Suchergebnisse

This article examines the attitudes of 191 regular classroom teachers from three states toward children who are limited in their English proficiency (LEP). The 13-item Language Attitudes of Teachers Scale (LATS) was developed to investigate teachers' attitudes about linguistic diversity among their students. A principal components analysis produced three factors tentatively labeled Language Politics, LEP Intolerance, and Language Support. Internal consistency estimates of reliability (coefficient alpha) yielded .81 for the scale and ranged from .60 to .72 for the three subscales. A single item measuring respondents' attitudes about having an LEP child in the classroom correlated -.62 with the total LATS, providing modest support for construct validity.

Hill's analysis focuses on affective, cognitive, and behavioral types of evaluative responses toward particular language varieties, such as ASL, contact signing, and Signed English. His work takes into account the perceptions of these signing types among the social groups of the American Deaf community that vary based on generation, age of acquisition, and race. He also gauges the effects of social information on these perceptions and the evaluations and descriptions of signing that results from their different concepts of a signing standard. Language Attitudes concludes that the value of standard ASL will continue to rise and the Deaf/Hearing cultural dichotomy will remain relevant without the occurrence of a dramatic cultural shift

This study examines levels of bilingualism and language attitude in the autonomous Spanish city of Melilla. Located on the North African coast, Melilla has a population of 86,000 inhabitants that is roughly divided between residents of Iberian origin and residents of North African Origin. Based on responses to a language questionnaire (111 participants) and sociolinguistic interviews (20 participants), our results show high levels of bilingualism between Spanish and Tamazight among the sector of the population that is of North African origin, while the population of Iberian origin remains monolingual in Spanish. We also show that Spanish is the dominant language in the public domain, including administration and education, while Tamazight is maintained as a family and community language. Overall, the participants in our study express positive attitude towards the Melillan variety of Spanish and Tamazight, and their co-existence as part of the multicultural nature of the city.