Matched-guise Test

The Matched-Guise Test is a sociolinguistic experiment technique employed by a method and its most related research in two or more guises, which has been lately known as matched-guise or matched-guise model. This experiment was first introduced by Lambert in 1960s to determine attitudes held by bilingual French Canadians toward the languages in contact (Davies & Elder 2004:189).

As there are varieties of applications and explanations as to its findings, the aim of the matched guise model and its intended purposes has not only been in most part subtle but also having its contradictions as to an approach to understanding a sociolinguistic phenomena or related phenomenon. In general, this method involves experimental candidates listening to apparently different speakers representing guises in two or more languages and evaluating those speakers for impressions or of their personality characteristics. So without the knowledge of the informant (the listener of guises), the speaker is actually a bilingual or polyglot and the reactions elicited by each of his/her linguistic guises are compared not as individual’s guises but as actual speech of an individual.

Since the initial aim of these studies range from the influence of linguistic attitudes on educational and political systems to their influence on workplace environments, Lambert’s technique has proven successful in identifying and eliciting certain stereotypes toward particular social groups. The matched-guise technique has been widely used in bicultural settings such as in Quebec, as well as in cross-cultural studies and multi-ethnic societies, and it has been employed not only as an instrument in comparing attitudes toward languages, but also toward variations in dialects and accents. And depending on particular listener, a speaker’s accent, speech patterns, vocabulary, intonation, etc., can all serve as markers for evaluating speaker’s appearance, personality, social status, and character. Among other things, listeners also possess language attitudes, which they use to evaluate the speakers whom they are hearing.