The influence of socio-economic status, age, gender, and level of literacy on language attitudes
The case of Haitian Gonâviens
This study investigated the relationship between socio-economic status, age, gender, and literacy level and
Haitian Gonâviens‘ attitudes towards Haitian Creole or Kreyòl and French. Most studies that investigated language attitudes of
Creolophones have found that they have negative attitudes towards Kreyòl. Nevertheless, previous studies often included
participants who are affiliated with education such as students, teachers, and language policy makers, or those from higher social
classes. The current study, however, utilized a language attitudes questionnaire to collect data from 78 adult informants from
diverse backgrounds. These participants included 21 highly literate, 51 partially literate and 6 illiterate Haitians. Findings
revealed that participants of higher socio-economic status have more positive attitudes towards French than those from lower
socio-economic status. Results also showed that there is a tendency for age, gender, and literacy level to affect language
attitudes. For instance, positive attitudes towards Kreyòl were found to be more prevalent among older participants than younger
respondents. Similarly, male participants had more negative attitudes towards French than female informants. Moreover, respondents
of lower literacy levels had more negative attitudes towards French than those who were highly literate.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Language attitudes
- 2.2Language attitudes and Kreyòl
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Context and participants
- 3.2The participants
- 3.3The language attitude survey
- 3.4Method of analysis
- 4.Findings
- 4.1Language attitudes of high vs low SES respondents
- 4.1.1Language attitudes and age, gender, and literacy level
- 4.3Responses to the third part of the language attitudes questionnaire: Open-ended questions
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion and future directions
-
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