CULTURAL PROXIMITY AS A VARIABLE IN THE ATTITUDES OF MEXICAN AMERICANS TOWARD HISPANIC ENGLISH

This study was designed to corroborate the findings of other investigations that indicate a significant difference in the attitudes of Mexican Americans toward Hispanic English and a standard form of the language.;It was hypothesized that there is a significant difference between the attitudes of Mexican American speakers of Hispanic English toward a standard form of English and their own nonprestige variety and that this difference consisted of a more positive attitude toward standard English. It was further hypothesized that there is a difference in attitudes towards Hispanic English between Mexican Americans who live isolated one from another and Mexican Americans living in close proximity to each other.;The technique used to measure language attitudes was the matched guise method which was developed by Wallace E. Lambert and his associates at McGill University. The respondents were chosen from selected high schools in a northern Midwestern state. The sample of the group that lived in close proximity to each other was thirty students, fifteen boys and fifteen girls. The sample of students living isolated from other Mexican Americans also consisted of fifteen boys and fifteen girls. Both samples were similar in that members of both groups spoke Hispanic English and were of similar economic background.;Respondents from both samples listened to eight brief, less than one minute, tape recordings made by four bidialectical Mexican American speakers, two men and two women. Each of the four speakers made one recording using a standard English guise and one in Hispanic English. The same neutral topic was used for all recordings. The respondents rated each recording on a series of fifteen traits on bimodal scales of five points for each trait.;The primary purpose, however, was to determine if there is a significant difference in the attitudes toward Hispanic English between Mexican Americans who live isolated one from another and Mexican Americans who live in close proximity to each other.;It was found that Mexican Americans from both samples favored standard English to a significant degree over Hispanic English. It was also found that Mexican Americans living in close proximity to each other had a more favorable attitude toward Hispanic English to a significant degree than did the Mexican Americans living isolated one from another.;This study corraborated other studies that have found that nonprestige language forms are stigmatized even by those who speak them. This negative attitude toward nonstandard varieties emphasizes the importance of the social role of language differences. This social role involves the way in which linguistic features elicit stereotypic attitudes about different cultural groups.;That cultural proximity may be significant in the attitudes of speakers of nonprestige language varieties toward their speech forms may indicate the importance of the role of language in strengthening ingroup cohesion. Mexican Americans living in close proximity to each other may have been better able to form a stronger cohesive ingroup as compared to isolated Mexican Americans. This may be why they had a more favorable attitude toward Hispanic English.