A study on language use and language attitudes by arabs living in Spain

Abstract

Multilingualism is already a key concept when dealing with languages around the world and the Arab population in the Valencian Community, Spain, is a clear example of the presence of more than one language living in a society. Due to the influences of the languages spoken in Castelló on such community, language use varies among the Arabs from one context to another. In addition, the coexistence of languages within a society leads to the formation of a variety of attitudes towards the mother tongue and the foreign languages. Several studies (Lasagabaster, 2003; Safont, 2007; Portolés, 2011; Nightingale, 2012) have been carried out regarding attitudes towards Spanish, Catalan and English in the Valencian Community, but the Arab population has not been taken into consideration. This leads us to the aim of this study, which is to analyse language use and attitudes of Arab university students living in Castelló divided into born in Spain and born in an Arabic country. Therefore, this paper seeks to analyse the contexts in which the participants use each language they speak, and their attitudes towards Spanish, Arabic, English and Catalan. In order to collect data, a questionnaire with three parts was used: personal data and languages spoken, language use, language attitudes. The preliminary results of the research show that Arabic and Spanish are more used than English and Catalan, which are scarcely ever chosen. Moreover, favourable attitudes were denoted towards all languages, except for Catalan, which received neutral opinions. After conclusions are drawn, suggestions for further research are presented.