18.794, Diss: Socioling: Bugel: 'A Macro- and Micro-Sociolinguistic Study o...'

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LINGUIST List: Vol-18-794. Wed Mar 14 2007. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 18.794, Diss: Socioling: Bugel: 'A Macro- and Micro-Sociolinguistic Study o...'

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1)
Date: 14-Mar-2007
From: Talia Bugel < linghisp at gmail.com >
Subject: A Macro- and Micro-Sociolinguistic Study of Language Attitudes and Language Contact: Mercosur and the teaching of Spanish in Brazil 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 16:54:39
From: Talia Bugel < linghisp at gmail.com >
Subject:  A Macro- and Micro-Sociolinguistic Study of Language Attitudes and Language Contact: Mercosur and the teaching of Spanish in Brazil 
 


Institution: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 
Program: Department of Spanish, Italian and Portugese 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2006 

Author: Talia Bugel

Dissertation Title: A Macro- and Micro-Sociolinguistic Study of Language
Attitudes and Language Contact: Mercosur and the teaching
of Spanish in Brazil 

Linguistic Field(s): Sociolinguistics

Subject Language(s): Portuguese (por)
                     Spanish (spa)


Dissertation Director(s):
Anna Maria Escobar

Dissertation Abstract:

This is a macro and microsociolinguistic study on the teaching of Spanish
as a foreign language in Brazil after the formation of Mercosur, in 1991.
Spanish being a pluricentric language, which variety(ies) of Spanish should
be used for teaching the language in Brazil? The alleged lack of teachers
trained for the task opened a breach through which the centripetal forces
in charge of the international spread of Spanish entered Brazil. Such
forces act side by side the centrifugal forces led by the agents of
language use: the Spanish teachers from different origins, especially those
from the River Plate region. 

The study explains how the centripetal forces shape the teaching of Spanish
in Brazil, by studying: a) the voice of the Spanish media as a reflection
of the centripetal forces, by means of Critical Discourse Analysis, b) the
attitudes of teachers of Spanish in Brazil, their students, and laypeople,
to the regional varieties of Spanish, by means of matched-guise tests and
open questionnaires, and c) the use of Spanish in the classroom by River
Plate teachers, by means of linguistic analysis of class recordings. 

The results expose a conflict among Spanish varieties in Brazil. One
specifically focused on the Peninsular (Northern-Central Spain) and the
Rioplatense varieties, and tightly tied to political, economic, educational
and cultural factors that interplay among them in overt and covert
dynamics. While the press analysis shows a process of commodification of
the language aligned to the Peninsular variety, the study of attitudes
presents a split in the participants' preferences, favoring the Rioplatense
variety in measures of solidarity and evaluation, and the Peninsular
variety in measures of power. When the focus turns to the agents of the
centrifugal forces, the actual variety in use leans towards a pan-Hispanic
combination of features favoring Latin American Spanishes.

In terms of language policy and planning, such results show that the action
of the centrifugal forces can actually limit the effects of the centrifugal
forces. In terms of language analysis, further research is required to
follow up on the evolution of the particular combination of Spanish
varieties currently in use in Brazil. 




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