How Children Differentiate Between Speakers of French Dialects in Western Canada

• In Event: An Intersectional Exploration of Language Attitudes: How Young Children Reason About Dialect and Accent

Abstract

Regional varieties of a language (i.e., dialects) play a central role in children’s attitudes towards speakers (Arredondo & Gelman, 2019; DeJesus et al., 2017). The formation of attitudes involves multiple steps: 1) identification of a speaker's background based on phonetic cues; 2) categorization of the speaker as a member of social group(s), and 3) attribution of traits to the speaker based on stereotypes about people from the group(s) (Lambert, 1960). In this study, we focus on the first step of attitude formation – speaker background identification – by exploring how L1 and L2 French-speaking Albertan children (aged 5 to 12 years) discriminate between different French dialects. We focused on this official language minority community in Canada, because Alberta’s French population is particularly diverse due to a recent influx of immigration primarily from Maghreb and Sub-Saharan Africa. This diversity allows us to explore how children differentiate between dialects spoken by people belonging to multiple social categories (e.g., speakers of sub-Saharan African dialects who are often Black).

Method. In a pre-registered study, we presented children (n = 113 out of a planned sample of 144, median age = 9.2 years) with 21 pairs of audio clips of speakers of the same or different French dialects. After listening to each pair of clips, children were asked whether the speakers “come from the same place or two different places?” (adapted from McCullough et al., 2019). The clips were 4-6 second extracts from a children’s story read by female L1 French speakers who live in Alberta. The speakers were originally from six different regions (Western Canada, Quebec, Maritime Canada, Europe, Maghreb, and Sub-Saharan Africa) and were of different ethnic backgrounds (Arab, Black, or Caucasian).

Results. The youngest children (5- & 6-year-olds) could not systematically differentiate any dialect pairs (see Figure 1). However, this ability improved with age. Starting at age 7, children were able to systematically group dialects together as “Canadian” vs. “International,” and their sensitivity to differentiate among dialects from within these regions improved among older children. Further, children over 7 years old were most likely to differentiate between Canadian and Sub-Saharan African dialects.

Conclusion. Our results suggest that children may first group speakers into broad ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ categories based on a speaker’s origin and only later refine these groups to include more precise regional origins. The data also suggest that children can determine a speaker’s ethnicity from short audio clips. Future research will focus on steps 2 and 3 of Lambert’s model of attitude formation to explore how children attribute traits to people from intersecting social categories. Together these studies will allow us to challenge negative attitudes to ensure that the Franco-Albertan community is welcoming to all in an effort to continue to support its growth and vitality.

Authors

• Tracie Pospisil, University of Alberta
  Presenting Author

• Asma Noomani, University of Alberta

• Bella Wynn, University of Alberta

• Ruth Kircher, Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning

• Andrea A.N. MacLeod, University of Alberta

• Anne-José Villeneuve, University of Alberta

• Kristan Marchak, University of Alberta