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Language Attitude in Jordan: A Study of Males’ Evaluation of Females’ Variety Choice

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This study aims at exploring the attitudes of males toward different spoken varieties of Jordanian Arabic when utilized by females. A female speaker delivered three recorded guises in the major spoken varieties of Jordan: urban, Bedouin, and rural. A Matched Guise Test (MGT) and informal interviews were utilized. In the MGT, 402 participants, evenly representing the three spoken varieties, responded to a questionnaire containing 12 statements related to status and solidarity traits. The analysis, employing Multiple-way ANOVA and Wilcoxon nonparametric tests, revealed a consistent pattern: Participants, irrespective of their spoken variety, rated the speaker of the urban guise most favorably and the speaker of the rural guise least favorably in terms of the examined traits. Results from the interview data, based on content analysis, supported the findings from the quantitative part. The observed attitudes are discussed in terms of socio-economic factors such as education and disparities in labor force participation. Additionally, the findings of the study are discussed with reference to themes from the third wave of sociolinguistics, including indexicality, iconicity, and multiplicity of social meanings.

Source: Journal of Language Teaching and Research

DOI: 10.17507/jltr.1602.25

Authors: Abdulaziz Alzoubi, Thaer Alkadi, Hanan Hamouri, Ibrahim Darwish, Aseel Alyabroudi

Institutions: Jordan University of Science and Technology, Yarmouk University

Language: English

Topic: Linguistic Variation and Morphology

Subfield: Linguistics and Language

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Reduced inequalities, Gender equality

Open Access status: diamond

OpenAlex ID: W4408078658

FWCI: 10.85

Cites:

Cited by: 3

Related to: 10