Bilingual Youth: Spanish in English-speaking societies

Bilingual Youth

Studies in Bilingualism (SiBil) The focus of this series is on psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic aspects of bilingualism. This entails topics such as childhood bilingualism, psychological models of bilingual language users, language contact and bilingualism, maintenance and shift of minority languages, and socio-political aspects of bilingualism.

Editors Dalila Ayoun

University of Arizona

Robert DeKeyser

University of Maryland

Editorial Board Kees de Bot

Aneta Pavlenko

Thom Huebner

Suzanne Romaine

Kenneth Hyltenstam

Núria Sebastián-Gallés

Judith F. Kroll

Merrill Swain

Johanne Paradis

G. Richard Tucker

Christina Bratt Paulston

Li Wei

University of Groningen San José State University Stockholm University

Pennsylvania State University University of Alberta University of Pittsburgh

Temple University Merton College, Oxford University of Barcelona

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education Carnegie Mellon University University of London

Volume 42 Bilingual Youth. Spanish in English-speaking societies Edited by Kim Potowski and Jason Rothman

Bilingual Youth Spanish in English-speaking societies Edited by

Kim Potowski University of Illinois at Chicago

Jason Rothman University of Florida, Gainsville

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdamâ•›/â•›Philadelphia

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The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences – Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ansi z39.48-1984.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bilingual youth : Spanish in English-speaking societies / edited by Kim Potowski, Jason Rothman. p. cm. (Studies in Bilingualism, issn 0928-1533 ; v. 42) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1.  Bilingualism. 2.  Group identity. 3.  Ethnicity. 4.  Spanish language--Social aspects. 5.  Languages in contact.  I. Potowski, Kim. II. Rothman, Jason. P115.B5427â•…â•… 2011 404’.208352--dc22 isbn 978 90 272 4181 8 (Hb ; alk. paper) isbn 978 90 272 8728 1 (Eb)

2010045312

© 2011 – John Benjamins B.V. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher. John Benjamins Publishing Co. · P.O. Box 36224 · 1020 me Amsterdam · The Netherlands John Benjamins North America · P.O. Box 27519 · Philadelphia pa 19118-0519 · usa

Table of contents

Introduction preface Bilingual youth: Spanish in English-speaking societies Kim Potowski and Jason Rothman

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chapter 1 Identity and multilingualism Suzanne Romaine

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The United States chapter 2 The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners Ofelia García chapter 3 Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual Kim Potowski and€Lillian€Gorman

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chapter 4 Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican parents  89 Iliana Reyes chapter 5 Ethnolinguistic identity: The challenge of maintaining Spanish-English bilingualism in American schools Guadalupe Valdés

113

Canada chapter 6 From parental attitudes to input conditions: Spanish-English bilingual development in Toronto Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

149

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chapter 7 Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada Martin Guardado

177

The United Kingdom chapter 8 Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

201

chapter 9 Voicing language dominance: Acquiring Spanish by British English/Spanish bilingual children 227 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis Australia and New Zealand chapter 10 Children’s voices: Spanish in urban multilingual and€multicultural€Australia 251 Criss Jones Díaz chapter 11 Reactions to the overt display of Spanish language maintenance in Australia 283 Mario Daniel Martín chapter 12 Reluctant migrants: Socialization patterns among Salvadorian children  Cristina Poyatos Matas and Loredana CuatroNochez

309

chapter 13 The role of community in€preserving€Spanish€in New Zealand: A Latin American 331 parent perspective Ute Walker afterword Migration, ethnic identity and heritage language maintenance of Spanish-speaking 355 youth in English-speaking societies: A reexamination Carol A. Klee Index

369

Introduction

preface

Bilingual youth Spanish in English-speaking societies Kim Potowski and Jason Rothman

Growing up bilingual or multilingual is the norm rather than the exception in many parts of the world, and our planet’s multilingual individuals, estimated at 65%, in fact outnumber the monolinguals (e.g. de Bot and Kroll 2002). Approximately half of the citizens of Europe are at least bilingual, ranging from 30% in Britain to 99% in Luxembourg (Associated Press 2005), and according to Wolfe (2000) over half the population of Africa is multilingual given the reality of state official languages living in coexistence with many regional and tribal languages. Parts of Asia, too, exemplify multilingualism. For example, although Hindi is the official language of India, there are areas in which Hindi is not the main societal language, yet most Indian citizens are fluent speakers of and educated primarily in Hindi (and often English as well). However, in many societies where English is the dominant language – including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the U.K., and the U.S. – we notice a different dominant pattern: one of monolingualism in English. It is perhaps intuitive to link this phenomenon to the current status of English as a world language; being fluent in English is a valuable international commodity. While English is the only language of widely accepted social prestige and official function in the United States, England, New Zealand and Australia, Canada represents an exception, where an important subset of the population principally located in the province of Québec is French-speaking. Canada is officially a bilingual country (even though most individuals are in fact monolingual), which enables access to education in both languages, the proliferation of media in both languages, and the official bilingualism of its government and social services throughout the whole of Canada. There has been a fair amount of research examining bilingualism, mostly in nations where it is common and/or official but also in nations where monolingualism is the norm. Some has combined cognitive and social aspects of bilingualism (including DeHouwer 2009) while others have either been cognitively oriented or

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Kim Potowski and Jason Rothman

socially oriented. In this latter category of bilingualism as a social phenomenon, there has been work exploring the ways in which identity, culture, and heritage are indivisible from language (including Pavlenko & Blackledge 2004; Niño-Murcia & Rothman 2008; Piller 2002). Of particular interest is work focusing on bilingual children (including De Houwer 2009; McCardle & Hoff 2006; Oller & Eilers 2002) because both the language acquisition and the identity formation of children are in early stages of development. This present volume combines a focus on English-speaking societies with a focus on children and adolescents. The third focus shared by all chapters is that Spanish is the home language spoken by the families of these children and adolescents. Spanish is the third most common language in the world, spoken by over 330 million people on all continents. In the U.S., 37 million Spanish speakers make it the second most spoken language after English, and although much has been written about Spanish in the U.S. (including Lipski 2008; Silva-Corvalán 1994; Lacorte & Leeman 2009; Ortiz-López & Lacorte 2005; Potowski & Cameron 2007), work focusing on children and adolescent Spanish-speakers in the U.S. is relatively limited (including Fuller 2009; Potowski 2007; Silva-Corvalán 2003; Zentella 1997). As for Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the U.K., research on Spanish is in its infancy (including Block 2008; Guardado 2006; Martin 1999) and, prior to the present volume, has not focused on children or adolescents. As many of the chapters in this volume demonstrate, children raised speaking Spanish are becoming increasingly common in more parts of the world due to increased international immigration. Language contact can result in a number of linguistic and social outcomes (including full acculturation and linguistic loss, the emergence of new dialects, societal bilingualism, or resistance to cross-linguistic influence) and, perhaps even more fascinating, these outcomes may look quite different for individuals living in what appear to be the same linguistic circumstances. Factors such as motivation, familial attitudes towards the languages, and individual linguistic needs and perceptions play a large role in language outcomes. These individual factors are then delimited and/or promoted by factors negotiated at the level of the family unit, cultural communities, entire local societies and the nation. Given that intergenerational transmission is key for the survival of a minority language (Fishman 1990), it is critical to examine language use practices among youth, who ultimately will be responsible for the survival of the language. The present volume represents a variety of portraits of what happens when families attempt to raise children in Spanish while living in English-speaking societies. Aided by the foregrounding chapter by Suzanne Romaine about language and identity and the afterword by Carol Klee that ties together many issues brought up throughout the collection, the reader gains a more complete understanding of



Preface

the variables that contribute to Spanish bilingualism in English-speaking societies, and by extension a more complete understanding of the dynamic nature of bilingualism in general. It is our pleasure to bring together this impressive array of scholarship in the first volume of its kind, uniting a gamut of sociolinguistic environments while keeping the two languages constant. We hope that it marks the beginning of comparative analyses of bilingualism, acquisition outcomes and identity construction across environments that share the same languages in common, but where important disparities exist in the sociolinguistic landscapes.

References Associated Press. Sept. 24, 2005. Half of Europe’s citizens know 2 languages. (5 June 2010). Block, D. 2008. The increasing presence of Spanish-speaking latinos in London: An emergent community? Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 7(1): 5–21. de Bot, K. & Kroll, J. F. 2002. Psycholinguistics. In Introduction to Applied Linguistics, N. Schmitt (ed.), 133–49. London: Arnold. deHouwer, A. 2009. Bilingual First Language Acquisition. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Fishman, J. (1990). What is reversing language shift and how can it succeed? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 11, 5–36. Fuller, J. 2009. How bilingual children talk: Strategic codeswitching among children in dual language programs. In First Language Use in Second and Foreign Language Learning, M.€TurnbullÂ� & J. Dailey-O’Cain (eds), 115–130. Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Guardado, M. 2006. Engaging language and cultural spaces: Latin American parents’ reflections on language loss and maintenance in Vancouver. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique appliquee 9(1): 51–72. Lacorte, M. & Leeman, J. (eds). 2009. Spanish in the United States and Other Contact Environments. Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. Lipski, J. 2008. Varieties of Spanish in the US. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press. Martin, M. D. 1999. Factors affecting linguistic loyalty in the Spanish-speaking community in Australia. Estudios Filologicos 34: 131–154. McCardle, P. & Hoff, E. (eds). 2006. Childhood Bilingualism: Research on Infancy through School Age. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Niño-Murcia, M. & Rothman, J. 2008. Spanish-Contact bilingualism and identity. In Bilingualism and Identity: Spanish at the Crossroads with Other Languages [Studies in Bilingualism€37], M. Niño-Murcia & J. Rothman (eds), 11–32. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Oller, D. K. & Eilers, E. (eds). 2002. Language and Literacy in Bilingual Children. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Ortiz-López, L. & Lacorte, M. (eds). 2005. Contactos y contextos linguisticos: El español en los Estados Unidos y en contacto con otras lenguas. Madrid: Vervuert/Iberoamericana. Pavlenko, A. & Blackledge, A. (eds). 2004. Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

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Piller, I. 2002. Bilingual Couples Talk: The Discursive Construction of Hybridity [Studies in Bilingualism 25]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Potowski, K. 2007. Language and Identity in a Dual Immersion School. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Potowski, K. & Cameron, R. (eds). 2007. Spanish in Contact: Policy, Social and Linguistic Inquiries [Impact: Studies in Language and Society 22]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Silva-Corvalán, C. 1994. Language contact and change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Silva-Corvalán, C. 2003. Linguistic consequences of reduced input in bilingual first language acquisition. In Linguistic Theory and Language Development in Hispanic Languages, S.€Montrul & F. Ordóñez (eds), 375–397. Sommerville MA: Cascadilla. Wolff, E. 2000. Language and society. In African Languages: An Introduction, B. Heine & D.€Nurse (eds), 298–247. Cambridge: CUP. Zentella, A. 1997. Growing up Bilingual. Malden MA: Blackwell.

chapter 1

Identity and multilingualism Suzanne Romaine University of Oxford

We live in a world where identity matters. It matters both as a concept, theoretically, and as a contested fact of contemporary political life. The word itself has Â�acquired a huge contemporary resonance, inside and outside the academic world. (Gilroy 1997:â•›301) The study of the relationships between identity and multilingualism is more timely than ever in view of the fact that most of the world’s population is multilingual and that globalization of economies and intensification of migration have facilitated a mixture of languages, cultures and identities to an unprecedented degree. This chapter shows how at both the macro- and micro- sociolinguistic level language has probably always played and will continue to play a critical role not simply in articulating identities, but also in actively constructing them as speakers make choices in their social interactions in favor of some varieties over others (and likewise, within those varieties, of some variant forms over others). Macrolevel processes such as language maintenance and shift are the long-term, collective consequences of consistent patterns of language choices (both conscious and unconscious) made by speakers at the micro-level. Thus, the everyday forces that shape people’s linguistic repertoires are the same ones that drive language change and the evolution of language more generally. The chapter concludes with some reflections on why identities matter and identifies some of the challenges ahead.

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Introduction

The study of identity is a topic straddling numerous disciplines, including for instance, psychology, sociology, politics, gender studies, anthropology, and linguistics, to name only a few making contributions to a substantial literature spanning decades. Within these research traditions scholars dealing with various aspects of identity have examined the ways in which people relate to their environment and how they perceive their own position within it, both as individuals or as members of a group. Thus, identities based on age, social class, gender, occupation, etc.

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may be deemed social, those based on membership in cultural groups may be deemed cultural, etc. So-called national identity is concerned with membership in national groups, ethnic identity with membership in ethnic groups, etc. For sociolinguists, a key issue is the role language plays in constructing the identities of individuals and groups (Joseph 2004). The study of the relationships between identity and multilingualism is more timely than ever in view of the fact that most of the world’s population is multilingual and that globalization of economies and intensification of migration have facilitated a mixture of languages, cultures and identities to an unprecedented degree (Pavlenko and Blackledge 2004). Despite Friedman’s (1999:â•›211) contention that “the great issues of identity politics and self-determination are becoming fewer and fewer these days”, Gilroy’s (1997) remarks cited at the opening of this chapter are more in line with contemporary realities. The breakup of established identities, re-emergence and reconstitution of old identities and continuing creation of new ones over the last half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st provide ample evidence that identity matters more than ever in today’s globalizing world. Language is a critical nexus in this on-going dynamic, as noted by Kroskrity (2000:â•›1), who by contrast to Friedman, believes that “never before have the relations of language, politics and identity seemed so relevant to so many.” The recent upsurge in migration and transnational diasporic populations has brought about increasing linguistic and cultural diversity to much of the globe, along with new challenges to traditional linkages between languages and identities. Friedman is certainly not the first (nor will he likely be the last) to suggest that identity politics will be a casualty of globalization and its supposedly relentless forces of homogenization. His assertion is reminiscent of prognostications of earlier sociologists who confidently predicted the demise of ethnicity in tandem with the rise in modernity. The resurgence of ethnic identities supposedly doomed to disappear took some by surprise in the 1970s when the United States was forced to awaken from the fallacy of the melting pot. In similar fashion, Marx and his followers, who believed that the whole basis for ethnicity and separate nationhood would be eliminated under socialism, would have found unimaginable the wave of resurgent nationalisms in the post-Soviet era of the 1990s. Indeed, a dramatic restructuring of societies on the basis of ethnic, cultural and linguistic identities over class-based ones is still unfolding. Thus, Friedman’s “great issues of identity politics and self-determination” loom larger and larger in the post-communist and postcolonial era. This chapter will show how at both the macro- and micro- sociolinguistic level language has probably always played and will continue to play a critical role not simply in articulating identities, but also in actively constructing them as speakers make choices in their social interactions in favor of some varieties over others (and likewise, within those varieties, of some variant forms over others).



1.╇ Identity and multilingualism

Â� Macro-level processes such as language maintenance and shift are the long-term, collective consequences of consistent patterns of language choices (both conscious and unconscious) made by speakers at the micro-level. Thus, the everyday forces that shape people’s linguistic repertoires drive language change and the evolution of language more generally. These repertoires can be regarded as sets of communicative practices embedded in networks of relationships linked into larger networks. Changes in global networks of communication have recently transformed the world’s linguistic landscape in unprecedented ways as hightech, cheap forms of computer-mediated communication offer a variety of unanticipated possibilities for articulating and transforming identities and languages. After examining some of the ways in which identities linked to language are constructed at both the macro and micro level, the chapter concludes with some reflections on why identities matter and identifies some of the challenges ahead.

2.

The construction of identities linked to language

Although the word identity comes historically from Latin idem ‘same’, identity is primarily about constructing differences between ourselves and others. Indeed, it can be seen as the driving force of evolution over the course of human history. Although language is only one of many features (e.g. dress, behavior patterns, race, religion, nationality, occupation, etc.) that may mark identity, either individually or collectively, many regard languages as a benchmark for cultural diversity because virtually every major aspect of human culture ranging from kinship classification to religion is dependent on language for its transmission (Haarmann 2004). People hold strong beliefs and deeply felt emotions concerning their language, culture, and identity, about who we are similar to as well as whom we are different from. Not being able to speak a particular language restricts our ability to communicate and identify with speakers of that language. For this reason, language has played a key role in constructing and maintaining distinctive human identities by serving an important boundary-marking function between groups. Someone who does not speak our language is different. The ancient Greeks called those who could not speak Greek properly ‘barbarians’; even before them, the Aztecs of ancient Mexico called those who could not speak their language ‘savages’ or ‘mutes’. The more distinct a language or variety is from some other, the more effectively it can serve as an identity marker. Even communities sharing what is ostensibly the ‘same’ language will tend to develop distinctive varieties of it as a way of distinguishing themselves from their neighbors. Thus, the English spoken in England will be different from that spoken in the United States, Australia and South Africa, just as within each country there will be locally distinct varieties tied to

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specific regions and subcultures. The English of New York City will be different from the English of Pittsburgh, just as the English of African Americans is distinct from that spoken by white Americans. Languages stand in part-whole symbolic relationships with particular ethnic, cultural, social and/or national groups that speak them. In this sense they resemble flags, which are emblematic of national identities. Although many features can mark identity, language is the only one carrying extensive cultural content. Because a large part of any language is culture-specific, people feel that an important part of their traditional culture and identity is also lost when that language disappears. Moreover, once lost, a language is far less easily recoverable than other identity markers that might stand in its stead. Because identities are dynamic and relational, rather than static and fixed, the relevance and centrality of language to cultural and ethnic identity may vary from group to group and be more or less pronounced at different times (Smolicz 1981). Some groups see their existence as distinct cultural entities dependent on the maintenance of their language. Others regard religion, ethnic or racial affiliation as more important. René Lévesque (1968:â•›14), former leader of the Parti Québécois and Quebec Prime Minister, stressed the centrality of French to Québécois identity when he said: Being ourselves is essentially a matter of keeping and developing a personality that has survived for three and a half centuries. At the core of this personality is the fact that we speak French... To be unable to live as ourselves, as we should live, in our own language and according to our own ways, would be like living without a heart.

Sir James Henare expressed similar feelings about Maori when he said “Ko te reo te mauri o te mana Māori.” ‘The language is the essence of Maori identity.’ (WaitangiÂ� Tribunal 1989:â•›34). Although distinct cultural and ethnic identities can survive language shift, a Québécois or Maori identity expressed through English is not the same as one expressed through French or Maori. To say they are different does not imply that one is necessarily better than the other. It does mean, however, that to argue for the preservation of French in Quebec or Maori in New Zealand is to argue for a people’s right to choose the language in which they want to express their cultural identity. Identifying with a culture normally implies positive attitudes toward the language used in its associated community, but for various reasons this may not always be the case. Although the Irish language stands for being Irish, for some its symbolic values are positive, while for others they may be negative; Irish is symbolic of what some regard as an old-fashioned, impoverished way of life based on agriculture that many abandoned long ago. Stereotypes about groups



1.╇ Identity and multilingualism

are projected onto their language and cultures, so that where an ethnic or cultural identity is stigmatized, the use of the associated language may be abandoned as a way of distancing oneself from the negative identity. Many stop speaking their languages as an act of survival or self-defense in situations where they feel threatened. Many older generation Quechua speakers, for instance, recall being made fun of for speaking the language. To avoid embarrassment and harassment, they avoided speaking the language during their regular trips to town. Indeed, only 40 years ago Quechua, Aymara and other native people from the eastern part of the Bolivia were not allowed to enter the Government Palace, or allowed to walk on the sidewalks in certain important cities. Although the pressure not to speak Quechua originally came from outside the community, eventually it came from within it as well. Many older people also recall being laughed at by friends or family for speaking Quechua in their own communities (King 2001:â•›73). Many parents stopped speaking their native languages at home in order to prepare their children for school in the dominant language so that they would not face the same difficulties they once encountered as monolinguals in a language that was stigmatized and forbidden at school. Writing of Scottish Gaelic speakers who emigrated to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Mertz (1989:â•›12) remarked that young people’s denials of any knowledge of Gaelic represented attempts to deny an image of themselves as poor or lower-class. As knowledge of English was required for assimilation to and social mobility within mainstream English-speakingÂ� Canadian society, the symbolic linkage between Gaelic, rural ‘backwardness’ and economic hardship propelled language shift. When the link between language and culture is intact, boundaries and identities may be taken for granted. However, because identities emerge in response to economic, cultural and political forces, perceptions realign themselves to changing situations. In some groups there may be debate about which particular aspect of their culture is of prime significance, or whether someone can be a ‘real’ member of the cultural group without speaking the associated language. When asked whether a knowledge of Scottish Gaelic was necessary to being a ‘true Highlander’, those who spoke the language said it was, but people of Highland birth and ancestry who did not speak Gaelic said it wasn’t (Dorian 1998:â•›20–1). In the Canadian eastern Arctic Inuktitut is linked to local economic, cultural, and kinship practices persisting over centuries, but for some young Inuk in Iqaluit, Igloolik and Kimmirut identity is predominantly defined by genealogy and way of life; one can be Inuk without speaking the language (Dorais 2005). In countries where Quechua is spoken, on-going shift to Spanish has led to changing perceptions of the role of Quechua in defining traditional indigenous identities. Among the Saraguros, for example, who number roughly 22,000 and reside primarily in approximately 60 rural communities scattered around the

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largely white town of Saraguro in the southern Andean highlands of Ecuador, deciding who or what is indigenous is no longer an easy task. With over two million speakers, the Quechua are the largest of Ecuador’s ten indigenous groups. Although they were once marked locally and nationally by speaking Quechua, by their distinct hair and clothing styles, as well as lifestyles based on agriculture, many now find themselves in the awkward position of regarding Quechua to be an essential component of their ethnic identity, but not speaking the language themselves. As people have given up traditional lifestyles and become more similar to the white townspeople, the cultural features marking the boundaries between them and others have changed. This has led to a desire for revitalization in order to reinvest language with a boundary marking function that it has lost. In other communities, however, where clothing and traditional agricultural work still mark people as indigenous, there is little need for language to function as an identity marker and the maintenance of Quechua is not seen as essential to group identity. Thus, communities differ in the extent to which Quechua is regarded as a core value of culture. Communities still speaking Quechua but about to lose it are not concerned, but others further along the road to shift are worried about its loss. While the referential and communicative functions of Quechua may have weakened, its value as an indexical sign of ethnic membership has strengthened (King 2001). In some places where traditional languages have disappeared, people may vest their identity in a new language, in some cases in a distinctive variety of the dominant language, or in other cases, a creole language. In large parts of Australia many Aboriginal people speak Aboriginal English, Torres Strait Creole, or Kriol (an English lexicon creole), as their first language. In other parts of the world too many people speak English or another language as a second or additional language without a loss of cultural identity. Because acquisition of the dominant language proceeds in tandem with the loss of the minority language, distinctive features of a receding language may also be transferred to and survive in an equally distinctive form of the dominant language replacing it. The Highland variety of English to which terminal Scottish Gaelic speakers shifted incorporates a large number of the most distinctive phonetic traits of their Gaelic. Similarly, some aspects of Aboriginal identity and ways of speaking live on in the local and highly distinctive (though stigmatized) varieties of English spoken among many young people now in parts of Australia. In the absence of indigenous languages in most parts of the Caribbean due to the extermination of indigenous populations by colonization, creoles are able to unify diverse groups and serve as a badge of authenticity validating a new local identity. In parts of the French Caribbean, for instance, debates about the role and status of creole languages assumed a prominent place in the cultural identity and political status of the islands vis-à-vis France, just as



1.╇ Identity and multilingualism

in newly independent nations such as India, Tanzania and Malaysia, shifting from the colonizers’ language to the local vernacular(s) was seen as fundamental for building a new nation out of a former colony.

3.

Languages as acts of cultural, ethnic and national identities

The notion that ‘language-equals-culture equals identity’ is too simple to account for the intricate linkages between languages and cultural identities, especially in view of widespread multilingualism; nor does it provide a useful model for understanding actual everyday interactions. The once prevailing idea of identities, cultures and languages as essential, primordial, and natural attributes given from birth and transmitted in stable and unchanging form throughout the lifespan has given way to a different view in which they are seen as constructed, dynamic and hybrid. As constructed categories, they are subject to change in a never ending process of symbolic boundary construction and reconstruction. Within the field of cultural studies Hall (1990:â•›225) challenged much of the received wisdom on the notion of cultural identities when he wrote that Cultural identity…is a matter of ‘becoming’ as well as of ‘being’.€ It belongs to the future as much as to the past.€ It is not something which already exists, transcending place, time, history and culture.€ Cultural identities come from somewhere, have histories.€ But, like everything which is historical, they undergo constant transformation.

