SOCIAL-INFLUENCE AND LANGUAGE-LEARNING - AN EXPERIMENTAL-STUDY

Videotaped discussions (among in-group or out-group members) promoting integrative or instrumental benefits of learning European or Asian la nguages were presented randomly to participants who subsequently rated several Asian and European languages. Responses from 176 English scho olchildren (males and females, 13 years old) on measures of self-repor ted contact, identification, perceived status and demographic vitality , desire to lean, and integrative and instrumental value of languages were analyzed. As expected, perceptions were consistently more positiv e about European (especially when promoted by in-group) than Asian lan guages (especially when promoted by oct-group). Promotion. of instrume ntal benefits of European languages accentuated these differences, whe reas in-group promotion of Asian languages attenuated existing differe nces. Self-categorisation and social identification processes are disc ussed to explain the findings.