Digital Language Contact between Icelandic and English

Abstract

The research project Modeling the Linguistic Consequences of Digital Language Contact (Ice. Greining á málfræðilegum afleiðingum stafræns málsambýlis) aims to investigate and model the linguistic consequences of digital language contact, using the rise of English in the Icelandic language community as a test case. This is a three-year project (2016- 2019) financed by a Grant of Excellence from the Icelandic Research Fund awarded to Sigríður Sigurjónsdóttir and Eiríkur Rögnvaldsson, professors at the University of Iceland. A number of other Icelandic and international researchers also participate in the project, in addition to three doctoral students and a number of graduate and undergraduate students. The first half of this paper is a description of the goals and methodology of the project, whereas the second half presents the first results from an online survey of four age groups of 3?12-year-old children, where the focus is on their digital, productive, and receptive English usage.

The main empirical goal of the project is to construct a nationwide profile of the distribution and nature of English and Icelandic input in the Icelandic language community in the digital age and the differences in linguistic knowledge that arise as a result of such novel types of intense encounters with English. The main theoretical goal is to integrate sociological factors and bilingualism into the evolving field of models which derive the linguistic knowledge of speakers from the quantified distribution of input in acquisition, as well as from hypothesized constraints on possible languages. In particular, our work will extend Yang’s (2002) Variational Model of Language Acquisition. Furthermore, we aim to develop an index of language vitality designed for measuring effects of digital language contact.

The implementation of the project includes an online survey sent to a stratified random sample of 5,000 speakers aged 3-98. The purpose is to obtain information on the amount and nature of input the speakers receive in English and Icelandic, as well as on their digital usage. Sociolinguistic variables, such as speakers’ language attitudes and self-evaluation of their skills in the respective languages, are also assessed. The data collection for this phase of the project is now complete with a response rate of around 41% for participants 13 years and older and around 50% for 3-12-year-old children. We have already begun processing and interpreting the data.

The second step consists of in-depth interviews and further testing sessions with a group comprising 400 speakers selected from among the participants in the online survey according to certain criteria. Each participant 10 years or older is interviewed twice, for two hours each time, whereas 3-9-year-old participants are interviewed three times, for one hour each time. The interviews are being assessed in a careful and precise manner to obtain more fine-grained information on the variables tested in the online survey. These in-depth interviews are now well underway.

The third step of data collection will consist in enlisting the participation of a large proportion of the population (up to 10%) in an online survey by using crowdsourcing methods focused on social media. This will be a less controlled methodological experiment which, nevertheless, will allow us to test the predictive power of our model. Finally, we are also conducting focus groups and interviews with experienced teachers to collect information on special aspects of language usage among children and adolescents.

The project results presented in this paper derive from the online survey, where the focus is on the digital, productive, and receptive English usage of the 3-12-year-old participants. The children were divided into four age groups: 3-5, 6-7, 8-9, and 10- 12 years old. Our results show that even in the youngest age group, digital usage (smartphone/tablet and Internet usage) is considerable, and the starting age of such usage seems to be getting lower and lower. In the youngest age group (3-5-year-old children), 58% of the participants who have access to smartphones or tablets (80% of this age group) started using them at the age of two or younger, and 8% were less than a year old. The results also show that children in all age groups receive a considerable input of spoken English, and their attitudes towards English appear to be very positive. Finally, our results, when compared to earlier studies, indicate that productive English usage among the youngest children is increasing.