|
Newham
Council Community Language Survey Spanish Language Speakers
– Summary Report
1.
Characteristics of respondents
120
respondents answering the Language Survey were Spanish speakers. Table
1 summarises their general characteristics.
·
60% of the respondents were female and the majority were aged under 45
(83%).
·
Only 4% originated in Spain, with the remainder originating in Spanish-speaking
South and Central America, with over half (55%) giving Colombia as their
country of origin, and over a third (36%) stating Equador.
·
Virtually 9 out of 10 of the Spanish speakers interviewed (88%) had lived
in this country less than 5 years.
Table 1: Characteristics of Spanish language respondents
2.
Language and communication skills
Language most comfortable using
Virtually
all of the respondents were most comfortable using Spanish when speaking,
reading or writing as Table 2 below shows. All of them felt comfortable
speaking and reading in Spanish, with 95% comfortable writing in Spanish,
although a tiny proportion in each case mentioned that they were also
comfortable speaking, reading and writing in English (4%, or 5 respondents),
Italian or Basque (1 respondent each).
Table 2: Language that respondents feel most comfortable using
Having
stated which language they felt most comfortable using, respondents
were also asked about any other languages they felt comfortable using
for everyday conversations. A quarter of respondents were happy to converse
in English (25%), with 4% mentioning each of Italian and Portuguese.
However, the majority (60%) said there was no other language they felt
comfortable using.
Formal verbal communication in English/ own language
Respondents
were asked how well they can talk formally and understand what is being
said when someone is talking formally to them – they were given the
examples of talking to their Doctor, the Police or the Council. They
were asked about their talking and understanding in both English and
their own language. Table 3 below compares the proportions able to talk
formally in English and understand when English is spoken formally to
them, with those able to talk or understand their own language in a
formal situation.
A
higher proportion of respondents is able to understand English spoken
formally to them than feel able to talk formally themselves. However,
only one in every five respondents can understand spoken English very
or quite well in such situations, and less than one in every seven feel
able to speak English very or quite well. Some 87% say they cannot talk
formally to someone in English well enough to make themselves easily
understood.
In
contrast, virtually all respondents are confident about talking and
understanding in a formal situation when using their own language –
almost 90% in each case say they could communicate very well, and the
remainder quite well.
Sample
sizes are small, but predictably, respondents who have lived in this
country the longest are the most likely to be more confident about their
verbal communication in English -
50% of those who have lived here for 5 years or longer believe they
can talk formally in English quite or very well, compared to just 9%
of those who have been here less than 5 years.
The
indications are that younger respondents (under 35s) are more confident
about their English than the over 35s, but sample sizes are too small
to show a significant difference by age. Even among the under 35s, 76%
state that they cannot understand English very well if at all and some
84% say they cannot talk formally in English very well if at all.
Table 3 : Formal communication: talking and understanding
Formal written communication in English / own language
When
asked about communicating in writing in English, respondents are more
confident about reading than writing a formal letter in English. As
with understanding spoken English, around one in five feel they can
read a letter quite or very well, but only one in 20 (5%) say they could
write a formal letter in English very or quite well.
However,
respondents are much less confident about writing a formal letter in
their own language than any other form of communication – over 90% say
they could read and understand a formal letter very well, only 58% believe
they could write a formal letter very well in their own language.
Confidence
in their ability to read English does improve over time – of those who
have lived here over 5 years, 50% say they could read a formal letter
in English quite or very well (compared to 14% who have lived here less
than 5 years). However, even after 5 years here, the majority (86%)
remain unsure of their ability to write a formal letter in English.
Table 4 : Formal communication: reading and writing
Reading an English newspaper/ publication
A
minority of respondents – 17% - are very or quite confident that they
are able to read and understand the information in a daily newspaper
such as the Sun, Mirror, Guardian or Times.
Table 5: Level of confidence in being able to read a daily newspaper
in English Base
= all respondents
3.
Contact with the Council
Use of council services
84%
of respondents had used council services in the past (101 respondents),
giving a variety of reasons, most often for benefits in general (55%),
educational matters (53%), council tax payments or enquiries (42%) or
housing and accommodation (27%).
Table
6 below shows the level of understanding both verbal and written contact
with the council.
Table 6: Ease of understanding Council staff/ letters from Council
Verbal contact with the council
88%
of respondents had had face-to-face contact with council staff, while
6% had spoken to them on the telephone.
The
majority had experienced difficulty in understanding the council staff
that dealt with their enquiry, as shown in Table 6 above. Only 22% said
it was very or fairly easy to understand council staff, 32% had experienced
some difficulty and almost half, 46%, had experienced great difficulty.
38%
were presented with an option to use an interpreter, whereas 53% said
they were not given this option, and nine out of 10 of these
(89%) felt that this would have helped.
Of
those 38 respondents given the option of using an interpreter, three-quarters
(74%) then fully understood, and the remainder (26%) mostly understood
the council staff as a result. No respondents felt that having an interpreter
failed to improve their understanding substantially.
When
visiting Council offices, the majority of respondents take someone else
with them, only 39% go alone:
- 29% take a family member
-
27% take a friend
-
9% take an interpreter
Written contact with the Council
As
with verbal contact, the majority of respondents only understand with
difficulty letters received from the council (Table 6 above). Only 17%
find letters or leaflets fairly or very easy to understand, although
in the case of written communication respondents are less likely to
experience ‘great difficulty’ than with verbal communication – only
26% said they have great difficulty understanding letters compared to
46% for phone or face-to-face contact.
Virtually
all respondents - 95% - said it would have helped if letters were translated,
mostly because it would allow them to be independent.
4.
Communication options
Newspaper readership
16%
of respondents do not regularly read any newspaper. Table 7 below shows
the most popular newspapers among the sample, dominated by Metro, read
by a third of the sample and Las Noticias, read by a quarter.
Table 7: Readership of newspapers Base
= all respondents
Broadcast media
Respondents
prove more likely to listen to radio in their own language than watch
a television channel. Overall, just over 60% of respondents say they
don’t listen to any radio programme in their own language regularly,
compared to over 80% not watching any television channel regularly.
Most
popular among radio programmes is Impacto Latino on Spectrum radio mentioned
by around one in five respondents overall. Radio Latina is named by
a further 3%, although over 10% of respondents say they do listen to
a programme in their own language without naming it specifically.
The
only specific television channels mentioned by more than one respondent
are TVE International (3%) and TV Spain (2%).
Computer ownership
A
third of respondents live in households where someone has a computer
– 13% of all respondents own a computer themselves, while around the
same proportion have a child or a partner with a computer.
Overall,
just under a quarter of all respondents (23%) say they would be able
to use the computer to access information about the council or their
community.
Table
8 compares the proportions of broad age groups who can be contacted
by the different media types. In general terms, under 35s are more likely
to be reached by the broadcast media, over 35s by newspapers.
Table 8: Exposure to different media types by age group Base
= all respondents
5.
Other sources of information
Voluntary organisations visited
63%
of all respondents regularly use or visit at least one voluntary organisation.
Of these 75 respondents, 88% mention Breakthrough – representing over
half of the sample as a whole – and it is mentioned equally across all
age groups, by males and females, and regardless of the length of time
the respondent has lived in this country. No other organisation is mentioned
by more than 2 respondents.
Religious venues visited
A
similar proportion of respondents regularly attend a religious venue
– 64% - with half of these naming the New City Church (representing
32% of the sample as a whole). Again, no other specific church or religious
venue is mentioned by more than 2 respondents, although over 30% refer
to a ‘Catholic Church’ in general.
Sources of help and advice
Asked
where they would go for help, advice or support, 60% of respondents
would turn to Breakthrough, 18% mentioned friends, family or neighbours,
and 6% suggested a solicitor. No other source of help was mentioned
by more than 5 respondents.
Usual sources of information
When
asked about ‘the most common way’ that they hear information (e.g. events,
benefits etc), the highest proportion relies on word of mouth (39%).
Leaflets in English (34%) are more common than leaflets in their own
language. No other source of information is suggested by more than 2
or 3 respondents.
Base
= all respondents Suggested means of publicising information
In
this section, respondents were also asked if they could think of anywhere
else where information could be publicised to make it easier for them
to access. Only 19% had no suggestions to make. Table 10 summarises
the main suggestions put forward.
Libraries,
shops/ supermarkets and bus/ train stations are each suggested by over
10% of the respondents, with educational and medical centres mentioned
by 8% each.
Beyond
the suggestions shown in the table a wide range of other possibilities
are put forward by 2 or 3 respondents each, such as leisure centres,
post offices and entertainment venues.
Table 10: Suggested places for publicising information Base
= all respondents
Preferred format for information in own language
When
asked which format would be most useful for information to be
supplied in, respondents showed an overwhelming preference for text
translations (70%) rather than audio, video or telephone translations.
Text is preferred across all age groups.
The
main reasons given for this preference are that text is:
·
easier to understand (27%)
·
more convenient/ takes less time (26%)
·
can read it myself (26%)
·
more practical (20%)
Telephone
translations are generally regarded as the least useful format
for information, chosen by almost half of the sample (46%). Audio and
video tapes are each chosen as least useful by almost a quarter of respondents.
Only a tiny percentage (3%) believe that the text translation is the
least useful format for information in their own language.
Telephone
translation is regarded as the least useful because:
·
can’t spare the time/ inconvenient (44%)
·
more difficult/ not necessarily appropriate (25%)
·
forget or lose information (13%)
·
harder to understand on phone (13%)
Base
= all respondents
6.
Provision of information by the Council in leaflet form
Ease of reading leaflets |
