Language attitudes towards Spanish and Catalan in autochthonous and immigrant families in Catalonia: analysing the correlation between student attitudes and their parents’^⃰

⃰ This research was conducted at the University of Lleida.

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the language attitudes of autochthonous and immigrant families living in Catalonia towards Spanish and Catalan. The research is intended to assess the possible differences in the language attitudes of students and their parents towards the two languages spoken in Catalonia. The investigation takes a sample of 476 students and their families from several cities in Catalonia who answered an attitude questionnaire. The data were analysed with SPSS and t-tests were performed, with students reporting better attitudes towards Catalan and parents showing more favourable views on Spanish. Statistically significant differences were identified between local and immigrant participants, with non-Spanish families showing worse attitudes to Catalan than towards Spanish. A correlation was found between autochthonous students and their parents when it comes to language attitudes towards the two languages, suggesting that the family environment does have an impact on the development of language attitudes. However, this effect is less visible in the case of immigrant families, where social and educational elements could moderate the impact of language attitudes within the family.

KEYWORDS:

• Language attitudes
• immigration
• mother tongue
• Spanish
• Catalonia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Cecilio Lapresta-Rey http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3411-7077

Notes

⃰ This research was conducted at the University of Lleida.

1 Catalan Statistics Institute: http://www.idescat.cat/. Accessed on October 17th 2016.

Additional information

Funding

This work is part of a larger research project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant number EDU2014-54093- R] and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants (AGAUR) of the Government of Catalonia [grant number 2014 SGR 208].