Acculturation orientations of immigrant students and their adaptation to a context of bilingualism in the Basque school

Authors

Nekane Larrañaga

Iñaki García

Naiara Berasategi

María-José Azumendi

Universidad del País Vasco UPV/EHU

DOI

10.4438/1988-592X-RE-2020-388-446

Abstract

This study analyses the orientations of acculturation of immigrant students and their adaptation to the Basque school. For this analysis, has been adopted a three-dimensional perspective that takes into account the group of origin and the two linguistic-cultural groups of the host society. The results indicate that the main orientation of acculturation is integration, although two modalities appear, one oriented to monolingualism, and the other to bilingualism. Both types of integration show a good school adaptation, however, subjects with integration oriented to bilingualism show higher levels of social adaptation, greater linguistic identity with both languages and with both identities, the Spanish and the Basque.

The results of this research support the idea that the study of acculturation in bilingual contexts, such as Basque, requires a three-dimensional approach, in which the group of origin and linguistic groups of the host society are considered, whether they are majority or minority. On the other hand, it is important to promote bilingual education among all students, including immigrant students, in order to facilitate their adaptation and favour positive intergroup relations.

Keywords

Immigration, Acculturation, Adaptation, Bilingualism, Linguistic Attitudes