View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Texas A&M Repository LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AND LINGUISTIC PROFILING AMONG MICRO-ENTERPRISERS IN MEXICO A Dissertation by REBECCA ANN BREWER Submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, Hilaire Kallendorf Co-Chair of Committee, Shari Kendall Committee Members, Irene Moyna Stephen Miller Jamis Perrett Head of Department, Steven Oberhelman August 2013 Major Subject: Hispanic Studies Copyright 2013 Rebecca Ann Brewer ABSTRACT This study examines the language attitudes of entrepreneurial students enrolled in the Academy for Creating Enterprise (ACE) in Mexico City toward six rural and urban varieties of Mexican Spanish to consider whether their attitudes towards these varieties influence their decisions about hiring. A verbal guise test and focus groups were used to determine the current attitudes held by 98 ACE students towards the popular and upper-class dialects of Mexico City; the urban dialect of Mérida, Yucatan; the urban dialect of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; the urban dialect of Monterrey, Nuevo León; and the rural dialect of San Jeronimito, Guerrero. It was determined that the ACE students, who are current and future entrepreneurs and employers, do engage in “linguistic profiling” (Purnell et al., 1999), preferring the northern varieties of Spanish and the variety spoken by the upper class of Mexico City in all three dimensions of attractiveness, status, and hireability. These results indicate that speakers of the popular variety of Mexico City and the southern varieties of Yucatán and Guerrero are less likely to be hired. In addition, the students’ ratings of hireability were also influenced by the students’ age, gender, business owner status, and exposure to the dialect in question. The students’ level of income was found to be the most likely to influence the ratings of speaker attractiveness and status. This case study of current and future employers enrolled at ACE responds to a call for the application of language attitudes research (Edwards, 1982; Garrett, 2010) and provides a model for working with an organization. Based on these findings, it was ii determined that ACE should modify its curriculum to include explicit training regarding linguistic attitudes and hiring practices. iii DEDICATION To my children. May you never, ever give up. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am very grateful to my mentor and guide, Shari Kendall. She has provided me with the help and support I so desperately needed, time after time. I appreciate her willingness to take the time to help me see the light at the end of the tunnel. I am also very grateful to Hilaire Kallendorf, who also provided me with great strength and support through her uplifting conversations, advice, and her own example. I couldn’t have done this without the support of my best friend and husband, Jeremi Brewer. He believed in me even in my darkest hours. He pushed me to succeed through his tireless example and many efforts. I enjoy every moment of our adventures together. T.I.P. I am eternally grateful to my daughters, who, without even knowing it, inspired me to complete this process. The support of my parents, Jeff and Janice Richardson, and my siblings, must also be acknowledged since much of the time spent during holiday visits was filled with many hours of writing and research. I couldn’t have done this without their help and support as well. My committee members have also been of great help to me as they spent many hours reviewing and commenting and helping me see the value of my work. Tony Love also greatly assisted me in conducting the data analysis. I thank him for his efforts and for helping when he had no obligation to do so. v A special thank you to the Academy for Creating Enterprise founders Stephen and Bette Gibson for allowing me the opportunity to conduct research on their campus in Mexico City and for giving me so many other marvelous opportunities. I also thank Gandhi Blas and the other staff members at the Academy in Mexico for assisting me with the data collection. The students of Brigham Young University who completed an internship with the Academy also deserve recognition for their assistance in entering the data. I also thank the students of the Academy for participating so willingly and for giving me their honest opinion. Finally, I would like to thank Lynne Hansen for introducing me to the wonderful world of linguistics. Her enthusiasm and love of learning inspired me to further my education. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................ii DEDICATION .................................................................................................................. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. v LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. x CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1 Language Attitudes ........................................................................................................ 3 Regional Dialects of Mexico .......................................................................................... 6 The Academy for Creating Enterprise (ACE): Contextualization of Subjects for this Study ...................................................................................................................... 20 Contributions of the Study ........................................................................................... 25 Previous Work on Language Attitudes ........................................................................ 27 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 29 Limitations of Research ............................................................................................... 30 Structure of the Study ................................................................................................... 32 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ........................................................... 36 Section I: Language Attitudes—A Historical Background .......................................... 37 Section II: Theoretical Framework—The Mentalist Perspective ................................. 40 Section III: Methodologies of Language Attitude Studies ........................................... 42 Section IV: Language Attitude Studies and Hireability ............................................... 51 Section V: Themes and Findings of Language Attitude Studies ................................. 56 Chapter Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 78 CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ................................................................................... 80 Research Questions ...................................................................................................... 81 Research Design ........................................................................................................... 81 Procedures .................................................................................................................... 86 Pilot Study .................................................................................................................... 86 vii Data Collection ............................................................................................................. 92 Coding and Organizing the Data ................................................................................ 102 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 108 CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION ................................................... 110 Reliability of the Instrument ...................................................................................... 111 Findings ...................................................................................................................... 112 Qualitative Results ..................................................................................................... 141 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 150 CHAPTER V DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ..................................................... 153 Summary .................................................................................................................... 155 Discussion .................................................................................................................. 158 Conclusions ................................................................................................................ 168 Possible Practical Applications .................................................................................. 169 Suggestions for Future Research ................................................................................ 170 REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................