in terms of status, but more broadly focused stereotypes in terms of solidarity. The degree of consensus, however, wa...