People negotiate their identities when they come into contact so as to align or distance themselves from one another. They will be motivated to emphasize what distinguishes them from others if they strongly identity with their in-group and derive positive status from their membership in it. Language plays a key role in this process of convergence or divergence. By diverging or emphasizing their accent, dialect, or language people accentuate differences between themselves and others. Some Welsh people exaggerated or broadened their Welsh-accented English in order to sound more Welsh when confronted with negative comments about Welsh and Wales made by a person with a strong English accent (Bourhis and Giles 1977). Bi/multilinguals use the different languages/varieties they know to index more than one identity, or even to avoid aligning themselves with only one identity. In 1997 just before the end of more than 160 years of colonial British rule in Hong Kong, a heated debate took place over whether the speech by the first new chief executive, Tung Chee Wah, in the handover ceremony to China should be delivered in Putonghua or Cantonese, each of which was symbolic of different

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alignments and identities. In the end Tung chose Putonghua, the official language of mainland China, but delivered his first policy address in Cantonese, which has always been the lingua franca for all Chinese ethnic groups in Hong Kong as well as the spoken medium of instruction in primary schools and Chinese-medium secondary schools (Tsui 2007). The fact that speakers select different languages or varieties for use in different situations shows that not all languages/varieties are equal or regarded as equally appropriate or adequate for all speech events. Through the selection of one language/ variety over another speakers display what may be called ‘acts of identity’, choosing the groups with whom they wish to identify (Le Page and Tabouret-Keller 1985). An American Jewish woman living in New York City may at times place priority on her perceived Jewishness and her shared bond with other Jews around the world transcending national borders, while at others she may align herself with New Yorkers, or women, or even more specifically with American women. Knowledge of different languages and varieties may reinforce these shared bonds. As an American woman she will almost certainly speak a variety of American English, but her Jewish identity may involve knowledge of a language shared by other Jews such as Hebrew or Yiddish. If she is Ultra-Orthodox, she may share the use of Yiddish as a language of everyday interaction in common with her UltraOrthodox counterparts in Israel, while the larger communities in which they reside use another language, English and Modern Hebrew respectively. Modern Hebrew is learned by Ultra-Orthodox Israelis only because it is the language of the state, just as Ultra Orthodox New Yorkers learn English. For both communities, however, Yiddish is the language representing the continuity of the Jewish experience. Our understanding of our own and others’ identities develops from birth and is shaped by the values and attitudes learned at home and through growing up in the surrounding community. Identities become more complex and fluid over time as we develop allegiances to different groups within broader society. Like the American Jewish New Yorker we are all simultaneously members of various social groups (e.g. cultural, ethnic, religious, national, etc.) defined in different ways that shape and influence who we are and how we perceive ourselves. In modern times most of us interact to various degrees in local as well as global cultural systems that have arisen through mass communication, technology, social mobility and migration. From time to time, however, we may feel conflicting pulls on our attachments to different identities that may be in real or imagined conflict. State hegemony often severely constrains individual choice in the construction of identity through overt and covert policies that sanction some varieties of language and prohibit others. Circumstances may require people to choose or prioritize one identity, e.g. nationality, race, religion, gender etc. over another, or even deny choice Â�altogether.



1.╇ Identity and multilingualism

The Malaysian constitution, for instance, fuses into one a link between Malay ethnic identity, Malay culture and language and Islam when it defines a Malay as ‘a person who professes the religion of Islam, habitually speaks the Malay language, and conforms to Malay custom’ (Article 160). Under the apartheid regime in South Africa people were classified primarily into official racial categories of white, Colored and black, with the non-white population excluded from citizenship. These classifications determined the language of schooling, residence, access to employment, etc. In Singapore, a person’s mother tongue is defined as identical with the person’s official race (Chinese, Malay or Indian); a child’s mother tongue is automatically determined by the father’s race. Hence, a child born to a Hokkienspeaking father and a Malay-speaking mother will be classified officially as Chinese and have Mandarin Chinese as its mother tongue regardless of which languages and varieties the family actually uses. Legally-defined categories such as these often conflict with members’ conceptions of their own ethno-linguistic identities. In Finland, a country which is constitutionally bilingual in Finnish and Swedish, citizens may register either as Swedish or Finnish speakers, but there is no official category for bilinguals. The situation for Saami is even more complex due to the fact that the designation ‘Saami’ covers a wide range of groups speaking at least 10 Saami languages across four countries (Sweden, Finland, Norway and Russia), with the legal position and status of Saami differing in each jurisdiction. In Norway (which has the largest Saami population) and Finland the rights and status of Saami persons are constitutionally guaranteed, but legal definitions of who is Saami differ. In Sweden one is not legally Saami unless engaged in reindeer herding. In Finland, the establishment of a Saami Parliament in 1973, triggered the need for a legal definition of Saami to draw up an electoral list of eligible voters. Finland’s basis for official recognition, however, rested primarily on language, with a Saami being defined as a person whose (grand)parents or one of the (grand)parents speaks, or has spoken Sami as a language in the home and himself speaks Sami (Finnish Saami Parliament 1997). Formulated in this way, the definition allowed the exclusion of descendants of Saami from elections to the Saami parliament on the grounds that they have not maintained ties to the language. Moreover, non-Saami in-migrants who have learned Saami and/or are engaged in reindeer herding can be considered officially Saami because any EU citizen can now live in Saami areas and obtain herding rights. Although reindeer herding still remains a distinctly Saami occupation, and most reindeer are in fact owned by Saami, fewer than 10% of Saami derive their livelihoods from it today and many Saami lived in the past from hunting and fishing, as some still do today. Government attempts to restrict Saami identity either by occupation and/ or language have not worked well and conflict with practices Saami use among

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themselves to identify in-group members. In a study of Vuotso, a village in Finnish Saamiland, where Saami were asked to rank eleven criteria in deciding whether to identify themselves and others as Saami, almost all gave precedence to ancestry and kinship over other components such as language, cultural practices, etc. (McNulty and Magga 1987). The right to decide for itself the composition of its membership constitutes a fundamental principle of self-determination on the part of a people or a nation that is widely recognized in international law. Hence, usurping this prerogative represents one further way in which a state can oppress a minority by denying it the right even to define its identity on its own terms. Transforming a civil right into an occupational or linguistic privilege restricts the status of Saaminess to only a few. Moreover, occupational and linguistic criteria are meaningless in view of the fact that both the Finnish and Swedish states in effect controlled the reproduction of Saami ethnicity, language and culture through repressive assimilationist policies which continue to deny Saami the right to develop and maintain their language, culture and livelihood. Although the Finnish government added a section to the constitution in 1995 guaranteeing the Saami as an indigenous group the right to maintain and develop their language and culture, and Sweden established a Saami parliament in 1993, neither country has ratified the ILO Convention 169 (1989) on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, a key instrument in international law relating to indigenous peoples. Ratification of the convention requires states (among other things) to address land rights and safeguard rights to natural resources. Because neither Sweden nor Finland guarantees Saami rights to land, water and other natural resources, which are prerequisites to guaranteeing Saami rights to livelihoods that traditionally transmitted language and culture, many of the Saami languages are now seriously endangered, some with only a few hundred speakers. Tying Saaminess to language entails the risk that there may one day be no Saami. Saami have for a long time tried to challenge the singularity of these definitions regulating Saaminess and the authority with which national governments have enforced them by challenging state sovereignty from within as well as beyond national boundaries, in transnational arenas such as the European Court of Human Rights, and the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (Korsmo 1993). The Finnish Saami Parliament opposed the government’s attempt in 1995 to widen the definition of Saami by privileging self-identity over descent and language, arguing that self-definition opened the way for members of the majority group with no Saami ancestry to claim they are Saami in order to enjoy what they perceive as special privileges and benefits (Finnish Saami Parliament 1997). In proposing that “a correctly understood theory of [citizenship] rights requires a politics of recognition that protects the individual in the life contexts in which his or her identity is formed”, Habermas (1994:â•›113) seems to suggest that



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rights take precedence over status. Nevertheless, many countries operate with the opposite system, where status determines rights. Now that migration has become the main component of demographic growth in the EU (Eurostat 2008) and other countries such as Australia and the US, the tension between status and rights has heightened anxieties that have come to be expressed in policies on citizenship. Despite the push towards EU harmonization policies and Europeanization of citizenship expressed in CERF (Common European Framework of Reference), citizenship has remained a national issue with wide variation in criteria for eligibility among member states. In Austria, for instance, a child born to Austrian parents is automatically an Austrian citizen, but laws are extremely restrictive for immigrants and their descendants, who must wait ten years and renounce their citizenship before being eligible for naturalization as Austrian citizens. At least 9% of the population, many of whom were born in Austria and grew up speaking German, are excluded from political participation and ‘foreigner status’ is perpetuated across generations. Italy also has a ten year residence requirement for naturalization of immigrants, but allows its diaspora to maintain ties with their origin countries through generous policies recognizing dual citizenship. A fourth generation Italian-American may more easily gain Italian citizenship by virtue of being descended from Italian great grandparents than a child born in Italy to Roma or Albanian parents. Requiring nationality of an EU state as a precondition for pan-EU citizenship, which confers the right to free movement and residence, leaves millions of legal residents throughout the EU without citizenship and basic rights. Although official rhetoric portrays EU citizenship as inclusive in theory, in practice it is exclusionary in so far as populations historically present in Europe are included, but ‘others’ are excluded from belonging. Thus, the notion of ‘European’ rests on “a social organisation of cultural difference and the essence of European identity emphasises the boundary between insiders and outsiders” (NicCraith 2006:â•›7). Moreover, testing regimes focused on language and culture adopted in many EU and other countries like Australia spell out narrow definitions of what being British, Dutch or Australian entails, and thus raise the status of cultural identity to a normative value in its own right by assuming that knowledge of language and adherence to core cultural values are preconditions for discharging the obligations of citizenship. Applicants for naturalization in the UK and the Netherlands are required to pass a test demonstrating proficiency in the respective national languages and an understanding of British/Dutch cultural values. Ironically, in 2001 when then UK Home Secretary David Blunkett stressed that immigrants needed to become “more British” and should be required to speak English (Griffith and Leonard 2002), in the same year Foreign Secretary Robin Cook declared chicken tikka massala as the true British national dish after it replaced fish and chips as

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the most popular food in England. Such ironies illustrate how distinctive food, dress, song, etc. are often accepted and allowed to be part of the mainstream, but language much less so. Attitudes in Britain towards South Asian languages such as Panjabi, Bengali, etc. and the creole languages spoken by those of Caribbean origin are still largely negative. Majority populations elsewhere have typically displayed little enthusiasm for the languages of minorities, even when the language concerned is a world language such as Spanish (as in the US) or Arabic (the language of many immigrants in France and the Netherlands). Despite its minority status in the US, Spanish is the language of political power and social mobility throughout much of Latin America, as is Arabic in the Middle East. Far from converging upon a common standard or policy for citizenship, most EU member states reinforce traditional constructions of citizenship centered on nationality and statehood, in which a dominant majority culture prevails as national. Such policies thus rebuild and reconsolidate the nation-state within the EU by reaffirming the premise of ‘one state-one people-one language’, the foundation upon which the great nation-building projects undertaken in the 18th and 19th centuries created new national identities along with the languages and cultures linked to them. Amidst new streams of migration and security concerns, the trend in both the US and Europe has been toward tightening traditional linkages between culture, language and national identity. Newly implemented language and culture tests recall past abuses of literacy and language used as bars to citizenship targeted against groups such as Irish and Italians in the US, Asians in Australia, etc. Because the state still reserves the power to set criteria for membership in national communities by retaining control over policies on citizenship, asylum, etc., the creation of regional and supranational forms of governance and transnational organizations along with the emergence of multinational companies have not rendered the nation-state obsolete or led to a borderless world as some pundits of globalization predicted.

4.

Why identities linked to languages matter

Despite the fact that there is no intrinsic or inevitable one-to-one link between language and identity, or between language and culture, the connections cannot be dismissed as unimportant. Racial, ethnic, cultural and religious identities are bound up with linguistic identities in exceedingly powerful ways. They engender a potent shared sense of belonging that people are willing to die to defend. In 1980 Plaid Cymru leader Gwynfor Evans was prepared to fast to the death when Â�Margaret Thatcher’s newly elected conservative government decided not to go ahead with plans to establish a Welsh television channel. The woman who declared herself to



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be the ‘lady not for turning’, did just that: S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru ‘Channel 4 Wales’) began broadcasting in 1982. In so far as components of cultural identities may become rallying points for furthering the interests (political or otherwise) of a group of people, the very notion of identity has sometimes taken on negative connotations and been referred to as ‘identity politics’. When a group feels threatened, it may try to resist by emphasizing a number of emblematic culture traits (among them language, but also religion, race, ethnicity) in order to justify its distinctiveness and political claims within the nation-state to which its members belong. As the nationalist movement in Ireland gathered steam in the last quarter of the 19th century, the project of restoring Irish as a vernacular by establishing an independent Irish state figured prominently in Douglas Hyde’s formation of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League) in 1893. Although most people had already abandoned Irish long before independence, even in the Gaeltacht (i.e. Irish-speaking areas), Irish was declared the national language in the constitution framed in 1922 for the newly formed Irish Free State. In their quest to assert an identity and a voice that is independent from that of the perceived oppressor, people are willing to die for different constructions or visions of their linguistic-based identity. In such contexts language revitalization is often seen as a key to recovering a group’s cultural identity. Indeed, Fishman (2001:â•›17) stressed that “only the conviction that one’s own-language-in-culture is crucially different” is what makes the effort worthwhile. For revitalization to succeed, however, the community must revalorize the very cultural traits and identities that were once despised and stigmatized. The enterprise of language revitalization thus depends crucially on the mobilization and manipulation of identities. Identity planning goes hand in hand with language planning. Even in cases where transmission of the language has ceased altogether or been interrupted for a long period, some have tried to reclaim so-called ‘sleeping languages’ such as Kaurna, once used by Aboriginal people in what is now the area of Adelaide in South Australia. Despite the fact that Kaurna has not been spoken for more than a century, some people are now using the language for limited activities such as greetings, songs, and naming activities relying on earlier documents and records of the language. Although such reclaimed languages are likely to be substantially different from the languages historically spoken, and some have dismissed these less than fluent uses as purely symbolic, they clearly have the potential to serve important community and cultural functions for many groups in Australia and other parts of the world. Such reclamation efforts will become increasingly important as long as there are people who claim a link to a linguistic heritage no longer actively transmitted. Indeed, the case of Kaurna serves to emphasize Gilroy’s (1997:â•›301, 341) observation that “people do make their own identities but not in circumstances of their own Â�choosing

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and from resources they inherit that will always be incomplete”. Kaurna reclamation relies on a very small fragmentary corpus comprising about 3,000–5,000 words. Because there are no sound recordings, even pronunciation needed to be reconstructed from written historical resources (Amery 2001). Processes of cultural and linguistic reaffirmation are not a return to past traditions or simple revivals of previously existing customs or practices, but often involve active re-creation and refashioning of languages, cultures and identities, whose functions in current contexts differ from those of the past. In addition, the identities people ascribe to themselves are often challenged or even rejected by others. This is particularly the case for claims of minorities which are often ignored, suppressed or discounted as merely ‘ethnic’ or ‘identity’ politics. The survival of many indigenous peoples is now often dependent on modern means of production. Many appreciate that there are some benefits arising from increased interaction with the dominant society, but want to preserve some cultural autonomy for themselves and to have some say in determining their own fate, in particular, the right to educate their children in their own way, and maintain their language and culture. In order to preserve their distinctive identities, however, most need and want economic resources gained in the dominant market. Today the maintenance of Inuktitut in the eastern Canadian Arctic is partly a product of its integration into the dominant linguistic market and political economy, where it has been standardized and promoted in education, government publications, and other written forms. Some western practices have come to be defined as Inuit, such as the syllabic writing system introduced by Christian missionaries. However, the idea of Inuit living in houses with running water, using snowmobiles, and shopping in supermarkets violates the dominant culture’s stereotypical images of Inuit living in igloos, hunting with dogsleds, and living off the land. The adoption of so many western practices appears to suggest that they have assimilated and therefore generates resentment when Inuit demand what outsiders see as ‘special’ rights in order to maintain their language and culture. Nevertheless, despite these tensions, paradoxes and transformations in traditional lifestyles, it is possible for indigenous peoples to find a new niche within dominant cultures and still maintain their language and culture. Driving snowmobiles instead of sleds drawn by dogs or reindeer, wearing jeans and listening to pop music are not inherently incompatible with cultural continuity and indigenous identity any more than speaking English need be at odds with speaking Inuktitut or Navajo. Gilroy’s point about the incompleteness of inherited resources is particularly relevant to multilingualism in migration contexts, especially the maintenance or loss of heritage languages. Although bilingualism for many immigrant groups has been largely subtractive rather than additive resulting in the loss of their native tongues through a process of shift over several and sometimes even one Â�generation,



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unprecedented mobility the world over is creating new hybridized language varieties, cultures and identities. Dismissal of what is variously called Spanglish, español tuerco (‘twisted’) or mocho (‘broken’) as a transient phenomenon ignores the fact that in spite of negative attitudes, such mixed modes of speaking can persist over long periods of time partly because they serve important functions as markers of in-group identity and solidarity. For some Latinos, Spanglish is more than just a habitual strategy of speaking to other bilinguals, it embodies the linguistic and cultural hybridity of its speakers, as suggested by Anzaldúa (1999:â•›77): For a people who are neither Spanish nor live in a country in which Spanish is the first language; for a people who live in a country in which English is the reigning tongue but who are not Anglo; for a people who cannot entirely identify with either standard (formal, Castilian) Spanish nor standard English, what recourse is left to them but to create their own language? A language which they can connect their identity to, one capable of communicating the realities and values true to themselves – a language with terms that are neither español ni inglés, but both. We speak a patois, a forked tongue, a variation of two languages.

Finding herself at odds with the community of both English and Spanish speakers who regarded her language as wrong, Anzaldúa contended that until she could accept the legitimacy of Tex-Mex (the Texas form of Chicano Spanish), she could not accept her own legitimacy. Such hybrid communicative practices and the meanings ascribed to them vary considerably across different contexts and they may shift over time in conjunction with shifting identity politics. The younger generation in Brussels, for instance, is switching and code-mixing less than the older generation due to the political polarization of French and Flemish speakers, which makes a joint Â�FlemishFrench identity performed through code-switching less tenable (TreffersÂ�-Dallers 1992). The situation in the US with respect to the position and status of Spanglish vis-à-vis English and Spanish is rather different. With continuing immigration (both legal and illegal) replenishing the Spanish-speaking population, it is doubtful whether Spanglish will replace Spanish in the US. Nor, however, is it likely to disappear. Rapidly evolving patterns of Spanish-English bilingualism make it difficult to predict the future of Spanish in the US. Just as Pease-Alvarez (2002) calls for sociolinguistics to move beyond what she calls ‘linear trajectories of language shift’, researchers and their methodologies need to move beyond similar unilinear conceptualizations of identity. If the twilight of one ethnicity precedes the dawn of another, and there is no non-ethnic tomorrow (Fishman et al. 1985), it behooves us to understand better the shifting contexts and contents of identity and ethnicity. Despite rapid processes of language change affecting language maintenance among the adult population, and disrupting transmission to the younger

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generation, a number of developments provide increased prospects for maintaining and renewing minority languages. Opportunities for travel and cultural exchange with their countries of origin, access to new media in the form of satellite broadcasts, and an ever-increasing variety of forms of computer-mediated communication (chat rooms, email, instant messaging) open up avenues not available to earlier immigrants and diasporic populations for maintaining language, culture and identity. Before concluding prematurely that the aggressive assimilative influences at work in US will eventually and inevitably result in the loss of both indigenous and immigrant languages, it is worth reflecting briefly on the outcome of the past 100 some years of the American immigrant experience for one of the oldest, largest and once most despised immigrant groups. Italian-Americans have long represented a test case for theoretical assumptions concerning the nature and fate of ethnicity, language and identity. Thirteen million Italians emigrated to North and South America, Europe, and the Mediterranean Basin between 1880 and 1915, launching the largest emigration from any country in recorded world history. More than 6 million Italians came to the US between 1880 and 1924 at a time when the enormous increase in immigrants ethnically, linguistically and culturally distinct from the Anglo-Saxon mainstream intensified fears that unless newcomers were quickly Americanized, national culture would be endangered. These xenophobic anxieties resonate all too loudly in the general climate of hostility with respect to current waves of immigration and the continuing hegemony of rhetoric constructing multilingualism as problematic and divisive to American national unity. Then as now, tensions arose between the image of the US as a nation of immigrants and the construction of English monolingualism as a symbol of American identity (Pavlenko 2002). By some accounts, even the second generation of Italian-Americans evidenced little identification with Italy, Italian culture or their parents’ localities of origin (Gans 1962). Beyond the shift from predominantly peasant agriculturalists to urban white ethnics (Luconi 2001), some saw nothing but “just white folks”, as the third generation and their children underwent supposed terminal de-ethnicization by assimilating into an unmarked American mainstream. If ethnicity survived at all, it was merely symbolic, a nostalgic, intermittent and undemanding leisure activity. Alba (2000) contended that an identity focused on symbols of ethnic cultures rather than on cultures themselves did not constitute membership in an ethnic group, but was a matter of personal style. After first having to forget who they were, many descendants of these Italians are now trying desperately to remember. Between the 1990 and 2000 censuses the number of people who identified themselves as being of Italian descent increased by more than four million despite the fact that the great Italian migrationÂ�



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to the New World had long before come to an end in 1924 when the US Congress imposed a harsh quota. Even as some aspects of culture and language are fading in the absence of new waves of Italian-born to maintain them, 3rd and 4th generation Italian-Americans can situationally choose to invoke their ethnic identities by participating in a rising number of clubs and language classes (De Fina 2007). Dismissing these new ways of connecting to and maintaining an Italian self-identity as a symbolic afterglow of ethnicity, yet another ‘ethnic revival’, and not the ‘real’ thing overlooks strategic opportunities for examining how ItalianAmericansÂ� have adapted their ethnicity to fit ever-evolving social contexts. The cycle of assimilation and revitalization, resentment and resurgence that is still unfolding is evident in the autobiographies of individuals such as Jerre (GernaldoÂ�) Mangione, American-born son of Sicilian immigrants, who described how he coped with the “ever recurring sensation of being a foreigner in my own native land”, by becoming “an ethnic at large, with one foot in my Sicilian heritage, the other in the American mainstream” (Mangione 1978:â•›367, 369). As long as manifestations of the vitality of Italian-American identity continue to rise Phoenix-like even in what Alba (2000) and others have dubbed the ‘twilight of ethnicity’, they will challenge claims that contemporary ethnic identity is merely symbolic and subjective, and not based in lived culture or social networks. Moreover, deeming such identities to be merely ‘symbolic’, ‘private’ and ‘voluntary’ does not make them unimportant, inauthentic or contentless (Vecoli 2000). Despite the seemingly unrelenting forces of homogenization, the strength and persistence of local identities and their transformative power have been consistently underestimated. In South Africa, for instance, the identities linked to Afrikaans are undergoing transformation in line with new political ideologies as the place and role of the language in the country and higher education in particular are being debated (Brink 2006). Speakers of Afrikaans (originally a transplanted form of Dutch brought to South Africa by white settlers) form a linguistic group that now crosses a racial divide. Although whites, mostly well off, comprise 42.4% of the nearly six million Afrikaans speakers, the majority (53%) are now Colored and poor. Black Africans comprise another 4.2% of speakers, and Indians .3%. The large number of non-white speakers can be traced to apartheid policies of mandatory instruction in Afrikaans for non-whites. In this context English, a key link language used by the African National Congress, was seen as a language of liberation and resistance against apartheid, while Afrikaans was linked to white Afrikaner nationalism. The future of Afrikaans will depend on the extent to which it is possible to disengage the language from the ideology and identity of white Afrikanerdom. Once co-official with English during the apartheid era, Afrikaans is now one of 11 official languages (English plus nine indigenous African languages).

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5.

