Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English
This study contributes to a growing body of research on the social meanings of linguistic variation with particular interest in the cognitive processes governing their emergence. Our research follows in the tradition of Labov et al.’s (2011) work on the sociolinguistic monitor, a cognitive mechanism...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2025-05-01
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| Series: | Linguistics |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2023-0073 |
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| author | Pflaeging Jana Mackay Bradley Schleef Erik |
| author_facet | Pflaeging Jana Mackay Bradley Schleef Erik |
| author_sort | Pflaeging Jana |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This study contributes to a growing body of research on the social meanings of linguistic variation with particular interest in the cognitive processes governing their emergence. Our research follows in the tradition of Labov et al.’s (2011) work on the sociolinguistic monitor, a cognitive mechanism hypothesized to track quantitative linguistic variation and prompt social evaluations (Labov et al. 2011. Properties of the sociolinguistic monitor. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(4). 431–463). Previous research shows that L1 English listeners are sensitive to frequency variation, but it is unclear whether this also applies to L2 listeners. This study thus replicates Labov et al.’s (2011) original experiment in a context where English is primarily acquired through L2 instruction. To test the generality of sociolinguistic monitoring, we investigate L2 listeners’ sensitivity to quantitative differences in sociolinguistic variation (ing) as well as proficiency-based variation. Since participants were L1 speakers of (Austrian) German, we tested evaluations of varying realizations of /θ/ ([θ]/[s]), /d/ ([d]/[t]), and /w/ ([w]/[v]). Experiments included 135 participants, who rated several versions of newscaster test passages regarding professionalism. Our data shows that both sociolinguistic and proficiency-based variation are monitored and evaluated by L2 listeners, albeit to different extents. This supports the assumption that the focus of the monitoring process is socially meaningful variation that includes L1 sociolinguistic but also L2 proficiency-based features. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-442bd017e40049e9aa3b565a3802ec86 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0024-3949 1613-396X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Linguistics |
| spelling | doaj-art-442bd017e40049e9aa3b565a3802ec862025-08-20T02:11:11ZengDe GruyterLinguistics0024-39491613-396X2025-05-0163360763810.1515/ling-2023-0073Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of EnglishPflaeging Jana0Mackay Bradley1Schleef Erik2Department of English and American Studies, 27257University of Salzburg, Salzburg, AustriaDepartment of English and American Studies, 27257University of Salzburg, Salzburg, AustriaDepartment of English and American Studies, 27257University of Salzburg, Salzburg, AustriaThis study contributes to a growing body of research on the social meanings of linguistic variation with particular interest in the cognitive processes governing their emergence. Our research follows in the tradition of Labov et al.’s (2011) work on the sociolinguistic monitor, a cognitive mechanism hypothesized to track quantitative linguistic variation and prompt social evaluations (Labov et al. 2011. Properties of the sociolinguistic monitor. Journal of Sociolinguistics 15(4). 431–463). Previous research shows that L1 English listeners are sensitive to frequency variation, but it is unclear whether this also applies to L2 listeners. This study thus replicates Labov et al.’s (2011) original experiment in a context where English is primarily acquired through L2 instruction. To test the generality of sociolinguistic monitoring, we investigate L2 listeners’ sensitivity to quantitative differences in sociolinguistic variation (ing) as well as proficiency-based variation. Since participants were L1 speakers of (Austrian) German, we tested evaluations of varying realizations of /θ/ ([θ]/[s]), /d/ ([d]/[t]), and /w/ ([w]/[v]). Experiments included 135 participants, who rated several versions of newscaster test passages regarding professionalism. Our data shows that both sociolinguistic and proficiency-based variation are monitored and evaluated by L2 listeners, albeit to different extents. This supports the assumption that the focus of the monitoring process is socially meaningful variation that includes L1 sociolinguistic but also L2 proficiency-based features.https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2023-0073sociolinguistic monitoringl2 variationsociolinguistic variationproficiency-based variationsocial meaning |
| spellingShingle | Pflaeging Jana Mackay Bradley Schleef Erik Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English Linguistics sociolinguistic monitoring l2 variation sociolinguistic variation proficiency-based variation social meaning |
| title | Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English |
| title_full | Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English |
| title_fullStr | Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English |
| title_short | Sociolinguistic monitoring and L2 speakers of English |
| title_sort | sociolinguistic monitoring and l2 speakers of english |
| topic | sociolinguistic monitoring l2 variation sociolinguistic variation proficiency-based variation social meaning |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2023-0073 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pflaegingjana sociolinguisticmonitoringandl2speakersofenglish AT mackaybradley sociolinguisticmonitoringandl2speakersofenglish AT schleeferik sociolinguisticmonitoringandl2speakersofenglish |