‘United States’ and ‘them’: A study of the language attitudes of speakers of high- and low-prestige varieties of Spanish toward ‘world Spanishes’

The purpose of the present study was to elicit the attitudes of speakers of high- and low- prestige varieties of Spanish toward its different varieties, including Spanish in the United States. As the Spanish-speaking population in the United States increases, so does the need for codification of the variety(-ies) spoken within and for a definition of a model for Spanish-language instruction. These are some of the issues resulting from the spread of a world language addressed by Kachru\u27s (1982) World Englishes paradigm. Previous studies have surveyed the language attitudes of U.S.-Latino speakers toward English and Spanish, or toward other varieties of Spanish, but not the attitudes of speakers of ‘mother tongue’ varieties of Spanish toward ‘U.S. Spanish’. Three focus-group interviews were conducted: Group A (8 speakers of Bogota Spanish), Group B (10 speakers of Puerto Rican Spanish) and Group C (8 heritage speakers of Spanish). The interview elicited attitudes related to notions of correctness (what correct Spanish is; which institutions (should) provide a norm; which varieties of Spanish are ‘better’ than others); attitudes toward ‘U.S. Spanish’ (its viability as a variety of Spanish); and attitudes toward the teaching of Spanish in the United States (which model should be adopted). Groups A and B shared similar attitudes compared to Group C. These ‘native’ speakers did not believe in a Spanish of the United States other than that of its immigrants; they expressed both positive and negative attitudes toward varieties of Spanish and identified their features. These speakers expressed a strong rejection of the teaching of Mexican Spanish norms and preferred a norma culta model based coupled with instruction in dialectal variation. Group C speakers identified ‘U.S. Spanish’ as their native variety and describe it as distinct from other Spanish varieties, with code-switching/Spanglish being one of its more salient features. They believe that RAE norms are enforced in the classroom and would like to experience instruction in an ‘American’ model of Spanish. All groups differed in the degree of ease of judging varieties. The implications of these attitudes for the Kachruvian paradigm, language instruction, and future research are discussed