The Study of Language Attitudes

In the previous chapter, a critical overview of the research context was provided. Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of the nature of attitudes generally and continues with a description of behaviourist and mentalist theories of attitudes in the field of social psychology. A summary of the functions which attitudes can fulfill for the individual is also given. The chapter then focuses more specifically on language attitudes and examines the importance of language attitudes in both cognitive and sociopyschological theories of second language acquisition studies. Finally, a critical review of the importance of language attitudes in the field of sociolinguistics is offered.