Examining the relationship between Latinos’ English proficiency, educational degree, language preferences, and their perceptions on the Americans

Year 2020, Volume: 16 Issue: 1, 290 - 305, 29.03.2020

Hilal Peker

https://doi.org/10.17263/jlls.712826

Abstract

Using data from the 2018 National Survey of Latinos that was conducted by The Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, the researcher in the present study reports on the perceptions of Latinos on English and their educational degrees as well as their language preferences. This non-experimental quantitative study is considered one of the first ones focusing on Latinos’ language preferences conducted all over the United States. A highly randomly stratified 2,288 Latino adults (1,041 males and 1,091 females) who are 18 years old or older identified themselves as Latinos in this study. These participants were from 48 states in total. The results indicated that there was a positive relationship between the last degree attended and participants’ English proficiency; however, there was no association between participants’ preference of English over Spanish and their perceptions on the friendliness/closeness of American individuals. The implications and future direction are recommended at the end of the study based on these results.

Keywords

identity, language preference, English proficiency, Spanish

References

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