Spanish-speaking Immigrants in a U.S. Midwestern Community: An Exploration of Attitudes towards Spanish, Spanish in the U.S., Language Maintenance, and Bilingualism

Mara R Barbosa, Purdue University

Abstract

This study investigated Spanish-speaking immigrants’ attitudes towards Spanish, which includes the evaluative reactions that people have towards the language. One hundred participants living in three different cities in Indiana completed a background questionnaire, a language attitudes questionnaire, and a one-on-one interview about their attitudes towards Spanish. It is imperative to know about Spanish-speaking populations’ attitudes in states with lower numbers of Spanish-speaking immigrants like Indiana, because this knowledge helps to influence and make predictions about that language’s maintenance and shift in the community (Luo & Wiseman, 2000; Rivera-Mills, 2000); it guides language policy and planning and promotes language awareness (Pennycook, 2001) by demystifying the idea that some languages are superior to others (Bugel, 2009). In addition to quantitative analysis of the language attitudes questionnaire, leading to results related to four attitudes components (attitudes towards Spanish in general, Spanish in the U.S., Spanish language maintenance, and Spanish/English bilingualism), ten of the interviews were analyzed using Discourse Analysis (DA) (Martin, 2002; Gee, 2014) and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) (Wodak & Meyers, 2002; Van Dijk, 1991, 2005). This research fills major gaps in the field of language attitudes, and more broadly in the field of sociolinguistics, such as the lack of studies investigating Spanish language attitudes in the rural Midwest where the percentage of Spanish-speaking immigrants is lower than in states sharing a border with Mexico, the use of quantitative and qualitative methods as complementary approaches to the study of language attitudes, and the study of a group of language attitude components that have not been studied together before. The analysis of the quantitative data revealed positive attitudes towards the language in general as well as towards Spanish in the U.S., but not as positive of attitudes towards Spanish language maintenance and Spanish/English bilingualism. Data also indicated that education, English-proficiency, and age affect this population’s language attitudes. The qualitative analysis of the interviews confirmed positive attitudes towards the language in general as well as towards Spanish in the U.S. Attitudes towards language maintenance and attitudes towards Spanish/English bilingualism were seemingly more positive in the interviews than in the questionnaire. Attitudes towards Spanish in general in the interviews indicated to be related to the fact that participants perceived the Spanish language to be closely related to their identities, cultures and families. Most of the participants declared to believe that using the language in the U.S. is the speakers’ right, and should not offend anyone. The need to communicate and the maintenance of identity and culture were the two most cited reasons for the participants’ desire to maintain the language. Regarding bilingualism, although all analyzed interviews indicated that it is possible to be completely bilingual, participants still frequently expressed that there is no need for bilingual education in the U.S. and that bilingualism is not the school’s responsibility. Overall, this study revealed that despite showing some concerns with the suitability of the Spanish language in the U.S., as well negative ideas about keeping the language alive in the country, Spanish-speaking immigrants in Indiana hold positive attitudes towards Spanish in the four components addressed in the present study.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Czerwionka, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics

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