Social representations from English RP and GA linguistic ideologies in Chilean cultural settings: a contrast between monolingual Spanish Chilean speakers from three different age sets

Abstract

This study reveals the results of the Social Representations (Moscovici, 1984) and Linguistic Ideologies (Kroskrity, 2010) behind the most influential and widespread varieties of English in the context of English as a foreign language in Chile: Received Pronunciation -British English- and General American -American English- in monolingual Spanish speakers from a middle-class background. This investigation, inserted in an anthropological perspective, focuses on notions from Hispanic-phone speakers who are not related to academic environments, pursuing thus a similar approach to Folk-Linguistics. The corpus of this research is composed of personal interviews performed to participants corresponding to three different age sets (adolescent - middle-age adult - mature adult) where the participants provided their opinions about English language and the most prominent varieties of English. The findings revealed a common perception of English as a working tool and the acknowledgement of English as a global language; besides there was an average preference towards the British English variety, especially in the adult participants, who also depict a more prominent rejection towards American English. In contrast, the younger group presents a more positive appreciation of American English in terms of production; however, they place British English in a superior status. As a complement, the theories of Symbolic Power by Bourdieu and Discourse and Power coined by Foucault will be considered in this research since these concepts are present in the participants‟ discourse.