Dialect and Disenfranchisement: Report of the Pilot Study on Dialect Bias and Prejudice in the Spanish-Speaking World

Dialect and Disenfranchisement: Report of the Pilot Study on Dialect Bias and Prejudice in the Spanish-Speaking World

Breakout Session B: Service Learning & Community Engagement

This project explores discrimination in the perception of Spanish language dialects with the intention of applying findings to improving education and spreading awareness within the Upstate region. The objective is to complete a mixed qualitative/quantitative study assessing perceptions of international Spanish dialects. This presentation will cover the theoretical background and potential applications of the project, as well as the results of a pilot study, along with ongoing research and improved plans for the main study that is to follow. The project is based on Lambert’s matched-guise test. Five audio samples representing a diversity of dialects have been collected. Specifically, these samples represent an example of the Spanish of Spain, Spanish spoken by an expert at a regional university, and three more dialects that represent the Americas: Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Colombia. This selection includes both standard and non-standard varieties of Spanish, highlighting the Spanish spoken within communities in the Upstate region of South Carolina as well as internationally. In stage one, volunteers record themselves recounting a visit to the market. The focus on the same everyday experience without giving contributors an exact script highlights particularities of the respective language varieties. In stage two, a separate group of participants listen to recordings and offer their perceptions of each speaker. This group consists of five Spanish language experts recruited from university faculty, five students who are native Spanish speakers or who grew up in bilingual households where both Spanish and English were used, five Spanish majors who did not grow up speaking Spanish, and five native Spanish speakers who live in various countries around the world. Each participant listens to the audio samples and records their perceptions of each speaker according to such qualities as social status, intelligence, ambition, friendliness, generosity, honesty, and sense of humor, and these results are examined to reveal the general perceptions of each dialect according to the groups surveyed. One listener from each group is interviewed. Results from the pilot study are presented and will be used to fine tune methodology for the main study to follow.