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Article published In:
Spanish in Context
Vol. 14:1 (2017) ► pp.99–123

The relationship between language proficiency and language attitudes

Evidence from young Spanish-English bilinguals

| University of Central Arkansas

To determine how attitudes toward the minority language change with age, sixty-five Spanish/English bilingual children completed an attitude questionnaire. Results show that first graders have roughly equal attitudes to Spanish and English, while second, third, and fourth graders increasingly state a preference for English. However, among fifth graders, a decrease in this preference for English is found. Results from a matched guise task show that the Spanish and English versions are not rated significantly differently, suggesting that, while children prefer speaking English, they may not project negative attitudes onto Spanish-speakers themselves. Finally, a shift in language preference is found before a shift in language dominance, which may suggest that negative attitudes toward the heritage language lead to a dominance shift.

Keywords: Heritage Spanish, language attitudes, language maintenance
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Previous research
    • 2.1Effects of learner attitudes on second-language (L2) acquisition
    • 2.2Effects of attitudes on family language transmission
    • 2.3The importance of child attitudes in minority language transmission
    • 2.4Objectives and research questions
  • 3.The study
    • 3.1Participants
    • 3.2Tasks
    • 3.3Results
      • 3.3.1Attitude attribution measure
      • 3.3.2Matched guise task
  • 4.Discussion and conclusion
  • Notes
  • References


This article is currently available as a sample article.

Published online: 4 May 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sic.14.1.05mil
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