A study on the language attitudes of the students in the principality of andorra ; Un estudio de las actitudes lingüísticas en los escolares del principado de andorra

From the direct relationship between language attitudes and language competences emerges the necessity of a good knowledge of the former if the long term aim is to improve the latter. This generally valid assertion seems even more obvious in the context of the European microstates, as they are more sensitive to the dynamics of a significantly reduced population. Such is the case of Andorra, characterized by a multilingual sociolinguistic context and an education design in accordance with that sociolinguistic profile. This study presents a quantitative analysis of the data collected through a questionnaire of language use and language attitudes conducted on 208 students (15-16 years old) in the 4th grade of Compulsory Secondary Education of the Escola Andorrana, Andorra’s public education system. The languages ??thoroughly analyzed in the questionnaire are Catalan (the official language), Castilian, French, English, Portuguese, and the mother tongues of the immigrant groups. The results obtained so far show clearly favorable attitudes of the students toward Catalan and English, results that are somewhat predictable in both cases, given the official status of the first one and the international importance of the second one. The generalized neutral attitudes toward French were surprising, as it is the language of instruction throughout the Primary and Secondary Education of Escola Andorrana. Finally, it must be stated that Portuguese, along with other languages present ??in the country received the least favorable evaluations. ; La relación directa entre actitudes lingüísticas y competencia lingüística hace necesario un buen conocimiento de las primeras si el objetivo, a largo plazo, es mejorar las segundas. Si dicha aserción resulta cierta en general, aún parece más evidente en el contexto de los microestados europeos, siendo más sensibles como son a las dinámicas de una población marcadamente reducida. Este es el caso del Principado de Andorra, caracterizado por un panorama sociolingüístico multilingüe, y por un ...