Self-identifications of youth in Catalonia: a linguistic acculturation theory approach

Abstract

Located in Catalonia (Spain), and based on the Acculturation Theory applied to the field of linguistics, the objectives of this article are: i) to detect and study the linguistic acculturation strategies of young people; ii) to analyse the effects of origin and linguistic acculturation profiles relating to self-identifications with Spain and Catalonia and; iii) to explore the predictive power of these variables. The quantitative data belongs to a representative sample of teenagers aged 14 to 16 in the city of Lleida (n=571) - the second most populated province capital, after Barcelona, and a territory with a high percentage of immigrant population. The youth of Catalonia construct Catalan or Spanish linguistic acculturation strategies, but also a high percentage of integration strategies. Also, there are polarised identitary constructions, but not in all of the strategies nor associated with all of the origins. These are observed most amongst natives and with non-integrationist strategies. ; This work is part of two larger research projects and a grant funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (reference number: EDU2017-82479-R & IJCI-2016-28250) and the Agency for Management of University and Research Grants – AGAUR of the Government of Catalonia (reference number: 2017 SGR 322).