Attitudes in Fiji towards varieties of English

In Schneider's (2007) influential model, the emergence of positive attitudes towards the local, post-colonial variety is an important step for the evolution of new Englishes, not least of all because it is likely to mark a shift from an external towards an internal norm. This paper explores attitudes towards varieties of English among a group of young Fiji citizens in tertiary education. The results indicate that British English is still a strong reference variety, while American English is clearly favoured over more local Pacific varieties, like Australian and New Zealand English. A closer analysis of the survey data indicates that a simple dichotomy of exo- vs. endonormative orientation may be difficult to maintain in this context.