Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Cahpter I A. Background of Study
Cahpter I A. Background of Study
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of Study
Language is one human characteristic that sets it apart from other
creatures. In addition, the language has a social function, both as a
communications tool and as a means of identifying social groups. The view
de Saussure (1916) which states that language is one of the community
organizations, the same with other social institutions, such as marriage,
inheritance, and so has signaled the importance of attention to the social
dimension of language
In this paper, the arranger will mainly discuss about language
attitude and its roles in sociolinguistics. As we know that language and
attitude cannot be separate each other. It is because it has its own function
in the use. In sociolinguistics, attitude taken place as an aspect that human
should have to understand each other in communication.Some language-
attitudes studies are strictly limited to attitudes toward the language itself.
However, most often the concept of language attitudes includes attitudes
towards speakers of a particular language; if the definition is even further
broadened, it can allow all kinds of behavior concerning language to be
treated (e.g. attitudes toward language maintenance and planning efforts)
(Fasold 1984: 148).
Attitudes are crucial in language growth or decay, restoration or
destruction: the status and importance of a language in society and within
an individual derives largely from adopted or learnt attitudes. An attitude is
individual, but it has origins in collective behavior. Attitude is something an
individual has which defines or promotes certain behaviors. Although an
attitude is a hypothetical psychological construct, it touches the reality of
language life. Baker stresses the importance of attitudes in the discussion of
bilingualism. Attitudes are learned predispositions, not inherited, and are
1
likely to be relatively stable; they have a tendency to persist. However,
attitudes are affected by experience; thus, attitude change is an important
notion in bilingualism. Attitudes vary from favorability to unfavorability.
Attitudes are complex constructs; e.g. there may be both positive and
negative feelings attached to, e.g. a language situation (Baker 1988:112-
115).
B. Problem Formulation
1. What is Language Attitude?
2. How measuring Language Attitude?
3. What is Language Attitude in Sociolinguistic and Language
Learning?
C. Goal
1. To know what is language Attitude
2. To know how measuring Language Attitude
3. To know what is language attitude in sociolinguistic an language
learning
CHAPTER II
DISCUSSION
2
A. Language and Attitude
3
According to Lambert (1967), attitudes consist of three components:
the cognitive, affective and conative components (Dittmar 1976: 181). The
cognitive component refers to an individual's belief structure, the affective
to emotional reactions and the conative component comprehends the
tendency to behave in a certain way towards the attitude (Gardner 1985: ).
The major dimensions along which views about languages can vary
are social status and group solidarity. The distinction of
standard/nonstandard reflects the relative social status or power of the
groups of speakers, and the forces held responsible for vitality of a language
can be contributed to the solidarity value of it. Another dimension, called
ingroup solidarity or language loyalty, reflects the social pressures to
maintain languages/language varieties, even one without social prestige
(Edwards 1982:20 .)
4
Many studies have demonstrated that judgments of the quality and
prestige of language varieties depend on knowledge of the social
connotations which they possess. Thus, for instance, the use of dialects and
accents would be expressions of social preference, which reflect an
awareness of the status and prestige accorded to the speakers of these
varieties. A prestige standard form of a language has no inherent aesthetic
or linguistic advantage over nonstandard varieties. The prestige is usually
the product of culture-bound stereotypes passed on from one generation to
the other (ibid., 21).
5
motivation seems to be more effective. Moreover, motivation derived from
a sense of academic or communicative success is more likely to motivate
one to speak a foreign/second language (Ellis 1991: 118).
Imagine you are sitting at home and the phone rings. You answer it
and find yourself talking to a stranger on the other end of the line. What are
you thinking as you listen to them?
6
When you talk to someone, you start to form opinions about them,
sometimes solely on the basis of the way they talk (Chambers 2003: 2–11).
The last time you rang a servicecenter to buy something over the phone, or
to complain about something, you would havespoken to a complete
stranger. And yet, within minutes or even seconds, you probablycomposed
quite a detailed picture of who you were talking to. Were they male, or
female?Were they a native speaker of English? Did they have a strong
regional dialect, or could youperhaps only say very vaguely where they
come from (‘somewhere in Scotland’ or ‘probablythe South’)? You might
decide that you think they are Asian or a Pacific Islander. You mayalso have
strong ideas about whether they are ‘nice’, ‘friendly’ and ‘competent’, or
whetherthey are ‘rude’, ‘disinterested’ and ‘stupid’.
We draw very powerful inferences about people from the way they
talk. Our attitudes to different varieties of a language color the way we
perceive the individuals that use thosevarieties. Sometimes this works to
people’s advantage; sometimes to their disadvantage. Forinstance, in the
university where I work, a number of people speak with the southern
BritishOxbridge accents that are generally associated with privilege, respect
and success. Theyseem to be found more often in the senior ranks of the
university than people who don’t. Ofcourse, there are exceptions – the head
of the university college who still speaks a clearlynorthern variety of
English – and the exceptions are as interesting as the rule.
7
According to Baker (1988), attitudes are learned predispositions, and
are not inherited. They are relatively stable and are affected by experiences.
Attitudes are complex constructs. Choudhry (1993:22) emphasizes the
factors like motivation, prestige, identity, language loyalty and the
importance of their relationship to attitude.
8
This approach has a serious scientific disadvantage since the affective
component alone cannot predict verbal conduct. This is not the case with
the mentalist approach since attitudes, for the mentalists, have three
components: the affective, the conative and the cognitive. This approach
makes it possible to predict linguisticbehavior and has therefore become
first choice for developing theoretical models on language studies (Obiols
2002)
There are some factors that can influence the language attitude, as
follows:
a. The prestige and power of the language
9
the language being studied, they kept holding strong Japanese identify and a
language loyalty.
Some Middle East people may not want tostudy English because
they learn from their history that Western people were Colonialist. The view
is possibly strengthened with somecomplicated contemporary disputes
between the Western and Arabic (Muslim) cultures.
10
would be judged to be „Suharto’s people‟, which was negative label in that
time.
CHAPTER III
CONCLUSSION
11
Based on the explanation above, we can conclude that language
attitude is the feeling that people can feel to respond another language. In
Indonesian people, it can be showed through behavior or gesture. Language
attitude can be also defined as people’s respond when another speaks to
them. Someone can show different attitude in communication. Besides,
people can show positive or negative attitude. For instance, Javanese is no
longer use their own language because of some problems. It can be caused
because the societies do not let them to use such the language.
References
12
Fasold, R. (1990). The sociolinguistics of language. Oxford: Blackwell.
13