Actitudes lingüísticas en una comunidad escolar trifronteriza al sur de Brasil

Abstract

The study, conducted among members of a small school in Santa Rosa –in the State of Paraná, southern Brazil, in a tri-border area shared with Argentina and Paraguay– focuses on analysing, from Sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspectives, language attitudes towards the four main languages locally used, namely Portuguese, German, Spanish and Guarani. The data were collected, through a questionnaire, from children ranging from the second to the fifth grades (aged between 7 and 11), and seemingly point at evidences of a fractured relationship between the two main local ethnic groups –‘whites’ (mostly of German descent) and ‘natives’ (Guarani)– which might end up being overlooked in a more superficial view of the local daily life, as well as in the public speech of adult subjects on the matter.