Michael Willemyns

Accommodating a New Frontier: The Context of Law Enforcement

This chapter spotlights communication accommodation theory (CAT: see Giles, Coupland & Coupland, 1991) -- a longstanding framework (Gallois, Ogay & Giles, 2005: Giles, 1973) that has been heralded as one of the most prominent in the social psychology of language (Tracy & Haspel, 2004) and one that has captured cross-disciplinary imaginations (Coupland & Jaworski, 1997). The theory has had a hsitory of application to an array of organizational contexts (e.g. Bourhis, 1991) and, herein, we add another exciting possibility, namely its relevance for a more incisive appreciation of understanding police-civilian relations. After a brief discussion about what images people hold of police officers, we introduce CAT with particular attention to its face and identity concerns, whilst we distil the theoretical essence of CAT down to four key principles, underscoring its potential for developing not only an innovative reserach agenda for the future, but also for suggesting new theoretical propositions to test in this applied domain.anguage is the currency of most human social processes. We use words toconvey our emotions and thoughts, to tell stories, and to understand theworld. It is somewhat odd, then, that so few investigations in the socialsciences actually focus on natural language use among people in the real world.There are many legitimate reasons for not studying what people say or write.Historically, the analysis of text was slow, complex, and costly. The purpose of thischapter is to suggest that social scientists in general and social psychologists inparticular should reconsider the value of language studies. With recent advancesin computer text analysis methods, we are now able to explore basic social processesin new and rich ways that could not have been done even a decade ago.When language has been studied at all within social psychology, it has usuallyrelied on fairly rigorous experimental methods using an assortment of standardizedhuman coding procedures. These works are helping researchers to understandsocial attribution (Fiedler & Semin, 1992), intercultural communication (Hajek G Winter & McClelland, 1978)Over the last decade, a small group of researchers have adopted a somewhatdifferent strategy. Their goal has been to understand how the words people use intheir daily interactions reflect who they are and what they are doing. As detailedbelow, this strategy has also been method-driven. With the development ofincreasingly versatile computer programs and the availability of natural languageIn K. Fiedler (Ed.)(2007). Social Communication (pp. 343-359). New York: Psychology Press.

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.

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.