Values, language and inter?cultural differentiation: The Welsh?English context

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Abstract
People's values reflect their self‐images and group memberships, and cross‐cultural differences in values may mirror the social structures of societies thus compared. This investigation examined the values of three groups of British adolescents by means of the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS), viz., bilingual Welsh, English‐only‐speaking Welsh, and English‐only‐speaking English. Since, the issue of language can accentuate the cultural conflict between the English and Welsh, language of testing may be an important factor in assessing bilinguals’ values. In addition, bilinguals also completed a second RVS as they imagined an English adolescent would, thereby allowing a comparison of actual and perceived differences in values. Multi‐ and univariate statistical analyses were performed on the data with the main factors of sex, group and language of testing (where appropriate). Results showed few differences between the actual values held by the three groups or for language of testing them. Nevertheless, significant discrepancies between the bilinguals’ perceptions of their own values and those of their imagined English counterparts emerged. In this instance, the quantity and quality of this differentiation were dependent on the language of testing (Welsh versus English). The implications of these results were discussed within the context of a recent model of the functions of social stereotypes.

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