The Influence of the Language Choice of a Native Dutch Person When Responding to a Non-native Dutch Speaker on Perception of Politeness, Likeability, and Conversational Success.

Abstract

In a bilingual situation, the choice of language (code choice) is sometimes uncertain. Nevertheless, this choice can entail certain social consequences, especially in a situation where one of the speakers intends to learn a new language. The motivation behind a code choice, and its interpretation is ambiguous, due to the different perspectives from which these can be considered. A speaker’s intention when opting for a language can be perceived differently by their interlocutor, resulting in miscommunications or negative perceptions of the speaker. Therefore, to gain more insight in speaker’s motivations for and interpretations of certain language choices, in this investigation, the code choice (Dutch or English) of a native Dutch person when responding to a non-native Dutch speaker was assessed from the view of native Dutch people. The dependent variables in the investigation were the conversational success and the native speaker’s perceived likeability and politeness.