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A Study on Language Attitudes towards Swedish and English with Focus on Linguistic Imperialism and Coloniality

Author

  • Elin Hugosson

Summary, in English

The focus of this paper is linguistic imperialism and coloniality. This was researched by investigating the language attitudes of students and alumni in the language teacher programs and their professors at Lund University. The control group consisted of students at Lund University who had not studied language or linguistics. The research was conducted through a questionnaire and deeper interviews. It was found that colonial ideas about language, i.e. that some languages are perceived as more evolved or more modern, are no longer found in attitudes held by the respondents. It was also found that the target group does not believe Standard English to be better than other varieties of English. The control group without linguistic knowledge was less aware of research done on language tests for citizenship and translanguaging. This paper is aimed at anyone interested in linguistic imperialism and language attitudes.

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Document type

Student publication for Bachelor's degree

Topic

  • Languages and Literatures

Keywords

  • Linguistic imperialism
  • coloniality
  • translanguaging
  • language attitudes

Supervisor

  • Panagiotis Athanasopoulos