Matched-Guise Technique

The matched-guise technique is an indirect experimental method for measuring attitudes toward languages, dialects, and accents. Developed by Wallace Lambert and colleagues in 1960, it has the same bilingual or bidialectal speaker record the same passage in two or more language varieties ('guises'); listeners, believing they are hearing different speakers, rate each recording on personality and status traits. Because the voice, content, and delivery are held constant, any differences in the ratings can be attributed to listeners' attitudes toward the variety itself.