Language attitudes in pre-adolescent multilinguals : a comparison of five data elicitation techniques

Date
2018-12
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University
Abstract
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study had two aims. The first was to identify the most useful data elicitation technique/s to use when eliciting data from multilingual South African pre-adolescents who have an African language as their mother tongue, and the second was to ascertain what those pre-adolescents’ language ideologies pertaining to English and Afrikaans as additional languages were. Data was collected in the cosmopolitan Wolmer area of Pretoria North from 10 participants (5 male, 5 female) ranging from 10 to 12 years of age. A comparison was made between the number of themes pertaining to language ideology successfully elicited by five data elicitation techniques, namely language portraits, the telling of short stories, open-ended interviews, closed-ended interviews, and commenting on short language-related video clips. Despite various methodological challenges, the results revealed that closed-ended interviews yielded the highest quantity of themes of the above-stated data elicitation techniques, with half of all elicited themes elicited by means of this method. Open-ended questions was the second-most successful elicitation technique, with 40% of the themes elicited via this technique. The other three techniques each elicited 4% or less of the themes, with the telling of short stories proving ineffective and eliciting no relevant themes. Regarding the second research question, concerned with the participants’ language ideologies, no negative themes relating to English as their second or additional language were prevalent among the participants. However, the data did reveal that at least 60% of the participants held at least one negative outlook towards Afrikaans. The thesis concludes by making recommendations on how to improve future research on language ideologies of pre-adolescents by refining the elicitation techniques and addressing the issue of mismatch in language proficiency between the participants and the data collectors in the study. Another recommendation is that future research should include monolingual pre-adolescents and do a cross-comparative analysis between the language ideologies of multilingual and monolingual pre-adolescent South Africans.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie het twee doelstellings gehad. Die eerste was om vas te stel watter data-ontlokkingstegniek mees suksesvol is in die ontlokking van data onder veeltalige Suid-Afrikaanse pre-adolessente wat ‘n Afrikataal as moedertaal het, en die tweede was om vas te stel watter taal-ideologieë daardie pre-adolessente uitdruk teenoor Afrikaans en Engels as addisionele tale. Data is in die kosmopolitaanse Wolmer-gebied van Pretoria-Noord ingesamel onder 10 deelnemers (5 manlik, 5 vroulik) wat 10 tot 12 jaar oud was. 'n Vergelyking is gemaak tussen die aantal temas rakende taal-ideologieë wat suksesvol ontlok is deur vyf data-ontlokkingstegnieke, naamlik taalportrette, die vertel van kort stories, oop-antwoord onderhoude, geslote-antwoord onderhoude en die lewer van kommentaar op kort taalverwante videosnitte. Ten spyte van metodologiese uitdagings het die resultate getoon dat geslote-antwoord onderhoude die hoogste aantal temas ontlok het van al die bogenoemde data-ontlokkingstegnieke, met die helfte van alle ontlokte temas wat deur hierdie tegniek ontlok is. Oop-antwoord vrae was die tweede mees suksesvolle ontlokkingstegniek, met 40% van alle temas wat deur hierdie tegniek ontlok is. Die ander drie tegnieke het elk 4% of minder van die temas ontlok, met die vertel van kort stories wat oneffektief blyk te wees aangesien dit geen relevante temas ontlok het nie. Rakende die tweede navrosingsvraag, wat verband hou met die deelnemers se taal-ideologieë, was geen negatiewe temas oor Engels as hul tweede of addisionele taal algemeen onder die deelnemers nie. Die data het egter getoon dat ten minste 60% van die deelnemers minstens een negatiewe uitkyk op Afrikaans as addisionele taal het. Die tesis sluit af deur aanbevelings te maak oor hoe toekomstige navorsing oor die taal-ideologieë van pre-adolessente verbeter kan word deur die ontlokkingstegnieke te verfyn en die kwessie van verskille in die taalvaardigheid van die deelnemers teenoor die taalvaardigheid van die data-insamelaars aan te spreek. Nog 'n aanbeveling is dat toekomstige navorsing eentalige pre-adolessente insluit en ‘n kruisvergelykende analise maak van die taal-ideologieë van veeltalige en eentalige pre-adolessente Suid-Afrikaners.
Description
Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2018.
Keywords
Second language acquisition -- Research -- Methodology, Multilingualism, Data elicitation techniques, UCTD
Citation