Language attitudes in Catalan multilingual classrooms: educational implications

ABSTRACT

Catalonia is the Autonomous Community of Spain with the highest proportion of immigrant students. This study analyses the language attitudes of Catalan, as well as the possible explanatory variables for such attitudes, for a large sample with a high proportion of immigrant students and a great linguistic diversity. A questionnaire was given to 1206 second- and fourth-year secondary school students from which linguistic attitudes were evaluated. The questionnaire also evaluated the socio-cultural level and socio-professional level of the students’ families, age on arrival and length of stay of the immigrant students in the host country. Results show that most attitudes are favourable, although the rate of neutral attitudes is significant in all groups. It is seen as necessary to work specifically with Spanish-speaking students within the immigrant group, as they showed less favourable attitudes towards Catalan than the rest. The language spoken at home was significant with regard to attitudes towards Catalan and Spanish, while the age on arrival and the length of stay were significant with regard to attitudes towards Catalan, English and the immigrants’ L1. These results allow for the potential implementation of educational interventions to improve the coexistence of these languages in school.

Cataluña es la comunidad autónoma de España con mayor proporción de alumnado inmigrante. Este estudio analiza las actitudes lingüísticas del catalán, así como sus variables explicativas, para una muestra con alta proporción de alumnado inmigrante y gran diversidad lingüística. Se aplicó un cuestionario a 1.206 estudiantes de segundo y cuarto año de Educación Secundaria para evaluar las actitudes lingüísticas, el nivel socio-cultural y nivel socio-laboral de las familias de los estudiantes, así como la edad de llegada y el tiempo de estancia en el país de acogida del alumnado inmigrante. Los resultados muestran que la mayoría de las actitudes son favorables, aunque las actitudes neutras son significativas en todos los grupos. Se ve la necesidad de trabajar con los estudiantes inmigrantes de habla hispana, ya que mostraron actitudes menos favorables hacia el catalán que el resto. La lengua de uso familiar fue significativa en relación a las actitudes hacia el catalán y el español, mientras que, la edad de llegada y el tiempo de estancia lo fueron respecto a las actitudes hacia el catalán, inglés y L1 para el alumnado inmigrante. Estos resultados animan a posibles implementaciones de intervenciones educativas para mejorar la convivencia de estas lenguas en la escuela.

KEYWORDS:

• Language attitudes
• cultural diversity
• linguistic diversity
• immigrants students
• classroom community

PALABRAS CLAVE:

• actitudes lingüísticas
• diversidad cultural
• diversidad lingüística
• alumnado inmigrante
• convivencia del aula

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

José-María Madariaga is a Doctor in Psychology and has carried out research during more than 30 years into the implicit psychological processes of learning in bilingual education and second language acquisition contexts with the presence of foreign students, focusing on the role of the language and the attitudes towards it, the social representations, the self-concept and the identity of the protagonist stakeholders. He is a member of the Consolidated Research Group by the Basque Government (Spain) (Grupo de Investigación Consolidado del Gobierno Vasco) PSIKOR where he carries out his research on personal and social adjustment with special attention to resilience.

Ángel Huguet is Professor in Educational and Developmental Psychology at the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain). He is responsible for the research group ‘Plurilingualism and Education' working in topics such as bilingualism and plurilingualism, bilingual education, second language acquisition, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. The results of his investigations have been published in many international journals. He received twice the National Award in Educational Research from the Ministry of Education of Spain (years 2003 and 2007).

Judit Janés is Lecturer of Educational and Developmental Psychology at the University of Lleida (Catalonia, Spain) and a member of the research group ‘Plurilingualism and Education'. Her research activity revolves around the topics of bilingualism and plurilingualism, being focused on the analysis of students' language attitudes in the context of immigration. She received two National Awards in Educational Research from the Ministry of Education of Spain in 2003 and 2007 and has several national and international publications.

Additional information

Funding

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