Language Prestige in Mexico

Monday, Novemver 28th, 2022.

Abstract

This study aims to find what kind of prestige Mexicans give to English, Spanish and Nahuatl. The hypothesis is that Nahuatl has the lowest amount of prestige, and that Spanish is a highly prestigious language in Mexico, with English being valued lower than Spanish. 13 participants were interviewed, 4 Pre-Service language teachers, 4 In-Service language professors, and 5 English language learners. They were asked a series of questions about their perception of and ability in English, Spanish and Nahuatl. Mexicans give prestige to English above Spanish because of its economic value, and Spanish has a higher cultural value overall, while Nahuatl remains understudied and undervalued despite being recognized as an important part of Mexico’s linguistic culture. These findings suggest that colonial history may still affect Mexican perception of language.

Introduction

The moment Hernan Cortez set foot in the Americas was the beginning of the end. Ever since the Spanish colonized South America, the exchange of some languages happened simultaneously to the disappearance of others. This study aims to understand how those effects are still felt today in modern day Mexican’s perceptions of Spanish, Nahuatl, and English, and how much prestige is given to each one of those languages. There are a variety of historical contexts for prestige, but it is explained by Kahane (1986) as when a language is usually favored for economic and class reasons, that is highly valued above other languages, and this contributes to it’s spread across a given area. This can even lead to discrimination of other languages, with some languages being given more prestige and others seen as worth less. According to research done by Francis and Ryan (1998), Mexico has an incredibly weighted perception of languages, with heavy value on English in the forms of private schools, ESL (English as a second language) taught in nearly all public schools, and the adoption of various English words into the average lexicon leading to a form of code-switching in younger people who are generally exposed to more English media, as well a counter culture of language “purists”, who ignore English in favor of the national language of Spanish . Though, this reflects the relationship between Spanish and Nahuatl. According to research done by Francis and Ryan (1998), Nahuatl is deteriorating in prestige in comparison to Spanish, and the very same is happening between Spanish and English. The power struggle between English, Spanish and Nahuatl within learners presents unique challenges like personal choice, economic opportunities, and cultural significance (Francis & Ryan, 1998). This topic should be explored in depth in order to gain a deeper understanding for students intrinsic and extrinsic desires to learn languages and how their perceptions of these languages impact the way they learn. This study aims to understand the language prestige given by various ESL students and teachers to Spanish, Nahuatl, and English within an urban setting.

Method

This study was designed as a retrospective study. Participants were categorized in 3 groups.

Pres-service Language Teachers and In-Service Language Professors were interviewed individually, and English Language Learners were interviewed in a focus group. They were asked a series of questions in their preferred Language, between Spanish or English. Ideally, there would be a Nahuatl option as well but that was not possible at this time. The questions are as follows:

After, they were asked a question on Nahuatl speakers to gauge their perceptions on the speakers of the language. Then, they were given the answer and their reactions to the information were recorded.

Results

All participants felt that they lacked a lot of their own English ability but always looked to improve. They said not enough people speak English in Mexico but is very important for communication and for accessing job opportunities. Pre-Service and In-Service teachers felt that teaching English was important for children and adults. English Language Students put considerable emphasis on the economic benefits of learning English, while Pre-Service Teachers focused more on the cultural aspects.

When asked about Nahuatl, they felt that few people spoke it and even less people value it, and the government should be doing more to improve the use of the language and protect it. When asked about their own use of Nahuatl, all participants reported zero knowledge of the Language, though some said that they know Spanish has some Nahuatl words, but that was the extent of their knowledge.

When asked about Spanish, they said that it was important because it was the primary language in Mexico, and that while it was a complex language, it was a complete language with many aspects heavily tied to the national heritage. Though, many said that they didn’t speak “correct” Spanish, because they speak “Mexican” Spanish. They described their Spanish knowledge as very limited, and that they lack a lot of Spanish ability in a grammatical sense and vocabulary, but that they could express themselves more completely in Spanish.

When asked about how many Nahuatl speakers they thought lived in Aguascalientes, Pre-service teachers guessed the closest, the English Learners guessed the highest, and In-Service Teachers guessed the lowest.

