Word cloud from Creole conversations
Study funded by AHRC
In order to compare language attitudes and reported language use expressed in interviews with actual language choices, I use the broad theoretical framework of Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) (Giles, 2016) as this provides scope to explore how/whether participants changed the way they spoke (either using another language entirely or modifying features of the same language) to accommodate their interlocuter. I firstly code the Creole conversations qualitatively in NVivo to highlight positive/negative attitudes and themes in the interviews. Next, I note which language(s)/varieties were used when confronted with the unfamiliar situation of discussing a task they had carried out in Creole with myself, an outsider to the community, both ethnically and linguistically.
Keywords: language attitudes, Mauritius, multilingualism, reported and actual language use
Hannah Davidson
Junior Research Fellow in Linguistics and Associate Lecturer in German
I am a Junior Research Fellow in Linguistics at Newnham College, Cambridge and Associate Lecturer in German at the Open University.