Ethnolinguistic vitality, social networks and motivation in second language acquisition: Some data from the basque country

The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of socio‐contextual and social psychological elements in second language acquisition in bilingual settings. A total of 139 Spanish L1 secondary school students completed several measures of subjective ethnolinguistic vitality, social networks, motivation and Basque and Spanish proficiency. A MANOVA analysis showed that, when compared to a Basque‐speaking control group (N=121), the Spanish‐speaking subjects scored significantly lower on all the measures except achievement in Spanish. In addition, structural equation modelling techniques were used to demonstrate the significant effect of socio‐contextual and social psychological elements and the articulating role of social networks.