Article published In:
ITL - International Journal of Applied LinguisticsVol. 65 (1984) ► pp.93–105
Influences in the Development of Children's Language Attitudes
The study focuses on factors which influence the attitudes of children toward standard and nonstandard language varieties. In a multicultural rural community in Hawaii where communicative competence includes to varying degrees a knowledge of both standard English and Hawaii Creole English, data were collected to measure the following :
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language attitudes of 68 kindergarten and first grade children,
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the fluency of these children in standard English and Hawaii Creole English, and
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language attitudes of the parents of the children.
Multiple regression analyses of the data indicate the following : no significant effect of parent attitudes on those of a child; the relaÂtive importance of ethnic background and length of residence in the speech community; sex as an important variable in determining language perceptions; a tendency to greater preference for a dialect as profiÂciency in it increases.
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