Discussion

This study found that Mexicans place a lot of value of English, but refuse to recognize their own ability in it, and continuously undervalue their own English ability. The economic perception of English is one of the driving forces for people to learn English in Mexico, seeking economic opportunities in the United States or Canada (Francis & Ryan, 1998). They place a lot of extrinsic value in the language, seeing it’s economic value in relation to the United States, knowing that if they could go to work there, it would be easier to be accepted and secure a job if they speak English. But participants of all levels and ages never defined their English as good, but rather, that it needed a lot of improvement. They consistently undervalued not just their own English ability, but their language abilities in general. This study was done on English language learners and English Language teachers, so further study is required to get a broader perspective on English prestige. This effect of placing a lot of economic value on English while diminishing their own perceived abilities may be a residual effect of colonialism in Mexican history, leading to perceived personal lack of ability in the Mexican identity

Even when looking at what they thought of Spanish, they placed considerable value on it, but many participants considered their Spanish ability to be bad, possibly because of a lack of grammatical ability, though some feel that while their Spanish knowledge isn’t technical, they can use it to express themselves better than in any other language. In research done by Francis and Ryan (1998), it’s stated that Spanish is the language of academic and written discourse, employment opportunity, and political power in Mexico. Nearly all participants gave Spanish a high value because it was the majority spoken language. Many participants also stated that that Mexican Spanish wasn’t “pure” Spanish, and there lacked an importance of “pure” Spanish among Mexicans. In terms of prestige, similar to their views on English, they place a lot of value on Spanish but fail to recognize their ability. Yet again similar to English, it’s possible this vague emphasis on why Spanish is important is a remnant of the colonialism in Mexico

All participants admitted to knowing next to nothing about Nahuatl. A few mentioned knowing that many Spanish words have their roots in Nahuatl, but that was the end of their knowledge on the topic. Though they all acknowledged that Nahuatl is a dying language, it holds important cultural significance. They acknowledge that relatively few people care about it as a language and that more emphasis should be put on it in order to save it. Though since Spanish is the majority spoken language, and it’s used in everything from politics, to education and employment, Nahuatl has been eroded little by little (Francis & Ryan, 1998). Though they all claim to understand the cultural significance of Nahuatl in Mexico, they all lack any linguistic knowledge in the language itself. They all have very varied guesses as the number of Nahuatl speakers and their reactions express surprise, whether their above or below the guess. Their surprise usually stems from shock at how low the number was, even if they guessed close. They almost didn’t want to believe it.

This study found that Mexico does not have a diglossic situation, as it does not have a High Variety or a Low variety across the country, but it does have a fairly subconscious prestige towards foreign languages like English as well as the mother language of Spanish, and a subconscious dismissal of Nahuatl. They place a very high value on the colonial languages of English and Spanish, and understand the cultural value of Nahuatl, but fail to study it with the same drive that English and Spanish is studied. They give it an imaginary prestige, being aware of the language and its state of decay yet fail to do anything to aid it it’s revival. Considering the colonial aspects in Mexican history, where indigenous ways of life have been all but erased by the Spanish colonizers, it was only natural for indigenous people to learn to adapt to the ways imposed by the colonizers in order to survive (Villegas, 2019). This echoes in the way the participants answered, even considering that they were all at some point English language learners. Mexicans highly value languages that give them economic advantage, possibly because of the mentality of trying to adapt to a more economically advantaged country, as well as giving prestige to “pure” language such as Spanish, while considering that Mexicans themselves do not have a high enough level to be considered “good Spanish”, and that the ”regional dialect” status they apply to Spanish seems to diminish their overall understanding of the language itself.

Overall, Mexicans give prestige to English above Spanish because of its economic value, and Spanish has a higher cultural value over all, while Nahuatl remains understudied and undervalued despite being recognized as an important part of Mexico’s linguistic culture. Though this study may present considerable bias, as all the participants were either English Language learners or English Language teachers. Further study on the topic is encouraged with a wider range of participants in order to get a more complete view of Mexican perceptions of Language.

References

Francis, N., & Ryan, P. M. (1998). English as an International Language of Prestige: Conflicting Cultural Perspectives and Shifting Ethnolinguistic Loyalties. Anthropology Education Quarterly, 29(1), 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1525/aeq.1998.29.1.25

INEGI. (2020). Censo de Población y Vivienda 2020 (V. 17) [Dataset; Questionnaire]. Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía. https://www.inegi.org.mx/programas/ccpv/2020/#Resultados_generales

Kahane, H. (1986). A Typology of the Prestige Language. Language, 62(3), 495. https://doi.org/10.2307/415474

Villegas, C. D. (2019). Historia mínima de México (Spanish Edition). El Colegio de México.