Comparing Dutch and Taiwanese Consumers’ Attitudes toward Commercial Advertisements in Their Native Language and English.

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2023-04-30
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en
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The use of English in advertising in non-native English-speaking countries worldwide is seen as common in modern society (Piller, 2003). One reason that English is so widely used in advertising is that generally English is the most common lingua franca in non-native English-speaking countries, and thus is considered a global language. The use of English in advertisements is an important component of advertising language strategy (Hornikx & van Meurs, 2020). English is unlike other foreign languages in the extent of its global use in advertising. Among all countries, Taiwan and the Netherlands are two countries in which English is used in advertising (Lin & Wang, 2016a; Hornikx & van Meurs, 2020). There are likely to be differences in English proficiency and general attitudes towards English that may lead to differences in the evaluation of English in advertising in these two countries. However, there has been no comparison of consumers’ attitudes towards advertisements in their native language and English between Taiwan and the Netherlands. Therefore, this study aims to examine if Dutch and Taiwanese consumers might have different attitudes towards ads in their native language and English. This study assumes that Dutch consumers might have a more positive attitude towards advertisements with English text, and Taiwanese consumers would prefer advertisements in their native language, because of differences in the following relevant background factors that will be discussed in more detail below: 1. Language Attitude 2. English proficiency 3. Familiarity with English 4. Local-global identity
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