Language Attitudes of Italo-Australian and Greek-Australian Bilinguals

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to investigate differences in the perception of speakers as a function of their language and sex. Forty‐two Italo‐Australian and 56 Greek‐Australian young people listened to male and female speakers in each of their two languages, using Lambert et al's. (1960) guise method. Results indicated few differences in Italo‐Australian subjects' ratings of speakers as a function of language, while Greek‐Australian subjects, in general, rated Greek guises more positively than English guises. In addition, Italo‐Australian subjects rated female subjects more positively than male speakers irrespective of language, but Greek‐Australian subjects reversed this pattern.