The Survey Of Qitai Teenagers' Language Attitudes Towards Qitai Dialect And Putonghua And Their Language Use

Language attitude and language use are receiving much attention from sociolinguists.It helps to understand the matters on dialect use and promotion of Putonghua,which are worth exploring.The aim of this study is to investigate Qitai teenagers' language attitudes towards and language use of Qitai dialect and Putonghua.The participants of the study include 400 school students.The data of this study are collected mainly by means of matched-guise technique for language attitude research,and questionnaire for language use research,combining with interview as a supplement.First of all,50 junior school students and 50 high school students are selected,who were born in Qitai and get education there and all are Han Chinese,to do the matched-guise experiment.The subjects' language attitudes are investigated from affinity aspect and social status aspect.In addition,the gender and educational level differences are considered as factors that affect language attitude and the data are analyzed comparatively.Then,the author randomly chooses 400 junior school and high school students to do the questionnaire about language use.Besides,the author also interviews 20 students,in order to detail the results of the experiment and questionnaire,which may make them more reliable.The followings are the major results of this study: 1)Generally speaking,Qitai teenagers hold positive attitude towards Qitai dialect and Putonghua.From affinity aspect,the subjects' evaluation of Qitai dialect is higher than Putonghua.While from social status aspect,the result is opposite.2)Females rate Qitai dialect a little lower than males with respect to affinity and social status dimensions.And males rate Putonghua a bit lower than females.Besides,subjects with high educational level evaluate Qitai dialect higher,and Putonghua lower.However,no matter gender differences or educational level differences are not significant.3)Most Qitai teenagers can speak their local dialect fluently and all of them can speak Putonghua.In addition,most of them will mixture Qitai dialect and Putonghua when they communicate with friends,at home and in school.However,in public place,the frequency of using dialect is remarkably decreased.The findings of this study can reflect the real situation of current Qitai teenagers' language attitudes towards and language use of Qitai dialect and Putonghua.These may provide relative information in these fields,which has certain significance.