Multilingualism and English: how does L1 affect language attitudes at a trilingual university?

Abstract

This study investigates attitudes towards multilingualism and the role of English at the trilingual Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in South Tyrol, Italy. South Tyrol is unusual in that the local minority language, German, holds significant international prestige. This study thus contributes to the literature by filling a gap in studies examining multilingual contexts where the minority language is an important international language beyond the local setting. The research investigates results of a questionnaire yielding 1538 responses administered to students, academic staff and administrative staff, considering in particular how respondents’ L1 influences their responses. The analysis reveals widespread support for English and multilingualism at unibz, consistent with the institution’s longstanding multilingual policy. However, significant differences in support for English are observed across language groups, particularly among speakers of local minority languages, who exhibit comparatively lower levels of support, highlighting a nuanced relationship between language identity and perceptions of language policy. The exception was for responses to questionnaire items addressing multilingualism holistically, which did not vary in a statistically significant way according to the first language. This study contributes to the understanding of language attitudes in multilingual contexts, considering both attitudes to an individual language and to multilingual policies as a whole.

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