The Sociolinguistics of Spanish-English Contact among Hispanic Adolescents in the United States

Hispanic tenth & eleventh graders (N = 250 males & 299 females) in 12 locations across the US responded to a questionnaire investigating their use of Spanish & English with different interlocutors & in different situations. Ss also rated their own Spanish on 10 continua (eg, good/bad, useful/useless, fast/slow), supplied demographic data, & answered open questions about their language attitudes. Results agree with those of previous studies on intergenerational differences in language use among the US Hispanic population. Hispanic adolescents tend to have a positive attitude toward their own Spanish, distinguishing popular & standard levels based largely on received media messages (though English-language media predominate as message sources for this group). Spanish is used principally at church & in speaking with parents & grandparents. Both interpersonal language use & media language preferences are influenced by factors of locality, birthplace, & ethnolinguistic group; sex & the interaction of all four factors influence language use & media language in certain cases. 2 Tables, 4 Figures, 23 References. J. Hitchcock