How Swedish Do I Sound? - A Qualitative Study of Language Attitudes in L2 Speakers

Abstract

Many features of a speaker’s language use can incite in a listener the formation of beliefs and attitudes about the speaker's language use as well as the speaker themself. When learning a second language (L2) these are often features, such as an accent, that are transferred from the speaker's first language (L1) and affect not only the individual’s language use but their attitudes toward L2 accents. This project investigates the attitudes that L2 speakers of Swedish carry with them about the Swedish language by conducting ethnographic interviews with L2 speakers. The interviews were done with adult L2 speakers of Swedish living in Sweden, and were conducted in Swedish. Participants were asked about their attitudes towards the Swedish language and what potential factors played into those attitudes. Using methods of Grounded Theory and ethnographic fieldwork, the interviews were carried out with the intention of letting the participants’ thoughts and beliefs carry the line of inquiry forward. Their answers provided insight into L2 attitudes about the perceived presence of a standard variety of Swedish and their varied experiences with foreign accent perception biases.