Challenges for identity and multilingualism

The social, political, and economic conditions accompanying globalization call for new conceptualizations of belonging within culturally and linguistically diverse communities. There are at least two big challenges. The first is to reconcile constructivist and essentialist views of identity. The second is to rethink nationstates and their related national identities in more pluralistic and inclusive ways. These two challenges are interdependent due to the close relationship between the use of a particular language, cultural values, political power, socioeconomic development, and national and local identities. In a world where cultural survival is viable only in connection with well-defined geopolitical boundaries, the nationstate plays a key role in determining which cultures and languages will survive and which will not. Despite predictions about the demise of the nation-state in tandem with globalization, the notion of the nation-state with its official standard language is still one of the greatest threats to the languages, cultures and identities of minority communities. As the bedrock of the current political world order, the nation-state is the most critical unit of analysis because it is policies pursued within national boundaries that give some languages (and their speakers) the status of majority and others that of minority. Language occupies a contested position when nations cannot ground their basis for a common identity on language, religion, or culture. Current debates about identity, language and citizenship in today’s globalized, highly mobile world require new understandings of a variety of forms of transnational nationalism. My discussion of the Europeanization of citizenship revealed that truly inclusive citizenship needs decoupling from nationality and the conception of national identity needs to be more inclusive if it is to live up to the EU motto in varietate concordia (‘unity in diversity’). Strategic lessons can be learned from Italy’s struggle to reimagine itself not as an emigrant nation but an immigrant nation as it has been transformed from a country predominantly experiencing emigration to one battling new issues of immigration. Italy’s experiences in the 19th century paralleled those of other sending countries today such as Mexico, India, South Korea, etc. as waves of emigration forever affected the demography, family and social structure of towns, especially in the poorer regions of southern Italy. After having experienced one of the greatest migrations in world history, reducing Italy’s population by one third, Italy (along with Spain) now has one of the highest inflows of migrants into European Union member states between 2000 and 2005 (Eurostat 2008). As a sending country Italy became a pioneer in establishing a supranational “global or emigrant nation”, a network of Italians worldwide held together by ties of language, culture, ethnicity, and nationality (Choate 2008).



1.╇ Identity and multilingualism

Although there are no official statistics with exact numbers, the migration patterns in Italy have changed dramatically since the 1970s and especially in the last twenty years, with the majority of new migrants coming from the Eastern European countries of Albania, Romania, Ukraine and Serbia along with significant numbers of Chinese, Moroccans and Africans from former Italian colonies such as Somalia and Ethiopia (Caritas 2008). Despite the demand for immigrant labor, especially in northern industrial centers such as Milan, migrants are met with hostility and racism, reminiscent of the ways in which Italian immigrants were once treated in the US and as Latino and other immigrants are being treated today. In its annual reports and other statements the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance has repeatedly criticized the government for its lack of policy with respect to non-territorial minorities such as the Roma and Sinti, at the same time as it urged granting citizenship to all children born in Italy (European Commission against Racism and Intolerance 2006:â•›6–8). In 2008 Amnesty International condemned Italian politicians for embracing increasingly racist and xenophobic language which created a climate in which vulnerable groups were targets of violence and the European Parliament voted to condemn the government’s policy of fingerprinting Roma, who are widely stereotyped as vagrants, thieves and child kidnappers. It is a sad irony of history that while the Italian government strove to adopt a more flexible definition of identity and belonging that transcended borders in order to accommodate its substantial diaspora, it seems to have forgotten these lessons when it comes to the treatment of migrants within Italian borders. Lack of policy and an institutional framework for equitable integration of minority and majority communities will only accelerate a deteriorating situation. As much as globalization appears to be leading inexorably to homogenization of cultures, at the same time it is creating hybridization. In today’s global village we all have overlapping and intersecting identities. Nevertheless, many are still trapped in the mistaken idea that all people have only a single identity – that Nigerians are only Nigerians, Muslims only Muslims, etc. The presumption that people can be uniquely classified on the basis of religion, culture, or language is a major source of conflict in the contemporary world. Sen (2006:â•›xv) writes that “many of the conflicts and barbarities in the world are sustained through the illusion of a unique and choiceless identity”. While sharing of an identity can be a source of richness and warmth, identity can also kill when it is perceived in terms of a strong and inclusive sense of belonging to only one group. Genocide in Rwanda was premised on classifying people only as Hutus or Tutsis while forgetting their shared identities as Rwandan citizens and Africans, as well as their common humanity. In similar fashion, Albanians and Bosnian Muslims were accorded no place in extreme nationalist visions of an Orthodox Christian “Greater Serbia”, where the ethnic identity of a single group became a defining

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characteristic of nationality. In attempts to distinguish Croatian from Serbian linguistic cleansing in the form of eliminating foreign borrowings has gone hand in hand with so-called ethnic cleansing, i.e. the desire to create ethnically pure and homogeneous nation-states, where one language claims to be the only authentic symbol of national identity. In order to coexist, however, our identities should be compatible; individuals and groups should not face a situation in which they are forced to choose between local, national, regional and other identities based on gender, religion, language, etc. Reducing the complex notion of identity to a simplified view of the world as a collection of cultures, religions, or civilizations facilitates the idea that violence and terrorism result from a clash of civilizations. Those fomenting global confrontations in which “the west” is pitted against “the rest” rely on reducing identity to a forced choice between two extremes (e.g. Barber’s 1995 jihad vs. Mcworld). When modernity is seen as westernization, this may pose an identity threat to indigenous peoples and other minorities. Children may feel that to achieve in school they have to give up their identity and abandon their peer group because identification with their peers means risking complete exclusion from the mainstream and social mobility. They end up caught in a vicious circle in which the dominant culture sees no place in the modern world for people who allegedly ‘choose’ not to adapt, but at the same time denies them the right to exist in modernity. McCarty et al. (2006:â•›672), for example, report that Navajo is linked with backwardness and English with modernity and opportunity so that “youth feel they must make an either-or choice between language affiliations”. For many young indigenous people suicide has become a choice of last resort when things go so badly wrong with identity development that youth see no viable way of linking their past, present and future selves. Suicide rates among American Indian/Alaskan Native adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 34 are 1.9 times higher (i.e. 21.4 per 100,000) than the national average for that age group (11.5 per 100,000). In this age group suicide is the second leading cause of death (Centers for Disease Control 2007). Writing of young Yupiaq people in Alaska, where the youth suicide rate is eight times higher than US national rates, Kawagley (1995:â•›111–112) argues that the task is to reconstruct and define a new native identity built around native traditions. At the moment young Inupiaq are like round pegs in square holes, emotionally and mentally exhausted from inability to succeed in the native world as traditionally defined or in the modern world as defined and controlled by others. Indeed, this potential clash of values and identities was the crux of earlier debates in the US about ethnicity in the context of immigration. Whyte’s (1943) classic study of Italian immigrants in Boston’s North End between 1937 and 1940



1.╇ Identity and multilingualism

characterized the dilemma of the American-born generation in terms of their inability to reconcile the channels for gaining advancement in their own community with those of mainstream American society. If a Cornerville [Whyte’s pseudonym for the North End] boy advanced into the American mainstream, he is recognized by society at large as a successful businessman, but he is alien to Cornerville. If he achieves recognition in Cornerville by local standards, he is a social outcast to respectable people elsewhere. Nevertheless, Whyte acknowledged that even if a man wanted to forget his Italianness, society around him would not let him. In the past this either-or narrative of assimilation vs. maintaining non-mainstream identities and allegiances was used to forcibly assimilate people; today the process continues often by benign neglect, through failure to support pro-active policies. The result is that the American educational experience continues to cut children off from their linguistic heritage by teaching them to become American by learning how to ashamed of their parents (Covello 1958:â•›43). The greater the homogenizing pressures exerted by globalization in the future, the more differences are likely to be accentuated. Nevertheless, being Irish, French, or Breton is not incompatible with being a European just as being Hawaiian need not be in conflict with being American, a member of the Republican Party, a woman, a Catholic, etc. One can clearly remain, for example, both SpanishspeakingÂ� and American, Catalan-speaking and Spanish, or Welsh-speaking and British. A new generation of well-educated fluent speakers of world languages such as English, French and Spanish now view the revitalization and maintenance of ancestral languages such as Maori, Breton and Basque as idealized expressions of contemporary political aspirations, cultural authenticity and identity. Narrower identities do not necessarily need to be traded in for broader ones, but can co-existÂ� with them. The reformulation of traditional identities as transnational has provided a means of resisting assimilative policies of nation-states. The chairman of the Gothenburg Sami Association, for instance, declared his pan-Saami identity in this way (The Sami 2005:â•›18): I am a Saami among Swedes, but I do not feel the same sense of a common identity with them as I do together with other Saami among Norwegians or among Finns. National boundaries crisscross our Sápmi [Saamiland SR], but what do we care, they’re not on our ‘maps’.

One consequence of globalization has been the emergence of a new common global indigenous identity through the international movement of indigenous peoples (Niezen 2003). Maintaining the world’s languages goes hand in hand with achieving and maintaining greater self-determination as part of a larger strategy of cultural survival. Maintaining indexical and symbolic differences can reduce rather than create

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conflict. The world has seen the disastrous results of enforced cultural homogenization too many times in the past, and much of the world is unfortunately still inimical to pluralism. Nettle and Romaine (2000:â•›196–197) stress that globalization on an unprecedented scale does not change the fact that most people everywhere still live their lives in local settings and feel the need to develop and express local identities to pass onto their children. There is a need for local languages for expressing local identities, and global languages for communicating beyond local levels and expressing our identities as citizens of the world. The active cultivation of stable multilingualism can provide a harmonious pathway through the seeming clash of values in today’s struggle between the global and local, between uniformity and diversity.

References Alba, R. 2000. The twilight of ethnicity among Americans of European ancestry: The case of Italians. In Review of Italian-American Studies, F. Sorrentino & J. Krase (eds), 41–74. Lanham MD: Lexington. Amery, R. 2001. Warrabarna Kaurna! Reclaiming an Australian language. Lisse: Swets & Zeitlinger. Anzaldúa, G. 1999. Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza, 2nd edn. San Francisco CA: Aunt Lute Books. Barber, B. R. 1995. Jihad vs. McWorld: How Globalism and Tribalism are Reshaping the World. New York NY: Crown. Bourhis, R. Y. & Giles, H. 1977. The language of intergroup distinctiveness. In Language, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations, H. Giles (ed.), 119–134. London: Academic Press. Brink, C. 2006. No Lesser Place. The Taaldebat at Stellenbosch. Stellenbosch: Sun Press. Caritas/Migrantes. 2008. Immigrazione. Dossier statistico. Roma. Centers for Disease Control. 2007. Suicide. (24 November 2007). Choate, M. I. 2008. Emigrant Nation. The Making of Italy Abroad. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Covello, L. 1958. The Heart is the Teacher. New York NY: McGraw Hill Book Company. De Fina, A. 2007. Code-switching and the construction of identity in a community of practice. Language in Society 36: 371–392. Dorais, L. J. 2005. Comparing academic and aboriginal definitions of Arctic identities. Polar Record 41(216): 1–10. Dorian, N. C. 1998. Western language ideologies and small-language prospects. In Endangered languages: Current Issues and Future Prospects, L. Grenoble & L. J. Whaley (eds), 3–21. Cambridge: CUP. European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. 2006. Third Report on Italy. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Eurostat European Commission. 2008. Europe in Figures. Eurostat Yearbook 2008. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.



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Finnish Saami Parliament. 1997. Land rights, linguistic rights and cultural autonomy for the Finnish Saami people. Indigenous Affairs 33(4). Fishman, J. A. 2001. Why is it so hard to save a threatened language? In Can Threatened Languages be Saved? J. A. Fishman (ed.), 17–22. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fishman, J. A.,€Gertner, M. H., Lowry, E. G. & Milan, W. G. 1985. The Rise€and€Fall€of€the€Ethnic€Revival: Perspectives on Language and Ethnicity. Berlin: Mouton. € Friedman, T. 1999. The Lexus and the Olive Tree. New York NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Gans, H. J. 1962. The Urban Villagers. Group and Class in the Life of Italian-Americans. New York NY: The Free Press. Gilroy, P. 1997. Diaspora and the detours of identity. In Identity and Difference, K. Woodward (ed.). London: Sage/Open University. Griffith, P. & Leonard, M. (eds). 2002. Renewing Britishness. London: The Foreign Policy Centre. Haarmann, H. 2004. Evolution, language and the construction of culture. In Handbook of Evolution. The Evolution of Human Societies and Cultures, F. M. Wuketits & C. Antweiler (eds), 77–119. Weinheim: Wiley-VCH . Habermas, J. 1994. Struggles for recognition in the democratic constitutional state. In Multiculturalism: Multicultural and Multilingual Policies in Education, A. Gutman (ed), 107–148. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press. Hall, S. 1990. Cultural identity and diaspora. In Identity: Community, Culture, Difference J.€Rutherford (ed.), 222–237. London: Lawrence and Wishart. Joseph, J. E. 2004. Language and Identity: National, Ethnic, Religious. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Kawagley, A. O. 1995. A Yupiaq Worldview: A Pathway to Ecology and Spirit. Prospect Heights€IL: Waveland Press. King, K. A. 2001. Language Revitalization Processes and Prospects: Quichua in the Ecuadorian Andes. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Korsmo, F. 1993. Swedish policy and Saami rights. The Northern Review 11: 32–55. Kroskrity, P. V. 2000. Regimenting languages. Language ideological perspectives. In Regimes of Languages: Ideologies, Politics and Identities, P. V. Kroskrity & R. Bauman (eds), 1–34. Santa Fe NM: School of American Research Press. Le Page, R. B. & Tabouret-Keller, A. 1985. Acts of Identity. Cambridge: CUP. Lévesque, R. 1968. An Option for Quebec. Toronto: MacClelland and Stewart. Luconi, S. 2001. From Paesani to White Ethnics: The Italian Experience in Philadelphia. Albany NY: SUNY Press. Mangione, J. 1978. An Ethnic at Large. A Memoir of America in the Thirties and Forties. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. McCarty, T. L., Romero-Little, E. & Zepeda, O. 2006. Native American youth discourses on language shift and retention: Ideological cross-currents and their implications for language planning. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9(5): 659–677. McNulty, G. & Magga, M. 1987. Measuring ethnic belonging from within: The case of the Vuotso Saami. Acta Borealia. Nordic Journal of Circumpolar Societies 4(1): 37–42. Mertz, E. 1989. Sociolinguistic creativity: Cape Breton Gaelic’s ‘linguistic tip’. In Investigating Obsolescence: Studies in Language Contraction and Death, N. C. Dorian (ed.), 103–116. Cambridge: CUP.

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Nettle, D. & Romaine, S. 2000. Vanishing Voices. The Extinction of the World’s Languages. Oxford: OUP. NicCraith, M. 2006. Europe and the Politics of Language. Citizens, Migrants and Outsiders. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Niezen, R. 2003. The Origins of Indigenism. Human Rights and the Politics of Identity. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Pavlenko, A. 2002. ‘We have room for but one language here’: Language and national identity in the US at the turn of the 20th century. Multilingua 21: 163–196. Pavlenko, A. & Blackledge, A. (eds). 2004. Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Pease-Alvarez, L. 2002. Moving beyond linear trajectories of language shift and bilingual language socialization. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 24(2): 114–137. The Sami – An Indigenous People in Sweden. 2005. Ministry of Agriculture, Food, and Consumer Affairs and Sametinget (Sweden Sami Parliament). Sen, A. 2006. Identity and Violence. The Illusion of Destiny. New York NY: W. W. Norton & Company. Smolicz, J. J. 1981. Core values and cultural identity. Ethnic and Racial Studies 4(1): 75–90. Treffers-Daller, J. 1992. French–Dutch codeswitching in Brussels: Social factors explaining its disappearance. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 13: 143–156. Tsui, A. B. M. 2007. Language policy and the social construction of identity. In Language Policy, Culture and Identity in Asian Contexts, A. B. M. Tsui & J. W. Tollefson (eds), 121–143. Â�Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Vecoli, R. J. 2000. Are Italian-Americans just white folks? In Review of Italian-American Studies, F. Sorrentino & J. Krase (eds), 75–88. Lanham MD: Lexington. Waitangi Tribunal. 1989. Report of the Waitangi Tribunal on the te reo Maori claim. Wellington NZ: Government Printer. Whyte, W. F. 1943. Street Corner Society. The Social Structure of an Italian Slum. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.

The United States

chapter 2

The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners* Ofelia García with Carmina Makar, Maia Starcevic, and Ali Terry

Within the last decade, a number of bilingual education programs in the United States have begun teaching both Latino and non-Latino children together in English and Spanish. This chapter describes the educational and language ecology of one such bilingual program at the kindergarten level in a school in the school district of New Rochelle (New York). Children are instructed half the time in English and the other half in Spanish. The use of each language is controlled by the administrators, being kept separate at all times by assigning each language to different classrooms or locations. However, despite these strict linguistic boundaries, the children cross these borders on daily basis, and so their linguistic performances show much hybridity, giving evidence of translanguaging (hybrid practices of languaging bilingually). In the case reviewed in this chapter, translanguaging takes place across teachers and students in four ways: to mediate understanding (e.g. children’s translations and interpretations to mediate with others and themselves); to co-construct and construct meaning (when children make use of the other language for understanding); to include (being responsive to perceived interlocutor’s language use); to exclude (that is, other children from interaction) and to show knowledge (e.g., by trying out the words they know). It is concluded that the way (especially Latino) students appropriate the use of language illustrates a heteroglossic vision of bilingualism that occurs when Latino children of different generations and immigration histories, nationalities, race and social class, are educated jointly with non-Latino children.

* We wish to thank Kim Potowski and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper. We also want to thank the New Rochelle School District and the parents and students of the bilingual kindergarten who allowed Starcevic and Terry to open the doors to García and Makar.

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1.

Introduction

In the last decade, bilingual education programs in the United States that were specifically designed for Latino children in the process of becoming bilingual have given way to educational spaces that provide bilingual instruction in English and Spanish to Latino children with different linguistic profiles, alongside non-Latino children. These two-way bilingual education settings educate different kinds of Latino children – including those who are newly arrived and are acquiring English, those who are already bilingual, and those who have experienced shift to English – alongside those who are acquiring Spanish (Cazabón et al. 1999; García 2006; Lindholm-Leary 2001; Potowski 2007; Valdés 1997). Here we will describe how the educational and language ecology of one such two-way bilingual program in New York helps shape young Latino children’s language and literacy practices, as they come together during the first three months of school in a kindergarten. We also describe how the children themselves perform their linguistic identities. We attempt to answer two questions: – How do young Latino kindergarteners with different linguistic profiles perform their new linguistic identities in a classroom space that is inclusive of linguistic differences? – How does the curricular and pedagogical structure of this kindergarten interact with this linguistic identity construction? Throughout this chapter we show how the performances of the two kindergarten teachers (Starcevic and Terry, who appear here as co-authors) support bilingual and biliteracy practices and help shape bilingual identities. In addition, we demonstrate how the kindergarten children construct hybrid practices of “languaging” bilingually – what García (2009a) has termed “translanguaging.” Languages as bound systems and fixed codes make little sense in multilingual communities (Mühlhäusler 2000). Makoni and Pennycook (2007) have shown how languages were originally constructed by nation-states that wanted to consolidate political power. Colonial officers and missionaries were called upon to impose a constructed “language” (Errington 2001) in ways that silenced the

. These programs are also known as two-way immersion, and as dual language (LindholmLeary 2001). Recently, and because of the attacks against bilingual education in the United States, the term “dual language” has been extended to mean types of bilingual education programs other than transitional ones, including developmental bilingual education. We have decided not to use the word “dual” in this article because of the confusion that it creates and because we wish to name the bilingual reality that exists in these classrooms.



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

Â� linguistic social practices or “languaging” of multilingual speakers (Yngve 1996; Shohamy 2006). In much the same way, schools select and impose an academic standard language to be used for literacy, thus controlling the bilingual students’ capacity to perform fluid linguistic practices framed within different social contexts. Languages as bound systems and fixed codes also make little sense in multilingual classrooms, and especially in two-way bilingual classrooms where children with different linguistic profiles interact. This is also the case of the two-way bilingual kindergarten that is the subject of this study. Translanguaging, as used by García (2009a) builds on the concept of languaging, as it focuses on the discourse practices of multilingual speakers from the point of view of what speakers do and perform with them. Although translanguaging encompasses code-switching and other features of language practices that sociolinguists often study as “language contact,” it differs in that the starting point is not language as an autonomous skill. Bilingual people translanguage as they make meaning in speech communities that are, in the 21st century, no longer attached to a national territory, and thus to a single national language. Bilingual communities often experience transnational lives, shuttling between states, as diasporic communities. But most of the time, bilingual people shuttle between communities that are hybrids themselves, a product of postmodern societies. The language practices of bilinguals in the 21st century go beyond simply using what is considered one language for certain situations and with different people. Bilinguals mix and choose different features that may be considered parts of different autonomous languages, as they discursively perform their meanings. They use language practices associated with one or another autonomous language to perform different languaging acts, sometimes mixing uses for different modalities of communication (listening, speaking, reading, writing, signing, image, icon and sound production, etc). Translanguaging, or engaging in bilingual or multilingual discourse practices, is an approach to bilingualism that is centered not on the constructed notion of standard languages as has been often the case, but on the practices of bilinguals that are readily observable. These hybrid practices are not marked or unusual, but rather are the normal mode of communication that, with some exceptions in some monolingual enclaves, characterizes communities throughout the world. We borrow the term “translanguaging” from Cen Williams in Wales, who used it to refer to a bilingual pedagogy that alternates language modes. For example, reading in bilingual classrooms may be done in one language and writing in . We differ in our definition from that given to the term by Merrill Swain (2008) who defined languaging as making meaning and shaping knowledge and experience through language. We use languaging to refer to language practices.

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another; discussion takes place in one language and reading in another (for more on this, see Baker 2001). However, García (2009a) extends it to encompass all kinds of bilingual practices, including alternating diverse languaging and literacy practices in different social and semiotic contexts.

2.

The context

2.1

The national context

The number of U.S. Latino students in the United States is on the rise and accounts for one-fifth of all 5 to 17 year old students. Whereas there were 53,279,370 five to 17 year olds in the United States in 2006, 10,244,249 or 20 percent of all students were Latinos, according to the U.S. Census (ACS 2006, Table B01001). Of the 10 million Latino students in the United States in 2006, almost 8 million, 7,804,711, speak Spanish at home (ACS 2006, Table B16004). Although the U.S. census does not provide any information as to the Spanish language proficiency of these students, it does ask for the English proficiency of those who use Spanish at home. Table 1 displays the English language ability of U.S. students who speak Spanish at home. Table 1.╇ English language ability of U.S. Latinos 5–17 who speak Spanish at home* English proficiency

Total

Percentage

Very well Well Not well Not at all Total Spanish speakers, 5–17 years old

5,728,426 1,322,158 620,628 133,499 7,804,711

73% 17% 8% 2% 100%

*Source: American Community Survey 2006, Table B16004

Despite the fact that these census figures are based on self-report, it is interesting to note that three-fourths of Latino students who speak Spanish at home are fully bilingual. In fact, only 2% could be considered Spanish monolinguals. Thus, U.S. language-in-education policy (LiEP) should take note of the bilingualism of

. This in itself is evidence of the language shift that is taking place among Latino school-aged children, with 2 million claiming to be Latinos and yet not speaking Spanish at home. . These census figures are based on self-report and thus may not be entirely accurate.



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

Latino students, and not of their English proficiency or Spanish proficiency. It is bilingualism itself that is at the core of U.S. Latino students’ identity. Yet, the United States’ language-in-education policy has always been deeply monolingual and ignores the bilingualism of its many Latino students. In the 1970s, and as a result of Civil Rights legislation and judicial decisions based on equal educational opportunity, bilingual education programs were developed, mostly for Latinos who were not fully proficient in English (transitional bilingual education). But even then, the goal of transitional bilingual education for these Latino students was to encourage their language shift and eventual monolingualism in English. In the last decade of the 20th century, the limited spaces that had been created for bilingual education since the 1970s, with Spanish used reluctantly and mostly temporarily, have been even further restricted. Several states (California in 1998, Arizona in 2000, and Massachusetts in 2002) have passed laws outlawing bilingual education programs. And the transitional bilingual education programs for Spanish-speaking children that sprung up around the country since the 1970s have started to be replaced by English-only programs. In some cases, these English-only programs include English as a Second Language instruction, sometimes pull-out, sometimes push-in, sometimes special programs called Structured English Immersion and Sheltered English. In other cases, little is done for these Spanish-speaking children.

. For the history of this language-in-education policy, see Crawford (2004). Also see García and Kleifgen (2010). . One such example was Lau v. Nichols (1974) in which Justice William O. Douglas writing the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court said: “[T]here is no equality of treatment merely by providing students with the same facilities, textbooks, teachers and curriculum; for students who do not understand English are effectively foreclosed from any meaningful education….” . During this time, there were also some maintenance bilingual education programs that aimed to develop bilingualism among Latino students. But these programs were controversial and fell out of favor with the federal government very quickly, although some still exist. . In pull-out programs, ESL teachers work with small groups of children outside of the classroom setting. In push-in programs, ESL teachers work alongside the classroom teacher, supporting emergent bilinguals. . These are special programs for emergent bilinguals that focus on scaffolding instruction of content areas by contextualizing language, building message redundancy, and increasing wait time for students to respond, react and learn. It is important to point out, however, that despite the use of the word “immersion” these programs are, in effect, submersion programs.

