Spanish Linguistics Commons^™

From Language ‘Standards’ To Speaker Agency: Exploring Spanish Heritage Language Instructors’ Ideologies, Gabrielle Yocupicio

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

This study explores the language ideologies of six university-level Spanish Heritage Language (SHL) instructors in Arizona, focusing on how they reproduce or challenge standard language ideologies (SLIs) in their teaching. SLIs often devalue the language varieties spoken by SHL learners, portraying them as informal or deficient compared to a perceived “standard” Spanish. Such views can undermine learners’ confidence and linguistic agency. Using qualitative methods, including interviews and observations, the study examines how instructors’ beliefs and practices align with or diverge from critical language awareness (CLA) frameworks that promote the legitimacy of all language varieties.

Findings reveal a spectrum of ideological …

Language-Related Episodes In Individual Observations Versus Collaborative Interactions: The Case Of Advanced Learners Of Spanish, Emilia Alonso-Marks, Mariche G. Bayonas, Diana Marysol Contreras-Licea

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

The pandemic forced many students to complete tasks individually either at home or in virtual classrooms. This study compares individual task performance with small group collaborations in terms of Language-Related Episodes (LREs) and the honing of pronunciation. Two groups of advanced Spanish learners from India and the USA participated in the study. Results note that having more than one learner does not increase LRE productivity; individual learners produce more affective/metacognitive LREs; and linguistic forms focused on by individual learners are more memorable than those discussed collaboratively. Pedagogical recommendations are proposed for both types of learning scenarios.

Book Review - Language Ideologies And Linguistic Identity In Heritage Language Learning., Michelle F. Ramos Pellicia

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

No abstract provided.

Discursive Variation In Texas Spanish: A Dialectometric Approach, James Ramsburg

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

Texas Spanish has been characterized from a variety of perspectives, whether that be descriptively (Cardenas 1970), historically (Lipski 1988), and/or sociolinguistically (Chaston 1996, Martínez 2003, Bayley et al. 2012, Carter and Wolford 2016). However, to date, no study has sought to produce a dialectological account of Spanish discourse in Texas. By combining methods of quantitative and corpus linguistics, the present study seeks to investigate the dynamics of how Spanish discourse features, namely discourse markers and fillers, vary across multiple regions in Texas. To do so, this study utilizes a corpus of contemporary Texas Spanish (Bullock and Toribio 2013) and evaluates …

Northwestern Amazonian Spanish As A Macro-Region: Current Research And Future Directions, Ileana Margarita Jara Yupanqui

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

The Amazon rainforest, home to many and diverse indigenous language populations, expands over a vast territory in South America, the most extensive river system in the world. In the western area, Spanish coexists with many indigenous languages since colonial times. New varieties of Amazonian Spanish emerged in this context of long-term language contact. These varieties are understudied, although research has increased in the last decade. Recent works show that Spanish linguistic features are shared across political borders and point to a macro-region. This paper discusses the socio-historical and linguistic contexts of the expansion of the Northwestern Amazonian Spanish in Colombia, …

U.S. Mexican Spanish West Of The Mississippi. Social Context And Linguistic Features, Michelle F. Ramos Pellicia

International Journal of the Linguistic Association of the Southwest

No abstract provided.

Officialization And Linguistic Acculturation Of Spanish In The United States Catholic Church, Antonio Medina-Rivera

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

The present investigation brings to light some of the changes associated with the use of English and Spanish in the US Catholic Church. The first part is an examination of the process of officialization from a historical perspective, acknowledging the impact of some groups or associations in the use of vernacular la!_lguages within the Church. The second part examines the role of acculturation during this process of officialization; and the final section analyzes the use of inclusive language in the Church, as an attempt to have a more gender-balanced institution. These three elements serve to provide a more complete perspective …

Variationist Approaches: External Factors Conditioning Variation In Spanish Phonology, Antonio Medina-Rivera

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

This chapter will focus on the external factors conditioning phonological variation. I will introduce the traditional factors to analyze social variation (e.g. sex, age, social class) and stylistic variation (careful vs. casual speech), as well as other possible factors not fully explored in Spanish. These other factors are mostly inspired by Allan Bell's model of language style as audience design (1984), and Rickford and McNair-Knox's incorporation of addressee and topic of conversation as two important factors to analyze variation (1994).

Variación Fonológica Y Estilística En El Español De Puerto Rico, Antonio Medina-Rivera

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

Se examina la correlacion que existe entre dos variables fonologicas y tres variables estilisticas en el espanol de Puerto Rico. Las variables estilisticas que se tomaron en consideracion son la situacion (entrevista individual, conversacion en grupo y una presentacion oral), el discurso y la relacion que existe entre hablante e interlocutor. Se concentra en el habla de 20 jovenes adultos que residen en Caguas, Puerto Rico. Las variables fonologicas que se seleccionaron para este estudio son la vibrante multiple (rr) y la vibrante simple (r) en posicion de final de silaba. Los resultados se sometieron al programa estadistico VARBRUL y …

Discourse Genre, Type Of Situation And Topic Of Conversation In Relation To Phonological Variables In Puerto Rican Spanish, Antonio Medina-Rivera

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

This study examines stylistic variation in relation to phonological variables in Puerto Rican Spanish. The methodology for this study has been designed so as to obtain possible stylistic variation in ways of speaking which may occur naturally in daily conversation No written styles will be taken into consideration for this study. Style will be analyzed in terms of topic of conversation, individual (one-on-one) conversation versus a group situation (more than two people in the conversation), and the type of discourse genre.