Différent ou non?' Bidialectal French speakers' perception of gradient acoustic differences and language attitudes

When people move from their homeland to a new country,
they are often exposed to languages and language
varieties. We know very little about the extent to which
exposure to a new dialect impacts an individual's native
dialect. In my proposed study, I will use experimental
methods to test whether the perceptual abilities of native
French speakers who have moved from one francophone
country to another (e.g. from Quebec, Canada to Paris,
France) change with regard to their native dialect after
continued exposure to a new French dialect. I will also
explore whether prolonged exposure to a different dialect
results in individuals showing more perceptual sensitivity
to differences in the sound system of their new dialect.
Additionally, given the particularly strong ideologies of
linguistic homogeneity in French, I am interested in
exploring whether the language attitudes of my French
speaking participants will influence how they perceive
dialectal differences in French. I will do so by using
innovative experimental and survey methods. My study is
important in a world in which migration and exposure to
new languages is constantly increasing, as it asks
questions related to both our ability to acquire new
language varieties, and how our attitudes towards the
people and countries in which new varieties are spoken
influences how we acquire these varieties.