Conocimiento lingüístico y actitudes lingüísticas. Un estudio sobre sus relaciones en el alumnado de origen inmigrante de cataluña

Resumo

Considering that the Catalan educational system is bilingual, learning at least a second language becomes necessary for immigrant children enrolled in schools in Catalonia. This being the case, several authors have reported the close relationship between language attitudes and the level of competence eventually achieved in a particular language. The study reported here has three aims: (i) to analyze the linguistic knowledge (Catalan and Castilian) of local and immigrant students, (ii) to describe their language attitudes, and (iii) to establish the relationship between the two factors. Participants were 121 students (93 local and 28 immigrants) who attend a Secondary School located in one of the towns with the highest percentage of immigration in Catalonia: Guissona (Lleida). The results relating the levels of competence (in Catalan and Castilian) and attitudes towards the languages comparing immigrant and local students are particularly interesting. In the case of immigrants a positive linear relationship was observed both for Catalan and Castilian but this is not the case regarding Castilian in the case of local students.