Investigating acknowledgment, attitudes, and actions (3A) towards language endangerment and maintenance efforts : a case of Hong Kong Cantonese

Abstract

This study investigates the Acknowledgement-Attitude-Action (3A) profile of Hong Kong Cantonese speakers towards perceived Cantonese endangerment. It aims to address the problem that traditional assessments of language endangerment have mainly focused on external measurements, but placed little emphasis on the speakers themselves. An online questionnaire designed according to the 3A model was used for data collection. A total of 1,202 responses were collected. The result shows that the endangerment of Cantonese is widely acknowledged. The vast majority of respondents are deeply concerned about the survival of Cantonese and hold supportive attitude towards maintenance efforts. However, respondents have relatively little confidence on the effectiveness of civil and their own maintenance efforts. About half of them reported not having taken any action in the past to help maintain Cantonese. Responses from open-ended sections suggest that the issue of Cantonese endangerment is closely linked to social identity.

Regressions were carried out to investigate the relationship among acknowledgement, attitudes, and maintenance actions. ‘Attitude’ factors in the 3A model, which were specific to the language endangerment context, were found to be better predictors of language maintenance behaviours compared to general language attitude measures. Within ‘Attitude’, perceived self-ability to maintain Cantonese was the most determining factor in predicting previous actions and the degree of willingness to act. The findings have shown that subjective attitude factors can reliably predict whether a person would engage in language maintenance actions. Therefore, when assessing the status of a threatened or endangered language, the focus should not only fall on external parameters, but also on speakers’ acknowledgement and attitudes.