Self-assessment and standard language ideologies: bilingual adolescents in Sweden reflect on their language proficiencies

Abstract

Standard language cultures are characterised by beliefs in idealised standard forms of the language in question. In this paper, these beliefs are connected to the concepts of referee design and speech community, through analysis of how Swedish adolescents reflect upon and selfassess their language proficiencies. The data consist of interviews where 111 participants self-assess their Swedish, English and additional home languages. During the self-assessment, participants use different points of reference when reflecting on the different languages in their repertoires. Four main categories of answers are found, all relating to an absent referee in some manner: the participants' evaluations of other people's language proficiency compared to their own; their proficiency in other languages; their evaluation of their proficiency in relation to formal grading and feedback given in school; and their own experiences of their limitations and abilities in different situations. When assessing Swedish, participants display attitudes towards 'good' and 'bad' language and contextualise their proficiency in a way that focuses on standard language ideologies and their speech community. The same pattern does not occur when participants reflect on their other languages, indicating the important role that the peer group and speech community have in creating and facilitating these ideologies. ARTICLE HISTORY

What Is a Language? Who Is Bilingual? Perceptions Underlying Self-Assessment in Studies of Bilingualism

“…Standard language ideologies are commonly shared beliefs among individuals who speak a language about how that language “should” be spoken (Forsberg et al, 2020 ), and these notions can also influence judgments of languages and bilingualism. Forsberg et al ( 2020 ) examined the association between standard language ideologies and self-ratings of language proficiency among bilinguals who spoke Swedish and one other non-dominant or minority language.…”

“…Standard language ideologies are commonly shared beliefs among individuals who speak a language about how that language “should” be spoken (Forsberg et al, 2020 ), and these notions can also influence judgments of languages and bilingualism. Forsberg et al ( 2020 ) examined the association between standard language ideologies and self-ratings of language proficiency among bilinguals who spoke Swedish and one other non-dominant or minority language. Participants contextualized their Swedish proficiency within a standard language ideology framework and judged their abilities in terms of their perception of what an outside referee would consider proper speech (Forsberg et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Forsberg et al ( 2020 ) examined the association between standard language ideologies and self-ratings of language proficiency among bilinguals who spoke Swedish and one other non-dominant or minority language. Participants contextualized their Swedish proficiency within a standard language ideology framework and judged their abilities in terms of their perception of what an outside referee would consider proper speech (Forsberg et al, 2020 ). Accordingly, participants rated their Swedish proficiency more harshly than their heritage language.…”

“…Accordingly, participants rated their Swedish proficiency more harshly than their heritage language. Therefore, these beliefs may influence an individual's perception of nonstandard languages and whether speakers of those languages are bilingual (Forsberg et al, 2020 ).…”