The sociolinguistic context of language use is a primary contributor to linguistic exposure and knowledge, yet it has not been fully conceptualised or quantitatively investigated within the language sciences. There is a gap in the exploration of whether and how context facilitates linguistic gains beyond reports of language history, proficiency, and use. Most available measures within language research provide information about these variables, which are predominantly measured in isolation from one’s sociolinguistic context. That is, the contextual milieu to which the individual is exposed over a substantive period. Importantly, a factor requiring further exploration is whether an individual is exposed to a multi-linguistic or (predominantly) uni-linguistic context and how this affects their linguistic knowledge overall. Accordingly, there is a need for a psychometrically sound evidence-based measure that captures important aspects of contextual linguistic experience. We addressed this need through the development and evaluation of an online questionnaire, the Contextual and Individual Linguistic Diversity Questionnaire (CILD-Q) as part of the larger language profiling measure, the Contextual Linguistic Profile Questionnaire (CLiP-Q), in the English-speaking contexts of South Africa and the United Kingdom. The following research questions guided the study: What variables are important to include in a holistic measure of language experience that also takes context into account? How many factors make up the structure of the CLID-Q as confirmed by an exploratory factor analysis? We also assessed the internal consistency reliability across the factor analysed scales of the CILD-Q.
Analysis was conducted in R with data from 353 participants (62.9% from South Africa and 37.1% from the UK, Mage = 29.3, SD = 10.09, range = 18 to 59). Based on extraction and complexity evidence as well as theoretical considerations, a three-factor solution best described the structure of the CILD-Q. Multilingualism in Context (contextual use and societal practice of multiple languages within a community), Multilingualism in Practice (direct and indirect linguistic exchanges and conversational interaction), Linguistic Diversity Promotion (societal and governmental endorsement of linguistic variation). Item scores corresponding to these three factors showed sufficient reliability (α’s > 0.80). The CILD-Q provides a novel and holistic manner to measure sociolinguistic diversity and can be used when measuring individuals’ language experience within and across populations from differing sociolinguistic contexts. Overall, the CLiP-Q captures information about individual and contextual linguistic diversity in addition to one’s general language background and demographic information including socioeconomic status and should be used when measuring linguistic variation across populations from differing and diverse sociolinguistic contexts.