This paper reports on the development and validation of a new measure of language attitudes, which aims to explore L2 learners’ attitudes towards variation in the English language. Current research methods used to explore such attitudes do not accurately account for the complexities of how English is used in global and local contexts, where plural, ever-changing, fluid forms of language are used. Historically, the field has relied on indirect methods such as the Matched Guise Technique and Verbal Guise Technique, where participants are asked to evaluate audio-taped speakers on an attitude-rating scale. Because other linguistic factors are supposedly controlled, evaluations are considered to reflect the listeners’ underlying attitudes toward the target language variety. Despite the popularity of these approaches, they have been criticised for their deceptive nature, their inability to measure other important variables, and for their ‘acontextual’ nature. In short, the techniques fail to measure language attitudes in their complexity by limiting attitudes to the static varieties used in the recordings.
As a result of a lack of suitable approaches, a psychometric measure of language attitudes (GEO-Q) was developed and validated. After piloting 57 items, the questionnaire was trialled with 204 English learners. Exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor fit: traditional orientation to prescribed language standards and global orientation to non-standard forms of language. Further tests revealed good internal consistency for both the global orientation, (α= .91) and traditional orientation (α= .81), resulting in a final 21-item GEO-Q measure. The trialled GEO-Q also included an adapted measure of language exposure and language proficiency to investigate whether these were correlated with learners’ orientations. Regression analysis revealed Global Orientation could be partly predicted by exposure, indicating that learners who had been exposed to English outside instructed settings were more accepting of variation in English. Proficiency was negatively correlated with Traditional Orientation, indicating that lower proficiency students held more prescriptive attitudes. Based on these findings, the GEO-Q can be used as a valid measure of language attitudes in a diverse range of contexts, where English is used on a global platform rather than being depicted in its regional or national forms.
