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This book deals with early multilingual acquisition from a holistic, dynamic, and multilingual perspective. It focuses on the analysis of pragmatic awareness and language attitudes of consecutive multilingual children in relation to other variables, such as the linguistic model or the age factor. This volume makes an important contribution to the field, providing evidence for the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism proposed by Herdina and Jessner.

This study measures languages attitudes of 82 college students in Shanghai and Guangzhou, where language planning has promoted Putonghua (PTH) over local varieties since 1956. Since the 1980s, industrialization, commercialization, and greater demographic mobility have changed what used to be homogeneous local variety speech communities, resulting in greater demand for PTH in cross-variety communication. Do language attitudes change with greater demand for PTH? A direct measurement shows that the Shanghainese and Cantonese are largely similar in language use but differ in language attitudes: instrumental motivation and impressions of stereotyped PTH speakers correlate differently with language use for these groups. An indirect measurement indicates that, because of low social distance, the Shanghainese and Cantonese as whole groups preferred neither PTH nor their respective local varieties, though the Shanghainese females significantly upgraded PTH on both social status and group solidarity, while the Shanghainese males upgraded Shanghainese. These findings do not conform well to the textbook-case dichotomy found in early studies between high and low varieties on the dimensions of social status and solidarity. The nonconforming language attitudes may represent attitude changes amid emerging patterns of language use in these two Pacific cities.

English used by native English speakers was being followed as a standard token of usage for non-native English speakers for a longer time. However, with the spread of knowledge and technology, the English language across the world has provoked a much-heated debate about these norms whether they should be followed by the non-native English speaker or not. The present paper explores the response of Pakistani undergraduate university students about the effectiveness of the non-native English model of communication by using Kachru's monocentric model which refutes the standard model of English language to focus more on conventional norms together with native politico-cultural needs. For this purpose, this study used a close-ended questionnaire that asked the non-native English speakers responses to the audio of three different English speeches Different varieties of spoken English existing across the Pakistani society point towards the strong influence of culture over language. This research concludes that the English language has now got the status of pluricentricity based on micro-level variation, so it is impossible to rely on a single communication model for language users considering their diversity.

Pahari language spoken in Murree and its suburbs is in contact with Urdu, the national language of Pakistan. It is also in contact with Punjabi and English. The present study explores the views and attitudes of the Pahari speaking community regarding the Pahari identity and culture vis-à-vis languages like Pahari, Punjabi, Urdu, and English. The study is ethnographic and is based on detailed observation and in-depth interviews of a sample of 91 people belonging to three generations. The study concludes that Pahari speaking community especially the Abbasi tribe, on the whole, claims to protect their culture and identity but gradually each new generation is hesitant in continuing Pahari as the symbol of their identity. As a result, language is, to a great extent, shifting towards Urdu. On a minor level, its shift to English and Punjabi cannot be ignored. The paper also explores certain reasons latent behind this kind of attitude.

This study explores changes in attitudes towards Catalan, Spanish, and English over a two-year period, on the part of secondary education students of immigrant origin residing in Catalonia. It aims to provide new data by adopting a longitudinal design and by focusing on the immigrant population, which has raised new challenges for the Catalan society and education system. Data was collected from 72 secondary education students who answered a language attitudes questionnaire twice, at a twoyear interval. The instrument chosen has been successfully used in the area previously (Huguet, Janés, and Chireac 2008; Madariaga, Huguet, and Lapresta 2013). Findings showed that attitudes towards Catalan improved, while attitudes towards Spanish and English remained stable, based on which we discuss the strength of language attitudes in this particular context. Furthermore, the socio-demographic and affective variables traditionally investigated as determinants of language attitudes were not found to influence the processes of attitude change ; This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant number EDU2014-54093-R] and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants – AGAUR of the Government of Catalonia [grant number 2014 SGR 208].

In a context of increasing linguistic diversity and political uncertainty in Catalonia, this article reports on a research project which set out to explore the attitudes of members of six pro-independence sociopolitical organizations operating in the city of Girona toward Catalan and Spanish. On the basis of six focus groups and ten narrative interviews, this article analyses the respondents' language attitudes using Ruiz's framework of language-as-a-problem and language-as-a-resource. Four themes emerge in the informants' discussion of Catalan and Spanish: 'Marker of Difference', '(Potential) Social Cohesion', 'Imposition' and 'Multilingualism as-a-resource'. The comments of the respondents indicate that Catalan and Spanish continue to be mobilized in diverse and varied combinations for a wide range of purposes in Catalonia.

This book deals with early multilingual acquisition from a holistic, dynamic, and multilingual perspective. It focuses on the analysis of pragmatic awareness and language attitudes of consecutive multilingual children in relation to other variables, such as the linguistic model or the age factor. This volume makes an important contribution to the field, providing evidence for the Dynamic Model of Multilingualism proposed by Herdina and Jessner

There is a theoretical and empirical tradition demonstrating the influence of the place of birth and self-identification in the shaping of language attitudes. But very few works analyse their joint effects. The main aim of this study is to analyse both the disaggregated and joint impact of these variables on the shaping of attitudes towards Catalan and Spanish languages in Catalonia. The sample consists of 309 adolescents (aged 14-16 years) coming from Ecuador, the rest of Latin America and Morocco. Both variables have an influence on attitudes towards Catalan separately, but when analysed jointly in the same explanatory model, self-identification outweighs place of birth. This is more evident among young people who develop the most and the least favourable attitudes. Furthermore, attitudes towards Spanish are only influenced by the place of birth, and by none of the variables in the case of those with the most and least favourable attitudes. These results open new lines for research and reflection on the process of construction of language attitudes and their role in a successful process of integration. ; This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant number EDU2014-54093-R]; the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants – AGAUR of the Government of Catalonia [grant number 2014 SGR 208]

Is public trust in government representatives (i.e., bureaucrats, police, public servants) affected by the language they use? The conventional theory holds that, in a multilingual society, people favor government representatives who speak the listeners' dialects because it indicates a shared cultural identity, that is, the "culture‐marker" effect. This article offers an alternative mechanism in which people's attitudes can be affected by the government designating the official language as a marker of political authority. Listeners will then project their respect for the political authority to the government representatives who speak this marker language. This mechanism is named an "authority marker" effect. Using a set of adjusted matched‐guise experiments in China, this study examines the culture‐marker and authority‐marker effects. The results support the authority‐marker effect by showing that listeners have significantly more trust in the bureaucrats who speak the official language than in those who speak the dialects of the listeners. The study also finds that this is a unique effect for speakers when they represent the government. Without that political identity, listeners will still respond more positively to speakers of their own dialects.

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