Resumen de Influences in the development of children's language attitudes
The study focuses on factors which influence the attitudes of children toward standard asn nonstandard language varieties. In a multicultural rural community in Hawaii where communicative competence includes to varying degrees a knowledge of both standard Englisg and Hawaii Creole English, data were collected to measure the following:
1) language attitudes of 68 kindergarten and first grade children, 2) the fluency of these children in standard English and Hawaii Creole English, and 3) language attitudes of the parents of the children.
Multiple regression analyses of the data indicate the following: no significant effect of parent attitudes on those of a child; the relative importance of ethnic background and lenght of residence in the speech community; sex as an important variable in determining language perceptions; a tendency to greater preference for a dialect as proficiency in it increase.
