Beebe and Giles 1984

Beebe, L. M., and H. Giles. 1984. "Speech accommodation theories: A discussion in terms of second-language acquisition." International Journal of the Sociology of Language. Interest level: academic.

• Explains and compares different theories and approaches to research of sociolinguists and social psychologists.
• Speech Accommodation Theory (SAT) explains motivations underlying shifts in people's speech styles during social encounters, and some of the social consequences arising from them.
• Ethnolinguistic Identity Theory (ELIT) refines SAT's propositions in an interethnic context, and has pragmatic implications for bilingual education.
• Intergroup Theory (IT) of SLA (second language acquisition). The social psychologists approach research as psychologists, and the SLA researchers, as applied linguists interested in linguistic outcomes. The intergroup theorists study an individual's language development over time, and compare a subordinate and dominant group.
• Looks at language as an independent variable complementing social-psychological factors, from the viewpoint of social psychologists.

There is a positive transfer where there is less structural and pragmatic difference between L1 and L2. There is a negative transfer, or interference with L2 learning, where there is greater structural and pragmatic difference between L1 and L2.

• Bibliography module: Beebe and Giles 1984
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): B
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 May 1999

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