immigration, are we ready?
With immigration not slowing down I noticed that states near the Mexican border had more and more spanish speaking employees. It is also known that English hasn't been declared the official language of the U.S. Does this mean that the day will come that we need to know spanish to order food at any restaurant? As a spanish speaker I would be fine, but those with no background would have issues. How could the rise of hispanic speakers cause a problem in education? What about other language speakers?
posted by mlindrud at 9:15 AM
4 Comments:
Great topic of discussion and one I am very passionate about. Mark, I think that we have been confronting this situation for many years and will continue to do so for many more. My belief has always been that all of us should be bilingual, understanding the value of learning another language, breaking down barriers and opening doors. In our current political envrionment, I don't see Spanish becoming the dominant language... English (and maybe Japanese) are likely to overtake the rest of the world, and really already has. This is a concept known as the hegemony of English. However, wouldn't it be great if we could all converse in more than one language? How many more barriers could be broken down as a result of this? Americans are among the few populations (if not the only) who don't learn at least one other language. Why is this?
To answer Molly’s last question about why is it that America is among the few nations that does not expect or require an understanding of a second language, to put it simply, it is a matter of socioeconomics. Basically, we are at the top of the heap and, generally, we expect others to take the effort to learn about us, not the other way around. I don’t agree with this perspective, but I think this is part of the egocentric nature of many Americans. With this said, I will have to admit that I have, at best, a rudimentary understanding of the Spanish language. Acquisition of another language is not something that comes naturally to me. I struggled through my required college classes. I don’t think this is a hereditary defect since my daughter is successfully completing AP Spanish as a junior. Ultimately, I was required to attempt to learn another language too late in life (at least that’s my excuse). Had I been exposed to Spanish at an early age, I believe that I would have gained an acceptable level of fluency.
To address Mark’s question about whether the rise of Hispanic speakers will cause a problem in education, my feeling is that this is a reality that we must learn to adapt to. We’ve chosen to go into public education. Public means public – everyone. We can’t, and we shouldn’t, choose who our students are. To me that is the strength of public education, the diversity of the learners. Diversity doesn’t mean easy. But it will make things interesting.
This was exactly the research part of my thesis last semester! How exciting! Why don't Americans study foreign languages? According to researcher's, back in the earlier part of the 20th century when people were immigrating from Europe and other countries, they wanted to fit in and it was looked down upon to speak their native tongue, therefore learning a foreign language was out of the question. Anther reason, to support what Tracy said is that we are the superpower of the world and Americans tend to have the attitude of everyone in other countries learn English so I can get by wherever I travel to, therefore I do not need to learn another language myself. Another huge difference between the US and foreign countries is that our educational system is controlled by the states whereas theirs is on the national level. Therefore the national level decides that shool children need to start learning languages at a young age and it is national policy. Our nation now recognizes the need for Americans to speak more than one language and has even come up with "language intiatives to become proficient by 2000 (which didn't happen)" but they do not have control over the educational system. They can only offer incentives and grants for people studying languages. Lastly, language curriculum in general is known as bad. Because there are no requirements, students may start in 1st grade, 6th grade or 9th grade but do not have to continously take it and most stop only to pick it up later and repeat the level or finish their study without even being proficient. Once they hit university requirements there are students that choose to stop. They do not see the value of speaking another language and for now only educators like us can persuade students to speak another language!Remember, that is all reseacher...
Now, I think we are ready for this immigration wave. We are creating bilingual programs and bilingual schools. Just the other day I was talking with people who told me that a new bilingual elementary school in Boulder County is opening and there is a lottery for entrance because so many want to enroll their children. I think we are meeting the need as best as we can. As educators of all backgrounds we try to incorporate culture into the curriculum and teach tolerance and acceptance. Diversity is a good thing.
The increasing presence of students who are non-native English speakers does create difficulties in public education. Some of these difficulties are easier to remedy than others. Providing ESL/ELA classes and support is one way to educate students whose original language is not English. However, having worked in DPS (admittedly only for a few months) I had a significant number of students who understood and spoke enough English to get by socially, but their understanding of concepts was delayed because they did not have a sufficient understanding of academic English. In the case of special education students, this created a catch-22. ELA programming is mandated for students who qualify as is Special Education programming. Several times in my short experience at DPS I had to have conferences with parents who were made to choose between ELA services and SPLED services for their child. This was often a difficult decision for parents to make. We did not have ELA/SPLED classes to offer, so we had to tell parents that they needed to sign a form waiving their child’s right to one or the other. Most parents chose to waive SPLED services so their child could receive instruction in their native language (mostly Spanish).
With an increasing population of individuals who are non-native English speakers comes a challenge to public education to find a way to provide ALL of the services that these individuals require instead of making them choose between services because we don't have the personnel and resources to provide them with a Free and Appropriate Public Education.
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