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The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) has been resolute about identifying, classifying, and assessing those whom are called “Limited English Proficient.” But even in the choice of the name for these students (Limited English Proficient or English Language Learners), the U.S. LiEP continues to ignore the bilingualism of Latino students and the potential of these “emergent bilinguals” (for more on this, see García and Kleifgen 2010; García 2009b). Yet, at the same time that the U.S. LiEP policy has become more explicitly monolingual, the status of Spanish has been rising globally. This has been facilitated, in part, by the growth of the U.S. Latino population, the ascendancy of Spain in the global market, the democratization of Latin American countries, the universalization of Latin pop culture and music, and the emergence of a “Latinidad” that was spurred by Latinos in the United States (see, for example, Mar Molinero 2008; García 2008; García 2009c). The result of these two forces – the shrinking of a bilingual space in education for Latinos, coupled with the rise in the status of Spanish – has led to the possibility of carving out a new educational space in which Latino children with different linguistic profiles, and non-Latino students who speak English only or English and another language other than Spanish are educated together, mostly in primary schools. Because of the restrictive era with regards to bilingualism in which these bilingual education programs were developed, the programs were named with words other than “bilingual.” Their two-way, and poly-directional bilingualism10 often became referred to as “dual language,” and in some instances, as “two-way immersion.” The intent was not to name what Crawford (2004) has called “the B word,” as the country’s LiEP became openly monolingual and antibilingual. Thus, these educational programs are important because they represent spaces of resistance to the dominant monolingual language-in-education policy. As we will see, because of the mixed and hybrid nature of two-way bilingual education, these educational programs are neither monolingual, nor are they bilingual in the traditional sense. The traditional bilingual education programs of the past have always considered the two languages as separate bounded entities. This has been the case of prestigious bilingual education programs around the world where the elite educate their children, and of immersion bilingual education in Canada for the Anglophone majority. This has also been the case of transitional bilingual education programs for language minorities, immigrants, and Indigenous and colonized groups throughout the world (for more on this, 10. Although conceptualized as two-way, these programs are poly-directional because it is not easy to categorize children as belonging to simply a Spanish speaking group or an English speaking group. The sociolinguistic reality is a lot more complex, and a lot more polydirectional. For more on this argument, see García (2009a).



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

see García 2009a). Two-way bilingual programs have the potential to be different because they offer the possibility of linguistic constructions that reflect the hybrid nature of the Latino experience in the United States in the 21st century.

2.2 The local context In the last decade, New York City has experienced an economic resurgence, with housing prices escalating and gentrification of formerly immigrant and poor neighborhoods rampant. As such, new immigrants have flocked to nearby suburbs in search of cheaper housing, more residential space, and better schooling for their children. The school district of New Rochelle in the southernmost part of Westchester County, just two miles from the Bronx, is one such district. New Rochelle is the second largest city in Westchester County and is the seventh-largest city in the state of New York. According to the 2006 American Community Survey, 25% of the school-aged population of New Rochelle (ages 5–17) speaks Spanish at home. Under the leadership of Estee López, the school district of New Rochelle, with funding support from the New York State Education Department, started a two-way bilingual education program under the name of CILA (Children’s International Language Academy). The promotional brochure for parents of kindergarteners states that “the design is to have two classes each comprised of approximately 23 students, half of whom are native English speakers and half Spanish speakers. … at least one member of the teaching team will be a fluent speaker of both English and Spanish.” The program guidelines call this a “50-50 model” and define it by saying: “This means that children will be instructed half the time in English and the other half in Spanish” (The City School District of New Rochelle 2007).

3.

The participants and the study

The participants in this study are the two teachers and the 37 children in one CILA kindergarten program in New Rochelle. Although the program has a long history in the district, this is the first time that it is offered in this particular school, and these are the only teachers and students involved in two-way bilingual education in the school building. Although the program structure calls for half the children to be native speakers of English and half of Spanish, the children’s linguistic heterogeneity is a lot more complex. It is often difficult to ascertain where a child

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40 Ofelia García

falls in the bilingual continuum.11 This is further complicated by the fact that the child’s position is not static, but dynamic, as s/he progresses and develops. It is thus easier to talk about the characteristics of the parents. But these are also not easy to discern. Children sometimes live with one parent or the other. The families have been reconstituted time and time again as a result of separations having to do with immigration, divorce, remarriage. And furthermore, some families have come and gone to their places of origin many times in the children’s short lives, and continue to do so even during the school year. The data we provide here under Tables 2, 3 and 4 were gathered after many conversations of the two teachers with the parents. Table 2.╇ Ethnic profile of parents of children in class Characteristics of parents

# of children

Both non-Latinos One Latino, one non-Latino Both Latinos Total number of children

â•⁄ 9 â•⁄ 2 26 37

Table 3.╇ Linguistic profile of parents of children in class # of parents Parents who speak English only, of non-Latino background Parents who speak English only, of Latino background Parents who speak Spanish only, of Latino background Parents who speak a Language other than Spanish only 1 parent speaks English only, 2nd parent also speaks Spa, non-Latino 1 parent speaks English only, 2nd parent also speaks Spa, Latino Both parents bilingual in English and Spanish Unknown

5 1 9 2 1 5 6 8

Table 4.╇ Place of birth of children, mothers and fathers U.S. Mexico Other Latin American countries Other non-Latin Am countries Unknown TOTAL

# of children

# of mothers

# of fathers

33 â•⁄ 4

14 19 â•⁄ 2 â•⁄ 1 â•⁄ 1 37

12 20 â•⁄ 2 â•⁄ 2 â•⁄ 1 37

37

11. Although much used in educational policy, the concept of language dominance has been recently refuted by scholars who construct their understandings of bilingualism from a heteroglossic perspective. For more on this view, see García (2009a).



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

The program is considered of the type “side-by-side,” with two teachers in separate classrooms acting as monolingual teachers in one or the other language and providing children with an “immersion-like” experience in the language. Starcevic provides the English language experience and Terry teaches only in Spanish, with children switching classrooms at least twice during the day. Both teachers are bilingual with different degrees of proficiency in the non-instructional language. Whereas Starcevic acquired Spanish through her life-experience growing up in a NY Latino neighborhood in the presence of a Spanish-speaking mother, neither she nor her mother are of Latino background. On the other hand, Terry was born in Santo Domingo and is fully bilingual. The research study was initiated in September 2007 as the kindergarten program itself was started. García visited the classroom on a weekly basis since early September and draws here from observations and taped transcripts gathered in the first three months as children first construct their language and cultural identities.

4.

The curricular and pedagogical structure: Separation and convergence

Responding to the additive model of bilingualism that is often accepted in the bilingual literature as most beneficial to children (Lambert and Tucker 1972), these two-way bilingual education programs in the United States have been developed following strict compartmentalization curricular structures – that is, English and Spanish are kept separate at all times. Starcevic and Terry speak in only one language and the languages are assigned to different classrooms or locations. And the children are carefully grouped for specific experiences in one or the other language. Despite the strict linguistic compartmentalization maintained by the teachers, the children cross these boundaries daily, sometimes multiple times during the day. Thus, although the children perceive the language territories as marking separate linguistic and cultural identities, their linguistic performances show much hybridity, as we will see. Although the classrooms have been determined to be monolingual linguistic territories by the teachers, children with very different and complex linguistic profiles interact even within a single linguistic territory – for homeroom, lunch, specials, work choice. Furthermore, the children’s linguistic profiles do not remain static, as they engage in complex languaging practices. And because Starcevic and Terry show evidence of excellent early childhood practices, the children intermingle freely, especially during what the teachers call “work choice.”12 It is then in 12. Work choice is the unstructured time in kindergarten in which children are free to interact with others in different activities – block corner, writing and drawing, coloring and cutting, computer, Smart Board, Train and car tracks, Legos, Puppets, Dress Up corner, Painting, and Teacher Corner for small group instruction.

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these two supposedly monolingual territories where children, often during the free and unstructured time of “work choice,” perform the translanguaging that defines the hybrid space of these classrooms. The curriculum and pedagogy of these two kindergarten classes clearly separate the two languages, as the teachers avoid code-switching, giving each of the languages a supposedly 50/50 distribution. However, children do not stay in linguistically homogenous groups in the two classrooms. In fact, children come in and out of homogeneous and heterogenous groupings. Sometimes they’re divided linguistically in order to teach them literacy and math in their home language or to support the second language. Other times, however, they are in linguistically heterogeneous groupings where they negotiate their linguistic identities. It is the weaving in of the separation and convergence that creates the conditions for the important linguistic and identity constructions in this classroom.

5.

Translanguaging in kindergarten: Convergence and separation

Despite the advances of sociolinguistics since the 1960s, folk understandings of bilingualism, based on traditional language constructs and focused on school bilingualism, continues to define bilingualism as simply 1 + 1 = 2. The notion of balanced bilingualism which views a bilingual as two persons, each fluent in one of the two languages, is thus upheld. But bilinguals are not double monolinguals (Grosjean 1982; Romaine 1995). Bilingualism is not about 1 + 1 = 2, but about a plural which mixes different aspects or fractions of language behavior as they are needed to be socially meaningful (García 2009a). Generally, only two models of bilingualism, both having been developed in response to traditional bilingual schooling, are acknowledged in the scholarly literature. Bilingualism could be subtractive and resulting in monolingualism, or it could be additive, with the two languages added and maintained (see Figure 1). Subtractive Bilingualism

Additive Bilingualism

L1 ´ + L2 – L1 ´ L2

L1 + L2 = L1 + L2

Figure 1

Subtractive bilingualism refers to the bilingualism, of, for example, Latino immigrants who are in the process of shifting to English, the language of power. As the second language is added, the first one is subtracted. Additive bilingualism refers to the idea that a second language could be added to the first, without any loss



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

of the first. The bilingualism of most language majorities who acquire a second language in school is most often of the additive kind. But if we view the languaging of bilinguals as social practices, these models of bilingualism are deficient. García (2009a) has proposed that the subtractive and additive models of bilingualism have been constructed from a monolingual perspective and as a result of a monoglossic ideology that views first and second languages as autonomous bounded codes. But bilingualism in the 21st century cannot be simply linear. Viewed from a bilingual and multilingual social reality, and a heteroglossic ideology that upholds multiple languaging practices, bilingualism also needs to be conceived as either recursive and moving back and forth as it blends its components, or as dynamic with both languages coming in and out fluidly (see Figure 2). Recursive Bilingualism

Dynamic Bilingualism

Figure 2

These last two models of “languaging bilingually ” suggest the fluid relationship between the multiple ways of languaging with the many interlocutors and the multiplicity of settings in which bilinguals interact, especially in the 21st century as a result of globalization and advances in technology. Recursive bilingualism reflects situations of language revitalization spurred especially by a renewed emphasis on language rights of many minorities in the 21st century. U.S. Latinos beyond the first generation who are in the process of revitalizing their languaging practices to include what we know as Spanish, do so by recapturing bits and pieces of their ancestral linguistic practices, as they’re reconstituted for new functions. They do not start as monolinguals, nor do they add a second language. They simply recover bits and pieces of language practices that exist within their fluid bilingual social context. Dynamic bilingualism is consonant with the new ways in which bilingualism is being constructed for a globalized world. The concept of dynamic bilingualism has much to do with the notion of plurilingualism that has been advanced in the European Union. For the purposes of communication and to take part

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in intercultural action, a plurilingual person “viewed as a social agent, has proficiency, of varying degrees, in several languages and experience of several cultures” (Council of Europe 2000, Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:â•›168). It is not about “adding” a “second” language; it is about developing complex language practices that encompass several social contexts. The new discourse contact that comes about from the complex communication that takes place with different interlocutors on diverse planes using various language abilities in simultaneous ways leads to the deconstruction of monolingual realities and the acceptance of heteroglossic speech where “rules and norms are activated that overlap single languages and govern the harmonic, i.e. the ‘grammatical’ mixing of elements from different languages” (Lüdi 2003). Despite the new ways in which bilingualism needs to be constructed for the multiple interactions of the 21st century, U.S. schools continue to insist in learning and assessing an English academic standard. And in the few educational situations in which Spanish is also acknowledged, it is the Spanish academic standard that is taught and assessed. Teaching and assessing bilingual Latinos as if they were an English plus a Spanish monolingual excludes the possibility of their linguistic multiplicities and the potential of the languaging bilingually that García (2009a) calls “translanguaging.”

6. Beyond monoglossic bilingual education: A two-way bilingual kindergarten By having two separate classrooms, this two-way bilingual language kindergarten program reconstructs two geographical spaces that have boundaries, responding to a monoglossic view of bilingualism and bilingual education. But, between the linguistically separated spaces, there are “third spaces” such as the hallway, the cafeteria and the playground where the inter-communication and translanguaging among speakers of different linguistic backgrounds is intense. And because of the excellent collaborative pedagogical structures that the teachers provide, even in one or the other classroom, children create their own “third spaces.” Students appropriate the use of language, and although teachers may carefully plan when and how languages are to be used, children themselves use their entire linguistic repertoires flexibly. And they transgress physical spaces as they translanguage. In so doing, they shape more heteroglossic visions of bilingualism, those that build upon the recursive and dynamic bilingualism that occurs when Latino children of different generations and immigration histories, nationalities, race, and social class, are educated jointly with non-Latino children in ways that recognize each other’s linguistic and cultural strengths. As a result, Latino children construct their own hybrid linguistic and cultural identities.



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

6.1 Translanguaging in kindergarten In this bilingual kindergarten, despite the language separations, Latino children acquire an additional language and cultural practices through processes that have much to do with translanguaging. That is, the children do not simply acquire a separate second language, instead they integrate bits and pieces of these new linguistic practices into their complex and growing bilingual repertoire. The result is not simply additive, although it potentializes the languaging capacity of the children. As a result, however, we cannot speak of separate constructions of two language identities, but of a hybrid one. During the first month of school, the two teachers (Starcevic in English and Terry in Spanish) use slightly different pedagogical approaches. Whereas StarcevicÂ� often accompanies her discourse with sign language to scaffold language for emergent bilinguals, Terry uses songs and rhymes. Starcevic uses songs too, not to build vocabulary, but to mark transitions and call attention to the group. This has to do with the power differential between the two languages. Latino children with little English come into kindergarten with receptive language abilities, a product of watching television and living in contexts where English is the language of prestige. In contrast, non-Latino children do not have receptive ability in Spanish. The difference is telling. Whereas non-Latino children acquire words and terms in Spanish as the building blocks in becoming bilingual, the Latino children quickly incorporate and integrate new linguistic and cultural social practices. Translanguaging across teacher and students is common during the first few weeks of schools and it is precisely indicative of the bilingual acquisition that begins to take place. A week after school started, a Spanish-speaking boy, Samuel, plays with a baby doll in the home corner of the English classroom. Starcevic asks: (1) Starcevic: What are you doing with your baby? Samuel: Le cambié el pañal ‘I changed the diaper.’ 

(9/12/2007)

This male kindergartener understands the teacher, but relies on Spanish to communicate with her. A few weeks later, however, Samuel abandons playing with baby dolls in the housekeeping area, as he also abandons speaking Spanish only in the English classroom. Samuel starts constructing new language practices that incorporate what are seen as English features. Translanguaging becomes, for Samuel and for others, a way to mediate understandings, construct meaning, include, exclude, and show knowledge. In what follows, we present examples of translanguaging from Samuel and his classmates. We focus, then, on the important role that the children’s translanguaging practices have in negotiating and building their more dynamic bilingual identities, even as the organizational structure of the program itself remains monoglossic.

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6.2 To mediate understandings When talking to each other, children often use both languages because they want to ensure that they’re understood. For example, one October morning, two bilingual Latina girls are petting the newly arrived bunnies in the English classroom. Francisca who is more confident with the bunny than Veronica, advises her: “Relax, relájate. No hace nada” (10/17/2007). Some may consider this a simple code-switch. But the example shows Francisca’s ability to linguistically engage in a social practice that violates the programmatic structure of “English-only in the English classroom” in order to communicate with Veronica, for whom it is important to relax around the rabbit because it does no harm. Francisca translanguages to mediate understandings in this social context. This is a social practice that children learn well. There is no simpler translanguaging than what takes place in translations. Despite denials of administrators, effective two-way bilingual classrooms rely on these in order for children to make sense of what is being taught. In this kindergarten class, one particular bilingual boy, Diego, has an important function. He frequently provides interpretations and translations, often direct translations, for teachers and for children. It is his early ability to translanguage that makes him a natural co-teacher. In the example that follows, Starcevic has called the group to the rug in the English classroom. She calls the children to attention, which the bilingual interpreter quickly literally translates for the class:

(2) Starcevic: Sit up! Diego: In Spanish, it’s siéntate arriba [says to the whole class] (9/23/2007)

Just a few days later, the children, and in particular one Spanish-speaking girl, are not behaving appropriately:

(3) Starcevic: I’m getting angry at you… [to Irene, a Spanish speaking emergent bilingual] Diego: ¡Qué tienes que escuchar a la maestra, Irene! ‘That you have to listen to the teacher, Irene!’  (9/28/2007)

The student provides a quick translation that facilitates understanding. Diego’s bilingual ability and his quick translations, sometimes too literal, have the same function in the Spanish class. The same day, in the afternoon, he is in the Spanish class when one of the non-Latina children, Meredith, asks for an explanation. Before the teacher can answer, he has provided a translation. (4) Meredith: How do you say snowball in Spanish? Diego: Right Ms. Terry, que snowball es nieve bola? 

(9/28/2007)



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

Diego’s translation for the whole group and for a specific student is evidence not only of his ability to translanguage comfortably, but of his understandings that bilingualism is a precious ability that is appreciated, nurtured and developed in this bilingual classroom. In this classroom the message is clear – he has an advantage by being bilingual and he displays his translanguaging ability with pride and confidence. But the translanguaging to mediate understandings is not always done with the other students in mind. Sometimes it consists of discourse in different languages to mediate one’s own understanding. During a lesson on the sound of /a/ with those who speak Spanish as a second language, Ms. Terry shows a picture of a spider [araña] with shoes: (5) Terry: Student A: Terry: Students:

También mi araña tiene zapatos. ‘My spider also has shoes.’ And it looks like gloves in the fingers. ¿Son guantes o zapatos? ‘Are they gloves or shoes?’ Zapatos. 

(9/28/2007)

The student uses English to expand upon something the teacher has said in Spanish, thus mediating his own understanding of what is taking place. Without getting caught in the switch, the teacher then asks another question in Spanish which the children then answer in Spanish.

6.3 To co-construct meaning The two participants in the example that follows are having snack during homeroom, which happens to be in the English classroom. A Spanish-speaking boy, Alfredo, whose bilingualism is at the very beginning stages, is snacking side-byside Beatriz, a Spanish-speaking girl whose bilingualism is more advanced. (6) Alfredo: [Looking out the window and talking to himself] Está lloviendo mucho. ‘It is raining a lot.’ Look [telling the others]. It’s washing. There’s washing afuera. ‘outside’ Beatriz: ¿Está lloviendo? [She asks him] [Turning to García] He says raining. He speaks Spanish, only Spanish [Turning to boy] Adolfo, raining. Alfredo: Raining.  (10/19/2007)

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Although Alfredo had no word for “raining,” and used “washing” to communicate, the translanguaging that occurred allowed a meaningful interaction between Alfredo, Beatriz, and García, and enabled Alfredo to acquire the lexical item that he needed without any intervention from the teacher. Thus, translanguaging in the classroom enables language acquisition without having to wait for the teacher to assume her role. In the example that follows, Arthur, an English-speaking boy whose bilingualism is at the very beginning stages is counting pumpkin seeds during an activity around Halloween time in the Spanish classroom. Arthur is working with Maritza, a girl whose father is a Spanish-speaking Mexican, although her mother does not speak Spanish. Thus, this girl’s bilingualism is a bit more advanced. (7) Arthur: I have veinticinco y …. I need dos más, no tres, look! [Counts to 25 in Spanish] I only have veintitres, now…. Veinticinco. ¡I need dos! Maritza: ¿Necesitas una? Toma ése…. Yo tiene una más….. Se cayó. ‘Do you need one? Take this one…. I have another one…. It fell!’ Arthur: Necesita una más.  (10/26/2007)

This translanguaging event enabled Arthur to try out the Spanish language practices that he had acquired, mainly numbers. But the intervention of Maritza, despite the inaccuracies of her Spanish, enables Arthur to acquire more than numbers, as children co-construct languaging and meaning. The following interaction happened between a bilingual Latino boy (Eric) with another Latino boy who has very limited English (Enrique) during the unstructured “work choice” in the English language classroom. The pair has chosen to draw, something that Enrique, the Latino boy with limited English, does very well. In this situation, therefore, it is the emergent bilingual Spanish-speaking boy who has the academic strength. Eric, then, becomes the “helper.” Eric would have preferred to speak in English since we have observed him to do so in every “free” encounter in the classroom. However, because of the drawing dominance of Enrique, Spanish is the language of choice. And yet, it is translanguaging that helps them co-construct the meaning in this activity and to share each other’s skills€– Enrique his drawing ability, but also his knowledge of Spanish by offering the word “cola;” Eric his English ability to translate Ms. Starcevic’s request for writing the name, but also his more advanced writing ability, by showing Enrique how to write his name. (8) Eric: ¿Quieres deste así? ‘Do you want this this way?’ Enrique: OK



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

Eric: Cortando algo…. Pa pegar… Ahí. ‘Cutting something… To glue… There!’ And now we’re going to put a line. ¿Quieres así éste, pero, mucho? ‘Do you want this one this way, but, a lot?’ Starcevic: Enrique, are you writing your name? Eric: Tu nombre. Así Enrique….[Writes Enrique’s name across the paper] Mira. ‘Your name. This way Enrique…., look….’ Enrique: Ahhhhh Eric: ¿Quieres más? [Asks García, How do you say in Spanish? [pointing to the bottle of glue] Enrique: Cola Eric: Enrique, mira. Now we got to just color.  (9/23/2007)

In the example above, Eric provided translation for Enrique, while Enrique provided translation for Eric, and in that sense, meaning was constructed. Translanguaging provides the bridge for co-constructing meaning. This is also the case of the example that follows, this time in the Spanish classroom. This interaction is between Paul, an English monolingual non-Latino boy and Lola, a bilingual English-dominant Latina. Paul is trying out all his Spanish words and expressions, but relies on Lola’s bilingualism to provide him with unknown lexical items. And he quickly incorporates the Spanish lexical items into his translanguaging practices. (9) Paul: Lola: Paul: Lola: Paul:

This is dirty. These are servilletas. Semillas. Y, ¿qué es eso? [asks Lola, pointing to glue] ‘napkins. Seeds. And what is this?’ ¿Ése? Semillas. No, ése [pointing]. ‘No, that one’ Pega ‘Glue’ Pega! I learned it…. (10/26/2007)

6.4 To construct meaning within oneself That translanguaging is important for children to develop bilingualism is especially evident when one listens closely to children talking to themselves, a practice that is prevalent among kindergarteners. The translanguaging practices that are

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constructed always bring the other language to the forefront, even when that language is not being activated by the instruction. In the next example, Ms. Starcevic, the teacher, has taken the ESL children outside and is showing them the trees and teaching them how to compare them. Angélica, a Spanish speaking emergent bilingual Latina tries it out under her breath: (10) Starcevic: This tree is bigger. That tree is smaller. Angélica: [Tries out under her breath]. This tree is grander.  (9/23/2007)

That children are always drawing on their home language practices is also evident in the next example. The teacher is drawing a Thinking Map to assist with brainstorming during an English lesson – in a typical Thinking Map, a circle is drawn at the center for the main idea, and many lines are drawn extending out of the circle that connect to related ideas. But to a bilingual kindergartener, the shape of a Thinking Map can only be one thing. Sol!, he exclaims, reminding us that for this five year old who speaks Spanish at home, a Thinking Map can be nothing short of his Spanish “sun.” Another Spanish speaking child sits next to García, as he practices writing his “d’s” during the English class. To himself, he mutters: (11)

Lo hice rápido. ‘I did it quickly.’ Es un “d.” [with English pronunciation] ‘It’s a d.’ Yo lo estoy haciendo bien. ‘I’m doing it well.’ Como una pirata. ‘Like a pirate.’ De un cowboy, así, como un cowboy…. ‘Of a cowboy, that way, like a cowboy….’ Ahora voy a hacer esto. ‘Now I’m going to do this.’ ¿Cómo hago éste? ‘How do I do this?’ Lo tengo que colorear. ‘I have to paint it.’

