Evolution and determinants of language attitudes among Catalan adolescents

Languages not only inspire loyalty, they also provoke fear, hatred, resentment, jealousy, love, euphoria the entire gamut of human emotion " (Pérez Firmat 2003, quoted by Pavlenko 2005: 22). " [Catalan] Un idioma que nunca será como mi piel, pero sin cuya existencia no puedo sentirme a gusto en mi piel " (Maruja Torres (1997: 39) Un calor tan cercano. Madrid: Alfaguara) " A language that may never feel like my second skin but makes me comfortable in my first ". Abstract This article first evaluates the scope and limits of family language planning. Secondly, it assesses the intermingling of factors intervening in language ideologies and language trajectories. It then engages in a brief description of new speakers of Catalan. There follows a presentation of data on identification languages and L1 languages in contemporary Catalonia. Fourteen interviews with Spanish L1 partners in Spanish/Catalan and Spanish/French couples are then analyzed in detail. Lastly, the paper discusses the data and offers some conclusions. Resum Aquest article comença avaluant l'àmbit i els límits de la planificació lingüística familiar. Després, passa a examinar la barreja de factors que intervenen en les ideologies i trajectòries de les llengües. A continuació, dóna una breu de-scripció dels nous parlants del català i presenta dades sobre les llengües d'identificació i les llengües L1 a la Catalunya contemporània. S'analitzen detalladament catorze entrevistes amb membres L1 castellà/català i castellà/francès. El treball conclou comentant les dades i oferint algunes conclusions. 1 This research has been funded by the project FF-I 2012-35-502, «Globalisation and family language transmission in medium-sized linguistic communities», (Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spanish Government). We would like to thank as well the suggestions sent by the anonymous reviewers. The writing of the article also benefited from discussions with members of the EU-funded COST network IS1306 «New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges». We would like to thank as well those students (Universitat de Barcelona, 2013 and 2015), who have contributed with their interviews.

Since the recovery of democracy after Francoism, in the early 80s, the language policies implemented by the autonomous governments of Valencia and Catalonia (two Catalan-speaking regions in Spain) have focused mainly in the school milieu. Despite the differences in terms of design and of the weaker or stronger support to the minority language (i.e. Catalan), these language-in-education policies shared the main goals: to generalize the knowledge of Catalan and also to recover the social usage of Catalan (Arnau & Vila 2013). However, in the 90s the gap between knowledge and usage became clear: to be proficient in Catalan didn’t mean per se to start speaking it outside the classroom. As Galindo (2006) pointed out, it was needed a clear majority of Catalan L1 speakers in a school for Catalan to become the language of intergroup communication between Catalan L1 and Castilian L1 speakers. More recently, Bretxa (2014) has shown the influence of the demolinguistic composition of schools on the linguistic trajectories of pupils in the transition from primary to secondary school (namely, from Catalan as L1 to predominant uses of Castilian with school-mates, and inversely). Pujolar & González (2012) have also highlighted the centrality of these transitions, by which people gain access to new socialization spheres, for the "linguistic mudes" (the adoption of significant uses of a new language). The aim of the presentation is to provide an answer to the title’s question by means of the discourses of the main target of these language-in-education policies: the pupils themselves. The data comes from group interviews carried out in different secondary schools of Mataró (Catalonia) and Castelló de la Plana (Valencia) with students from different sociolinguistic backgrounds. I will focus, though, on the discourses provided by the Castilian L1 speakers, as they are the larger group (both in the demography of the cities and in the sample) and the ones who policy-makers expect to become new speakers of Catalan. I will base the analysis on the reported language choices and practices of these teenagers, with an emphasis on the continuities and changes in the transition from primary to secondary school, and on the links that may be established to different contextual elements, like the demolinguistic composition of their schools and neighbourhoods, or the different models of language-in-education policies and language policies at large implemented in each region. References Arnau, Joaquim and F. Xavier Vila (2013): “Language-in-education policies in the Catalan language area”, in J. Arnau (ed.): Reviving Catalan at School. Challenges and Instructional Approaches. Bristol: Multilingual Matters (1-28) Bretxa, Vanessa (2014): El salt a secundària. Els canvis en les tries lingüístiques i culturals dels preadolescents mataronins en la transició educativa. PhD dissertation. Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona Galindo, Mireia (2006): Les llengües a l’hora del pati. Usos lingüístics en les converses dels infants de Primària a Catalunya. PhD dissertation. Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona Pujolar, Joan & Isaac González (2012): “Linguistic ‘mudes’ and the de-ethnicization of language choice in Catalonia”, in International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 16(2) (138-152)

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2015

This study explores changes in attitudes towards Catalan, Spanish, and English over a two-year period, on the part of secondary education students of immigrant origin residing in Catalonia. It aims to provide new data by adopting a longitudinal design and by focusing on the immigrant population, which has raised new challenges for the Catalan society and education system. Data was collected from 72 secondary education students who answered a language attitudes questionnaire twice, at a twoyear interval. The instrument chosen has been successfully used in the area previously (Huguet, Janés, and Chireac 2008; Madariaga, Huguet, and Lapresta 2013). Findings showed that attitudes towards Catalan improved, while attitudes towards Spanish and English remained stable, based on which we discuss the strength of language attitudes in this particular context. Furthermore, the socio-demographic and affective variables traditionally investigated as determinants of language attitudes were not found to influence the processes of attitude change. CAN LANGUAGE ATTITUDES BE IMPROVED? A LONGITUDINAL STUDY OF IMMIGRANT STUDENTS IN CATALONIA (SPAIN) This study explores changes in attitudes towards Catalan, Spanish, and English over a two-year period, on the part of secondary education students of immigrant origin residing in Catalonia. It aims to provide new data by adopting a longitudinal design and by focusing on the immigrant population, which has raised new challenges for the Catalan society and education system. Data was collected from 72 secondary education students who answered a language attitudes questionnaire twice, at a two-year interval. The instrument chosen has been successfully used in the area previously (Huguet, Janés, and Chireac 2008; Madariaga, Huguet, and Lapresta 2013). Findings showed that attitudes towards Catalan improved, while attitudes towards Spanish and English remained stable, based on which we discuss the strength of language attitudes in this particular context. Furthermore, the socio-demographic and affective variables traditionally investigated as determinants of language attitudes were not found to influence the processes of attitude change.

This article presents data on the relationship between the language used by the preadolescent population of Mataró and the Aragonese border area with their parents and their language of identity. In particular, it looks into the way in which different socio-linguistic variables affect this relationship so as to create two linguistic sub-groups: one group which has a mono-lingual Spanish-speaking family background, and identifies with this language, and the other which, despite also having a monolingual family background, exhibits bilingual identification. Various socio-linguistic variables (oral competence, social networking, attitudes, confidence and the language used with siblings) are analysed, with a view to predicting membership of one group or the other. The results show that social networks among peers are the variable giving the best indication of individuals' language of identity. és la variable que millor permet discriminar la llengua d'identificació dels individus.

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2011

This study surveyed 2446 undergraduates from five Bilingual Autonomous Communities (BAC) of Spain. We propose that the creation of the BAC of Spain in 1978 allowed the development of differing prototypic identities ranging from Spanish only identity, Autonomous only identity, and various permutations of dual Spanish/Autonomous identities. Based on their linguistic and ethnic self-identifications, the percentage of participants endorsing each prototypic identity was monitored along with their key sociopsychological correlates. Six prototypic identity profiles were obtained. Results indicate that individuals endorsing the Autonomous only (11%) and Spanish only (13%) identities were more likely to engage in problematic intergroup relations. Strong Dual identifiers (9%) are the most likely to act as cultural and linguistic brokers and to foster intergroup harmony. Pro-Spanish (15%) and Moderate Dual (7%) identifiers are more likely to benefit from language learning in the Autonomous language and emerge as cultural brokers. Esta investigación sondeó 2446 estudiantes de pregrado de cinco Comunidades Autónomas Bilingües (CAB) de España. Proponemos que la creación de las CAB de España en 1978 permitió el desarrollo de diferentes identidades prototípicas que van desde identidades solamente españolas, identidades solamente autónomas hasta varias permutaciones de identidades dobles españolas/autónomas. Basado en sus auto-identificaciones lingüística yétnica, se observó el porcentaje de participantes que corresponden a cada identidad prototípica y sus correlacionados socio-psicológicos claves. Se obtuvieron seis perfiles de identidad prototípicos. Los resultados indican que los individuos que asumen una identidad solamente autónoma (11%) y solamente española (13%) tienen más probabilidades de entablar relaciones intergrupales problemáticas. Los que tienen más probabilidades de comportarse como conciliador cultural y lingüístico, y de fomentar armonía intergrupal son los que asumen una fuerte identidad doble (9%). Los que asumen una identidad pro-española (15%) o una identidad doble moderada (7%) tienen más probabilidades de beneficiar del aprendizaje de la lengua autónoma y se revelaron como conciliador cultural.

Journal of Sociolinguistics, 2008

This study examines the evolution of language attitudes of linguistically diverse adolescents in urban Catalonia a generation after the instauration of Linguistic Normalization, official language policies favoring Catalan. Woolard (1984, 1989) and Woolard and Gahng's (1990) classic Catalan/Spanish matched guise studies are used as a baseline. Current data come from a modified and expanded replication of those original studies. Findings show: (1) differences in attitudes between youths of Spanish and Catalan background have softened; (2) disparities in Status and Solidarity have evened out; (3) language choice can be highly gendered; and (4) bilingual proficiency is now valued by and for both communities. The support for bilingualism and the easing of divisions are understood as signs of increased 'linguistic cosmopolitanism,' a stance that looks beyond parochial own-group communities and favors bridging linguistic boundaries. The significance is that minority languages can be valued when they take on such symbolic roles.

International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 2012

An analysis of the language attitudes in the adjacent regions of Els Ports (in the province of Castelló n, Spain) and Matarranya (in the province of Teruel, Spain) using the matched-guise technique shows that in both areas, Catalan and Spanish coexist today in a diglossic situation in which Catalan has instrumental values that are lower than those of Spanish. Nonetheless, analysis of some social factors (especially age) confirms that there are significant differences between the two language communities. We observed greater dynamism as regards this situation and more favourable attitudes to Catalan in Els Ports, especially among young people, and especially in terms of instrumental values. However, in Matarranya the diglossia is more stable and the attitudes towards Catalan are less positive. When analysing the causes of this significant difference, we considered the different general sociolinguistic situations in the two regions, which both belong to the Catalan language environment, and more specifically, the treatment the languages receive in their respective educational systems after several decades of linguistic normalisation policies in Spain.

The Catalan language area, which extends across different regions of Spain, southern France and the city of Alghero (Italy), represents an interesting site for comparative sociolinguistic research due to the range of institutional and political-economic arrangements for Catalan and the other languages in contact (mainly Spanish, French, and Italian), and the degree of support to (and, in some cases, the lack of) language revitalisation agendas for Catalan in each context (Strubell & Boix-Fuster 2011). This research focuses on Valencia and Catalonia, the two largest Catalan-speaking regions in Spain, where regional governments were settled after Franco's dictatorship in the early 80s, thus allowing for some autonomy to implement language policies. Nonetheless, divergent processes of language maintenance or shift (and different class-based meanings of languages, both deriving from and reinforcing those processes, cf. Ninyoles 1969; Woolard 1989), together with the stronger or weaker emphasis on the promotion of Catalan, led to different positions for this language. Whereas in Catalonia some researchers claim Catalan is in the path to become a “common public language” and hence a legitimate choice in the public sphere, irrespective of the ethnolinguistic origin of interlocutors (Pujolar & Gonzàlez 2012), in Valencia, as in other language minority contexts, Catalan appears restricted to the interaction among its native speakers, and even this preference for Catalan as an in-group language seems to be weakening (Casesnoves 2010). I take a discourse-based approach in order to explore patterns of language choice in intergroup encounters as they are recontextualized, and therefore evaluated and legitimised (van Leeuwen 2008), in the semi-structured group interviews I conducted with a sample of Valencian and Catalan teens from different linguistic backgrounds. By comparatively exploring their discourses I intend to grasp some of the nuances of the dichotomy posed by Woolard (2008) between anonymity and authenticity as differing ideological frames for the legitimation of languages, and to assess their impact on youth's language practices and on the prospects for language revitalisation.

International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 1984

This article studies the relationship between the national identity of immigrants of Spanish origin resident in Catalonia and their knowledge of the Catalan language. Immigrants' identification with Catalonia is correlated more with length of residence than with age on arrival, whereas ability to learn and speak Catalan are more closely related to age on arrival. Eleven-year-old children of immigrants that use Catalan at home describe themselves as Catalans in most cases, as do those that speak Catalan well or very well Those that know least Catalan, on the other hand, tend in most cases to identify themselves as 'Spaniards'. The study does not offer data, however, as to a possible causal relationship between national identity and language use.