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Culture as a factor in the motivation of heritage speakers to study Spanish at the college level in South Florida

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Date Issued:
2008
Summary:
The purpose of this study is to understand culture as a factor in the motivation of heritage speakers of Spanish to study Spanish at the college level in South Florida. 59 participants divided into three groups of heritage speakers of Spanish at Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton participated in a questionnaire survey, for a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. Subjects were grouped according to the degree of involvement in Spanish-related activities at the college-level. The instrument was a combination of Likert-scale questions as well as open-ended questions aimed at clarifying or expanding on topics presented during the Likert-scale part of the questionnaire. The findings of this study indicate that most heritage speakers understood culture as a part of their identity. Students who were enrolled in Spanish classes were not just looking to expand their Spanish knowledge, but to re-connect and re-establish links with their cultural heritage. Finally, those who chose not to study Spanish cite as their most important reason a dislike for the Spanish language. The results revealed the following implications for the heritage speaker curriculum: the need to address the unique demographic make-up of Spanish heritage speakers in South Florida; the necessity for a consistent and reliable methodology for the identification of heritage speakers, and; the importance of instructors' sensitivity to regional and social dialect variation.
Title: Culture as a factor in the motivation of heritage speakers to study Spanish at the college level in South Florida.
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Name(s): Seiden, Carolina M.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree grantor
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters
Department of Languages, Linguistics and Comparative Literature
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2008
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Physical Form: electronic
Extent: xvi, 258 p. : ill.
Language(s): English
Summary: The purpose of this study is to understand culture as a factor in the motivation of heritage speakers of Spanish to study Spanish at the college level in South Florida. 59 participants divided into three groups of heritage speakers of Spanish at Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton participated in a questionnaire survey, for a combination of quantitative and qualitative analyses. Subjects were grouped according to the degree of involvement in Spanish-related activities at the college-level. The instrument was a combination of Likert-scale questions as well as open-ended questions aimed at clarifying or expanding on topics presented during the Likert-scale part of the questionnaire. The findings of this study indicate that most heritage speakers understood culture as a part of their identity. Students who were enrolled in Spanish classes were not just looking to expand their Spanish knowledge, but to re-connect and re-establish links with their cultural heritage. Finally, those who chose not to study Spanish cite as their most important reason a dislike for the Spanish language. The results revealed the following implications for the heritage speaker curriculum: the need to address the unique demographic make-up of Spanish heritage speakers in South Florida; the necessity for a consistent and reliable methodology for the identification of heritage speakers, and; the importance of instructors' sensitivity to regional and social dialect variation.
Identifier: 243827861 (oclc), 77651 (digitool), FADT77651 (IID), fau:4311 (fedora)
Note(s): by Carolina M. Seiden.
Table of Contents lists pg. 258 as Vita, but that page is the last page of the bibliography.
University Library's copy lacks signatures of the Supervisory Committee.
Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008.
Includes bibliography.
Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, FL : 2008 Mode of access: World Wide Web.
Subject(s): Cognition and culture
Spanish language -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Spanish speakers
Language and languages -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Social aspects
Language and culture -- Study and teaching (Higher) -- Social aspects
Held by: FBoU FAUER
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/77651
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU