Language attitudes research: a classification of methodological issues

Abstract

Language attitudes research focuses on the evaluative reactions to languages and varieties. Previous attempts to classify language attitudes research have focused on approaches to studying language attitudes, such as direct, indirect and social treatment studies as well as the core foci of language attitudes research, such as documentation, explanation, development, consequences and change. However, language attitudes research has not been classified based on linguistic aspects such as segments and suprasegments, which form the basis for evaluating languages and varieties. Language attitudes research has also not been classified based on the number of languages evaluated. Hence, I propose a classification of language attitudes research comprised of three dimensions: data type and range, linguistic numerality and linguistic aspects. The review indicates that data used in language attitudes research can be categorised into monodata (one source of data) and multidata (two or more sources of data). The analysis also indicates that research involving attitudes towards languages can be univariate or multivariate (subdivided into unidirectional and multidirectional). I present the implications of this new classification for language attitudes research and language education.