Giles & Watson's edited volume collects nine chapters on language attitudes around the globe and describes a wide range of linguistic situations. Ch. 1 by Marko Dragojevic, Howard Giles, & Bernadette Watson sets the theoretical scene by discussing nationalist ideology, nativeness as an ideology, and standard language ideology. Ch. 2 by Agata Gluszek & Karolina Hansen overviews the language situation in the Americas and discusses the similar institutionalized discrimination trends in education, employment, and the media in different countries, as well as possible future developments. Tamara Rakić & Melanie C. Steffens (Ch. 3) examine attitudes towards foreign and regional accents and several minority languages in Western Europe through the lens of social identity theory. Tore Kristiansen's Ch. 4 applies the three language ideologies to the Nordic countries. Interestingly, the ideologies are found to have quite different reflections in studies of direct and indirect questioning, highlighting the importance of conscious/subconscious distinction in language-attitudes research.
Eirlys E. Davies & Abdelali Bentahila, in Ch. 5, overview studies eliciting people's overt and covert attitudes towards Modern Standard Arabic, Colloquial Arabic varieties, Amazigh, French, and Arabic-French code-switching. Ch. 6, by Desmond Painter & John Dixon, covers southern Africa, with a closer look at South Africa. They discuss language attitudes towards Afrikaans, indigenous African languages, English, and different English accents, and call for a more dynamic view of language attitudes. Anping He & Sik Hung Ng (Ch. 7) concentrate on the attitudes towards the English language of the Chinese government, teachers, students, and the general public. The government policy sets instrumental and humanistic English as a foreign language (EFL) goals. It is shown, however, that many teachers find it difficult to embrace the second goal. The relationship between learners' motivation and EFL learning is discussed. The general public's attitude towards English is addressed in connection to different English varieties, English-Chinese code-switching, and the impact of hosting of international events on foreign-language attitudes.
Ch. 8, by Itesh Sachdev & Tej Bhatia, discusses language attitudes in South Asia and concentrates on the linguistic situation in India. First, they provide a historical overview of how Sanskrit, Persian, and, finally, English have had a significant impact on the linguistic landscape of the region. They make an interesting comparison of the status of Punjabi in Amritsar, Delhi, Pakistan, Canada, and the UK. The authors also discuss multilingualism in India and the role of English in the region. Ch. 9, by Ann Weatherall, addresses language attitudes towards indigenous languages and English varieties in New Zealand and Australia. Though both are former British colonies, they exhibit quite different policies with regard to Te Reo Māori and the Australian aboriginal languages.
The epilogue by Cindy Gallois discusses several questions raised in the book and highlights the advantages and limitations of language attitudes research in linguistics and social psychology. This book is a unique collection of contributions that brings together language attitudes research from all over the world and maps out directions for further theorizing and research.
