A Comparative Analysis of Children’s Identity in Multilingual Settings in Two Distinct Areas of Southern Poland
A Comparative Analysis of Children’s Identity in Multilingual Settings in Two Distinct Areas of Southern Poland

Summary/Abstract: The functioning of attitudes in multilingual settings has always evoked interest of researches(for example, Dewaele and Li, 2020). Nonetheless, there is still a gap concerning the knowledgeabout how the process is shaped in the early stages of life. The present paper is about to explorethe attitudes of primary school children towards Polish, English, and regional dialect in twodistinct areas of southern Poland. The main purpose is to investigate the following issues (i)how the status and the feeling of belonging are reflected in children’s responses, (ii) what theirapproach is in terms of learning languages (iii) to what extent social desirability influencestheir views. The study was conducted among two groups of primary school children, aged 7, 8,and 9. The data was gathered in reference to an interview with the students conducted in Polish.Children’s voices were recorded for their subsequent transcription. Findings depict how thestatus and the sense of belonging are different in each examined area, and how the emotionalattachment to dialectal tradition may be rooted in children’s minds. In addition, the outcomescleared out how children’s attitudes are being formed in multilingual environments, andwhether school has a visible influence on those attitudes.

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