This project explores how the variation in language experiences and attitudes that Mexican American Spanish heritage speaker bilinguals in the United States have affects their speech perception in both their languages. Heritage language bilinguals speak as a first language a minority language that they have cultural ties to (e.g., Spanish in the U.S.), but, because of societal reasons, have become dominant in the majority language (e.g., English in the U.S). After English, Spanish is the most frequently spoken language in the United States. Many Spanish speakers in the U.S. (i.e., children and descendants of immigrants) are heritage speakers, yet, Spanish heritage speakers of Mexican descent are an underrepresented population in research. Conducting this project will broaden the participation of Mexican Americans and will help showcase how the variety of positive and negative experiences and attitudes these individuals have affects their language processing. Variation in language experiences affects bilinguals’ perceptual abilities, including the language exposure they received in their early years, as well as throughout their lives. Heritage language bilinguals offer a unique insight into this individual variation as they exhibit significant variation in both experiences and attitudes. Although they are mainly exposed to their heritage language in their early lives, once they begin school, there is a shift to more majority language input and interactions, leading to a switch in dominance. Like many bilinguals, heritage speakers code-switch (i.e., use both of their languages in one sentence or conversation), and there is variation in code switching practices based on experience and attitudes. Two studies examine how variation in language experience and attitudes affects Spanish heritage speakers speech perception in both their languages. Study 1 focuses on better understanding how heritage speakers’ experience and attitudes with Spanish and English affects their speech perception when they interact with prestigious versus stigmatized talkers (labeled by the experimenter as monolingual versus L2-talker) in each of their languages. Study 2 investigates how heritage speaker’ experiences and attitudes impacts perception of a stigmatized way of speaking (code-switched versus single language speech). Results showed speech perception variability depending on participants’ language experience and attitudes, but, depending on the study, the experiences or attitudes that modulated speech perception varied. These findings provide evidence for the importance of taking the variation of language experiences and attitudes into consideration when investigating heritage bilinguals’ language processing.

Creator

• Gavino, Maria Fernanda

DOI

• https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-xndr-1z11

Subject

• Linguistics

Language

• en

Alternate Identifier

• etdadmin_upload_1013097
• http://dissertations.umi.com/northwestern:16736

Keyword

• heritage bilinguals
• speech perception
• experience and attitudes

Date created

• 2023-01-01

Resource type

• Dissertation

Rights statement

• In Copyright