This child’s private speech is completely in Spanish. He uses Spanish, however, to produce English “d’s” in writing. It is his translanguaging practices that allow the learning to take place.



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

6.5 To include In this two-way bilingual kindergarten, playtime or work choice becomes a translanguaging negotiation event and the only way in which activities can continue across the different languages. In the example that follows, Carlos, a Â� Spanishspeaking boy with limited English, and Silvia, a bilingual Latina are playing in the block area while using Spanish. Kathy, an English monolingual, approaches: (12) Kathy: Are you done? [As she tries to take over the block area from Carlos and Silvia who have been speaking in Spanish] Carlos: Yes, I done. [As he starts to walk away] Silvia: [To Kathy] Do you want to play with us? Ven Carlos, stay here! [They start playing, as Silvia negotiates the interactions between Carlos and Kathy by acting out a plane, and then a car, and repeating as she makes noises “un avión/a plane,” and then “un carro/a car”….]  (10/17/2007)

Carlos is ready to give up the block area since he feels he cannot continue to play in English. But Silvia saves the day by inviting Kathy in English, and Carlos in translanguaging ways, and then acting out her play bilingually in order to include both her friends. Although the teacher of the English classroom is bilingual, her Teaching Assistant is not. In the next monologue by a bilingual Latino boy, Pablo, translanguaging plays a role in order to include the English speaking teacher assistant, García, and the child’s inner voice. This occurs in the English classroom during work choice. The bilingual boy is playing with an Etch-a-Sketch board and starts talking to García in Spanish, addresses himself frequently in English, uses English to address the Teacher Assistant, and returns to Spanish when he tells García that he has forgotten to write down his name on the worksheet: (13) Pablo: Esto es magic. Yo puedo hacer magic. Mira, se borró todo, y aquí está. ‘This is magic. I can do magic. Look, it was all erased, and here it is.’ Es magic. …. Mira que es magic. Y aquí está. ‘It’s magic….. Look, it’s magic. And here it is!’ Mira, son papeles. Y los encerraron aquí, pa’ que los hagamos. ‘Look, they’re papers. And they put them in here, so that we can do them.’ I just erased it with my hand. [He then turns to the English speaking teacher assistant who is distributing work sheets] Can I do this with pencil? I need some. I need this one. I could write….

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[He then turns to García] Mira, ¿quieres ver? ‘Look, do you want to see?’ Éste no se borra con la mano. You don’t erase this with your hand. Y esto lo vamos a llevar a mi casa. [Speaks to himself, as he writes his name] !Ay, qué mal! Es que siempre lo hago mal. ‘Oh, so bad! It’s that I always do it wrong.’ [Speaking to himself again because he didn’t put his name on the paper] I forgot my name. [Turning to García] Se me olvidó mi nombre. ‘I forgot my name.’  (10/09/2007)

In this exchange the child translanguages to respond to perceptions of the interlocutor’s dominant language, both the teacher’s assistant and García’s, and to include them. This is not different from what others have found, including Potowski (2007). But what is interesting is that the child also translanguages in talking to himself. Like the papers in the “Etch-a-Sketch,” his language practices come in and out, as he erases and weaves different language practices and linguistic identities.

6.6 To exclude Just as translanguaging is used to include, it is also used to exclude others. Inclusion of others is a social practice that has to be learned in kindergarten. In the next interaction, two boys Francisco and Miguel, are playing in Spanish, but when they fall out of favor over handling a play horse, the bilingual boy, Francisco, switches to English to exclude Miguel who speaks very little English. Miguel starts to walk away, but a Spanish-speaking girl, Alina, acts as the mediator. She starts trying out the English word she knows, “horsey,” in order to attract Francisco again. But Francisco insists on using English to demand that Miguel and Alina give him back the horse. (14) Francisco: Miguel: Francisco:

¿Y la otra casita? ‘And the other house?’ No hay. ‘There isn’t any.’ Ok, Tú juegas con eso, y yo juego con esto ‘OK, Play with that, and I’ll play with this.’



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

Miguel: Francisco: Alina: Francisco:

No, yo soy el caballo. ‘No, I’m the horse.’ I quit. [They start fighting over the horse figure and then Miguel starts to walk away] Se quiebran. …… ‘They’ll break……’ In English it’s “horsey.” Give it to me!  (10/19/2007)

6.7 To show knowledge Translanguaging is especially prevalent among the Latino and non-Latino students who are acquiring Spanish, as they try out all the words they know. One day, there are children working in the computer in the Spanish classroom. Maritza, who has a Spanish speaking Mexican father, and an English monolingual mother and who is developing her bilingualism, tries out all the words she knows in Spanish with me. The conversation consists of words that start with the letter “a,” the letter that they had been studying that week, as well as colors, and the one Spanish word she brings from home, “playera.” (15) Tere: Mira, I made un avión Un arcoiris Eso rosa Esta playera es pink Pink es rosa y esto morado y este blanco y este azul y este rojo 

(9/23/2007)

It turns out that in the Spanish language classroom, children are constantly trying out what they have learned. “En español, gracias means thank you,” one of them tells me (9/23/2007). And in the housekeeping area, another girl has put a big play ring on her finger. In talking to me, she explains: “If you’re an auntie or a mama or grandma, you can wear a ring.” And then, thinking, she remembers that she has learned the Spanish word since it also begins with the letter “a.” She quickly adds, “anillo!” (9/23/2007) On another occasion, Maria, a bilingual Latina girl in the same Spanish classroom is playing with letters alongside Oscar, an English-speaking boy. Â� Maria tells García:

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(16) Maria: Jugar con las letras…… la e. ‘Playing with letters…. “e”’ And this is Oscar. Aquí está la e. …. En dos minutos cuando dicen, a limpiar…. ‘Here is the “e”…. In two minutes when they say, clean up….’ Immediately, Oscar chimes in: Oscar: A limpiar means clean up, and pare means time out. That’s Spanish.  (10/17/2007)

In this two-way bilingual kindergarten children quickly learn that they must translanguage to show off their knowledge. To be bilingual in this classroom means showing off bilingual practices in order to mediate understandings, construct meaning, include, exclude, and show knowledge.

7.

Conclusion

The chapter has described languaging practices in a two-way bilingual kindergarten during the first few months of school. The chapter gives evidence of the translanguaging practices in classrooms that enable children of different languistic and cultural background to construct integrated language identities. Although the kindergarten teachers reconstruct two geographical spaces that have linguistic boundaries, responding to a monoglossic view of bilingualism and bilingual education, the children themselves create their own “third spaces” with translanguaging predominating. The chapter shows how students, and especially Latino students, appropriate the use of language as they use their entire linguistic repertoires flexibly. In so doing, they shape more heteroglossic visions of bilingualism, those that build upon the recursive and dynamic bilingualism that occurs when Latino children of different generations and immigration histories, nationalities, race and social class, are educated jointly with non-Latino children in ways that recognize each other´s linguistic and cultural strengths.

References American Community Survey. 2006. Table B01001 and Table B01001I, Table B16004. U.S. Census Bureau. <www.uscensus.gov> Baker, C. 2001. Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 3rd edn. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cazabón, M., Lambert, W. & Hall, G. 1999. Two-Way Bilingual Education: A Report on the Amigos Program. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics.



2.╇ The translanguaging of€Latino€kindergarteners

City School District of New Rochelle. 2007. Dual Language Enrichment Program. CILA Brochure. Council of Europe. 2000. Common European Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment. €Language Policy Division, Strasbourg. Crawford, J. 2004. Educating English Learners: Language Diversity in the Classroom, 5th edn. (formerly Bilingual Education: History, Politics, Theory, and Practice). Los Angeles CA: Bilingual Educational Services. Errington, J. 2001. Colonial linguistics. Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 19–39. García, O. 2006. Lost in transculturation: The case of bilingual education in New York City. In Along the Routes to Power: Exploration of the Empowerment through Language, M. Putz, J.€A. Fishman & Neff-Van Aertselaer (eds), 157–178. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. García, O. (ed.). 2008. Spanish as a global language. The International Multilingual Research Journal 2(1). García, O. 2009a. Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Oxford: WileyBlackwell. García, O. 2009b. Emergent bilinguals and TESOL. What’s in a Name? TESOL Quarterly 43(2): 322–326. García, O. 2009c. Livin’ and teachin’ la lengua loca: Glocalizing U.S. Spanish ideologies and practices. In Language Allegiances and Bilingualism in the United States, R.€SalaberryÂ� (ed.), 151–171. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. García, O. & Kleifgen, J. A. 2010. Educating Emergent Bilinguals: Policies, Programs and Practices for English Language Learners. New York: Teachers College Press. Grosjean, F. 1982. Life with Two Languages. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Lambert, W. E. & Tucker, G. R. 1972. The Bilingual Education of Children. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Lau v. Nichols. 1974. 414 U.S. 563. Lindholm-Leary, K. 2001. Dual Language Education. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Lüdi, G. 2003. Code-switching and unbalanced bilingualism. In Beyond Basic Principles, J.€H.€Dewaele, A. Housen & L. Wei (eds), 174–188. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Makoni, S. & Pennycook, A. 2007. Disinventing and Reconstituting Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Mar Molinero, C. 2008. Subverting Cervantes: Language Authority in global Spanish. International Multilingual Research Journal 2(1–2): 27–47. Mühlhäusler, P. 2000. Language planning and language ecology. Current Issues in Language Planning 1(3): 306–367. Potowski, K. 2007. Language and Identity in a Dual Immersion School. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Romaine, S. 1995. Bilingualism, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell. Shohamy, E. 2006. Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches. London: Routledge. Swain, M. 2008. Languaging, agency and collaboration in advanced second language proficiency. In Advanced Language Learning, H. Byrnes (ed.), 95–108. London: Continuum. Valdés, G. 1997. Dual-language immersion programs: A cautionary note concerning the education of language-minority students. Harvard Educational Review 67: 391–429. Yngve, V. 1996. From Grammar to Science: New Foundations for General Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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chapter 3

Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual* Kim Potowski and€Lillian€Gorman University of Illinois at Chicago

The quinceañera, a rite of passage marking the 15th birthday of a Latina girl, is an important site of language and identity enactment. Past research (HorowitzÂ� 1993; Davalos 1996; Cantú 1999, 2002; and Alvarez 2007) provides ample evidence of the shifting nature of the quinceañera tradition in the U.S., yet none address language use in depth. Given that non-English languages like Spanish are rarely spoken in the U.S. beyond the grandchildren of immigrants, and the fact that language proficiency does not necessarily play a central role in the construction of Latino/a ethnic identity, this study seeks to identify the ways in which the Spanish language still plays a role in U.S. quinceañeras. Survey responses were analyzed from 384 students attending nine different high schools in Chicago, Illinois. We explored responses that described Chicago quinceañeras generally, connections between this celebration and Latina identity, and the roles of Spanish within the enactments of quinceañeras. We conclude that quinceañeras in Chicago simultaneously bolster and reflect Spanish language use in the family. There was, however, some degree of hybridization involving the use of English in several arenas. But for the time being, at least among first and second generation Chicago Latinas, the quinceañera provides a domain for Spanish language use and ethnic identity performance.

1.

Introduction

One perspective among studies of ethnolinguistic and cultural assimilation posits that the best predictor of a minority group’s vitality is its ability to “adapt its cultural forms to prevailing social, economic and political forces,” because efforts

* We wish to thank Karen Mary Davalos, Jason Rothman, and Julia Alvarez for insightful comments on this chapter. All interpretations and errors belong to the authors.

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to “preserve a people’s culture as one would specimens in a jar, no matter how well-intentioned the motive, is often ruinous, and nearly always antithetical to the ways cultures choose to represent themselves at any given time in their history and development” (Meléndez 2003:â•›viii). Thus, it is often the case that the immigrant homeland traditions that endure in the U.S. are modified from their original versions. The quinceañera, or fifteenth birthday celebration, is one such tradition that is widely practiced with local variations in many countries of Latin America and has been transported to, and transformed within, the United States. We consider language a relevant cultural artifact of the quinceañera ritual (which will be described in detail) along with food, music, and religious practices, not only because language permeates almost all human activity – which often relies on language for its enactment – but also because, in the quinceañera, language is necessary on multiple levels. Examples include the church mass, printed invitations to the mass and reception, interactions with vendors of dresses and photographic services and exchanges with the teen’s family members and peers who participate in the ceremony. The multiple meanings contained within this ritual celebration and the extensive activities involved to carry it out, we argue, provide an excellent place to examine the role of language. In particular, we aim to identify the ways in which the Spanish language is used in carrying out quinceañeras in Chicago, Illinois. How is the quinceañera ritual both reflected through and altered by the use of Spanish and English? Because of the fluid nature of cultural traditions, we wonder to what extent this tradition exists independent of its language of origin (Spanish) and what this might suggest about the trajectory of Latina/o cultural practices in Chicago. We will first review past work on the elements of the quinceañera ritual before turning our focus to language use in United States quinceañeras.

2.

The quinceañera: Origins, structure, and meanings

The exact origins of the quinceañera are unclear. Though often believed to have roots in the Spanish court dances of Europe in native Mexican initiation rituals of the Aztecs and Mayans, there is actually no concrete evidence to support this theory of syncretism (Cantú 1999). Alvarez (2007) claims that the push to legitimize the quinceañera by connecting it with an indigenous past is fairly recent (113). In fact, elite communities in Latin America would not have been eager to draw any such connection with an “Indian rite” (Alvarez 2007:â•›114). While Â�comparisons are . Following Alvarez (2007) we use the term quinceañera to refer to the celebration itself as well as to a girl celebrating one.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

sometimes made between a quinceañera and a Sweet Sixteen party or debutante ball, there are several elements we will now describe that distinguish the quinceañera from these other female coming-of-age celebrations.

2.1 Components of a quinceañera celebration Despite many differences in individual quinceañeras, there are three key elements generally present in most celebrations in the U.S. and Latin America: a dress, a mass and a party. The quinceañera’s dress, often one of her objects of most intense focus, is typically floor-length and puffy, reminiscent of a fairy tale princess dress, although some girls choose more modern formal dresses. As for the quinceañera mass, it has been subject to debate in some U.S. parishes whose churches refuse to offer them because the quinceañera is not one of the Catholic sacraments such as baptism and communion. Other parishes have acquiesced to the tradition, stating that “the quinceañera is an extension of baptism, and an opportunity for conversion, and a chance to encourage young girls to begin a new life of service” (Davalos 1996:â•›111). Some U.S. parishes require that quinceañeras attend specially designed classes on Catholic views of topics ranging from peer pressure, womanhood and family before they can receive a quinceañera mass. The religious ceremony usually begins with a procession to the church in which the young girl is accompanied by her parents and her corte (court) of young women (damas or female attendants) and young men (chambelanes or escorts). Traditionally there have been seven damas and seven chambelanes, forming a total of fourteen people in the corte, representing the number of years the quinceañera has been alive. However, many quinceañeras today have considerably fewer damas and chambelanes. The chambelanes usually wear tuxedos or military-style uniforms and the damas wear formal dresses that complement or match the quinceañera’s dress. The dama de honor (female attendant of honor) and chambelán de honor (male escort of honor) are often outfitted slightly differently to set them apart from the rest of the corte. At the mass, the priest offers a service that usually makes specific references to the quinceañera if he knows her and her family, but other times the mass is more generic. The young woman prays to “renew her baptismal commitment, strengthen her faith, to ask for a blessing as she enters a new stage in life, to give thanks for arriving at the age of fifteen, and to honor her parents” (Davalos 1996:â•›109). Among Mexican communities, the

. This may be due in part to the high cost associated with purchasing the necessary formal attire. In addition, as will be mentioned later, it can be difficult to find young men who carry out the chambelán tasks successfully.

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60 Kim Potowski and€Lillian€Gorman

young girl may also pray a special devotion with a flower offering to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Many girls receive a prayer book and/or a rosary, often blessed by the priest during the mass. The mass is usually followed by a reception that takes place in a rented hall or the family’s home. In the U.S. and among wealthier Latin Americans, the quinceañera and her corte are often transported from the mass to the reception in a rented limousine. When guests have been seated, the quinceañera and her corte typically perform a choreographed dance such as a waltz. This group dance is followed by the quinceañera’s first dance with her father or other male family member, indicating her newly acquired permission to dance with young men. This is sometimes preceded by the changing of the young girl’s flat shoes to high heels – or in some cases, high heels to even higher heels – to signify her transition to womanhood. Sometimes she is presented with a “last doll” to signify leaving behind the toys of childhood and possibly suggesting her future role as a mother (Alvarez 2007). The food served at the reception may be traditional and prepared by the family, or may be a catered menu included in the rental of the reception hall. Music may be provided by a live band and/or by one or more DJs. A cake, often resembling those of weddings in size and elaborateness, is cut and served. In order to carry out these multiple religious and festive elements, the family must begin preparing many months in advance, sometimes a year or more. Different padrinos (godparents) are often called upon to provide financial support for certain aspects of the celebration such as the dance hall, the limo, photographers, videographers, or the dress, among other possible expenses. Gifts are given to the quinceañera, usually in the form of money, although quinceañera gift registries have begun to appear at larger retail stores in both the U.S. and Latin America. The quinceañera in the U.S., according to Alvarez (2007), has adopted traditions from many different Latino cultures that live here, perhaps constituting a form of inter-Latino contact in the U.S. For example, she notes that Cuban quinceañeras in Miami often hire Mexican mariachis, that the full court of fourteen damas and chambelanes is a Mexican practice now widely adopted by other groups and that the changing of flats to heels may have originally been developed in Puerto Rico. However, in Images of America: Puerto Rican Chicago, Cruz (2004:â•›60) notes that “some Puerto Rican families have adopted the Mexican tradition of a quinceañera to celebrate a girls fifteenth birthday,” creating some confusion about the origins of the various traditions associated with a quinceañera. Most of our participants were Mexican, but several belonged to other Latino groups including Puerto Rican, Ecuadorian and Guatemalan.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

2.2 Meanings There are multiple ways that the quinceañera has been analyzed, particularly since, as Davalos (1996) notes, the ritual reaffirms “being Mexican, Catholic, and a Â� woman.” Here we will be drawing from the work of four scholars. Davalos (1996) documents the experiences of twelve Mexican-American girls and their mothers as they recount their quinceañeras in Chicago. Davalos presents aspects of the quinceañera previously unmentioned in public discourse, including arguments between family members about the color of the dress, the location of the reception, and the number of guests. Cantú’s (1999, 2002) ethnographies explored the quinceañera in Laredo, Texas, describing changes that the celebration has undergone over the past thirty years as well as analyzing objects of significance to the ritual. Horowitz (1993) explores the quinceañera in the context of 32nd Street in Chicago, where she spent three years as a participant-observer studying young people in the community. Horowitz explored ways in which the quinceañera reflects “an adaptation to economic and social marginality in a U.S. city” (259) as well as the ways in which the ritual absorbs new meanings and forms within the urban setting of Chicago. Finally, part ethnographic and part autobiographical, the renowned fiction writer Julia Â�Alvarez (2007) offers a comprehensive picture of the quinceañera throughout the U.S. Woven through her analysis of the case study of quinceañera Monica Â�Ramos, a second-generation Dominican in Queens, N.Y., are Alvarez’s observations and reflections on multiple quinceañeras she attended over a year-long period. We will divide our discussion of this literature into three topics: socioeconomic considerations, ethnic identity issues, and gendered meanings of the quinceañera celebration. To begin, there are interesting socioeconomic facets to the quinceañera. Many U.S. Latinos connect the quinceañera tradition to upper-class families in their home countries. Yet Alvarez (2007) suggests that a complete socio-economic reversal appears to have occurred in some U.S. communities in that “working-class Latinos have adopted what only the wealthy upper classes could afford in their native countries; meanwhile upper-class Latinos disparage the tradition as practiced by people who would have been their maids and chauffeurs back home…” (148). Yet Cantú insists that families across the social spectrum “continue to celebrate their daughters’ coming of age with a mass and a dance” (2002:â•›17). What seems to differ is the elaborateness with which families of distinct socio-economic class celebrate this ritual. Horowitz posits that the quinceañera serves to affirm or establish social status by demonstrating a family’s ability to pay for a large event, . As we have just explained, the quinceañera tradition is enacted by many communities other than Mexican. But this quote underscores how a quinceañera represents three major points of identity construction: ethnicity, religion, and gender.

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explaining that “the more expensive and extensive the party, the more praise received” (1993:â•›274). However, the study also emphasizes the scarce resources available for such expenses, which may create competition among community members wishing to demonstrate their social status. The spending associated with these celebrations does not escape criticism from within and outside U.S. Latino communities. Given that these communities are among the poorest in the nation, why do they spend such large amounts of money on a party – on average $5,000, according to a 2006 survey by the magazine Quince Girl? Cantú (2002:â•›16) noted that the quinceañera “baffles outsiders who do not understand the contradictions that it underscores in a community with excessively high dropout rates, high teen pregnancy, double-digit unemployment rates and high levels of poverty.” Davalos (1996:â•›121) cited clergy who sought to “regulate” the celebration in order to save families from frivolously spending money. Alvarez (2007:â•›21), quoting a national report citing Latina girls’ high pregnancy rates, suicide attempts, school dropouts, and substance abuse (National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations 1999), ponders the reports’ findings: “Close to one out of every three Hispanic female high school students has seriously considered suicide… 30 percent between the ages of sixteen and twenty-four have dropped out of school… Hispanic girls lead their counterparts in the use of illegal substances” (21). After considering these startling statistics, Alvarez asks: What on earth is there to celebrate? Why are these girls having quinceañeras? […] How many of these one-night princesses will end up going in the opposite direction of the Cinderella fairy tale: from ball gowns and tiaras and quince parties to life at the bottom of the American heap?

However, Alvarez’s compelling narrative supports another finding of the same study: those Latina girls who avoided such societal traps relied on “protective cultural beliefs and practices that provide an important buffer against depression and risky behaviors” (2007:â•›22). That is, the quinceañera, “while endorsing a questionable and often expensive fairy-tale fantasy, also involves an investment of time, energy, and attention in a young person, which can pay off in ways that can’t be so easily dismissed” (2007:â•›22). The public nature of the quinceañera allows for

. Similar observations have been made about bar/bat mitzvah celebrations (Salkin 1996). . Alvarez is more staunchly critical about the ways in which the quinceañera is marketed to U.S. Latinas through products, websites, and magazines, cautioning against corporations being allowed to distort Latino traditions not based on the needs of young people but rather on their own bottom line.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

the young girl to feel a sense of support from her entire community. This tangible demonstration of investment allows for the young girl to potentially retain a sense of support through the challenges she may face in the future. Having considered several socioeconomic aspects of the quinceañera, we turn now to the ways in which this ritual indexes ethnic Latina identity in the U.S. Horowitz (1993) states that the quinceañera ceremony in the U.S. is a “transitional cultural phenomenon” (259) in that it implies a need to affirm “Mexicanness” when one is increasingly surrounded by Anglo influence. She views the ritual as an “urbanized traditionalism” (260), meaning that it presents cultural continuities with the past despite the influences of urbanization and immigration. This hypothesis argues that increased integration into U.S. society does not cause the erasure of the quinceañera, but rather causes the ritual to absorb new meanings and forms. In a more general note about the tradition itself, Horowitz reiterates the vitality of the ritual: “…even as some Chicanos have become more embedded in the dominant culture, the quinceañera has remained a significant ritual” (259– 261). Similarly, Davalos (1996) portrays the quinceañera as “an anchor between two cultures” (123). She observes the need among the mexicanas to express cultural difference as a reaction to the surrounding hegemonic homogeneity, while simultaneously incorporating practices and meanings from the dominant culture. This negotiation encourages “a rethinking of ‘tradition’ as an open, and sometimes chaotic, terrain that is constantly reconfigured in everyday experience” (103). Cantú (1999), like Davalos and Horowitz, recognizes the ritual as a site that both resists and succumbs to the power of the colonizer (73). She describes the quinceañera as a “cultural marker” that allows for its participants to “continue a tradition that stretches back into our cultural history as a conquered region whose population refuses to abandon its traditions and customs even when these same traditions and customs may change and shift” (19). Instead of seeking to reaffirm culture in a “foreign land” as in the studies of Horowitz and Davalos, the Chicanos studied by Cantú in Laredo reaffirm culture by simply continuing the tradition, therefore designating it as a “cultural survivor” (3). Cantú’s study is careful to explain that there is no typical quinceañera fiesta and that “as with most living traditions, we can say that it is being transformed with each performance” (18). We especially like Alvarez’s (2007) characterization of the quinceañera as a cultural Rorschach test that “allows conflicts and contradictions embedded in Latinahood to surface”, offering a space where Latinas can “view, review, articulate, and perhaps even reframe some of these contradictions” (229). She notes that “while the quinceañera is touted as a marker of ethnicity, it is in many ways an ethnicity with a label that reads ‘Made in the USA’ […] Even as the younger generations assimilate in every other way to a mainstream culture, they are holding on to this old country tradition, which is actually being created here.” (116).

