Argentinean People’s Attitudes towards Different Varieties of English
Keywords:
language attitudes, varieties, native accent, non-native accent, verbal-guise study, solidarity, statusAbstract
In Argentina, English has played a major role in education and the job market for years, thus making Argentinean people’s language attitudes towards English relevant. Yet, this area remains under-researched. Therefore, this paper examined Argentinean people’s language attitudes towards different varieties of English in terms of two evaluative dimensions: solidarity and status. To do so, 50 Argentinean people participated in a verbal-guise study in which they rated five English varieties, out of which one was from a native US speaker and the remaining four were from non-native speakers from four different Spanish-speaking countries: Chile, Spain, Argentina and Mexico. As regards status, results support prior research since the varieties considered as native by the participants received the most favorable evaluations, while the non-native varieties received less favorable evaluations. In terms of solidarity, however, results partially contradict previous findings, given that the native speaker received the highest rating and one of the non-native speakers received the lowest rating. Nevertheless, the only speaker deemed non-native by all participants was the second-highest rated.
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