Attitudes towards disputable usages among Australian teachers and students

Abstract

Abstract Some previous studies (eg Watson, 1978; Collins, 1979) have found that while Australian teachers are sensitive to traditional prescriptions such as the use of whom rather than who in object function, and between you and me rather than between you and I, Australian students accept language variation more readily. This paper aims to examine whether Australian teachers nowadays still display more conservative attitudes towards disputable usages than their students. Data were collected via several elicitation tests. In the first survey, 34 Australian English teachers and 54 Australian high school students were invited to participate in a judgement test. In the second survey, 73 Australian teachers and 207 Australian students were presented with a slot-filling test and a proofreading test. The findings showed considerable differences between teachers and students towards disputable usages. Australian teachers had a higher tendency to reject and replace items such as different than, these sort and dangling participles. This suggests that tolerance diminishes with involvement in teaching.

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