Language beyond the classroom: the social representations of the use of english in chilean trap music

Abstract

The present research reveals a glimpse into a brunch of English studies in Chile. The main subject of study will be the linguistic anthropological, political, social, and economic implications behind the social representations of English in a diverse sphere as the appearance in urban Chilean trap. The following qualitative research sheds some light, on a descriptive level, to the use of English in the Chilean trap music in a non-experimental design with a structural approach. The corpus arises from subjects that like and dislike the genre, as well as the artists that create the lyrics. Furthermore, an analysis of the different topics that were found in the process of the research, which were consistent to the approaches of English in this type of music, was also carried out. Overall, we conclude that English as a hegemonic language has broken into Spanish speakers and its music, creating a new interest in this powerful tool in order to promote and achieve recognition around the world.