English in Puerto Rico: Ideologies, and Identities and Social Uses among the Puerto Rican Youth

FAIN: HB-273677-21

Katherine R. Morales Lugo
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez (Mayaguez, PR 00680-6475)

Research and writing leading to a book on English language use among Puerto Rican youth living on the island. 

Recent statistics suggest that there are more Puerto Ricans in the mainland United States than on the island of Puerto Rico. Despite undeniable presence, scholarship depicts islanders as holding conflicting beliefs that place being “Puerto Rican” and “Being American” at ideological odds. The presence/absence of English is often treated as key to negotiating aspects of identity relations, as English is projected as the language of “the Other,” “the colonizer,” and “the island elite.” My ethnographically grounded study of adolescent communities challenges previous findings about resistance to English, the uses of English, and the ideologies attached to the language. Under a framework of identity construction, I explore how the island youth make sense of the meanings of English, and subsequently draw on and orient to these meanings in interaction. This will be the first monograph that focuses on English in island Puerto Ricans, contributing to the growing bibliography of English in the U.S. and World Englishes.

Media Coverage

Catedratica de Ingles recibe prestigioso galardon de la NEH (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Mariam Ludim Rosa
Publication: Prensa RUM
Date: 2/5/2021
URL: https://www.uprm.edu/portada/2021/02/05/catedraticarecibepremioneh/

Profesora del RUM recibe beca del National Endowment for the Humanities (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Valeriano Wayler
Publication: Periódico Vision
Date: 2/17/2021
Abstract: I was interviewed by Valeriano Wayler at Vision Newspaper about the NEH award, bilingual education on the island, changing trends in bilingualism, and World Englishes.
URL: http://periodicovision.com/profesora-del-rum-recibe-beca-del-national-endowment-for-the-humanities/

Associated Products

WPAB Ponce Jose Elias' Analisis Radial entrevista con Dr. Katherine Morales [Live] (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: WPAB Ponce Jose Elias' Analisis Radial entrevista con Dr. Katherine Morales [Live]
Director: Jose Elias
Producer: Jose Elias
Abstract: Escuche hoy 8am Analisis Radial conversando con Tuto Gimenez, Dr.Adrian Graham , Prof. Migdalia Santiago, Dra. Katherine Morales Lugo y Juan Dalmau Ramirez. Analisis Radial hoy 8-11am WPAB 550 y http://pab550.com
Date: 03/06/2021
Primary URL: http://www.pab550.com/site/
Primary URL Description: The URL is an online link where one can access the radio station WPAB and listen to the broadcasts' "Live". The interview spoke about my project and related issues, such as English education in PR, what does it mean to be bilingual, the bilingual brain, and whether we will witness a language change in sight.
Secondary URL: https://twitter.com/joselias550
Secondary URL Description: Personal account of radio host where he promoted the talk.
Format: Radio
Format: Digital File

Radio Universidad UPR Live Interview (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Radio Universidad UPR Live Interview
Director: Radio Universidad UPR
Producer: Radio Universidad UPR
Abstract: Was interviewed for 15 minutes by radio host of UPR's Radio Universidad at 7.30 AM live. Interview topics covered NEH award, research, personal career, and writing plans.
Date: 03/12/2021
Primary URL: http://www.wrtu.pr/
Primary URL Description: Was interviewed for 15 minutes by radio host of UPR's Radio Universidad at 7.30 AM live. Interview topics covered NEH award, research, personal career, and writing plans.
Format: Radio

Radio UPR (Radio/Audio Broadcast or Recording)
Title: Radio UPR
Director: Radio UPR
Producer: Radio UPR
Abstract: http://tunein.com/embed/player/s22620/ 10- 15 minute interview with UPR's main radio station about the NEH award, my project, and publication plans.
Date: 03/12/2021
Primary URL: http://tunein.com/embed/player/s22620/
Format: Radio

English in Modern Day Puerto Rico: Form, Ideologies, and Bilingual Practices of the Island Youth (Book)
Title: English in Modern Day Puerto Rico: Form, Ideologies, and Bilingual Practices of the Island Youth
Author: Katherine Morales Lugo
Abstract: This work is current under contract with a project publication date of 2023.
Year: 2022
Publisher: Multilingualism Matters
Type: Single author monograph
Copy sent to NEH?: No

INGL 4998 Independent Supervised Research (Course or Curricular Material)
Title: INGL 4998 Independent Supervised Research
Author: Katherine Morales
Abstract: [This course was created for undergraduate students at UPRM for Spring semester in 2021, following the start date of the award period. Students were instructed on methods of categorizing different styles of bilingualism]. At present I am away from my main computer with the course syllabus, but once I have found it I will upload the description here.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.uprm.edu/english/ingl-4998-supervised-research/
Audience: Undergraduate

