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ERIC ED367168: The Matched-Guise Technique for Measuring Attitudes and Their Implications for Language Education: A Critical Assessment.
The matched-guise technique uses recorded voices speaking first in one dialect or language, then in another. Listeners do not know that the speech samples are from the same person, but judge the two guises of the same speaker as two separate speakers. The technique has been used to investigate a variety of sociolinguistic, social-psychological, and educational issues: attitudes of foreign language learners toward target language speakers and community; linguistic bases of teacher prejudice; attitudes toward different language varieties and codes; attitudes toward the speech of nonnatives or language learners; the phenomena of convergence and divergence; and the effect of speaker and hearer variables on comprehension, recall, or evaluation. Two recent applications of the matched-guise technique in Japan investigated: (1) female Japanese high school students' attitudes toward English- or Japanese-speakers introduced as having lived in the United States or not thus introduced; and (2) native Japanese-speakers' reactions to code-switching (Japanese/English). Analysis of the technique's use suggests that some of its supposed advantages may be overstated, and that some alternatives may be as good or better. The overall soundness of the research appears to be more important than the use of this specific technique. Contains 82 references. (MSE)
