ANALYSES OF QUESTIONNAIRE

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’.