A Study of the Responses to the "Language Inquiry". Interim Report

To measure attitudes toward language and language habits, a "Language Inquiry" of 100 items covering several language areas was developed, incorporating the judgments of 10 linguists. The "Inquiry" was sent to three groups: 597 college students in Illinois, predominately English majors; 202 public school teachers working with student teachers from Illinois colleges and universities; and, in a follow-up study, 83 recently graduated English majors. Conclusions were that (1) college students' responses differed most from those of linguists, and high school teachers differed least; (2) the responses by recent graduates in the follow-up study differed little from their earlier responses; (3) no pattern between responses and number of courses in English language study was established for any of the three groups; (4) the groups tended to follow more traditional rules than did linguists; (5) many respondents seemed unaware of the range of possible answers. (The "Language Inquiry," six survey documents, and 22 tables of data are included.) See also TE 001 641 for a related report. (LH)