1897-1059 Applying the theory of planned behaviour to account for students’ choice of a target accent (part 1) Przygoński Krzysztof author Czestochowa University of Technology Correspondence to: Krzysztof Przygoński k.przygonski@wp.pl 17 06 2019 Volume 136, Issue 2 2019 169 179 Copyright © 2019 2019 <p>Bearing in mind the importance of attitude in sociolinguistic research and its huge theoretical potential for accounting for various language behaviours, it is surprising to see numerous misconceptions concerning this construct and its conceptualization as well as criticism as to its role in predicting and explaining speech behaviour (cf., for instance, Cargile, Giles 1997: 195; Edwards 1999: 109; Ladegaard 2000: 229–230; Garrett 2001: 630; Soukup 2012; Taylor, Marsden 2014). The author claims that attitude research can still prove very insightful and helpful in sociolinguistic theory building, but to do so, one needs to reconceptualize attitude along the reasoned action approach on the foundations of which the theory of planned behaviour rests. The theory posits that attitude is one of the three general predictors having a sufficient explanatory and predictive power in the case of most human behaviours. The major goal of the present article is to report on a study attempting to apply the theory of planned behaviour to explain why students of English being given an alternative to choose either an English or American accent as a target model to learn opt for one and not the other. The second goal of the article is to discuss the role of language attitudes in determining students’ decisions. Part 1 of the article includes a brief theoretical introduction as well as a detailed description of two pilot studies which served to prepare the research instrument for the main investigation.</p> 1 Ajzen I. 1988. Attitudes, personality, and behavior. Chicago. 2 Ajzen I. 2002. Constructing a theory of planned behavior questionnaire: Conceptual and methodological considerations. [http://www.people.umass.edu-/aizen/pdf/tpb.measurement.pdf]. 3 Ajzen I. 2005. Laws of human behavior: Symmetry, compatibility, and attitude-behavior correspondence. – Beauducel A., Biehl B., Bosniak M., Conrad W., Schönberger G., Wagener D. (eds.). Multivariate research strategies. Aachen: 3–19. 4 Ajzen I., Fishbein M. 2000. Attitudes and the attitude-behavior relation: Reasoned and automatic processes. – European Review of Social Psychology 11: 1–33. 5 Ajzen I., Fishbein M. 2005. The influence of attitudes on behavior. – Albarracín D., Johnson B.T., Zanna M.P. (eds.). Handbook of attitudes and attitude change: Basic principles. Mahwah: 1–123. 6 Brzeziński J. 1975. Metody badań psychologicznych w zarysie. Poznań. 7 Cargile A.C., Giles H. 1997. Understanding language attitudes: Exploring listener affect and identity. – Language and Communication 17.3: 195–217. 8 Czapiński J. 1978. Dyferencjał semantyczny. – Wołoszynowa L. (ed.). Metody badań psychologicznych. Warszawa: 257–275. 9 Edwards A.L. 1957. Techniques of attitude scale construction. New York. 10 Edwards J. 1999. Refining our understanding of language attitudes. – Journal of Language and Social Psychology 18.1: 101–110. 11 Fishbein M., Ajzen I. 1975. Belief, attitude, intention and behavior: An introduction to theory and research. Reading (Mass.). 12 Fishbein M., Ajzen I. 2010. Predicting and changing behavior: The reasoned action approach. New York. 13 Garrett P. 2001. Language attitudes and sociolinguistics. – Journal of Sociolinguistics 5.4: 626–631. 14 Ladegaard H.J. 2000. Language attitudes and sociolinguistic behavior: Exploring attitude-behavior relations in language. – Journal of Sociolinguistics 4.2: 214–233. 15 Soukup B. 2012. Current issues in the social psychological study of ‘language attitudes’: Constructionism, context, and the attitude-behavior link. – Language and Linguistics Compass 6.4: 212–224. 16 Taylor F., Marsden E.J. 2014. Perceptions, attitudes, and choosing to study foreign languages in England: An experimental intervention. – The Modern Language Journal 98.4: 902–920. 17 Zahn C.J., Hopper R. 1985. Measuring language attitudes: The speech evaluation instrument. – Journal of Language and Social Psychology 4.2: 113–123.