Perspectives on multilingualism in Norway and Poland: attitudes, beliefs, and influencing factors

Although research shows benefits of multilingualism, negative beliefs are present in Western societies. This study explores beliefs and attitudes towards multilingualism among majority and minority language speakers in two European countries: the more multilingual Norway and the more monolingual Poland. We hypothesised more positivity in Norway than in Poland, and furthermore that minority language speakers would be more positive than majority language speakers and that experience with more languages would lead to more positive attitudes and beliefs, in the number of languages known and cumulative language proficiency (taking knowledge about each language into account). 144 participants in Norway and 111 participants in Poland filled in an online questionnaire with two parts: demographic questions and 15 statements about multilingualism (7 about attitudes and 8 about beliefs). Analyses revealed stronger positive attitudes in Norway than in Poland, and, within Norway, more positive attitudes among L2 speakers of Norwegian. Attitudes were more positive the more languages known and the higher the cumulative language proficiency. For beliefs, there was only one significant finding: They were more positive the higher the cumulative proficiency. These findings are in line with previous research, and the consistently stronger findings within attitudes compared to beliefs could indicate ongoing change.