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Given the evidence that shift away from Spanish to English is usually complete by the third generation (which we will review in a later section), our interest in the present study is to explore to what degree Spanish remains an element in this “old country tradition” when carried out in the U.S. The identities performed in the quinceañera are much more complex than any simple reflection of one singular “Latino family identity”. Identities are multiple and shifting, and this multiplicity is clearly present in the tradition and in the young quinceañera herself: …culture can vary within one ethnic community. Their [the mexicanas’] view of multiple identities is different from the dominant perspective of distinct “either/or” identities and nations…[the women] signaled through their smiles and contestation that people are never either Mexican or United States Americans but (Davalos 1996:â•›119) a hybrid form. 

To conclude this discussion of identity, the cultural hybridity demonstrated in the U.S. quinceañera allows for young Latinas to perform several identities. Understanding cultural identity as a performance is an important concept within the present study. Rebolledo (1995) underscores this notion: “Having multiple identities in various cultures also allows for shifting perspectives in all areas: since the subject need not be stable, then it can become multiply voiced – that is, it no longer has to be unified and static, but is free to be complex and disparate” (xi). Thus, the quinceañera ritual provides a space in which young Latinas can perform these complex identities. Finally, the quinceañera has obvious gendered meanings. Horowitz notes that this coming-of-age ritual “publicly communicates that the young woman is no longer a child and that she is available for courtship” (Horowitz 1993:â•›275) or, as Alvarez puts it, that she is “attractive, marriageable goods” (2007:â•›19). Â�Alvarez initially viewed many aspects of the quinceañera negatively as a “princess-inthe-patriarchy fantasy, which was at best useless, at worse harmful, to the young girl” (2007:â•›227), likening it to “a rehearsal wedding without a groom, [sending] a clear message to the Latina girl: We expect you to get married, have children, devote yourself to your family” (Alvarez 2007:â•›56). The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has endorsed the practice of quinceañeras precisely because of its focus on young women. Even though the quinceañera is not a sacrament, the group issued a statement in support of quinceañeras, noting that in the Hispanic community it has traditionally been the women who pass on religious education and values (Alvarez 2007:â•›179). Regardless of how the quinceañera tradition is interpreted by various in- and out-group members, it has taken hold in the United States as a vibrant expression of Latina identity and a way to “hold onto your roots” (Davalos 1996:â•›114).



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

Â� Perhaps because of this function, Alvarez notes that the quinceañera is “even a bigger deal stateside than it had ever been back home” (2007:â•›5). The founder of Quince Girl magazine notes that one out of every five teenagers in the U.S. is Hispanic, and this population is growing at the rate of 30% compared to 8% for non-Hispanics (AlvarezÂ� 2007:â•›68). Thus it is estimated that 400,000 Latina girls turn fifteen per year. Some of Alvarez’s informants suggest that the quinceañera tradition is still being enacted by third generation Latinas (that is, the granddaughters of immigrants), although concrete numbers were not provided. Others suggested to Alvarez that the next generation’s parents will have been born and raised in the U.S. and “a lot of them won’t even speak Spanish that well. There isn’t going to be that grandparent or parent from the old country pushing for the quinceañera.” This comment links a girl’s Spanish proficiency (and whether she has relatives from Latin America) with the enactment of this cultural tradition, which is a connection we sought to explore in the present study. As suggested by Davalos (personal communication, March 2007), perhaps when a family has shifted entirely to English from Spanish, they do not have the tools – or the desire€– to enact a quinceañera. Of the three topics explored in this section – socioeconomic status, ethnic identity, and gender – the focus of our study of quinceañeras will be ethnic identity. In particular, we seek to examine how Spanish and English are used when enacting the quinceañera tradition in Chicago, Illinois, and how young people view the role of Spanish in this ritual. Given this focus, we now turn to an examination of the role of language in the enactment of identity.

3.

The role of Spanish in U.S. Latino identity

It has been fairly well documented that Spanish, like other non-English languages in the United States, is rarely spoken beyond the grandchildren of immigrants. Multiple studies over the past thirty years have concluded that, overall, there is a shift to English among these populations by the third generation. This language shift is evident in studies conducted in the Southwest (Bills and Vigil 1999; Bills, Hudson and Hernández-Chávez 2000), California (Rivera-Mills 2001; Hurtado and Vega 2004), New York City (Zentella 1997), Miami (Garcia and Otheguy 1988) and Chicago (Potowski 2004). These studies point to the inevitability of . Further comparisons can be made with bar/bat mitzvahs regarding language use. The entire ceremony is conducted in Hebrew and the bar mitzvah reads from the torah in Hebrew for at least twenty minutes. In most cases, these passages are memorized and the young person does not have a clear idea of what s/he is saying..

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Spanish language shift to English within three generations, while sometimes manifesting varying degrees of bilingualism along the way. But does this shift in language affect Latinos’ claiming of identities as Latino? That is, to what extent is Spanish language proficiency related to Latino ethnic identity? Phinney, Romero, Nava and Huang (2001) applied a statistical model to survey questions designed to explore how three factors affect the ways in which adolescents in Mexican, Armenian, and Vietnamese immigrant families develop a sense of ethnic identity: ethnic language proficiency, cultural maintenance by parents, and interaction with peers from the ethnic group. They found that among the Mexican group, proficiency in the ethnic language was significantly correlated, although not strongly, with ethnic identity; the Vietnamese group showed over twice as strong a correlation between language proficiency and ethnic identity than did the Mexican group. In addition, behaviors reported by parents to promote cultural maintenance – and a quinceañera certainly falls within this category – had a significant positive effect on ethnic language proficiency. So parental cultural maintenance bolsters language proficiency, and language proficiency bolsters ethnic identity. Only among the Armenian group did parental cultural maintenance directly influence ethnic identity. These findings of Phinney et al. (2001) are directly related to our study (although we do not seek to establish weights and directions of causal relationships): In what ways does a quinceañera€– a form of cultural maintenance – bolster and/or reflect young girls’ Spanish language proficiency? And in what ways does it bolster and/or reflect ethnic identity? Returning to other studies of the relationship of Spanish proficiency and Latino identity, Rivera-Mills (2000) studied 50 Hispanics of various nationalities representing three generations of immigration to the U.S., finding that only 30% strongly agreed with the sentiment that a person needs to speak Spanish in order to be Hispanic and that the same percentage moderately disagreed. Potowski and Matts (2008) found that 21 out of 24 Latinos in the Chicago area claimed that Spanish was not necessary to be Latino; a larger corpus of 70 Mexicans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago suggests a similar trend (Potowski and Torres, in progress). In Attinasi’s (1985) study, the Latinos in northwest Indiana insisted less on the need for Spanish among Latinos than did their counterparts in New York City (Pedraza 1985). These findings illustrate that language proficiency does not necessarily play a central role in the construction of Latino ethnic identity. The implications of this finding in the context of the quinceañera are of interest to our study: To what

. These authors defined “ethnic identity” as a subjective sense of belonging to an ethnic group and the feelings that accompany such group membership.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

degree has the quinceañera shifted to English as one of the many cultural changes that it undergoes? Although the studies by Horowitz, Davalos, Cantú, and Alvarez provide ample evidence of the shifting nature of the quinceañera tradition, none of these studies sought to address language within the ritual itself. One of Davalos’ informants briefly references language loss: Because of who we are and because of who I wanted my daughter to be…my daughter’s life has always been Americanized. We live here [in Chicago]. She went to school here. English is her first language, Spanish her second. So, how do you hold on to your roots? How do you put a value to it [if] you can’t see it?  (Davalos 1996:â•›115)

Davalos’ informant references Spanish language loss, yet the study itself did not seek to expand upon the idea that many young Latinas do not consider Spanish their first language. That is, they may have acquired Spanish first chronologically, but English is now their dominant language. Cantú references the substitution of the traditional Spanish-language prayer book for an English-language Bible as a contested element in the quinceañera celebration (2002:â•›21). Although it may be concluded that this substitution occurred due to Spanish language loss among the young women, the issue was not a goal of that study. The present study focuses on the relationships between the Spanish language and U.S. Latino identity as expressed through the quinceañera ritual. Our two primary research questions are as follows:

What are the general characteristics of quinceañeras in Chicago, and what connections do young girls make between a quinceañera and their identities as Latinas? What role does Spanish play within the enactments of Chicago quinceañeras?

4.

Methodology

4.1

Setting

The 2006 Census American Community Survey reported that Chicago is home to 774,042 Hispanics constituting 28% of the city’s population, making it the third largest Hispanic city in the United States. The two largest groups of Latinos in Chicago are Mexicans (70%) and Puerto Ricans (15%), constituting the second largest Mexican community in the U.S. outside of Los Angeles and the second largest Puerto Rican community outside of New York City. Approximately 53% of the 2000 Census-reported Mexican population in Chicago was

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born abroad. After Mexicans and Puerto Ricans, 6% of Chicago Latinos identify as Central and South American with 1.8% identifying as Guatemalan. This Latino diversity and high percentage of individuals born abroad serve as important factors when considering the cultural practices present in the Chicago quinceañera. Over seventy years of Mexican and Puerto Rican migration to the Chicago area has established high concentrations of Latinos throughout various Chicago neighborhoods. Table 1 displays Chicago’s five most concentrated Latino neighborhoods. Table 1.╇ Neighborhoods of Chicago with highest Latino concentrations Geographical area

Latino population

% MX and PR, 2000

% MX and PR, 1990

Lower West Side (“Pilsen”) Hermosa South Lawndale (“La Villita”) Logan Square Humboldt Park West Town

89% (44,031)

92% MX â•⁄ 2% PR

95% MX â•⁄ 3% PR

84% (22,574) 83% (75,613)

50% MX 37% PR 92% MX â•⁄ 2% PR

35% MX 54% PR 93% MX â•⁄ 4% PR

65% (53,833) 48% (31,607) 47% (40,966)

50% MX 35% PR 51% MX 37% PR 53% MX 36% PR

40% MX 48% PR 38% MX 55% PR 52% MX 42% PR

Source: Census 2000 and 1990.

The communities of Humboldt Park, Hermosa, and Logan Square were previously primarily Puerto Rican (50%) and have seen an increase in the Mexican population within the last decade. In addition, almost 15% of Chicago’s seventyseven residential communities have Latino populations of 50% or greater. A significant number of participants from the present study hailed from these highly Latino-concentrated neighborhoods.

4.2 Participants and survey questions We used an online survey delivered through Survey Monkey that was designed for high school students to complete within 40 minutes. Both female and male high school Latina/o students were invited to participate, and all completed

. We have been unable to locate information on the number of Chicago Puerto Ricans born in Puerto Rico. The Census does not consider Puerto Rico to be “abroad,” thus the 2.1% of Chicago’s Puerto Ricans that were born “abroad” according to the 2000 Census had non-U.S. birthplaces that did not include the island of Puerto Rico.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

� surveys were entered in a drawing for three $100 prizes. Although distributing the survey through high schools eliminates from the participant pool students who do not attend high school, the ease in gathering responses offered through this method was deemed a greater advantage. The majority of the respondents were in 10th grade, so future high school dropouts may have, in fact, been among the survey respondents. We received responses from 384 students attending nine different high schools: seven schools in the city of Chicago (six public and one private) and two in nearby suburbs. An examination of the overall demographic characteristics of the eight public schools (Table 2) reveals that they serve students who are of low socioeconomic status and range in Latino populations between 21.7% and 93.7%. Table 2.╇ Participating high schools

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9

Location

Charter

% Latino

% low income

Number of respondents

Chicago Chicago Chicago Chicago 40 miles west of Chicago Chicago Chicago 40 miles southwest of Chicago Chicago

Public Public Public Public Public

79% 25.9% 21.7% 93.7% 41.6%

92% 98.6% 34.8% 97.7% 16.3%

85 15 â•⁄ 8 56 22

Public Public Public

27.3% 27.2% 22.4%

90.4% 87.5% â•⁄ 2.2%

74 67 16

Private

13%

Not available

â•⁄ 7

Surveys were completed by 238 girls and 146 boys, whose average age was 16.6. The respondents were 38% male and 62% female. 85% of them were enrolled in Spanish for heritage speakers classes, a fact which skews our results in at least two ways: we had very few students who had elected not to take Spanish courses, and we had even fewer students who, due to low levels of Spanish proficiency, had been placed in “regular” Spanish courses. However, without a minimal level of Spanish proficiency, girls would not have the option of using Spanish during a quinceañera, which would have made our examination of language choice issues

. Due to demographic realities in Chicago, Spanish for heritage/native speakers courses in the city and outlying areas tend to be filled with second generation Spanish speakers – the children of immigrants – who tend to have quite strong levels of oral Spanish proficiency. See Valdés (2002) and Potowski and Carreira (2004) for more on Spanish for heritage speaker courses.

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impossible. In addition, we noticed no major differences between the 15% who were not enrolled in native speaker classes and those who were. Table 3 displays the number of respondents at each high school grade level. Table 3.╇ Participants’ grade level and average age Grade (typical age of students)

Number of students

Total

Average age

â•⁄ 9 (14–15) 10 (15–16) 11 (16–17) 12 (17–18)

â•⁄ 57 (16%) â•⁄ 92 (26%) 130 (37%) â•⁄ 75 (21%)

384

16.6

Almost three quarters of the respondents (277) were born in the U.S. Of these, 85% had parents who were born in Mexico and who had immigrated to the U.S. after the age of twelve, meaning that the respondents themselves belong to the second generation. The 15% of the parents who were not of Mexican origin were from Puerto Rico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, Nicaragua, and Spain. The other 107 respondents were born outside of the U.S., the majority in Mexico (two respondents were born in Ecuador, one in Guatemala, and one in Puerto Rico). 76% of the respondents born abroad had arrived to the U.S. before twelve years of age; the other 26 had recently arrived as teenagers. Reported Spanish language use in the households of the participants was quite consistent. Approximately 40% of the participants reported that their parents spoke to them 100% of the time in Spanish, although only 25% of the participants reported using 100% Spanish when themselves speaking to their parents. Approximately 84% of the participants’ grandmothers and 69% of the participants’ grandfathers spoke to the respondents 100% of the time in Spanish; and in return, 78% of the participants spoke to their grandmothers exclusively in Spanish and 69% spoke to their grandfathers exclusively in Spanish. Thus, Spanish use with grandparents was higher than with parents. Spanish use with their siblings was, on average, approximately 15% of the time. These patterns of Spanish use are very similar to those found in a previous survey of 815 high school and college students in Chicago (Potowski 2004) as well as in other parts of the U.S. Our survey utilized a variety of question formats including multiple choice, multiple answer, and open-ended questions. It was divided into a total of 90 sections, although participants only answered relevant sections according to their answers, which skipped them through the survey sections accordingly. For example, boys were not asked whether they had a quinceañera, and girls were not asked whether they had ever been chambelanes. The first eight sections, answered by all students, dealt with general background information about Â� gender, Â� birthplace,



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

school information, family origins, and family language use.10 If a girl had a quinceañera, she was directed to questions about different components including the mass, details about religious preparations, invitations, the dress, items received and bought, music and food for the party, the padrinos, the corte of damas and chambelanes, language use during quinceañera preparation and the event itself, and a set of general reflection questions. A female who reported that she would be having a quinceañera in the future was asked an almost identical series of questions addressing her plans regarding these quinceañera components but in the future tense (“Will there be a band at your quinceañera?”). A female who did not or will not have a quinceañera was asked her reasons for this decision. All girls were then directed to questions about their participation as damas and their attendance at other girls’ quinceañeras. They were also asked about their mothers’ quinceañeras. After the initial eight background questions, males were directed to a series of questions about their participation in past quinceañeras as a chambelán and their attendance at quinceañeras in which they were not chambelanes. All participants then answered a series of questions rating their Spanish skills, general Spanish use, ethnic identity, and church attendance. The participants concluded the survey answering a series of general opinion questions about quinceañeras. The surveys were our primary source of data, but we also recorded and analyzed the following: a focus group interview with a subset of five girls attending the same high school, a set of three required pre-quinceañera classes offered at one Chicago church, two interviews with a local quinceañera dress and invitation supplier, seven quinceañera masses in Chicago, and two quinceañera receptions in Chicago.

5.

Findings

Approximately 47% of the girl respondents reported having already had a quinceañera, and an additional 11% were planning to celebrate one in the future. Thus, in total, 58% of the 238 female respondents (138 girls) either already had or were soon having a quinceañera. Table 4 shows the generations to which these girls belonged (see Appendix A for generational categories). Of these past and future quinceañeras, the majority belonged to G2 and G2.5, reflecting the overall proportion of all girls who completed the survey. We see, however, that three quarters of all G1 and G1.5 girls had quinceañeras, dropping to 59% of the G2 and G2.5

10. Unfortunately, we did not require answers to these questions. Students were thus able to skip questions, which leads to irregularity in the number of respondents to each question.

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girls, and that just 41% of the G3 girls had quinceañeras. Our numbers are far too small to make any firm conclusions, but they indicate a trend towards less celebration of the quinceañera with increased generation in the U.S. Table 4.╇ Generational categories of quinceañeras See Appendix A for generational categories Generation

All girls*

Quinceañeras**

Percent*

G1 and 1.5 G2 and 2.5 G3

â•⁄ 28 128 â•⁄ 29 185

â•⁄ 21 â•⁄ 76 â•⁄ 12 109/138

75% 59% 41%

* 185 out of 238 girls answered this question. ** 109 out of the 138 quinceañeras answered this question.

Approximately 82% of all respondents, both boys and girls, had attended at least one quinceañera as a guest (that is, when they were not the quinceañera or serving on the corte). The majority of the young men (63%) had been chambelanes at least once, and most had performed this service two or more times.11 Fewer young women but still almost half (46%) reported having served as damas. These high levels of attendance and participation in a quinceañera indicate that the tradition remains strong in Chicago. We divide our analysis into two principal sections that reflect the research questions stated earlier. First, we will explore responses that describe Chicago quinceañeras and highlight connections between the quinceañera celebration and Latina identity. Second, we will examine the roles of Spanish within the enactments of quinceañeras as viewed by the quinceañera herself as well as the damas and chambelanes. However, these categories are not completely divisible; ideas about Spanish often entered into discussions on traditionalness of the quinceañera celebration, and aspects of identity are evident in discussions about Spanish use.

11. According to articles in Quince girl magazine, it is fairly common for quinceañeras to rent chambelanes through the agency that choreographs the group dance. This suggests that it can be difficult to find among one’s peer group young men who will reliably perform the duties of a chambelán. It may be the case, then, that young men who prove to be reliable chambelanes are called upon by multiple quinceañeras because of his good reputation, thus our finding that many boys had carried out this function more than once.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

5.1

Characteristics of Chicago quinceañera celebrations

A large majority of the quinceañeras in our study, 78%, held their celebrations in the U.S. Because our focus is the quinceañera in the U.S. setting, we will focus on these 91 Chicago quinceañeras.12 As a first step of analysis, we sought to determine which “traditional” elements were present in these celebrations, including those identified by Cantú (2002) and the other work we have cited here. One way to determine the passing on of traditions is to compare these girls’ quinceañeras with those of their own mothers. However, an overwhelming number of the quinceañeras’ mothers (88%) had not celebrated quinceañeras. Three quarters of these girls stated that their mothers’ lack of a quinceañera celebration had been due to financial limitations. A possible result of this – when a girl’s mother did not have a quinceañera – is that there may be more flexibility for the girl to change elements of the ritual; her mother does not have a narrative from her own quinceañera to insist upon for her daughter. Conversely, it may be precisely due to not having had a quinceañera themselves that a mother might cling to ideals from Mexico that she wishes to vicariously perform through her daughter. Among the four quinceañeras in the focus group interview, none of their mothers had quinceañeras due to financial limitations, and they stated that as a result their mothers played very large roles in their own quinceañeras. We also asked them whether having a close relationship with the mother was necessary to have a quinceañera, but they cited cases of family members who were not close to their mothers but who still had quinceañeras. In one case the preparations brought the girl closer to her mother, but not in all cases. The 13 respondents whose mothers did have quinceañeras noted that their own quinceañeras were very different from those of their mothers (having been either more or sometimes less elaborate). The ways in which our respondents described their quinceañera celebrations, and their motivations for having one, showed great similarities. Slightly more than half (52%) of the girls stated that they decided to have a quinceañera because they viewed the celebration as an “important part of their culture” and thus a strong indicator of Latina identity. Another 48% said that their quinceañera was a response to a family member’s desire that they have one. It appears that culture and family continue to play key roles in the enactment of U.S. quinceañera celebrations. However, Alvarez (2007) noted that all of the quinceañeras she asked gave her “the same pat answer” about what her quinceañera meant to her, including “I’m going from being a girl to being a woman” and “It’s part of my culture.” 12. Of the 16 quinceañeras who held their celebrations in Mexico, approximately 71% were G2s. This is an interesting area for future exploration. 6% of the quinceañeras were held both in Mexico and the U.S.

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In fact, all of them mentioned “the princess dress as one of the biggest reasons to have a quince” (2007:â•›37). Thus, it is probably not accurate to read too deeply into the responses of the quinceañeras to this question on our anonymous survey, except to note that they cited “culture” and “family” as motivators. The four quinceañeras in the focus group interview all agreed that they initially did not want the attention, but in the end enjoyed their quinceañeras because for one day they were able to feel like a princess. The girls’ responses did attest to the strong role of compadrazgo within their celebrations: 79% had padrinos sponsoring different items. In particular, over half stated that padrinos paid for their shoes, cake, prayer book, rosary, invitations, photos, pillow, necklace, and the videographer. This high level of compadrazgo indicates that these girls’ communities relied on a practice with origins in Mexico€– as noted by Horowitz (1993), it is the intensity of the family network, compadrazgo, that allows such celebrations to occur, and through the quinceañera these relationships are publicly dramatized and evaluated, affirming the moral solidarity of network members who claim to have similar virtues in spite of changes brought about by immigration: Now that many 32nd St. residents are born in the U.S. and some prefer to use English over Spanish, some do not feel as comfortable in Mexico as they might wish and see themselves as being different. The use of compadrazgo links Chicago Mexicans to their Mexican past as do serving Mexican food and the printing (Horowitz 1993:â•›275) of invitations in Spanish. 

In fact, food and invitations served as important carriers of “Mexicanness” in these quinceañeras. Almost 70% of the quinceañeras noted that the food served at their reception was Latino/Mexican food. Additionally, 45% of these girls explained that family members prepared this food. The language of the invitations will be explored in the section about Spanish use, but we will note here that 86% of the girls said that all of their invitations had been printed entirely in Spanish. Arguing that rituals always denote a transformation, Cantú (2002) alleges that ritual behaviors and objects take on great significance in marking this change. There are many behaviors and objects involved with traditional quinceañeras, most of which our respondents indicated that they had at their own quinceañeras. For example, 65% of the respondents changed from flat shoes to high heels and 89% had a first dance with a male relative. However, the music for this first dance was an area of cultural innovation. Only 29% of the quinceañeras specified having danced a waltz for their first dance, as is the tradition. Additionally, several English songs were named for the first dance. Music in general was sometimes a site of contention within the enactment of the quinceañera, with parents wanting traditional music in Spanish and the quinceañera preferring hip hop or



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

reggaeton.13 Almost 60% of the participants specified that mostly Spanish music was played during the quinceañera dance, specifically naming banda, norteña, ranchera, salsa, cumbia, or bachata. Only one respondent noted that all English music was played during the dance. Additionally, 80% of the participants who had live bands stated that the bands spoke mostly in Spanish, while 17% of the bands used both Spanish and English. Only one respondent stated that the live band used mostly English. Those participants who had DJs noted that 43% of the DJs spoke in Spanish with 54% of the DJs mixing Spanish and English. Although the use of Spanish is the focus of the next section, it is worth pointing out here that the music, the DJs playing the music, and the live bands appear to be strong domains of Spanish language use within U.S. quinceañeras. Returning to ritual behaviors and objects, 81% of our quinceañeras had damas and chambelanes – anywhere from four to twelve damas and between four and fifteen chambelanes. Interestingly, both our survey and interview participants tended to have more chambelanes than damas. 89% of our quinceañeras received a necklace, 86% received a prayer book, 79% received a medalla and a last doll, and 71% received a rosary. Approximately equal numbers hired a photographer (97%) and a videographer (96%), and while videography is a relatively new technological invention, professional photographs of this event have been common for years in Latin America. As for the mode of transportation between the mass and the dance hall, 46% of our quinceañeras rented a traditional limousine while 22% rented a Hummer limousine. The remaining 32% used some other kind of transportation, including two respondents who used a family car or truck and one who stated that she walked, but the remaining participants specified that they used more luxurious vehicles such as new trucks, Hummers, Escalades, and Landrover Limos. Given that the Hummer limo has made its way into quinceañera celebrations in Latin America (as seen on the MTV3 program Quiero mis quince), this may be seen as a technological adaptation, much like videography, rather than a cultural adaptation. Lastly, the quinceañeras’ dress choice showed much variation. Both Â�Alvarez (2007) and Cantú (1999) mention the most traditional colors for quinceañera dresses as white and pastel colors, and that white is most common in Latin American countries. Of our quinceañeras, only 7% wore a white dress. Almost a quarter wore pink, 20% wore some variation of blue, and 14% wore a variation of purple. The rest wore red, gold, black, orange, and champagne colored dresses. Chicago quinceañeras – and perhaps those around the U.S. – exhibit more varied dress color choices, an observation which was confirmed by the dress vendor we 13. Although reggaeton is sung in Spanish, the suggestive lyrics and dance moves are often criticized by the older generations.

