Bilingual Policies
One of the most controversial issues facing today's policy makers in the United States is the issue of bilingualism. The United States currently has a significant minority population whose first language is Spanish and not English. Complicating this fact further, many of these people are Puerto Rican in origin or family ethnicity. As such, they are United States citizens, but the majority of those living in Puerto Rico speak little or no English, and a significant number of those who have moved to the mainland have Spanish as their first language.
Residents of Puerto Rico have been American citizens since 1917 (Rubenstein, 2001). As such, they have the advantages of American citizenship from birth. In spite of this status, some report that as a group, Puerto Ricans are slower to assimilate into the larger, English-dominant American society (Rubenstein, 2001), which some feel sets them apart from groups of people who are true immigrants. Others feel that this sense of separation within U.S. citizenship is a serious problem for the United States (Rubenstein, 2001) while others see it as a cultural and linguistic difference that while important, does not represent any kind of real problem or crisis. These issues have spilled over to one of the most important policy decisions the United States regarding Puerto Rico -- whether or not to give that territory the status of a state. Some feel that if this is done, it would somehow make the Spanish language "co-equal" (Rubenstein, 2001) with English, in effect forcing the United States to an official stance of bilingualism.
Americans can see some effects of bilingualism as official policy by looking at the packaging of many things sold in the United States, because much of that packaging already contains two languages -- English and French. This is because Canada is officially bilingual, and anything sold in Canada must be labeled in both languages. First examination of this marketing practice suggests that recognizing the presence of two languages in a country may be good for
When asked, "How would you feel if Spanish became a national language of the U.S. just like English?" A respondent said, "I would be mad happy! I think that if everyone knew both languages it would just be easier for everyone to have the same opportunities that just the white people do (Doherty, 2004)." However, becoming officially bilingual would not mean that people who spoke English first would also speak Spanish. It would simply mean that the use of both languages on signs and in other ways would become more widespread. It would not force those who speak English to learn Spanish any more than it would force those who speak Spanish to learn English fluently.
In fact, bilingualism isn't as simple a skill as many policy-makers and politicians seem to think. When a person speaks two languages fluently, he or she has to choose which language to use based on sometimes subtle clues (Becker, 1997). "Nikita," interviewed for this paper, explained how she chooses which language to use: "It depends who I'm with, at school it's all English because a lot of my friends there don't know any Spanish, here in the neighborhood, maybe a little Spanish sometimes, we can go back and forth you know? But at home, definitely all Spanish, my mom doesn't like us to speak English around her since she can't understand it. I guess it all depends on the situation or who I'm with (Doherty, 2004)." Nikita recognizes that circumstances sometimes demand English, and this would change if policy shifted to declare the United States a bilingual country. Nikita also reported her mother's great frustration when others cannot understand her, and how she often needs to translate for relatives (Doherty, 2004). Nikita is frustrated because she wants to see her mother accepted but recognizes the need to speak English (Doherty, 2004).
Several controversies surround the issue of whether the United States should be officially bilingual or not. Culturally, people from ethnic minorities often work hard to maintain their first language as a tie to their culture (1). This in turn is sometimes resented by some English-first…
Dovring makes a good point when she says that it is difficult for a person to free their self of their own communication realm (Dovring, 115). However, Dovring goes on to say that individuals who are required to learn a language other than their own for purposes of communicating with others, can cause them to become victims the language they acquire (Dovring, 115-116). It can, Dovring says, alter not just
Second Language Acquisition Advantages and Disadvantages of Bringing up Children Bilingually Much of the debate on bilingual education is wasteful, ironic, hypocritical, and regressive. It is wasteful because instead of directing attention to sound educational practices, it has led to advocating specific "models" based solely on what language should be used for what purpose. It is ironic because most attacks on bilingual education arise from an unfounded apprehension that English will be
The acculturation model developed by Schumann (1978) consists of a taxonomy of variables that were developed based on the concept that both social (group) and affective (individual) variables are the primary causative variables as shown in Table __ below. In this regard, the term "acculturation" is used to refer to the learner's positive identification with, and hence social and psychological integration with, the target language group. For instance, Schumann
Using Additive Bilingualism to Address Subtractive Educational Challenge among Hispanic-American LearnersIntroductionLatin Americans� largest color population will account for about half of student growth over the next decade. Latin Americans are also the least educated of any ethnic group (Nu�ez, Ramalho & Cuero, 2010). Promoting the success of Latino Americans and other colored students is a major concern of educational systems that serve more diverse student organizations and become increasingly accountable
(Linton) One Turning Point One prominent turning point for the opposition of bilingualism occurred with Peal and Lambert's (1962) study, as after their study, "bilingualism became recognized as having a cognitive advantage. (Palij and Homel, 1987; cited by Takakuwa, 2000) Peal and Lambert (1962; cited by Takakuwa, 2000) studied ten-year-olds from French schools in Montreal, Canada, and found that on 15 out of 18 measures of intelligence, scores of their
Second Language Learning To What Extent May L1 Affect Second Language Learning Linguistic and Metalinguistic Knowledge This category includes variables that are effective in both reading and listening comprehension and that involve knowledge about the structure of language, such as its syntax and morphology. Two questions guide the discussion here: How does linguistic knowledge in L2 develop, and how does linguistic knowledge in L1 affect L2 linguistic knowledge, indicating cross-language transfer? Syntactic Knowledge.
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