Puerto Ricans Online:The Translingual Lives of the Global Youth (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Puerto Ricans Online:The Translingual Lives of the Global Youth
Author: Xavier Diaz-Montero
Author: Katherine Morales
Abstract: Abstract This paper provides a descriptive analysis of bilingual language across online platforms by island youth. We provide findings of 2 social networks (Milroy and Llamas, 2013) of Puerto Ricans and qualitatively detail how different technological platforms provide different ideological spaces for communication and the construction of identities, whereby ideological practices exist each matching expected audiences and ideologies attached to virtual spaces. Individuals, in turn, orient to these platforms and their imagined audiences through a diverse range of semiotic practices. In this sense, we project the image of an island bilingual that is strategic, multimodal and literate in different Englishes, Spanishes and in-between contact styles. Furthermore, we position the Puerto Rican Internet user as stylistically engaging in two competing ideological linguistic markets: that of Global Englishes (encompassing standard and non-standard varieties of English) as well as Global Spanish (encompassing Puerto Rican Spanish, standard Spanish, and features of Internet Spanish). Data are gathered from popular social media applications (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) as well as text-messaging applications (WhatsApp, iMessage), for a total of 500 screenshots. By incorporating a multimodal perspective (Bezemer and Kress, 2015) to interpreting bilingual speech, the Puerto Rican bilingual is positioned as a translingual communicator, influenced by their everyday investments in society (e.g., social practices), social circumstances (e.g., education, socioeconomic status), as well as the mediatization that has transformed traditional boundaries of the so-called “speech community” (Jacquemet, 2019). Findings from this paper further illuminate the nature of the translanguaging practices in modern day Puerto Rico, particularly among the youth (Morales Lugo, 2019, 20
Date Range: September 1-3 2022
Location: Belfast, Ireland
Primary URL: https://www.baalconference2022.com/uploads/1/3/4/9/134905719/baal_2022_conference_with_session_chairs_final_version.pdf
Primary URL Description: The Programme for the 22nd Annual Meeting for the British Association for Applied Linguistics

Making Sense of Bilingual Histories (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Making Sense of Bilingual Histories
Author: Katherine Morales
Author: Sarah O'Brien
Author: Alejandra Nunez
Abstract: Roundtable proposal: Sense-making in the Bilingual Oral History Interview Czeslaw Milosz once wrote that “language is the only homeland.” Milosz’ words ring particularly true in contexts of displacement, where language comes to act as a potent symbol of belonging and identity. This roundtable honors this facet of migrant identity by discussing how “movements” across languages during oral history interviews can be interpreted. Based on three English-Spanish oral history projects, respectively recorded in Puerto Rico, Mexico and Argentina, presenters will discuss how participants’ movements from one language to another illuminated an understanding of their migration journeys. Sarah O’Brien will draw from fifty interviews recorded with third generation Irish descendants in Argentina (2010-2012). Her presentation will problematize the role of language in diasporic contexts by illustrating how racist discourses in nineteenth century Argentina encouraged the English language maintenance amongst successive generations of Irish-Argentine descendants. Alejandra Nuñez will approach this topic from the perspective of Mexican migration. Referencing 23 oral histories recorded with bilingual transnational youths in Mexico, she will illustrate how focusing on language-use as a discussion point during the oral history interview empowered participants to reflect upon their development of a transnational identity [...] Katherine Morales’ presentation addresses the narratives of identity and belonging that emerged through bilingual practices in a series of ethnographic oral history interviews conducted in a public school in Puerto Rico. The English language in this setting is considered a symbol of prestige, unequally distributed among the masses. By adopting a heteroglossic (see Bakhtin) framework, this presentation highlights how transnational adolescents made sense of their cultural and social realities, by strategically drawing on the linguistic repertoires.
Date Range: October 9-14 2021
Location: Annual Oral History Conference [Virtual presentation]
Primary URL: https://convention2.allacademic.com/one/oha/oha21/

English and Spanish Online: The Multimodal Practices of the Puerto Rican Youth (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: English and Spanish Online: The Multimodal Practices of the Puerto Rican Youth
Author: Katherine Morales
Abstract: This paper provides a descriptive analysis of bilingual language across online platforms by island youth. We provide findings of 2 social networks (Milroy and Llamas, 2013) of Puerto Ricans and qualitatively detail how different technological platforms provide different ideological spaces for communication and the construction of identities, whereby ideological practices exist each matching expected audiences and ideologies attached to virtual spaces. Individuals, in turn, orient to these platforms and their imagined audiences through a diverse range of semiotic practices. In this sense, we project the image of an island bilingual that is strategic, multimodal and literate in different Englishes, Spanishes and in-between contact styles. Furthermore, we position the Puerto Rican Internet user as stylistically engaging in two competing ideological linguistic markets: that of Global Englishes (encompassing standard and non-standard varieties of English) as well as Global Spanish (encompassing Puerto Rican Spanish, standard Spanish, and features of Internet Spanish). Data are gathered from popular social media applications (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) as well as text-messaging applications (WhatsApp, iMessage), for a total of 500 screenshots. By incorporating a multimodal perspective (Bezemer and Kress, 2015) to interpreting bilingual speech, the Puerto Rican bilingual is positioned as a translingual communicator, influenced by their everyday investments in society (e.g., social practices), social circumstances (e.g., education, socioeconomic status), as well as the mediatization that has transformed traditional boundaries of the so-called “speech community” (Jacquemet, 2019). Findings from this paper further illuminate the nature of the translanguaging practices in modern day Puerto Rico, particularly among the youth (Morales Lugo, 2019, 2020), making room for an additional narrative that envisions the smartphone as an extension of the human body. The findings fr
Date Range: November 2022
Location: Hispanic Symposium [ASU, online]

