Research Talk: An exploration of the language attitudes of lecturers at a widening participation institution in the West Midlands

An exploration of the language attitudes of lecturers at a widening participation institution in the West Midlands

Dr Judith Hamilton, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and TESOL (University of Wolverhampton)

Abstract

Research on language attitudes in Higher Education (HE) has predominantly examined students’ perceptions of either their peers’ or their lecturers’ use of language. It is, however, lecturers who have linguistic power over students when grading their oral performance. This study explores the language attitudes of ten lecturers at a post-92 university in the West Midlands, UK. It focuses on three key areas: (1) lecturers’ views on language use in a student oral assessment, (2) their attitudes towards the accents in the area surrounding their post-92, commuter workplace, and (3) their personal experiences of linguistic bias. A small-scale, qualitative, highly contextualised study was carried out using three research instruments: a video-stimulated recall of a previously graded assessment, a draw-a-map task, and a timeline interview exploring linguistic bias. The findings suggest that the lecturer participants’ language attitudes broadly align with those observed in the wider population: they recognised the overt prestige of Received Pronunciation (RP), with some reporting accent modification over their career in education. In addition, they acknowledged the covert prestige of non-standard language. In contrast, when assessing oral work, lecturers prioritised vocal style and linguistic appropriacy over accent, suggesting accent is not a priority in such situations. The findings emphasise the importance of context when studying language attitudes and point to the need for further research on lecturers’ language ideologies and their implications for oral assessment practices and the wider Higher Education context.