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"Spanish language Usage Sex differences."
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Effects of the Age, Sex, and Maternal Education of Monolingual Spanish-Speaking Preschool Children on Oral Narrative Production
Purpose: The aim of the present cross-sectional study was to determine the effects of age, sex, and maternal education of monolingual Spanish-speaking preschoolers on both macrostructural (oral narrative quality) and microstructural measures (number of different words, communication units, mean length of utterance in both words and morphemes, and number of conjunctions) of their oral narrative production. Method: A total of 277 monolingual Spanish-speaking Mexican children aged 2;06-5;11 (years;months) and divided into four age groups (ages 2, 3, 4, and 5 years) were asked to retell a fictional story from the oral narrative ability task of the \"Evaluación Neuropsicológica Infantil-Preescolar.\" Results: Appropriate internal consistency and interrater reliability were demonstrated. Pearson correlations between macro- and microstructural measures showed a positive association. A multivariate analysis of variance revealed a main effect for age, but not for sex, maternal education, or between-variables interactions. Partial eta-squared showed that age had a medium effect size on oral narrative quality and the number of different words and conjunctions, with a small effect size on communication units and mean length of utterance in words and morphemes. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that age explained the largest percentage of variance across the oral narrative measures. Conclusions: The measures found to be most sensitive to the effect of age (number of different words, oral narrative quality, communication units, conjunctions) are also those most easily assessed by clinicians with limited training in linguistics. Results obtained for the number of different words and communication units were similar to those reported previously for English-speaking children.
Journal Article
Social class and gender impacting change in bilingual settings: Spanish subject pronoun use in New York
This study examines the role of social class and gender in an ongoing change in Spanish spoken in New York City (NYC). The change, which has to do with increasing use of Spanish subject pronouns, is correlated with increased exposure to life in NYC and to English. Our investigation of six different national-origin groups shows a connection between affluence and change: the most affluent Latino groups undergo the most increase in pronoun use, while the least affluent undergo no change. This pattern is explained as further indication that resistance to linguistic change is more pronounced in poorer communities as a result of denser social networks. In addition we find a women effect: immigrant women lead men in the increasing use of pronouns. We argue that the women effect in bilingual settings warrants a reevaluation of existing explanations of women as leaders of linguistic change. (Language change, social class, gender, bilingualism, Spanish in the US, pronouns)*
Journal Article
Spanish validation of General Decision-Making Style scale: Sex invariance, sex differences and relationships with personality and coping styles
The General Decision-Making Styles (GDMS) scale measures five decision-making styles: rational, intuitive, dependent, avoidant and spontaneous. GDMS has been related to coping and some personality factors and sex-differences has been described. In spite of its usefulness, there is not a validated Spanish translation. The aim of this study is to translate to Spanish and provide psychometric evidence considering sex differences and the relationships between GDMS, personality and coping variables. Two samples were used for this study; the first sample composed by 300 participants who completed the GDMS and the Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI), and the second sample of 361 participants who completed the GDMS, the Ten Item Personality Trait Inventory and the brief COPE scales. Participants from second sample filled in GDMS a second time (137 participants) after eight weeks from the first data collection. Confirmatory factor analyses showed a five-factor composition of GDMS with equivalence across sex using invariance analyses. Moreover, GDMS showed acceptable internal consistency and temporal stability. Finally, rational and intuitive styles were related to healthier coping patterns and emotional stability, while dependent, avoidant and spontaneous styles were associated with unhealthy coping patterns and emotional instability.
Journal Article
Changes in language usage of Puerto Rican mothers and their children: Do gender and timing of exposure to English matter?
This longitudinal study investigated changes in reported language usage between Puerto Rican mothers and their preschoolers over a 4-year period. It also examined whether differences in language usage occurred depending on the timing of children's exposure to English and children's gender. Seventy-six mothers reported the languages they and their children used when talking to each other during 2 years in Head Start, kindergarten, and first grade. Mothers of children who were exposed to Spanish and English prior to preschool entry reported using more English to their children than mothers of children who were not exposed to English until after preschool entry. The language usage of the children followed the same patterns as their mothers. The difference between the groups was maintained over the 4 years, although both groups increased their English usage. A gender effect was observed. Mothers of girls were five times more likely to use “More or All Spanish” than mothers of sons. In addition, girls who were exposed to Spanish only prior to preschool entry were six times more likely to speak to their mothers in “More or All Spanish” than other participating children. The bidimensional model of acculturation is used to present and interpret the findings.
