Computer Simulation and New Ways of Creating Matched-Guise Techniques

Abstract

Matched-guise experiments have passed their 40th year as a powerful attitudinal research tool, and they are becoming more relevant and useful as technology is applied to language research. Combining the specificity of conversation analysis with the generalizability of social psychology research, technological innovations allow the measurement of attitudes in more realistic situations and allowed multiple language varieties to be studied with comparable stimuli. Innovations such as computer animation and voice-dubbing enable matched-guise experiments to be more efficient and to answer more complex research questions. Researchers have already taken this technique from its home in social psychology and applied it to variationist sociolinguistics, education, business, and medicine. This article describes two innovations that could further expand the use of matched-guise techniques, and presents a guide to the technique and relevance of the matched-guise experiment.

Keywords:

• bilingual education
• matched guise
• code-switching
• language attitudes
• second language acquisition