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Â� interviewed as well as ads in Quince Girl magazine. One quinceañera in the focus group described her celebration as very untraditional, stating that she did not wear a dress because she did not want to spend money on one that she would not wear again. She encouraged her invitees to wear jeans. Rather than have a special mass, she simply attended the regularly scheduled Spanish mass at her parish. Additionally, she had damas but no chambelanes. The majority of these Chicago quinceañera celebrations were a mix of traditional elements (rosario, mass, shoes, dress, corte, padrinos, food, music) with newer (videography, Hummer limos) and U.S.-based elements (food, color of dress, DJs speaking some English and playing English-language music). In addition, the fairly strong use of the padrino system contributes to the traditional nature of the celebration. We now turn to an analysis of language use in the enactment of these Chicago quinceañeras.

5.2 Spanish use in the enactment of quinceañera celebrations After getting a sense of how Chicago quinceañera celebrations are constructed, our second research question sought to understand the role of Spanish in the enactment of this ritual. Quinceañeras were asked two direct questions about the value of Spanish in a quinceañera celebration. The first question asked, “Was knowledge of Spanish useful for your quinceañera? Please give a few examples.”14 The second question asked whether knowledge of Spanish was important for a quinceañera, with examples. These two questions, one about usefulness and the other about importance, yielded interestingly different results. First we will discuss responses to the first question about usefulness, dividing them into the most popular responses: family, mass, and vendors.

Communicating with family members Of the 79 girls who answered that Spanish had been useful in their quinceañeras€– almost 60% of the quinceañeras who answered this question – half of them specified the need for Spanish to communicate with family members at the event. According to Horowitz (1993:â•›269), “while the mass provides the sacred aspect of the ritual, the party afterwards is more concerned with dramatizing community and family” by “providing additional symbols of the link between the young woman and her family and among community members.” As mentioned earlier,

14. Girls who were still planning their quinceañeras were asked whether Spanish would be useful for that future event. Unless otherwise indicated, results for past and future quinceañeras are reported together.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

the vast majority held their quinceañeras in the U.S. but noted that “All my family speaks Spanish,” or, more specifically, that family members were monolingual or dominant in Spanish (“My aunts and some of my cousins speak only Spanish” and “Most of the people there knew Spanish a bit better than English”). Some girls cited the need to publicly thank their family members for their help at the reception. At this point it is relevant to mention that 36% of the girls had sent some portion of their invitations out of the country, mostly to Mexico. Assuming that some of these relatives attended the quinceañeras from abroad, Spanish would likely be necessary for them to understand. It is also interesting to note that the number of invited guests ranged from 25 to 600 and averaged 200, and that 86% of the girls said that all of their invitations had been printed entirely in Spanish. Another 12% had their invitations printed bilingually in both Spanish and English, and only one girl had her invitations printed entirely in English. No one had a portion of their invitations printed in Spanish and the other portion in English; the invitation provider we interviewed suggested that her clientele viewed this practice as “unclassy.” Thus, the invitations are a realm of quinceañera enactments that takes place primarily in Spanish.

Mass Of the quinceañeras, 29 girls specified that Spanish had been useful for their mass. But in fact, 87% of the quinceañeras had a mass and, of these, 86% of the masses were in Spanish. Thus, Spanish for the mass was in fact important for a much larger majority of the quinceañeras than those who mentioned the mass as a realm where Spanish had been important. An additional 12% of quinceañeras had a mass that was bilingual in Spanish and English. Only two participants had masses conducted in English, indicating that the mass is another domain of strong Spanish presence in a Chicago quinceañera. When asked why they had a mass, the quinceañeras’ most common response highlighted the importance of tradition. They stated that the mass was part of a religious, cultural, and family tradition. In addition to receiving a blessing, some participants emphasized the importance of renewing the promises made at baptism. One quinceañera explained, “Because that is the most important part of a quinceañera, to renew my baptismal vows.” Other participants mentioned that the mass is part of the “Catholic tradition,” the “Mexican tradition,” and that it is “family tradition.” As part of the family tradition, several participants stated that they had a mass to please their mothers or grandmothers. However, a quarter of the quinceañeras explained that the mass was equally or more important than the party (“Because it is the whole purpose of the quinceañera. You have the party because you celebrated the mass”). Lastly, giving thanks was also an important factor in deciding to have a mass. One participant stated, “To me the most essential part of that day was the mass because I

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had to give thanks to God for giving me such a special family and letting me get to that special age where I become a woman in God’s eyes.” Of all the quinceañeras who had a mass, 58% performed a reading from the Bible during the mass. Of these girls who completed a reading, 87% read in Spanish and 13% read in English. When asked why they decided to read aloud from the Bible during the mass, over half of the girls (59%) stated that it was a requirement specified by the Church or specifically by the priest. However, 30% of the girls made their own decision to read during the mass stating that “the quinceañera was mine and I thought it would be nice if I read,” or “I wanted to read the reading because it was an important day in my life and the reading related to me.” The girls explained that the readings were mostly selected by the priest; only 20% of the girls selected their own readings or assisted the priest in selecting the readings. In addition to the quinceañeras and the priest, the participants also cited that close friends, family members, and volunteers from the church performed readings, most of which were conducted in Spanish. When we broke down the language of the mass by generational category, we discovered that all G1, G1.5, and G2 quinceañeras had their masses in Spanish. Of the three G3 quinceañeras who had a mass, two had their masses in English and the other had hers in Spanish. There were several interesting differences regarding the usefulness and importance of Spanish according to generational category. Only one G1 quinceañera claimed that Spanish was not important for the mass. Of the G1.5s, only 18% claimed that Spanish was not important with comments like, “Here in the U.S. the people mostly speak English.” Of the G2s, however, slightly more than a third (38%) stated that Spanish was not important. One participant both acknowledged the importance of Spanish, but also its loss: “If you are not taught Spanish it’s not like you can do anything about it but I think it would fit more because it is a Latino tradition.” Of the two G3s who had a mass, one who had her mass in English stated that Spanish was not important or useful for the quinceañera celebration. The G3 quinceañera who did have her mass in Spanish stated that Spanish was useful, but not important. Thus, we see a trend that with increasing generational category, there is less of a sense that Spanish is important for a quinceañera mass. At the focus group interview, the four quinceañeras were asked about the option of masses in English. None of the girls had chosen to do this, but mentioned that it was possible and acceptable. In fact, all of them had attended quinceañeras in English; one of the girl’s sisters had celebrated her quinceañera mass in English. However, they agreed that “it takes away a special and personal touch” when the quinceañera mass is held in English. They spoke of their heritage and culture as being represented by the Spanish language. They all agreed that if a girl does not hold her mass in Spanish because she cannot speak it well, this is acceptable, but



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

if she conducts her quinceañera in English because she is embarrassed of her culture, this is not acceptable. One of the quinceañeras mentioned that although she does not speak Spanish well, she knew she wanted her quinceañera in Spanish. Finally, some parishes require that the quinceañeras take part in preparation classes. A total of 28 girls indicated that they had participated in anywhere from one to fifteen of these classes. Approximately half of these girls had attended classes conducted solely in Spanish, 19% attended classes conducted solely in English, and 38% attended classes in both English and Spanish. The classes we observed in June 2007 were conducted in both languages: in Spanish during the two classes that parents were required to attend, and in English during the two classes for the girls only or when the girls spent a brief period in a separate room during the classes their parents attended.15 Of the future quinceañeras, 66% anticipated that their classes will be conducted in Spanish and 22% anticipated that their classes would be in a bilingual format. None of the future quinceañeras anticipated the use of English only during their preparation classes, even though 19% of the past quinceañeras in fact had classes taught in this way. Three of the four quinceañeras in the focus group interview had attended required preparation classes, which stressed the increased responsibility placed upon the quinceañeras to stop violence in their communities; encouraged them to share personal and emotional experiences; and focused on the quinceañera as a rite of passage that focuses on the mass and family, rather than a Sweet 16 which can be “extravagant and does not focus on tradition, family, or religion.” Thus, Spanish language use is extremely high in the domain of the religious celebration of the mass and in the preparation classes for the mass. Bilingual or English only formats for the mass, the readings, and the preparation classes were significantly lower than the Spanish only format. Because most girls stated that the mass was part of a cultural, religious, and/or family tradition, this may imply that the use of Spanish in these religious spaces of the quinceañera correlates with tradition, i.e. Spanish is a part of family, cultural, and religious tradition. It also suggests that religious spaces can be sites for language maintenance. However, outside of these highly scripted and “traditional” spaces, how prevalent is the use of Spanish only in the quinceañera? We turn now to other domains of this celebration.

15. Some of the documents handed out during these classes were prepared bilingually. We noticed no errors in the English version, while the Spanish version had spelling and accentuation errors, such as “le dia” instead of “le di a”, “algien” instead of “alguien”, “amado” instead of “ha amado”.

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Vendors The survey asked a question about language use with vendors – “What language did you/your family use with [type of vendor]?” The findings revealed that Spanish use with these vendors was quite high. Table 5 shows the language use reported by the quinceañeras who responded to this question. Table 5.╇ Reported family language use with vendors

Photos Dress Flowers Video Band DJ Hall Limo

100% Spanish

Mostly Spanish

100% Spanish Both or Mostly equally Spanish

49% (55%)* 47% 46% 44% (50%)* 49% (66%)* 39% (44%)* 39% 22% (30%)*

20%

69% (75%)* 67% 62% 62% (68%)* 60% (77%)* 57% (62%)* 50% 29% (37%)*

20% 16% 18% 11% 18% 11% â•⁄ 7%

100% English

No item

Unsure

14%

â•⁄ 1%

12%

5%

17% 16% 15%

â•⁄ 9% â•⁄ 7% â•⁄ 2%

â•⁄ 4% â•⁄ 6% 11%

2% 9% 9%

â•⁄ 7%

â•⁄ 7%

26%

6%

20%

â•⁄ 5%

11%

7%

11% 11%

26% 25% (35%)*

â•⁄ 8% 28%

3% 7%

* The resulting percentage when responses “not having this item” are removed.

We see that language use with several vendors was mostly or entirely in Spanish, including with photographers (69% of respondents), dress vendors (67%), flower vendors (62%), videographers (62%), the musical band (60%) and the DJ (57%).16 However, some girls did not have one or more of these items at their quinceañera (“No item”), and when these responses are removed, the percentage of Spanish use increases, as shown by the numbers with the asterisks. Most notably, 77% of girls who had a band and 75% of girls who had a photographer said that either only Spanish or mostly Spanish was used to interact with these vendors. Language exchanges involved with renting the reception hall and the limousine took place more in English. Thus certain vendors provide sites of Spanish use surrounding 16. We did not ask whether the dress had been purchased in the U.S. or abroad. Alvarez (2007:â•›39) notes that some families will buy their dresses in their native countries for much less than the U.S. price, and that it is popular in Miami to rent a dress from the photo studio.



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

the enactment of a quinceañera celebration. Although it may be the parents and not the quinceañera who do the most speaking with these vendors, many girls spend a lot of time with their mothers planning and interacting with vendors (Alvarez 2007). We have just reviewed responses to the question of whether Spanish was useful for girls’ quinceañeras. The second question asked whether Spanish was important for a quinceañera. This question was asked immediately following the question about usefulness and the responses it elicited tended more toward cultural explanations of the role of Spanish. 70% of those who answered this question replied affirmatively, citing reasons like these: “If you think of yourself Mexican enough to have a quinceañera you should also feel Mexican enough to know Spanish.” “Yes. Because the tradition of a quinceanera is from a Hispanic background. Having a mass in English looks bad (in my opinion).” “I think it is important because it really brings out your culture. I don’t think that the quinceañera would be as memorable if you did everything in English, it is something that you will remember and take with you as a part of your culture.”

It is clear that these young girls strongly align Spanish language use with cultural identity. The 30% who replied that Spanish was not important for a quinceañera can be summarized in the following comment: “I don’t think it’s very important, because if you know Spanish it might be because your family also speaks Spanish. If you don’t speak Spanish and neither does your family, you still won’t have a problem communicating.”

Spanish use among damas and chambelanes At the five quinceañera masses we observed in Chicago, before the beginning of the ceremony, the corte members waited nervously by the door of the church, speaking primarily English among themselves. At one celebration, the unmarked code choice among the corte was fluent codeswitching. Spanish was not the language of communication among the corte in the masses we observed, but the corte members did respond to oral requests and instructions in Spanish from the priest, the quinceañera’s family members, and other Spanish-speaking adults. Verbal responses to these requests were usually not required – for example, an adult might simply use Spanish to instruct the corte members to move to the right€– but when a response was required, the young people responded in Spanish. In one case we observed, a chambelán did not appear to understand or speak Spanish, so his peers translated for him.

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On our survey, members of the corte were asked whether Spanish was useful to carry out the role of a dama or chambelán. As was mentioned earlier, 63% of the young men had been chambelanes at least once (the majority had performed this service at least twice) and 46% of the young women had been damas. It is important to recall that these young men and women are often the quinceañera’s peers (although sometimes family members such as cousins or aunts/uncles) who provide additional data points on the extent to which the quinceañera celebration encourages Spanish use among U.S. Latino youth. Before exploring these responses, we will mention that before this question about whether Spanish was useful to be a dama or chambelán, corte participants were asked what was necessary to be a dama or a chambelán. The overwhelming majority of responses cited the need to learn the dance steps and purchase the attire; knowledge of Spanish was not mentioned in any of the 140 responses to the question of what is required to be a corte member. However, when asked directly whether Spanish was useful to be in the corte, 75% of the chambelanes and 63% of the damas responded affirmatively. Many stated that this was because the family members of the quinceañera are Spanish-speakers – one young man specified that “people compliment you and ask you questions mostly in Spanish.” A few mentioned that the mass would be in Spanish, but many more specified that the dance instructors conducted the prequinceañera practices entirely in Spanish. Thus, if they wanted to understand the instructors in order to learn the dance routine properly and not let down the quinceañera, knowledge of Spanish was useful. A handful of corte members mentioned cultural and identity-based reasons, including that only through knowing Spanish “you will understand why the quince años are so important to the girl and her family” or stating that “Spanish is what we are,” “It is a Hispanic tradition!,” “We are all Mexican.” The corte members who stated that knowledge of Spanish was not useful for being a dama or a chambelan – 37% of the damas and 24% of the chambelanes who responded to this question – offered responses including that they did not have to speak to anyone at all during the event and that “you just follow what everyone else is doing and you’ll be okay”. Two other comments were polar opposites. One dama wrote that the quinceañera herself did not know Spanish, while another wrote that Spanish was, “Not really [useful] because you’re not the quinceañera.” The former comment suggests that English monolingual girls have quinceañeras, while the latter implies the opinion that quinceañeras must know Spanish. To provide another reference point about the language use of the corte members, the quinceañeras themselves were asked whether their cortes used Spanish. “Did the damas and/or chambelanes speak any Spanish, either during the preparations for your quinceañera or during the actual event? If yes, please give a few



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

examples of when they spoke Spanish.” Out of the 45 responses we received to this question, only nine reported that their corte members did not speak any Spanish. The other 80% said that their corte used Spanish for tasks such as practicing for church, learning the dances, or speaking with the quinceañera’s family members.

5.3 Non-quinceañeras 92 of our female respondents did not have a quiceañera. Twenty-seven of the girls cited that their families did not have the financial resources for a quinceañera celebration. Others stated that they simply did not want their families to spend the money for a one-time celebration. One girl explained, “Why waste so much money when it’s only going to last for one day?” Sixty-three of the girls noted that they were not interested in a quinceañera or that they preferred a gift in place of the celebration. The four focus group quinceañeras mentioned friends and family members they knew who chose gifts over a quinceañera celebration, but suggested that perhaps those girls “did not understand how special the quinceañera celebration could be.” Three girls stated that they preferred to use the money to visit family in Mexico, suggesting that the time in Mexico was more important than “one night of a party.” Several girls’ responses seemed to be linked to questions of identity. One G3 girl stated, “Having a quinceañera is seen as a very stereotypical thing to do, being a Hispanic, but I’m just not really attracted to those sort of things.” This participant’s response suggests a desire to distance herself from “stereotypical” Latino identity markers. Additionally, a G2 MexiRican stated that she did not have a quinceañera because “en mi familia no tenemos esas tradiciones de las quinceañeras (in my family we don’t have the quinceañera tradition).” This poses interesting questions for the study of the quinceañera celebration within families of mixed Latino heritage.

6.

Conclusions: Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity

A question asked early in this chapter was whether having a quinceañera bolsters and/or reflects young girls’ Spanish language use, and whether it bolsters and/or reflects their ethnic identity. We conclude that, among the youth we surveyed, quinceañeras in Chicago generally do simultaneously bolster and reflect Spanish language use. Between 60–70% of the quinceañeras stated that Spanish was either useful or important (or both) in the enactment of their celebration. All of the focus group quinceañeras agreed that in the future they would like their daughters to

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have quinceañeras, and wanted them to be celebrated in Spanish. The corte members as well – usually adolescent peers, at least half of them male€– also claimed high importance of the Spanish language in their roles in the celebration. We did see, however, some degree of hybridization involving the use of English in several arenas, from vendors, music played, the language of DJs and even the mass. As for ethnic identity, we appeal to theories of identity construction as ongoing negotiations and performances over time (e.g., Butler 1999) and also to Â�Papastergiadis’s (2000) concept of hybridity as the negotiation of difference. To recap our major findings, almost 60% of our female respondents had or were planning a quinceañera and slightly over 80% of all respondents had attended at least one quinceañera, indicating a strong continuing presence of this tradition in Chicago. Most of the celebrations contained traditional elements including a corte, gifts of a necklace and a prayer book, changing shoes, a first dance with a male relative, and the compadrazgo system of financial sponsorship. Indeed, slightly over half of the quinceañeras stated that their motivation for having one was to reaffirm aspects of their cultural identities. However, we can say that, as with its attendant language use, the quinceañera ritual in Chicago has experienced some degree of hybridization through the introduction of elements such as less traditional cortes (composed entirely of damas or of chambelanes, for example), non-traditional dress colors, non-Hispanic food and music at the reception, and a song other than a waltz used for the first dance. Clearly, language and culture overlap; some might say they are the same thing, as embodied in Agar’s (1994) term “languaculture”. In our survey comments, we saw a connection between the role of the quinceañera and the role of the Spanish language in promoting ethinc identity, echoing the findings of Phinney et al. (2001) that, among Mexican Americans, proficiency in Spanish was significantly correlated with ethnic identity and also with behaviors reported by parents to promote cultural maintenance. Very few members in our study claimed that Spanish is totally unnecessary to enact a quinceañera. Yet it is worth noting that shift may be afoot: a few all-English masses had occurred among our population, and we saw a modest trend toward less enactment of quinceañeras with increased generation in the U.S. – echoing findings that there is less Spanish use with increased generation in the U.S. Butler’s (1999) work on gender performances – how people “do” being male or female –may be useful in understanding how young girls in the U.S. “do” being Latina. Ethnic identity, as with other aspects of individual identity, can be seen as a series of performances, and the quinceañera is clearly an elaborate performance, one that unmistakably announces that an individual is fifteen years old, Christian, and female. For these Chicago families, a quinceañera is also a performance that fairly recently crossed a geographical and sociocultural border from Latin America into the U.S., such that in addition to age, religion and



3.╇ Hybridized tradition, language use, and identity in the U.S. Latina quinceañera ritual

genderÂ�, having a Â�quinceañera in Chicago signals that the person is Latina amidst a predominately Anglo culture.17 Latino families are to various degrees (and usually increasingly with each generation) integrated into mainstream Anglo culture, within which they can be seen as “feeling a part and feeling apart” (Block 2007:â•›21). Â�Papastergiadis (2000) notes that when there are such contradictions, a hybridity is formed as people negotiate the difference between the past and the present, which “encounter and transform each other” (170). The quinceañera celebrations we have described here, it seems to us, take more from the past than from the present, but there are some signs that third and fourth generation Latinas may enact their identities in ways that either do not include quinceañeras, or that include them in ways that are substantially transformed, including exclusive use of English. Identity in general, and linguistic identity in particular, are fluid, non-monolithic entities that respond to a multiplicity of individual, familial, and other local as well as broader influences, and the quinceañera is another arena in which teenage females can enact ethnolinguistic identities. Specifically regarding language use practices in quinceañeras, Farr (personal communication, June 2007) pointed out that instead of a binary opposition and neat mapping of the type “English = modern, Spanish = traditional,” there is likely a continuum of affiliation with the mainstream. This observation has been supported by our data in the sense that there was hybridization both in the “traditionalness” of the quinceañeras as well as in language (for example, 15% of girls sent a portion of their invitations in each language). Alvarez, too, argues for an expansive view of inherited cultural practices: Young Latinas [are negotiating and expanding] the ground of their ethnicity. They very hybridity they inherit because of their dual cultures in addition to the global culture in which they are coming of age means that the traditions we pass on to them have to take into account a more complex and multifaceted and con(2007:â•›259) tradictory young person than we ever were at their age.

We conclude with one of Alvarez’s questions: “How much can a tradition be stretched and changed until it morphs into something else?” (Alvarez 2007:â•›94). When the family’s Spanish disappears, does the quinceañera celebration disappear as well? Alvarez posits that quinceañeras in the future will have, “if not a Spanish accent, a Latino flavor” (2007:â•›7). For the time being, at least among first and second generation Chicago Latinas, the quinceañera provides a domain for Spanish language use and ethnic identity performance. 17. There may be some exceptions, as Alvarez (2007) notes that some girls from other groups, such as Filipinas and even Anglo girls, are having quinceañeras. However, it seems overwhelmingly the case at present that quinceañeras are Latina events.

