language attitudes

A term used in SOCIOLINGUISTICS for the feelings people have about their own LANGUAGE or the language(s) of others. These may be positive or negative: someone may particularly value a foreign language (e.g. because of its literary history) or think that a language is especially difficult to learn (e.g. because the script is off-putting). Rural ACCENTS generally receive a positive evaluation, whereas urban accents do not. Knowing about attitudes is an important aspect of evaluating the likely success of a language teaching programme or a piece of LANGUAGE PLANNING.