Attitudes Toward Korean Accented English

Rachel Schirra, University of Washington, Department of Linguistics

Tool keywords: Language Attitudes

Instrument name: Attitudes Toward Korean-accented and Korean-American English

Instrument type(s): Reading passage, survey, questionnaire

Analysis method: Reading passage

How to cite this tool: This tool has not yet been published.

The tool includes: A speaker screening questionnaire, reading passages, a listener screening questionnaire, and attitudes survey for listeners.

References:

Zahn, C.J. and Hopper, R., 1985. Measuring Language Attitudes: The speech evaluation instrument. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 4: 113-123.

Shin, S. J. Becoming Bilingual.

Lo, A. and Chun, E. A Sociolinguistic Study of Asian American Youth in California. (Unpublished)

Comments:

This instrument is designed to elicit language attitudes about Korean-accented English and Korean-American English. Reading passages are taken from Aesop's Fables, and are matched for word count and Flesch-Kincaid reading level as well as for occurrences of phonetic variables likely to vary in Korean-accented English. The speaker screening questionnaire, based on work by Shin on Korean-English bilingual youngsters, is designed to determine how speakers use Korean and English in their day to day lives.

The listener screening questionnaire is designed to determine to what extent listeners are exposed to foreign-accented English. The attitudes survey is meant to be taken after listening to a recorded reading passage, and consists of Likert-style questions (based on Zahn and Hopper's speech evaluation instrument) and some open-ended questions. It also includes three questions designed to determine whether the speaker attended to the content of the passage.

The tool is designed to target Korean-accented English specifically, but could be modified in the future to target other varieties as well.