Dutch Journal of Applied Linguistics - Volume 4, Issue 1, 2015

One of the linguistic consequences of globalization is the increase in the number of people communicating with each other in a language that is not their own. Studies have started to examine how non-nativeness affects people in their production and evaluation of discourse. This special interest section brings together a collection of empirical papers in a particular domain of non-nativeness in communication, that is, the use and effects of foreign languages in job and product advertisements. These papers investigate how the use of foreign languages is appreciated by non-native users, what determines the occurrence of foreign languages, how recall of foreign languages compares to the recall of L1 advertising, and whether foreign languages attract the readers’ curiosity. Together, these papers demonstrate the growing academic interest in non-nativeness in communication.

This paper presents a multifactorial quantitative corpus-based analysis of the distribution of English-only ads in the Low Countries. The dataset consists of approximately one thousand job ads, published in Vacature (a Belgian Dutch job ad magazine) and Intermediair (a Netherlandic Dutch job ad magazine) in 2007 and 2008. About one in seven ads are written entirely in English. Using logistic regression analysis, we find that the occurrence of English-only advertising is mainly linked to occupational contexts where English plays a practical role: the phenomenon is typical for companies with headquarters located outside of the Low Countries (specifically US/UK-based companies), for companies with English-oriented corporate communication and for companies that are recruiting for IT and technical staff. Finally, more English-only ads are published in Flanders than in The Netherlands.

It has been suggested that differences in mental processing affect the persuasiveness of language use. Within the Elaboration Likelihood Model framework, we examined if there were differences in the persuasiveness of English versus Dutch words in job ads depending on the way the job ads were processed, either by the central or the peripheral route. In an experiment, 144 participants evaluated ads for lower level jobs. Persuasiveness was measured in terms of text, job, and company evaluation, and application intention. There were no differences in persuasiveness for job ads containing English words depending on whether they were processed via the peripheral or the central route. However, under peripheral processing the jobs in the ads with English words were seen as being more attractive and as having a lower salary than the jobs in the all-Dutch ads, providing some limited evidence that English words may function as peripheral cues.

Foreign languages are commonly used in advertising, because it is generally thought that they attract consumers’ attention. Compared to English, Italian is only rarely chosen by European advertisers. Precisely because of their low frequency, Italian words have a higher chance to capture and hold the consumers’ attention. Although foreign languages are widespread in advertising, the effectiveness of their use has not been studied extensively. In our study on print advertisements we compare the effectiveness of a foreign language slogan (Italian) relative to a slogan in the local language (Dutch). More specifically, we focus on the effects of foreign language usage on cognitive, affective and conative consumer responses. Cognitive responses include spontaneous and prompted recall of the slogan and the brand name. Affective responses pertain to the attitude towards the slogan, the brand and the advertisement. Conative response was defined in terms of purchase intention. Our sample consisted of 236 subjects of different age and educational level from the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. These participants had little or no knowledge of the Italian language. The experiment had a between-subjects design. Participants either saw the Italian or the Dutch version of the advertisement. In order to optimize the effectiveness of the use of the foreign language, we ensured a match between foreign language, country of origin, and the advertised product. Therefore, we created an advertisement for Italian wines with visual elements (a picture and a drawing) evoking Italy. Additionally, we chose easy Italian words, as previous research has shown that slogans with easy foreign words are more appreciated than difficult slogans. The results of our study show that the Dutch slogan was more effective for the spontaneous and prompted recall of the brand name. The language of the slogan had no effect on participants’ attitudes towards the brand, the slogan and the advertisement. By contrast, the Italian slogan had a positive effect on participants’ purchase intentions. The article ends with some concluding remarks and suggestions for future research.

In commercial messages, such as advertisements, foreign languages are sometimes displayed. Regardless of whether readers understand the foreign language utterance, researchers have claimed that such foreign language display evokes curiosity to read the ad, and improves ad and product evaluation. Whereas empirical research has established the impact of foreign language display on evaluation, no studies have been conducted on its curiosity-evoking capacity. In this research note, the importance of this capacity is highlighted, and a first study is presented that tested this capacity. The results did not find support for the curiosity-evoking capacity of foreign language display.

This paper reports a study that investigates and compares the effects of foreign language proficiency, social status of a learner’s family, self-esteem, and competitiveness on FL anxiety. Chinese university students (N = 146), who were learning Japanese and English, participated in this study. Social status data were collected once with the Social Status Scale. Other variables were measured twice over a two-month interval, using the Competitiveness Index, the Self-esteem Scale, the English/Japanese Classroom Anxiety Scale, and the English/Japanese Proficiency Scale. Results showed that foreign language proficiency, competitiveness, and self-esteem all significantly predicted foreign language anxiety levels. Foreign language proficiency was the best predictor, followed by self-esteem, then competitiveness. A negative relationship was revealed between these predictor variables and foreign language anxiety. Social status was not related to foreign language anxiety, either directly or indirectly.

For professionals such as doctors, teachers, or different kinds of counsellors, talking with their clients is a major part of their profession. Professionals and clients give and ask information until they reach a state of mutual knowledge or understanding. This paper argues that for this talk they use a tool, the machinery of social interaction, with characteristics that influence the outcomes of their talk. One characteristic is the normative organization of interaction through which the contribution of one participant puts restrictions on the range of possible follow-up contributions of another participant. This may cause client behavior that does not align with the institutional aims of the professional. A second trait is that interactants have no access to each other’s cognitions such as intentions, interpretations, knowing, and understanding. Professionals should thus be aware that what clients say has a relatively loose relation with what they know and understand.

Because quotation is a fundamental aspect of academic texts, this corpus study examines the language of quoting in (L2) academic writing. To find out whether there are subtle linguistic differences in the use of quotation by learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) and professional academics who are native speakers of English (NSE), I compare two corpora of scholarly writings: one by upper intermediate and advanced EFL students and one by NSE experts. 1201 Quotes were extracted from the writings and examined for a broad range of lexico-grammatical features relevant to using quotes, including introductions to quotes, lexical items in introducing quotes, ‘special’ quotes, and punctuation surrounding quotes. The findings make clear that EFL students and NSE experts differ significantly on various points in their language of quoting. Making students aware of these differences could make their academic writing more professional, native-like, and sophisticated.

In this study, some extralinguistic factors were examined which might influence the language acquisition process in Italian and other immigrant preschool children acquiring German as their second or third language. The following methods of the language assessment were utilized: (a) a modified, validated version of language test Marburger Sprachscreening and (b) a classification of children as needing or not needing additional educational support in learning German. Italians scored significantly higher on vocabulary and grammar than other immigrant children. This can be attributed to the fact that Italians attended German nursery schools and played with German children after the daycare center time significantly more often than other immigrants. Immigrant groups with the most advanced German skills were English speaking children and Greeks. Linguistically weakest groups were Turks and Arabs. For these groups, dependence of the language acquisition process on extralinguistic factors was also shown.