The influence of the use of English in a Dutch host job advertisement

Abstract

The exposure to English has increased in the Netherlands in the digital age, with some scholars even suggesting that we have become a bilingual society. English loan words now dominate science, certain technical domains on the web, and corporate life. Research on the perception of English language use alongside the Dutch language in different domains, much of which focuses on advertising, has found ambiguous results. This study focused on the effects of the use of English in Dutch job advertisements on respondents’ attitudes towards the text, the company and the job, as well as the estimated and actual comprehension of the English items used in the text. In a between-subjects experimental design, three manipulated versions of the same job ad were presented to a total of 43 respondents. Using a seven-point Likert scale, the applicants were asked to rate their attitudes on the different domains. Results show that there was no overall effect found of the use of English items in the Dutch job ad on attitudes towards the text, the company or the job. Results also show that the estimated comprehension of the English items presented in the text is higher than the actual comprehension of these items. According to this research, claims of the English language having a cool, trendy status or the use of English having a status-increasing effect cannot be confirmed at least for the job advertisement domain. Though the use of English seems ever increasing in Dutch society, comprehension of the language still falls behind, refuting claims of the country being a bilingual society.