Studying Spanish in the USA: Mass Media as Social Motivation

Abstract

Mass media have a central role in transmitting culture. In fact, they have become handy relevant tools for learning a foreign language due to their ability to transmit both direct and indirect information. Mass media that broadcast or publish in Spanish have helped to unify the language in a basic neutral Spanish, fostering better reading and writing competences and self-esteem increase among the Hispanic population, at the same time making this population more visible. The main aim of this study is to analyze what motivates North American students to select Spanish as a foreign language. For this purpose, the number and types of mass media published in Spanish in the geographic context of the survey informants have been studied, as well as the use the students make of media. Furthermore, an adaptation of the questionnaire by Ramírez (1992) has been employed to establish the socio-cultural competence of North American students studying at two Spanish universities. The analysis of the survey results reveals that mass media have a high impact on the social motivation to learn Spanish as a foreign language of these students, that is to say, the possibility of working with and assisting the Hispanic population is rated as a main career opportunity. Mass media show the importance that Spanish is acquiring in other formal contexts of American life and constitute a nexus between cultures. They have also conquered students of Spanish as a foreign language as an audience, as they consider media an important source of linguistic and cultural input..