My questionnaire consisted of 8 questions, each
based on attitudes towards African Caribbean dialect.
My first question asked for the participant’s ethnicity, the
results showed: 16 White British (WB), 1 Black British (BB), 2 Asian British (AB)
and 1 Mixed Race (MR) participant. My results showed White British as the
dominating race.
My second question asked for participants’ understanding of
ethnicity, the results showed: 6 people believed it was someone’s “cultural
background” that determined their ethnicity; 5 people believed it was someone’s
“cultural and racial background” that determined their ethnicity; 3 people
believed it was just “background” that determined ethnicity; 1 person believed
it was “origin” that determined ethnicity; 3 people believed it was just “race”
that determined ethnicity; 1 person believed it was “religion and background”
that determined ethnicity; and finally, 1 person believed it was “social and
racial background” that determined ethnicity. Overall, my results determined a
significant popularity on background, culture and race.
My third question asked for participants’ understanding of
Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect, the results showed: 10 WB participants believed
it was ‘slang (associated with black individuals)’ alongside this, all members
concluded it was ‘not a real language, broken English and a less formal
language’. 2 WB participants believed it to be ‘a way of speech’, 3 more WB
participants believed it to be ‘just an accent’ and 2 AB and the BB believed it
was ‘a differing language’. This question showed a negative view from WB
participants, thus from the AB and BB members suggested it was just a different
language to the English Language.
My fourth question asked for participants’ opinion on
Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect, there were numerous results: ‘quite funny’,
‘it’s funny’, ‘difficult to understand’, ‘just another language’, ‘developing
English speech’, ‘less formal’, ‘I love it’, ‘it’s comical’, ‘it’s alright’ and
‘it comprises different phrases’. Majority of WB participants saw
Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect negatively or found it humorous. Asian
British/Black British/Multi-race participants found Afro-Caribbean
accent/dialect as ‘just another language’ or ‘developing the English language’
– a positive opinion.
My fifth question asked participants to ‘pick the phrase you
believe to be the correct way of speaking’, all participants had a choice of 3
short phrases: ‘wagwarn’, ‘everything is cool’, ‘what are you doing’. All
participants chose the third phrase ‘everything is cool’.
My sixth question asked participants if they thought
‘Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is ruining English language’, 14 WB/1 BB/1
Multi-race/2 AB participants chose ‘No’ an 2 WB participants chose ‘Yes’. Those
two WB participants who chose ‘Yes’ believed Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect was
‘replacing standard English words with slang’ and ‘hindering younger
generations understanding of standard English’. The dominating attitude from
most participants was negative.
My seventh question asked participants whether they thought
‘Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect is developing the English language’, 10 WB/1 BB/1
Multi-race and 1 AB participant chose no, 1 AB/7 WB participants chose yes;
they believed it to be ‘introducing new words’, ‘introducing new words with the
same meaning’, ‘new way of speaking’. However, the AB participant believed
Afro-Caribbean accent/dialect to be developing English language in a ‘negative
manner’. All of the participant’s attitudes differed, although the dominant
view was positive.
My eighth question participants whether they thought
‘different attitudes encourage an influence on language’, all 20 participants
chose ‘Yes’ – they believed someone’s attitude depended on their ‘background’,
‘culture’, ‘awareness of consequences’, ‘social groups/peers’, ‘attitude’ and
if someone wasn’t ‘educationally motivated by parents, lacking English language
skills’.