Journal Article
Student Spanish use and investment in a dual immersion classroom: Implications for second language acquisition and heritage language maintenance
In dual immersion classrooms, students from different language backgrounds are immersed in the minority language for large portions of the school day with the expectation that they will become equally proficient in their first language (L1) and in their second language (L2). Research on dual immersion indicates that students reach above-average levels of academic achievement and linguistic proficiency, but, to date, very few quantifications have been made of how much of the minority language is used in these environments. Given that actually speaking a language is crucial for L2 acquisition as well as for heritage language maintenance, the study explored how much Spanish was used and for what purposes by 4 students (2 Spanish L1 and 2 Spanish L2) in a Spanish/English dual immersion classroom. Over 2,000 turns of natural classroom speech were recorded during a 5-month period. Overall, the students used Spanish 56% of the time, with 4 major trends: (a) The girls used more Spanish than the boys, regardless of L1; (b) the students averaged 82% Spanish when talking with the teacher, but only 32% when talking to peers; (c) Spanish was used primarily for on-task topics; (d) the students' English when speaking with peers covered a wider range of functions than did their Spanish. These findings lend support to proposals that a kind of diglossia exists in immersion classrooms (Tarone & Swain, 1995). Additional ethnographic data gathered through extensive participants-observations and interviews were interpreted using the concept of investment (Norton, 2000). Explanations of the students' language use are offered according to their sometimes competing identity investments. (Verlag, adapt.).
Journal Article
Qué? Quoi? Do Languages with Grammatical Gender Promote Sexist Attitudes?
Languages such as French and Spanish assign a gendered article to nouns. Three experiments examined whether reading a language with grammatical gender would increase sexist attitudes. Suburban, New York high school students (
N
= 74, 85, 66) were randomly assigned to complete a survey of sexist attitudes in either English or a language with grammatical gender (French or Spanish). Students in the English condition expressed less sexist attitudes than students in the French or Spanish conditions, and the language used affected females more than males. When the experiment was replicated on bilingual students, similar results were found. Males also expressed more sexist attitudes than females. This study suggests that languages with grammatical gender promote sexist attitudes and have particular impact on females.
Journal Article
English vocabulary development in bilingual kindergarteners: What are the best predictors?
This study examines growth rates in vocabulary over an academic year for 150 Latino English language learners. In October, February, and June of kindergarten, participants completed standardized measures of receptive and expressive vocabulary. Before the second and third assessments, a third of the children watched Arthur three times a week during school hours, while another third viewed Between the Lions. The last third did not view either show during school hours. Data on children's preschool experiences and home literacy activities were collected. Growth modeling analyses show while there were no effects of classroom viewing, children who viewed Arthur and Between the Lions at home had steeper growth trajectories than those who had not. Additional effects of native language home use and preschool attendance were seen. Boys displayed better English vocabulary skills than girls. These findings suggest the importance of English exposure and native language maintenance for English L2 vocabulary development.
Journal Article
Gender and stylistic variation in second language phonology
Communicative competence comprises many things, including the
ability to use the appropriate pronunciation, based on gender and
style. Previous L2 research in phonology has focused on the
frequency of nativelike and nonnative forms and variation within
nonnative forms, rather than variation within nativelike forms. This
study, however, examines variation in nativelike forms by investigating
gender and stylistic differences in the English of native speakers and
native speakers of Japanese and Spanish. The results of the native
speakers demonstrated that there were significant differences based on
gender and style. Both groups of nonnative speakers exhibited
significant gender differences but only one group showed significant
stylistic differences. The results suggest that gender differences are
acquired before stylistic differences.Different versions of this article were delivered at the
following conferences: EUROSLA, June 1999 in Lund, Sweden; NWAVE,
October 1999 in Toronto, Canada; and SLRF, October 2003 in Tucson,
Arizona.
Journal Article
Talking About Past Emotions: Conversations Between Peruvian Mothers and Their Preschool Children
In this study, we examined gender and age variations in the use of emotion words during mother-child conversations about experiences. Thirty-two middle-class, Spanish-speaking, Peruvian mothers and their 3- and 5-year-old children participated in this study. Conversations were audiotaped, transcribed, and coded for number, types of emotions discussed, and conversational contexts in which the emotion word was embedded. Age differences were found only in children's use of emotion words. Gender differences were found only in mothers' use of emotion words. Findings are discussed in relation to socialization practices of emotional expression and gender in middle-class Peruvian society. Our results support and provide a developmental perspective on findings obtained in studies of adult emotional expression across various cultures. (Original abstract)
Journal Article