University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The native and nonnative foreign language teacher: Attitudes toward Spanish language varieties

Rueda-Jenkins, Ana Isabel

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Description

Title
The native and nonnative foreign language teacher: Attitudes toward Spanish language varieties
Author(s)
Rueda-Jenkins, Ana Isabel
Issue Date
1990
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
VanPatten, Bill
Department of Study
Education
Discipline
Education
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • Education, Language and Literature
  • Language, Modern
  • Education, Curriculum and Instruction
Language
eng
Abstract
  • Linguistic diversity in the societal domain is a natural phenomenon at any level of interaction, in any linguistic encounter, yet in the educational setting linguistic diversity is frequently noticed and--rightly or wrongly--tends to be given a high degree of attention, both positively and negatively.
  • Since linguistic diversity in schools (mainly at the classroom level) presents a great opportunity for clashes among varieties, this study explored and analyzed the degree to which foreign language teachers accept phonetic and lexical variables that comprise Latin American and Peninsular Spanish (represented by speakers of Puerto Rico, Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Spain and Venezuela).
  • The data for the study was obtained from fifty six university level teaching assistants, twenty six native and thirty nonnative speakers of Spanish to whom three questionnaires on attitudes toward lexical items, phonetics with isolated words and phonetics with connected speech were administered. For the statistical analysis $t$-test were performed in the questionnaires.
  • The main goal of the study was to determine whether native and nonnative speakers differ in their attitudes toward language variation. Specifically, this study compared natives' and nonnatives' attitudes toward phonetic and lexical variation in the classroom setting.
  • Findings of the study showed that foreign language teachers in this sample do not exhibit attitudinal differences based on nativeness when the three questionnaires are analyzed as a whole, nor do they on the lexical questionnaires, or on the phonetic questionnaires as a unit. However, there is a tendency toward a difference in specific items of each questionnaire.
Type of Resource
text
Permalink
http://hdl.handle.net/2142/18978
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 1990 Rueda-Jenkins, Ana Isabel

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