Lectal acquisition and linguistic stereotype formation 257watch TV or do not watch TV excessively (below 2 hours or from 3-7
hours per week) obtained no correct results in the test. On the contrary,
these youngsters obtained the best results in the test: while one of the child-
ren who claimed to spend more than 15 hours a week in front of the telly
obtained 5 correct hits out of 8 possibilities, so did 6 of the less addicted.
While it cannot be ruled out that watching TV was regarded by the children
as a negative aspect when evaluated by an adult and that their self-
evaluation was influenced by this factor, on the basis of the data at our dis-
posal we must conclude that to the extent that exposure from the media is a
relevant factor, at least the quantitative dimension is less important than
hypothesized.
But there is more data to be discussed in relation to social awareness.
The 150 children were also asked the following question for all fifteen
speech samples: What other people or characters do you know who speak
this way? The question was included in the response form in order to elicit
correspondences between the speech fragments and social categorizations,
just as the questions regarding travelling and TV we just discussed did, just
that in a more indirect fashion. Which type of people or characters did the
children know who spoke like the speakers in the fragments?
Qualitatively speaking, the 12-13 year-olds had the following responses
for Andalucía:
x our English teacher Maria Jose (11 out of 50 listeners)
x relatives, neighbours, friends
x María del Monte, Isabel Pantoja (Andalusian singers)
x Sergio Ramos (football placer from Real Madrid)
x Cristina García Ramos (TV presenter)
For the American speaker, the replies were as follows:
x relatives in Florida
x a summer camp
x a character in Los Serrano (a TV series)
x David Beckham (British, not American)
x Hilary Duff
For the Argentinean speaker the responses included:
12-13 year-olds
x my dentist
x a friend
x Leo Messi (football player in F.C. Barcelona, 4 responses)