What Kind of Spanish Do You Speak? Language and Social Perceptions

Our perceptions about what kind of bilingual we want our kids to be are rooted in what we feel is acceptable Spanish. But where do these ideas of what is “correct” or “incorrect” come from?

In this episode, we speak to Salvatore Callesano, a sociolinguistic researcher and instructor at The University of Texas at Austin, about the relationship between linguistics and social perceptions and the effect these can have on bilingual children and youth in the US.

Mentioned in this episode

• The social meaning of Spanish in Miami: Dialect perceptions and implications for socioeconomic class, income, and employment by Philip M. Carter and Salvatore Callesano, Latino Studies, April 2018
• Latinx perceptions of Spanish in Miami: Dialect variation, personality attributes and language use by Salvatore Callesano and Philip M. Carter, Language and Communication, July 2019
• Real Academia Española (RAE)
• “English with an Accent” by Rosina Lippi-Green
• Indexicality
• Matched guise test
• Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española
• “Hablando bien se entiende la gente”
• “Hablando bien se entiende la gente 2”

Additional reading

• Op-Ed: There is Nothing Wrong with Julián Castro’s Spanish, New York Times, July 27, 2019

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