Can language attitudes be improved? A longitudinal study of immigrant students in Catalonia (Spain)

This study explores changes in attitudes towards Catalan, Spanish, and English over a two-year period, on the part of secondary education students of immigrant origin residing in Catalonia. It aims to provide new data by adopting a longitudinal design and by focusing on the immigrant population, whi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ianos, Maria Adelina, Huguet, Àngel, Janés i Carulla, Judit, Lapresta Rey, Cecilio
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión enviada para evaluación y publicación
Fecha de publicación:2015
País:España
Institución:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:10459.1/60224
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2015.1051508
http://hdl.handle.net/10459.1/60224
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Language attitudes
Attitude change
Immigration
Multilingualism
Catalonia (Spain)
Descripción
Sumario:This study explores changes in attitudes towards Catalan, Spanish, and English over a two-year period, on the part of secondary education students of immigrant origin residing in Catalonia. It aims to provide new data by adopting a longitudinal design and by focusing on the immigrant population, which has raised new challenges for the Catalan society and education system. Data was collected from 72 secondary education students who answered a language attitudes questionnaire twice, at a twoyear interval. The instrument chosen has been successfully used in the area previously (Huguet, Janés, and Chireac 2008; Madariaga, Huguet, and Lapresta 2013). Findings showed that attitudes towards Catalan improved, while attitudes towards Spanish and English remained stable, based on which we discuss the strength of language attitudes in this particular context. Furthermore, the socio-demographic and affective variables traditionally investigated as determinants of language attitudes were not found to influence the processes of attitude change