ONLINE - Dissertation Defense: Rosti Vana
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Title of Defense: Learning with an attitude?! Heritage and L2 students' language attitudes toward Spanish language variation in the advanced mixed class
Abstract
The aim of the present study is to gain deeper insights into language attitudes in the educational context and to contribute to the emerging field of advanced mixed, second language and heritage language courses. Thus, the results are relevant to the fields of sociolinguistics, second language and heritage language pedagogy. Considering that the majority of heritage language learners (HLLs) and second language learners (L2s) in the United States are enrolled in mixed classrooms, (Beaudrie, 2012; Carreira 2016a, 2016b), the study of language attitudes about monolingual varieties, bilingual varieties and second language learner varieties is crucial in informing pedagogical best practices that serve both types of learners. In addition, by analyzing the language attitudes of both types of students toward three Spanish language varieties, this study demonstrates the importance of incorporating linguistic variation into the classroom in order to address the linguistic hierarchies that exist in such a context.
The study employs matched-guise tasks (Lambert et al., 1960) two times during the semester, as well as end-term, semi-structured interviews. The results show that overall native and heritage varieties were evaluated positively, while the L2 variety was evaluated negatively. Although interviews revealed that native-like accent and pronunciation are the detrimental cause of negative attitudes toward the L2 variety, both HLLs and L2s from the advanced mixed class agreed that L2s speak the proper and professional Spanish. Additionally, heritage Spanish was described as the least formal and incorrect Spanish variety in comparison with the L2 variety due to dominant stereotypes and the incorporation of lexical characteristics found in US Spanish.
As different linguistic components of a language trigger different attitudes, the findings show that native-like phonetic and phonological features of Spanish speakers afford positive attitudes, just as a formal lexicon and academic register. However, morphosyntactic features do not have any effect on forming individuals’ language attitudes. This study has the potential to make an invaluable contribution to understanding how language attitudes and instructional practices in the classroom context intersect with the goal to continue fighting for social justice to improve mixed courses in a social, critical and conscious way.