Language Planning through Investigating Language Attitudes

This research used an integrated approach to investigate the research participants’ attitudes to standard Arabic, colloquial Arabic and English, and also to examine how the participants actually used these language varieties. In addition, the study aimed to gain an insight into the factors behind such attitudes. The integrated design of the research included a questionnaire to investigate participants’ conscious attitudes, a matched guise test to examine their subconscious attitudes, and a focus group protocol to examine the factors behind these attitudes. The research population was based on a random cluster sample of Saudi male undergraduate students at King Saud University. About 260 students took part in the questionnaire and the matched guise test and 17 participants were involved in the focus group protocol. The results of the investigation into the participants’ conscious and subconscious attitudes have implications for language planning in Saudi Arabia.