LINGUISTIC ACCULTURATION IN THE ORAL PRODUCTIONS OF BRAZILIAN IMMERSION SPANISH LEARNERS IN ARGENTINA

Abstract

This article is part of a socio-interactionist doctoral research focused on Brazilian medical students learning Spanish who chose Argentina for their university studies. The limited access to public universities in Brazil, especially in the field of medicine, together with the high costs of private universities in that country, have been obstacles for many aspiring students. In contrast, Argentina's educational policies of unrestricted and free access to quality higher education, even for foreigners, have motivated many Brazilians to choose to study medicine in Argentina. Based on this situation, the objective was to analyze the learning of Spanish of the referred students, who, to a great extent, carry out their learning in an autonomous way already in immersion in Argentina. The results showed occurrences that could be interpreted as strategies used by the students to converge their oral language productions with LE/L2 Spanish. The recurrence of these productions in students with longer immersion time in Argentina evidenced linguistic acculturation in their productions in Spanish, especially with characteristics of River Plate Spanish. Likewise, the study revealed that the interlanguage progress of these students would be related to the progress of their interpersonal relationships, which would also depend on the student's predisposition to maintain interactions in LE/L2 and their awareness of its relevance for their appropriation of the target language.