Poster #191 - The Effects of Foreigner Talk on Social Ratings of Addressees

• In Event: 3-159 - Poster Session 12
  In Poster Session: PS 12 Section - Social Cognition

Integrative Statement

Introduction:
Native speakers often express prejudice towards non-native speakers (Gluszek & Dovidio, 2010). Even children show a preference for native over non-native speakers at a young age (Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2007). Although much research has focused on evaluations drawn from accent, conversations are not one-sided. Indeed, speakers adjust their speech depending on their interlocutor. These different styles of speech, known as registers, are employed for various reasons like indexing one’s personal feelings about and social standing with their interlocutor. Foreigner Talk is a register used when talking to non-native speakers, marked by slow, loud, and overenunciated simplified speech (Ferguson, 1975). It remains unclear, though, what this register people think about its recipient.
Here, we investigate how Foreigner Talk influences children’s and adults’ social evaluations of its recipients (i.e., non-native speakers). In Study 1, we investigated whether children and adults would evaluate an unknown addressee and their relationship with a speaker differently if they received Foreigner Talk versus other registers. In Study 2, we investigated how register in tandem with other social group information is used by children and adults to evaluate an addressee and their relationship with their interlocutor.
Study 1:
In Study 1, 72 5-8-year-olds and 23 adults heard a series of three registers (Foreigner Talk, Peer Talk, and Teacher Talk) spoken to three unknown addressees hidden behind curtains. They were asked to evaluate addressees’ likeability, niceness, intelligence, and friendship with the speaker on a 6-point scale. A repeated measures ANOVA with register and question as within subject factors and age as a between subject factor found an age x register interaction (F(1, 91) = 39.90, p < .001), with all but the 5-year-olds rating Foreigner Talk addressees lower than the other addressees across all questions (see Table 1).
Study 2:
In Study 2, 49 5-8-year-olds and 29 adults evaluated four different kinds of addressees: a non-foreign peer receiving Peer Talk, a non-foreign peer receiving Foreigner Talk, a foreign peer receiving Peer Talk, and a foreign peer receiving Foreigner Talk. As in Study 1, they were asked to evaluate addressees’ likeability, niceness, intelligence, and friendship with the speaker on a 6-point scale. Data collection is ongoing. For preliminary analyses, children were divided into two groups: 5-6-year-olds (N = 28) and 7-8-year-olds (N = 21). A repeated measures ANOVA with register, addressee, and question as within subject factors and age as a between subject factor found a register x addressee x question x age interaction (F(2,74) = 2.09, p = .05). Generally, adults rated Foreigner Talk addressees lower than Peer Talk addressees. Children did not yet show a coherent pattern but may generally provide lower ratings to foreign peers compared to non-foreign peers regardless of register (see Table 2).
Discussion:
These studies provide the first developmental investigation into how Foreigner Talk may influence social ratings of non-native-speaking addressees. The findings suggest that Foreigner Talk may result in addressees receiving lower social ratings, but the register may take on different meanings throughout development.

Authors

• Danielle Labotka, University of Michigan
  Presenting Author

• Susan Gelman, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author