Attitude Update: Spanish on the South Texas Border

Abstract

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How Do I Satisfy the General Education Language Requirement? University Students' Attitudes Toward Language Study

“…Mejías and Anderson (1988) and Mejías et al (2003) surveyed the attitudes of heritage Spanish speakers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas toward the study and maintenance of Spanish. Mejías and Anderson (1988) and Mejías et al (2003) surveyed the attitudes of heritage Spanish speakers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas toward the study and maintenance of Spanish.…”

“…Because Spanish in the United States is of special interest in the present study, a summary of some of the previous literature regarding attitudes toward the study of Spanish is warranted. Mejías and Anderson (1988) and Mejías et al (2003) surveyed the attitudes of heritage Spanish speakers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas toward the study and maintenance of Spanish. Administering the survey in two different years, the investigators found consistent positive attitudes toward Spanish for communication reasons.…”

“…Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) summarized the controversy regarding attitude measurement and offered a description of the concept: ''Most investigators would probably agree that attitude can be described as a learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object' ' (p. 6). Cooper and Fishman (1977), Gardner (1985), Hofman (1977), Lambert and Gardner (1972), Masgoret and Gardner (2003), Mejías and Anderson (1988), and Mejías, Anderson Mejías, and Carlson (2003) and many other investigators listed below in the literature review have developed methodologies for evaluating the role attitudes play in language learning or maintenance. Cooper and Fishman (1977), Gardner (1985), Hofman (1977), Lambert and Gardner (1972), Masgoret and Gardner (2003), Mejías and Anderson (1988), and Mejías, Anderson Mejías, and Carlson (2003) and many other investigators listed below in the literature review have developed methodologies for evaluating the role attitudes play in language learning or maintenance.…”

“…In spite of the difficulties in measuring attitudes, investigators have found relationships between attitudes and another unconscious type of behavior: language. Cooper and Fishman (1977), Gardner (1985), Hofman (1977), Lambert and Gardner (1972), Masgoret and Gardner (2003), Mejías and Anderson (1988), and Mejías, Anderson Mejías, and Carlson (2003) and many other investigators listed below in the literature review have developed methodologies for evaluating the role attitudes play in language learning or maintenance. While all these studies posed different research questions, all concluded that attitudes toward language have influenced a variety of outcomes such as achievement of proficiency in a second language (L2), the continued study and use of the colonial master' s language in a newly independent nation, the use of a nonnative foreign language for means of wider communication, and the survival of a heritage language by immigrants' descendants in a country with a dominant national language.…”

Estados Unidos y su dimensión lingüística

“…En cambio, el español "para tener más amigos hispanos" es más importante en Los Ángeles que en Miami o San Antonio (Ramírez, 2000). Las actitudes sobre el español en el sur de Texas, por ejemplo, se han mantenido constantes a través de las últimas dos décadas, desde 1982 hasta 2000 (Mejías, Anderson-Mejías y Carlson, 2003) Existen trabajos (Torres, 1997) que han demostrado que es en la propia condición bilingüe donde se ven los principales signos de identidad etnolingüística y no en la lealtad o preferencia hacia una de las dos lenguas. Es por eso, por lo que fenómenos del discurso bilingüe, como la conmutación de códigos, desempeñen un papel decisivo (Blas-Arroyo, 2005, p. 360).…”