A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida
Spanish speakers constitute the largest heritage language community in the US. The state of Florida is unusual in that, on one hand, it has one of the highest foreign-born resident rates in the country, most of whom originate from Latin America—but on the other hand, Florida has a comparatively low...
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doaj-f690ef1408b1445b86b0a7f50191c4382021-03-01T00:02:30ZengMDPI AGLanguages2226-471X2021-02-016383810.3390/languages6010038A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in FloridaEthan Kutlu0Ruth Kircher1Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USAMercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, Fryske Akademy, 8900 AB Leeuwarden, The NetherlandsSpanish speakers constitute the largest heritage language community in the US. The state of Florida is unusual in that, on one hand, it has one of the highest foreign-born resident rates in the country, most of whom originate from Latin America—but on the other hand, Florida has a comparatively low Spanish language vitality. In this exploratory study of attitudes toward Spanish as a heritage language in Florida, we analyzed two corpora (one English: 5,405,947 words, and one Spanish: 525,425 words) consisting of recent Twitter data. We examined frequencies, collocations, concordance lines, and larger text segments. The results indicate predominantly negative attitudes toward Spanish on the status dimension, but predominantly positive attitudes on the solidarity dimension. Despite the latter, transmission and use of Spanish were found to be affected by pressure to assimilate, and fear of negative societal repercussions. We also found Spanish to be used less frequently than English to tweet about attitudes; instead, Spanish was frequently used to attract Twitter users’ attention to specific links in the language. We discuss the implications of our findings (should they generalize) for the future of Spanish in Florida, and we provide directions for future research.https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/1/38language contactmultilingualismlanguage attitudesheritage languagesminority languageslanguage maintenance |
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DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Ethan Kutlu Ruth Kircher |
spellingShingle |
Ethan Kutlu Ruth Kircher A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida Languages language contact multilingualism language attitudes heritage languages minority languages language maintenance |
author_facet |
Ethan Kutlu Ruth Kircher |
author_sort |
Ethan Kutlu |
title |
A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida |
title_short |
A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida |
title_full |
A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida |
title_fullStr |
A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Corpus-Assisted Discourse Study of Attitudes toward Spanish as a Heritage Language in Florida |
title_sort |
corpus-assisted discourse study of attitudes toward spanish as a heritage language in florida |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Languages |
issn |
2226-471X |
publishDate |
2021-02-01 |
description |
Spanish speakers constitute the largest heritage language community in the US. The state of Florida is unusual in that, on one hand, it has one of the highest foreign-born resident rates in the country, most of whom originate from Latin America—but on the other hand, Florida has a comparatively low Spanish language vitality. In this exploratory study of attitudes toward Spanish as a heritage language in Florida, we analyzed two corpora (one English: 5,405,947 words, and one Spanish: 525,425 words) consisting of recent Twitter data. We examined frequencies, collocations, concordance lines, and larger text segments. The results indicate predominantly negative attitudes toward Spanish on the status dimension, but predominantly positive attitudes on the solidarity dimension. Despite the latter, transmission and use of Spanish were found to be affected by pressure to assimilate, and fear of negative societal repercussions. We also found Spanish to be used less frequently than English to tweet about attitudes; instead, Spanish was frequently used to attract Twitter users’ attention to specific links in the language. We discuss the implications of our findings (should they generalize) for the future of Spanish in Florida, and we provide directions for future research. |
topic |
language contact multilingualism language attitudes heritage languages minority languages language maintenance |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2226-471X/6/1/38 |
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