Actitud hacia el bilingüismo inglés-español en estudiantes de secundaria norteamericanos

espanolEn este estudio se determino la actitud hacia el bilinguismo ingles-espanol en una muestra de 73 estudiantes de duodecimo grado de educacion secundaria del distrito escolar de la ciudad de Ventura en el Condado de Ventura, California, Estados Unidos, de ambos sexos y edades comprendidas entre 17 y 19 anos, seleccionada de tres escuelas publicas: Ventura High School, Buena High School y Foothill Technology High School. Con la finalidad adicional de explorar relaciones entre la actitud observada y algunas variables socio-demograficas relevantes, asi como analizar los conocimientos, creencias y preferencias de los sujetos en relacion con el bilinguismo ingles-espanol, vinculados a su formacion educativa, su futuro laboral y el desarrollo social de la ciudad de Ventura, se diseno y valido un cuestionario de 23 items, aplicado de manera colectiva y autoadministrada en cada escuela con una confiabilidad calculada por el Alfa de Cronbach de 0,75 y una validez de constructo establecida mediante analisis factorial con extraccion de dos factores subyacentes identificados con las dimensiones afectiva y cognitiva de los modelos bifactoriales de la actitud como constructo mediador de la conducta manifiesta. Como referente teorico se trabajo con la Teoria de la Accion Razonada de Fishbein y Ajzen. Mediante analisis de correlacion simple y parcial, principalmente, se obtuvo como resultado la confirmacion del modelo teorico de referencia. La actitud hacia el bilinguismo es en general favorable, si bien se observaron diferencias significativas entre la mayoria angloparlante y la minoria hispanoparlante, mostrando esta ultima una actitud mas favorable que la primera, atribuible a las diferencias socio-economicas entre ambos grupos poblacionales. Los resultados obtenidos son validos para la muestra de estudio unicamente, pues la misma no es representativa de la poblacion general de estudiantes de grado doce de la ciudad de Ventura. EnglishThe purpose of this study was to determine the attitude of 12th grade high school students in Ventura County´s Scholar District, in California, USA. Seventy three students of both genders and ages between 17 and 19 years old, from three public high schools (Ventura High School, Buena High School y Foothill Technology High School) participated in a survey, which also explored the relationships between observed attitudes and some social and demographic relevant variables. The knowledge, beliefs and preferences of the surveyed subjects on bilingualism English/Spanish was analyzed related to their educational formation, their job future and the social development of the City of Ventura. A specially designed and validated 23 items questionnaire was collectively self-administered in each school. The questionnaire had a reliability of 0.75 based on Cronbach�s Alpha coefficient and a validation construct established through a factor analysis with extraction of two subjacent factors, identified with the affective and cognitive dimensions of attitude bi-factorial models as a mediating construct of the manifested conduct. The research was based on Fishbein and Ajzen´s Theory of Reasoned Action. The theoretical model was confirmed through, mainly, a simple and partial correlation analysis. The attitude toward bilingualism was in general favorable, although significant differences were observed between the English speaking majority and the Spanish speaking minority. The Spanish speaking minority showed a more favorable attitude toward bilingualism than the English speaking majority. These results are justified by the socio-economic differences observed between the two groups. The results were deemed valid for this study´s sample only, because such sample is not representative of the general population of 12th grade high school students in Ventura.