Second language acquisition in a linguistic immersion context. A structural model about the role of intelligence and linguistic attitudes

Abstract

This study aims to know how fluid intelligence and linguistic attitude participate in the language learning of young people who are in a linguistic immersion situation in Catalonia. Considering the linguistic particularities of the Catalan territory, a path model has been designed in which the effect of the fluid intelligence and linguistic attitude on the acquisition of the two official languages of the territory (Spanish and Catalan) in young immigrants of Romanian origin is studied. The results show how fluid intelligence exerted a significant facilitating effect of medium-low magnitude on learning of similar intensity for both languages. However, the attitude shows to exert a significant facilitating effect of low magnitude for the acquisition of the vehicular language (Catalan), but not significant for the language of non-academic use (Spanish). These results suggest that fluid intelligence and linguistic attitude are facilitating agents of language acquisition in situations of linguistic immersion, although in the case of attitude, the intensity of this effect may depend on the way in which learners are in contact with the language.