TWO DIFFERENT SPEECH COMMUNITIES IN PUERTO RICO: A QUALITATIVE STUDY ABOUT SOCIAL CLASS AND CHILDREN LEARNING ENGLISH IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS OF THE ISLAND

Abstract

This dissertation describes a qualitative study related to the learning of English in a public school and a private school in two small towns on the northern coast of Puerto Rico. The families and the children in this study are referred to as two speech communities. The research examines the social interaction of elementary school students in the English classroom of the two schools, as well as, during different extracurricular activities, educational and social resources that families use to increase the learning of English by their children. This study aims to illustrate that the access to and successful management of English and extracurricular activities as cultural capital is an asset in the learning of English in Puerto Rico. The research describes how children and parents see English as a tool for social mobility. The main research question is: Are there two different speech communities in Puerto Rico? If so, who are they? What are the linguistic and social differences in these two speech communities? The methodology included classroom observations, two sociolinguistic interviews with focal parents, a sociolinguistic questionnaire, and two brief interviews with focal children. Finally, the qualitative analysis focuses on general aspects of the parents perception of bilingualism, activation of cultural capital, children's social interactions in the English classroom, and uses of English in their daily lives. The conclusions bring a clearer picture of how English is perceived by these speech communities and what the advantages are of learning English to move higher in the social class strata of Puerto Rico. This qualitative research is one of few that compare access to English as a cultural capital tool between public and private school students in Puerto Rico.

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