Authors:

Ryan Walker

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American English speaker attitudes towards unfamiliar languages Language perception is not neutral. We are constantly indexing information about ourselves and others during conversation to make conclusions about the world. These judgments can be positive or negative and have the potential to perpetuate linguistic discrimination. Linguistic judgments made by American English speakers can have substantial, international impact on linguistic attitudes and thus the treatment of language varieties in society. In the absence of semantic understanding, what influences attitudes towards an unfamiliar language and its speakers? Do those attitudes change when we are told what language we are about to hear? Is this change greater when a language is more frequently exposed to non-speakers? This study examines these questions through a survey of American English speaker attitudes towards unfamiliar language audio stimuli in Italian or Romanian, two Romance languages with contrasting representation and speaker populations in the United States. Attitude variation depending on whether participants are informed of the language beforehand supports the hypothesis that subjective, socially- influenced ideas about language impact "objective" acoustic perception. Attitude variation between the languages supports the hypothesis that passive language exposure in society impacts perception. These findings aim to increase understanding about language attitudes and the factors which influence linguistic bias in order to combat language-based discrimination. Walker, Samara See "Le, Asiana" Are they just a racist?: Looking at the correlation of manifestations of prejudice Walton, Zach See "Bokovoy, Claire" Affordable Housing Scarcity and Impacts on Homelessness in Eugene, Oregon 316 UNIVERSITY OF OREGON • 2025 UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH SYMPOSIUM TABLE OF CONTENTS

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University of Oregon / 2025

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Co-authors:

Ryan Walker