A note on using sociolingustic methods to study non-native attitudes towards English

A number of studies have been undertaken to determine what variety of English learners of English want as a learner goal (Benson, 1991; Shaw, 1983; Kachru, 1976; Sahgal, 1991; Starks and Paltridge, 1994). This paper describes the major types of studies used to determine language attitudes of native and non-native speakers and highlights a number of differences in their methodologies. The paper then shows how one of the techniques used in sociolinguistic research with native speakers, called apparent time, would improve research into non-native speaker attitudes; making it more useful to educationalists engaged in language planning and curriculum development. Apparent time is based on the assumption that language is not uniform and that language changes occur in society at different rates for different segments of the population. The results of a language attitude survey of Japanese students learning English in New Zealand illustrate how the technique works by presenting data both in a traditional way and by reanalyzing the data using apparent time differences. © 1996 Wiley. All rights reserved.