Attitudes towards Maltese and English in bilingual Malta : a socio-psychological perspective

Abstract

This thesis sets out to explore attitudes towards the two official languages of Malta, Maltese and English, from a socio-psychological perspective. A critical analysis of the literature based on direct methods of enquiry reveals that users of these two languages are subject to attitudinal judgement. The stereotypes and popular beliefs regarding speakers of English and Maltese strongly suggest that these two languages may be subject to an unconscious reorganisation along the two opposing axes of status and solidarity. In order to investigate attitudes towards speakers of Maltese and English, the speaker evaluation paradigm was adopted for the present study. The main research tool employed for the study was the matched-guise technique (MGT), an experimental tool used in speaker evaluation studies. The study involved 200 adult respondents who were personally interviewed by the present researcher. In order to gauge the attitude orientations towards the Maltese and English languages, respondents also had to fill in a brief language attitude questionnaire. The findings of his study reveal that the English and Maltese languages have different types of prestige. The English language enjoys overt prestige in Malta, as has been corroborated by the fact that the participants accorded the bilingual guise speakers higher occupational status when performing in their English guises. Even though the Maltese language is, by comparison, rated as less prestigious than English, findings indicate that in Maltese society this language has covert prestige