The Proceedings of the UCLA Department of Spanish and Portuguese Graduate Conference

As is well known, Los Angeles is home to a large number of Spanish-speaking immigrants from a variety of different countries. Studies on the Spanish spoken in LA County have demonstrated the existence of a distinct dialect, a product of koineization and dialect leveling. In this paper we seek to explore the dynamics of such leveling as it occurs in a public elementary school in this area. Taking into consideration the fact that use of Spanish is not permited in the public school classroom, we choose to observe children’s use of this language during recess, lunch and a structured after school program designed to help Spanish speakers improve their English skills. These observations are further supplemented by answers to informal interviews with students froom the after school program. The evidence that we find provides further support for the validity of LA Spanish as a distinct dialect and serves to illuminate, at least in part, the role that the public school setting plays in the creation of linguistic norms.