Profesora del RUM recibe beca del National Endowment for the Humanities (Article)
Title: Profesora del RUM recibe beca del National Endowment for the Humanities
Author: Valeriano Weyler
Abstract: in print local newspaper
Year: 2021
Primary URL: in print
Format: Newspaper
Publisher: Periódico Visión

Catedrática de Inglés del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez de la UPR recibe prestigioso galardón de la NEH (Article)
Title: Catedrática de Inglés del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez de la UPR recibe prestigioso galardón de la NEH
Author: Milagros Irizarry Lopez
Abstract: 22 de febrero de 2021 La doctora Katherine Morales Lugo, catedrática auxiliar del Departamento de Inglés del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), recibió el National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Faculty Award, que le otorga una subvención de $60 mil, con el fin de publicar un libro basado en su investigación doctoral sobre el bilingüismo en Puerto Rico.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.upr.edu/catedratica-de-ingles-del-recinto-universitario-de-mayaguez-de-la-upr-recibe-prestigioso-galardon-de-la-neh/
Format: Other
Publisher: UPR

Catedrática del RUM recibe prestigioso galardón de la NEH (Article)
Title: Catedrática del RUM recibe prestigioso galardón de la NEH
Author: unknown
Abstract: La doctora Katherine Morales Lugo, catedrática auxiliar del Departamento de Inglés del Recinto Universitario de Mayagüez (RUM) de la Universidad de Puerto Rico (UPR), recibió el National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Faculty Award, que le otorga una subvención de $60 mil, con el fin de publicar un libro basado en su investigación doctoral sobre el bilingüismo en Puerto Rico. Egresada de la clase del 2011, del mencionado Departamento, la educadora cursó su maestría en la Universidad de Edimburgo, en Escocia, y su doctorado en University of Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, en Irlanda. Ambas instituciones de educación superior europeas son milenarias, con una amplia tradición en las disciplinas de idiomas, literatura y letras.
Year: 2021
Primary URL: https://www.metro.pr/pr/noticias/2021/02/20/catedratica-del-rum-recibe-prestigioso-galardon-la-neh.html?fbclid=IwAR3tSLK0kKIFMwQSaUK7dD_6MSaqYcL4KQGQmS3WAWT1xLwYCafIpUMxBUg
Format: Newspaper
Publisher: Metro Puerto Rico

An Extension of the Self: The Translinguistic Practices of Puerto Ricans Online (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: An Extension of the Self: The Translinguistic Practices of Puerto Ricans Online
Author: Katherine Morales
Abstract: An Extension of the Self: The Translinguistic Practices of Puerto Ricans Online Abstract This paper provides a descriptive analysis of bilingual language practices in online platforms by Puerto Rican youth. We follow the practices of two social networks (Milroy and Llamas, 2013) of Puerto Ricans and qualitatively detail how different technological platforms are shaping the way youth orient to themselves through ideological language constructs (Spanish, English) and more nuanced aspects of their repertoire (textspeak registers, non-binary language, symbols). In this sense, we portray a Puerto Rican bilingual who draws on a diverse range of semiotic practices, challenging previous notions of Puerto Ricans as adhering to Spanish-dominant practices alone. Therefore, we project an image of an island bilingual that is multimodal and literate in different Englishes, Spanishes and in-between contact styles. Data are gathered from popular social media applications (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) as well as text-messaging applications (WhatsApp, iMessage), for a total of 500 screenshots. By incorporating a multimodal perspective (Bezemer and Kress, 2015) to interpreting bilingual speech, the Puerto Rican bilingual is positioned as a translingual communicator, influenced by their everyday investments in society (e.g., social practices), social circumstances (e.g., education, socioeconomic status, gender identity), as well as the mediatization that has transformed traditional boundaries of the so-called “speech community” (Jacquemet, 2019). Findings from this paper further illuminate the nature of languages in modern day Puerto Rico, particularly among the youth (Morales Lugo, 2019, 2020), making room for an additional narrative that envisions the smartphone as an extension of the human body. The findings from this paper are part of a larger study of documenting languages in the Puerto Rican youth, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities (HB-273677-21).
Date: 03-18-2022
Primary URL: https://www.aaal.org/events/aaal-2023-conference---portland-oregon
Conference Name: American Association for Applied Linguistics

---