(DOWNLOAD) "Spanish Language Shift in Chicago." by Southwest Journal of Linguistics " eBook PDF Kindle ePub Free

eBook details

Title: Spanish Language Shift in Chicago.
Author : Southwest Journal of Linguistics
Release Date : January 01, 2004
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines,Books,Professional & Technical,Education,
Pages : * pages
Size : 269 KB

Description

ABSTRACT. Over 800 Latino high school and college students in Chicago, Illinois, reported via a written questionnaire that they used Spanish 75% or more of the time with their parents and other adults in the family. However, Spanish use with siblings, friends, cousins, and their own children averaged just 45% and was negatively correlated with length of residence in the U.S. This combined with overall low levels of daily Spanish use point to a language shift to English. The factors that appear to hold back a complete shift to English include positive attitudes toward Spanish, allegiance to Spanish-language music artists, reported high levels of Spanish proficiency, and the recontact opportunities offered by the influx of young Spanish-speaking immigrants to Chicago.* INTRODUCTION. The Hispanic population in the U.S. grew 58% between 1990 and 2000, climbing from 22.4 million to 35.3 million (U.S. Census Bureau 2000). Since approximately 40% of this population was born in Latin America, the nation's increasing number of Latinos is due in part to new immigration from Spanish-speaking countries. However, members of the second and third generations constitute the other 60% of U.S. Latinos, and most of these individuals have learned English: Overall 51% of U.S. Hispanics claimed to speak English 'very well.' Given that high proficiency in English has been found to correlate to less extensive use of Spanish (Bills, Hudson & Hernandez-Chavez 2000) and the general tendency for heritage languages in the U.S. to cease being spoken by the third generation, continued examination of Spanish language maintenance is useful.