Oral-Aural Communication Skills in English Among Adult Immigrants and Exiles.

Abstract

This study investigated the variables that differentiate the language learning process of those adults who have varying levels of expectancy of eventually returning to their native l and . Their reasons for leaving their native l and (political, economic, or both) affected these levels of expectancy. The subjects used were required to have been permanent residents for at least five years in the new linguistic territory. The hypotheses were: Hypotheses 1 and 2: an inverse and direct relationship exists between desire to return to the native l and and acceptance of the new linguistic territory with oral-aural communication skills in English independently of the effects of age at entry and length of time in the country. Hypothesis 3: an inverse relationship exists between desire to return to the native l and and acceptance of the new linguistic territory. Hypotheses 4, 5, and 6: a relationship exists between predicted rankings for combinations of types of motivation for leaving the native l and and expectancy of eventually returning with levels of oral-aural communication skills in English, desire to return to the native l and , and acceptance of the new linguistic territory. Hypothesis 7: the groups of Cuban exiles, Cuban immigrants, Puerto Ricans, Hungarian immigrants, and Hungarian exiles rank in levels of oral-aural communication skills in English, desire to return to the native l and , and acceptance of the new linguistic territory according to the rankings predicted for the motivation-expectancy groups. The 125 adults selected were 42 Cuban exiles, 35 Cuban immigrants, 14 Puerto Ricans, 30 Hungarian exiles, and 4 Hungarian immigrants. Ninety-two resided in Miami and 27 in Hialeah and other cities in Florida. They were found with the help of four Catholic priests and a nun. The instrumentation was written in Spanish, Hungarian, and English. The subjects were interviewed first by phone to screen them according to selective variables. During a second interview in person, the subject completed a self-administered questionnaire written in his native language. Then a recorded speech sample of the subject's oral-aural communication skills in English was obtained by responding to taped questions asked by an American, native speaker of English. These recorded speech samples were evaluated by two monolingual American native speakers of English. Analysis of variance techniques were used to test hypotheses 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. To test hypothesis 3 a Pearson product-moment correlation technique was used. The findings show: Hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 were supported. Hypotheses 4, 5, and 6 were not supported. However, the groups: political and no expectancy and political and high expectancy consistently obtained supportive findings when viewed independently of the other categories in the design. Since only seven of the nine combinations of the motivation-expectancy groups appeared in the sample, precise comparisons were impossible. Also the distribution of the subjects in the groups was disproportionate. In the testing of hypotheses 1, 2, and 3 the entire data was used in two groups. In a later question, it became clear that the nine subjects who chose a type of motivation caused by political and economic reasons actually have a type of motivation caused by economic reasons only. The motivational scale should be refined to insure proper classification. Hypothesis 7 obtained supportive findings for the only groups that could be tested: Cuban exiles and Hungarian exiles. Comparisons were not possible with Cuban immigrants, Puerto Ricans, and Hungarian immigrants, since these groups appeared with insufficient representation or no representation at all among the motivation-expectancy groups. The entire design of hypotheses 4, 5, 6, and 7 may show supportive findings when new data are collected for retesting.