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References Agar, M. 1994. Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation. New York NY: William Morrow. Alvarez, J. 2007. Once upon a Quinceañera: Coming of Age in the USA. New York NY: Viking. Attinasi, J. 1985. Hispanic attitudes in Northwestern Indiana and New York. In Spanish Language Use and Public Life in the USA, L. Elías-Olivares, E. Leone, R. Cisneros & J. Gutierrez (eds), 27–58. Berlin: Mouton. Bills, G. D., Hudson, A. & Hernández-Chávez, E. 2000. Spanish home language use and English proficiency as differential measures of language maintenance and shift. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 19: 11–27. Bills, G. D. & Vigil, N. A. 1999. Ashes to ashes: The historical basis for dialect variation in New Mexcian Spanish. Romance Philology 53: 43–66. Block, D.€2007.€Second Language Identities.€London: Continuum. Butler, J. 1999. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London Routledge. Cantú, N. 1999. La Quinceañera: Towards an ethnographic analysis of a life cycle ritual. Southern Folklore 56(1): 73–101. Cantú, N. 2002. Chicana life-cycle rituals. In Chicana Traditions: Continuity and Change, N.€Cantú & O. Nájera-Ramírez (eds), 15–34. Urbana IL: University of Illinois. Cruz, W. 2004. Images of America: Puerto Rican Chicago. Mount Pleasant SC:€Arcadia Publishing. Davalos, K. M. 1996. La quinceañera: Making gender and ethnic identities. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 16(2–3): 101–127. García, O. & Otheguy, R. 1988. The language situation of Cuban Americans. In Language diversity: Problem or resource?, S. McKay & S. Wong (eds), 166–192. San Francisco CA: Harper and Row. Horowitz, R. 1993. The power of ritual in a Chicano community: A young woman’s status and expanding family ties. Marriage and Family Review 19: 257–280. Hurtado, A. & Vega, L. A. 2004. Shift happens: Spanish and English transmission between parents and their children. Journal of Social Issues 60: 137–155. Meléndez, G. 2003. Notes from the series editors. In Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption, E. R. Lamadrid (ed.), viii. Albuquerque NM: University of New Mexico Press. National Coalition of Hispanic Health and Human Services Organizations. 1999. The state of Hispanic girls. (4 February 2008). Papastergiadis, N. 2000. The Turbulence of Migration. Cambridge: Polity Press. Pedraza, P. 1985. Language maintenance among New York Puerto Ricans. In Spanish Language and Public Life in the United States, L. Elías-Olivares, E. Leone, R. Cisneros & J. Gutiérez (eds), 59–71. New York NY: Mouton. Phinney, J., Romero, I., Nava, M. & Huang, D. 2001. The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence€30(2): 135–153. Potowski, K. 2004. Spanish language shift in Chicago. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 23: 87–116. Potowski, K. & Carreira, M.€2004.€Towards teacher development and national standards for Spanish as a heritage language.€Foreign Language Annals 37(3): 421–431.€



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Potowski, K. & J. Matts, J. 2008. Interethnic language and identity: MexiRicans in Chicago. Journal of Language, Identity and Education 7(2): 137–160. Potowski, K. & Torres, L. In progress. Spanish in Chicago: A study of dialect contact. Rebolledo, T. D. 1995. Women Singing in the Snow: A Cultural Analysis of Chicana Literature. Tucson AZ: University of Arizona Press. Rivera-Mills, S. 2000. Intraethnic attitudes among hispanics in a northern California community. In Research on Spanish in the United States: Linguistic Issues and Challenges, Ana Roca (ed.), 377–389. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press. Rivera-Mills, S. 2001. Acculturation and communicative need: Language shift in an ethnically diverse hispanic community. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 20(2): 211–223. Salkin, J. 1996. Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah. Woodstock VT: Jewish Lights Publishing. United States Census. 2006. Community Survey. United States Census. 2000.€<www.census.gov>€€ United States Census. 1990.€<www.census.gov>€€ Valdés, G. 2002. Heritage language students: Profiles and possibilities. In Heritage Languages in America. Preserving a National Resource, J. Kreeft Peyton, D. A. Ranard & S. McGinnis (eds), 37–77. McHenry IL: Delta Systems. Zentella, A. C. 1997. Growing up Bilingual. Oxford: Blackwell.

Appendix A Generational categories Note: These categories have been used widely in sociolinguistic research and seem to have some explanatory value for certain linguistic behaviors, although they cannot explain all social phenomena. Abbreviation

Age of arrival in U.S.

Parents

G1 G1.5 G2 G2.5 G3

After 11 Between 6–11 Before 6 or born in U.S. Born in U.S. Born in U.S.

Arrived to U.S. as adults Arrived to U.S. as adults Arrived to U.S. as adults One parent is G1, one is G2 One or both parents are G2

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chapter 4

Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant€parents* Iliana Reyes University of Arizona

Despite a well-established body of literature focusing on school-based Spanish and English bilingualism of Latino children in the United States, the biliteracy development and literacy practices at home have received little attention by the educational research community. This article presents the perspectives of first generation Mexican parents on the development of their children’s bilingualism and biliteracy practices at home and how these impact their development at school. The study takes a qualitative approach to the study of Mexican families living in southern Arizona through interviews conducted with the children’s parents and the teacher of their children. The goal of the study is to identify language practices and patterns of language use that directly or indirectly influence children’s development of language and literacy in Spanish and English. In addition, the study describes parents’ attitudes toward native language maintenance, bilingualism and biliteracy development from a sociocultural perspective. The findings are discussed with implications of what teachers and other educators can learn from these families in order to integrate this knowledge to children’s classroom experiences.

* This research was partially funded by the Foundation for Child Development and the University of Arizona Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies (Grant No. 112-165). I would like to thank the families for their willingness to share their stories, and �Francisca Murua for her assistance in transcribing these interviews. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Iliana Reyes, Language, Reading and Culture, College of Education, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ 85721-0069, USA, e-mail: ireyes@email. arizona.edu

90 Iliana Reyes

Mis hermanos, mi mamá, sus tíos de ellos hablan español entonces sí me gustaría que se pudieran comunicar con gente de aquí y con gente de allá. Quiero que aprendan [mis hijos] también sus raíces de allá de México. My siblings, mother, and their uncles they all speak Spanish. I would like that my children be able to communicate with our people here and there (Mexico)… I want them to learn about their roots there, in Mexico.  – Isela, mother of two children

This epigraph reflects the common point of view of many immigrant parents, in this case from Mexico, who wish for their children to continue speaking the family’s native language so they can continue communicating with family members back in their country of origin, while also learning about their cultural heritage and their family traditions. It is particularly important to understand the early literacy experiences of children who are exposed to more than one language in order to effectively educate the linguistically and culturally diverse student population present in classrooms across the United States (Brisk and Harrington 1999), and parental attitudes such as these play an important role. In this article I review findings from interviews with first generation Mexican immigrant parents and their children’s teacher on the role family interactions and the native language, Spanish, play in the literacy development of young emergent bilinguals. These children are considered emergent bilinguals because they are learning two languages at an early age (3-yr-olds), and particularly have the potential to develop biliteracy in two languages simultaneously and often spontaneously (see Dworin 2003; M. L. Reyes 2001). The examples are drawn from my work in a predominantly Mexican community in southern Arizona, where I have been conducting a longitudinal study since 2003. This study is part of a larger research project, the Emergent Literacy and Language Development in Latino Immigrant Children’s project at the University of Arizona (see I. Reyes 2006). In recent years, researchers have pointed to the need to engage families in learning about literacy practices at school (e.g., Sampson 2003); however, there is also a great need for educators to learn about parents’ ideologies, parents’ ways of interacting with their children, and how their family literacy practices can be integrated in classroom activities to tap children’s home background knowledge (Ada and Zubizarreta 2001; Moll 1992; Trumbull Rothstein-Fisch, Greenfield and Quiroz 2001). In this article, I focus on overall attitudes and perspectives on bilingualism, and the language and literacy practices of first generation immigrant Mexican parents with their young children who attend a predominant English preschool. The social environment, specifically the family context, is considered an important factor that influences the opportunities to maintain and use the native language use at home, and to develop biliteracy in English and Spanish. The research questions guiding this study are as follow:

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents

1. What are some of the specific language and literacy practices that first generation, working class Mexican American parents engage in with their children at home? 2. What are some of the language ideologies held by parents and teachers toward the development of bilingualism, English, and maintenance of Spanish, their heritage language? The knowledge that parents share with us about their own language and literacy practices with their children at home may benefit not only researchers in understanding the different factors influencing young children’s language and literacy development in two languages, but could also help educators to support children’s second language (L2) development from an additive perspective (Landry, Allard and Théberge 1991). From this standpoint, the family’s heritage language is viewed as a resource in supporting parent’s efforts in maintaining Spanish at home while children develop the second language at school.

1.

Language development in immigrant children

Bilingualism has puzzled and often frustrated teachers in the US who find it challenging to learn specific strategies to teach immigrant children for whom English is an additional language (often their second one, but in some cases their third or even their fourth language). Moreover, the development of bilingualism, and more recently biliteracy in young minority language children, fascinates researchers because of the unique opportunity to learn about children’s developmental pathways in learning the two languages and how their particular language characteristics and typologies influence each other (Dworin and Moll 2006; Garcia, Barlett and Kleifgen 2007; Pérez 2004). Bilingualism, as part of this study, is viewed as a dynamic rather than a static process, whereby the outcomes in terms of language proficiency are affected by everyday factors and interactions between speakers (Valdés 1996). Moreover, depending on whether children develop their languages at the same time (simultaneous bilinguals) or they first learn their L1 and soon after they learn their second language (sequential bilinguals), their linguistic competencies in using the two languages would vary (Baker 2001). From a sociocultural and sociolinguistic perspective, studies in bilingualism have shown that the success or failure of a child learning two languages is directly related to sociolinguistic factors impacting the child’s experience. Early research by Ervin-Tripp (1973) showed that the most important factor in children’s becoming bilingual and learning a second language (L2) is the amount of contact with the second language, including hearing and

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speaking it. Similarly, the factors related to acquiring minority languages (also called heritage languages) include the amount of exposure to the minority language, the need to speak the minority language, and the status of the minority language in the society (Wong Fillmore 1991, 2000). One of the main sources of input for young immigrant children to continue developing the L1 and L2 is through the language socialization that occurs with family members during the different communities in which the children participate (Schecter and Bayley 2002; Zentella 2005). Particularly, language and cultural experiences influence children’s and their families’ attitudes towards the maintenance of the heritage language (González 2001; Guerra 1998). Studies have shown that immigrant children learn quickly the status of their two languages and how their family values each of these languages (Reese 2002; Tse 2001). In the case of children who immigrate to the U.S., they soon learn that English is the language that possesses high prestige and the one necessary to succeed. Parents themselves debate whether bilingualism is optimal for their children. Although most of them, like Isela at the beginning of this article, want their children to be able to communicate with their relatives and friends both in the new host community and back in their country of origin, often do not realize how easy it is for young children to lose their native language (Tse 2001). To underscore this point we can state that while all parents tend to recognize the importance of maintaining the heritage language, there are important differences in terms of parental actions based on their socio-economic background. For instance, working class immigrant parents concentrate their efforts in making sure the children learn and become proficient in English given that other family priorities (e.g., children’s health, parental working conditions) take precedence over maintenance of L1. In contrast, middle-class families are proactive in promoting the heritage language by being able to afford private tutoring or sending their children to heritage language after-school activities (Li 2006; Roca 2005; Rothman and Niño-Murcia 2008). Having said this, both working class and middle class parents often create opportunities at home to use different language strategies to continue supporting their children’s bilingual development. It is important to note that sometimes these opportunities are created spontaneously as part of the daily routine, and not necessarily with bilingualism as a goal as we will see next.

2.

Families’ strategies to promote bilingualism

Bilingualism is promoted by the family, and primarily by parents and caretakers who use particular strategies to maintain the family language and bring up children bilingually. I will briefly describe three of these strategies: one Â�person–one

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents

language, mixing languages, and minority home language use. One of the most reported strategies in the early bilingual studies with young children (e.g., Leopold 1949) is that of the one person-one language (also known as Grammont’s principle). This strategy allows each parent to communicate with the child in his or her native language, consequently creating a bond between the parent who speaks a particular language and the child. Clyne (1987) argues that when the child becomes aware that each parent speaks one particular language in their interactions, it helps the child to develop an early and sophisticated metalinguistic awareness in both languages. That is, the child develops the ability to view and analyze language as a “thing,” language as a “process,” and language as a “system” (Mora 2001). A second strategy is the mixing of languages (code-switching). Although this strategy is not always identified explicitly by parents (and often neither by teachers), they do use it and allow children to view the use of the two languages as an acceptable medium of communication. Parents use code-switching as a tool that can be used with a specific communication purpose among members of the same community who share two or more languages (Genesee 1989). For example, Zentella (1997) observed mothers and community members who spoke both Spanish and English to children living in El Barrio in New York City. This mix of language utterances was seen as a natural part of the community discourse repertoires, and the children were also able to use both languages separately according to their interlocutors. A third common strategy observed in immigrant families is the use of the L1 language at home with the family and the use of dominant language at school and in the larger community. The reasons for this type of strategy vary. Sometimes the parents only know one language and have no alternative, especially recent immigrant families from non-English speaking countries (Brisk and Harrington 1999). In other cases, when the parents do know both languages, they decide to maintain the native language as the family language and English as the street code. The reason is that they identify English as the dominant language in the community and the one that children would soon recognize as the language that dominates the discourse in the school context (Combs, Evans, Fletcher, Parra and Jiménez 2005; Tse 2001). For Latino immigrant families living in the U.S. this pattern may vary a lot because of their language background. That is, the level of language fluency in the L2 impacts directly parents’ language practices within their families. However, little is known about the specific literacy practices and ideologies that guide these parents’ choices for the development of their children’s two languages (Worthy and Rodriguez-Galindo 2006).

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3.

Latino families and language ideologies about child bilingualism

In addition to the three strategies of language use just described, each family develops a language ideology and employs particular socialization patterns that will impact children’s bilingual development. Recent studies reveal significant findings about Latino parents' ideology about their children's language education. One important factor impacting children’s bilingual development and literacy in two languages is parents’ own ideologies and experiences about education and language. This aspect of young children’s linguistic development deserves further study since it is through interactions with parents, teachers, and community members that children acquire and develop their own ideas and attitudes towards the language(s) they speak. Moreover, the value that people assign to languages and those who use them is key in understanding the ideologies that impact their relationship between participants and how children demonstrate social competence as members of a specific community (Schieffelin, Woolard, and Kroskrity 1998). The research conducted by Norma González (2001) in the Southwest is particularly relevant for this study since she did an ethnography on Mexican American families on language use within a framework of language ideologies. In González’s study, the mothers and their children reflected within their discourse a language ideology that allowed them the freedom to adopt multiple cultural and linguistic identities that reflected their roots growing up in the borderlands. In this study, I adopt her concept “language ideology” to refer to the implicit assumptions that individuals have about a language, assumptions that carry with them certain cultural, social, and political values. Moreover, within this language ideology framework, I also integrate the term ‘perspectives’ to emphasize the explicit assumptions some of the families shared with me during the interviews. The studies (e.g., Relaño Pastor 2005; Rodriguez 2005) presented in a language and literacy socialization volume by Zentella (2005) described how caregivers shared their expectations and concerns regarding their children’s education. Latino parents saw their role as helping children experience a good education by making sure they went to school, and that they did their homework. Moreover, many of these Latino parents did not define the good child “based on his or her literacy activities” but instead emphasized norms of respect that strengthened relationships between immediate and extended family members. Moreover, the Latina mothers that participated in Relaño Pastor’s study (2005) expressed their own values associated with Spanish, English, and bilingualism transmitted to their children, on what Relaño Pastor defined as “moral language order”. This concept is related to the values and attitudes parents expressed during the interviews when asked about their perspectives and ideologies associated with Spanish, English, and raising their children bilingual and biliterate.

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents

More recently, Relaño Pastor (2008) studied competing language ideologies in the after school program, La Clase Mágica (Vásquez 2003). She found that Spanish was subordinated to English due to several factors, one being that undergraduate tutors were monolingual English speakers, even when this factor was counteracted by the presence and contribution of the Spanish-dominant mothers who volunteered to participate in the after school program activities. Moreover, Relaño Pastor describes the complexity of language choice by young Latino children in a ‘semi’ informal context where they do activities related to school homework in an environment where both English and Spanish are allowed as part of an after-school program’s “laissez-faire language ideology” (16). The analysis of her data clearly shows how children and the teacher, in different interactions, find themselves enacting competing language ideologies. For example, when one of the boys, Jonás, initiates the conversation in Spanish, he is soon silenced by another classmate, Noelia, who tells him “No Spanish Jonás” (15). The teacher however defends Jonás’ right to speak Spanish. This after-school program constitutes an example in which outside the children’s home the maintenance of Spanish and children’s Mexican culture is honored and used as part of an academic program (Relaño Pastor 2008). Another important study in the area of bilingual socialization in the US is the work by Schecter and Bayley (2002) with Mexican families in Texas and California. The authors examined the role of language on different aspects of 10–12 year-old children’s development and the social spaces to which they assigned a symbolic value to the use of Spanish and English during their daily interactions. In addition to documenting the use of each language according to these different social spaces, the authors described the importance of cultural transmissions that occurred through the exchange of information between family and siblings. For example, when parents discussed with their children the importance of learning about their country of origin because that is where they continue to have their family roots. Specifically, the authors report variation in literacy activities, as well as in language socialization practices with respect to parents’ cultural background and first- versus second-generation immigration status. Therefore learning from immigrant parents’ perspective, who often have few economic resources but a wealth of social capital and literacy practices unrecognized outside their homes, can bring about knowledge that will inform educators in the field of how best support what children and their families want and need (Garcia-Coll, Chin and Silver 2001; Guerra 1998). Although the work reviewed in this section has been very important in shedding light about Latino parents’ ideologies and perspectives on language and literacy development in their children, the focus has often not been on young children (for an exception see Rodriguez 2005). In this article, I contribute towards this

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endeavor by sharing findings from a group of parents’ and their children’s preschool teacher’s ideologies and perspectives on bilingualism and literacy practices at home. The parents and teacher were interviewed as part of a larger study on the development of emergent literacy in young emergent bilingual children attending a preschool program. Through this study I seek to provide practitioners and researchers with basic information about the kinds of family interactions and practices in Mexican working class families and how best to promote the development of bilingualism and biliteracy in young (4–5 year old) emergent bilinguals.

4.

Methodology

4.1

Data collection

The first phase of the larger study consisted of a sample of 40 Mexican immigrant families, each with a 4-year-old child that attended the same state funded preschool program in the neighborhood I called Los Agaves (pseudonyms are used throughout the article). The participants for the original study were those students with parent permission who were willing to participate in a longitudinal project. The parents and children were visited at home by a member of the research team, and children were observed during the preschool year. I focused on language and literacy practices observed during natural interactions at home and the students’ communities. In this article, I focus on interviews from 20 families and their children’s preschool teacher, Ms. Vásquez, specifically analyzing their attitudes and practices in terms of young children’s learning of Spanish and English.

4.2 The study setting and participants The children participating in this study are native Spanish speakers exposed to Spanish primarily at home with their families and who learn English as an L2 when they start attending preschool. Fourteen of the students were born in Mexico, and six were born in the United States. Three of these families had emigrated from the central and southern Mexican states of Guanajuato, Jalisco, and Oaxaca, and the remaining families had emigrated from the northern states of Sonora, Sinaloa, and Baja California Norte. These families continue to participate in a longitudinal study of their daily literacy practices at home and how these impact the children’s development of literacy in their two languages (see I. Reyes 2006; Reyes, Alexandra and Azuara 2007). The children and their families are part of a community in the south part of Tucson that is more than 90% Latino, predominantly first and second generation

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents

Mexican immigrant families. The community is predominantly bilingual and reflects the presence and influence of the Mexican culture in different places such as the local store (abarrote), park, cultural center, and library, among others. There is also influence from local indigenous groups, mainly Pascua Yaqui and Tohono O’odham. The children attend a local preschool program originally designed as a bilingual/bicultural program for working-class children. Children must meet US federal requirements of low income in order to participate in the program, and about 92% qualify. Although the Saguaro preschool is physically part of the local elementary school, the teachers and the program director have much autonomy to make their own decisions separate from the rest of the school. The preschool has its own facilities and playground, but all children eat their lunch at the elementary school cafeteria. Ms. Vásquez, the preschool classroom lead teacher, is a fluent bilingual, a native English speaker who learned Spanish while living in Mexico for more than 20 years. Although not teaching in an official bilingual program anymore, she used strategies in which she included the use of the native language for instruction. I learned about her conflicting perspectives on how to best support these children with the “optimal” transition to an English-only environment in Kindergarten. I discuss more of these competing ideologies as part of the findings section. In addition to Ms. Vásquez, one teacher aid, Ms. Mora, and one parent coordinator, Ms. Lorena, both fluent bilinguals, helped with classroom activities. Ms. Lorena, a sequential bilingual Latina raised in Mexico, moved to Arizona when she married her husband. In the classroom, she always tried to respond in Spanish so the children continued practicing it while Ms. Mora, a simultaneous bilingual raised in the United States in a Spanish-speaking household, often followed the children’s language choice and often code-switched between the two languages according to the speaker and participants. Together the three teachers were a team of educators who cared about the students and families.

4.3 Data sources and analysis The parent and teacher interviews were the major source of data for this paper. I report on interviews with 20 of the 40 original families whose children attended Ms. Vásquez’s preschool classroom. I decided to focus on the families from Ms. Vásquez’s group because these were the families I became the most familiar with given that I visited it – as well as the children’s homes – for a full academic year. All interviews were conducted by a bilingual research team member of the project. Parents and primary caregivers were asked to participate and to answer questions with regard to their children’s general early childhood development. In

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addition, immigrant parents were interviewed about their language and literacy practices and their overall ideologies about their preschool children’s learning of Spanish and of English, and their perspectives on bilingualism (see Appendix A for sample questions). These interviews yielded information about the child’s age of first exposure to L2, frequency of L1 and L2 usage (e.g., among family, friends, and teachers), formal language education by child and parents, family practices and strategies to support biliteracy, as well as the family’s social and demographic background (e.g., parents’ occupation, birthplace, age on arrival in the United States). All interviews were conducted in Spanish, although some code-switching was integrated since we followed the lead of the families to ensure they felt comfortable. Following parents’ preference, we conducted 10 interviews at the families’ homes; the others took place in the school classroom while the children played outside. All interviews were transcribed using a conversational transcription method (for more details on this method see Gumperz and Berenz 1996). When all interviews were transcribed I listened to the tapes and read through the transcripts while documenting initial impressions and phrasal summaries (Erlandson, Â�Harris, Skipper and Allen 1993). I then identified recurring patterns in the data, and then followed the categories constructed by Worthy and Rodriguez-Galindo (2006), and Schecter and Bayley (2002) to identify themes that captured the patterns and categories, but I also remained open to new ones. The categories that guided this analysis were the following, and these will be the categories through which I will present my findings. a. b. c. d. e.

Families’ perspectives on maintaining Spanish Families’ perspectives on promoting literacy development in Spanish Families’ perspectives on learning Spanish at home, English at School Families’ perspectives on promoting bilingualism and biliteracy development Teacher’s perspective on language development among preschool immigrant children

The description and examples provided under each category represent recurring themes that emerged from individual interviews with each participant family and teacher in relation to language and literacy practices and their ideologies behind those practices. Although more than one theme might have emerged in each interview when parents expressed their views and perspectives on maintaining the native language, and promoting literacy in one or two languages; the findings are presented according to what each family expressed to be their primary perspective and strategy to support their child’s bilingualism and/or biliteracy. In addition, I provide below quotes from parents and the teacher as examples of the main themes that emerged from the data.

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents

5.

Findings

5.1

Families’ perspectives on maintaining Spanish (20 out of 20 families)

All of the families reported that they promoted Spanish maintenance at home. Specifically, the mothers emphasized speaking Spanish at home, and because of their limited proficiency in English, they relied on the school system to teach their children reading and writing skills in both Spanish and English. The strategies used by each family were natural in the sense that parents’ oral proficiency facilitated conversation and dialogue in Spanish, the native language. The families attended community events (e.g., festivals, presentations, religious events) and often spent time with relatives and friends who were Spanish-dominant. For example, the Martinez family said they were pleased that their child, Sofia, was attending a bilingual story book time on Saturdays at the library where she was exposed to both English and Spanish. Moreover, they expressed a desire for her to maintain her native language in both home and school as she continued into kindergarten and elementary school. The majority of the parents (80%) were aware of Proposition 203, the English only law in Arizona schools, and how this law might affect their children’s later schooling. Marta, a mother of three children, explained: Before that law [prop 203], my older daughter attended a bilingual program and they could speak Spanish to do class assignments, but now she cannot use Spanish, only English. I guess Katia [referring to 4-year-old child] would have to attend an English only classroom too; she won’t get any help in Spanish. – Marta, mother of three children 

At least six of these families stated, along the same lines as Marta, that one of their older children had attended a bilingual program before the new law went into effect, but that all of their older children were currently attending a mainstreamed classroom. Interesting here to note is that parents had never been informed by school staff that their children were officially assigned to SEI (Structured English Immersion) classrooms where only English was used, and where the native language could in fact be used for clarification and “minimum instruction” (Arizona Revised Statutes [A.R.S.] 751–752). Despite these challenges encountered at school, many families expressed a desire for their children to maintain the native language.

. Arizona voters approved Proposition 203, “English Only for the Children,” in 2000, which eliminated most bilingual programs in the state.

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Another reason described by these parents for maintaining Spanish was to communicate and facilitate communication among native speakers of Spanish and those that relatives that lived back in Mexico. This strategy for maintaining Spanish was also reported by Guerra (1998), where adults, particularly women, from a Chicago Latino community continued to write to their relatives using their first language. In addition, the parents in my study also expressed a strong interest in maintaining the native language, because they saw a high value in developing bilingual skills. Specifically, Ms. Madero mentioned that in the Tucson community bilinguals can use the two languages for different purposes and to assist people who are unable to understand one language (all quotes in Spanish were transcribed from original interviews – including grammatical markers; English translations have been modified for literal meaning): Yo siempre les digo hablen más español para que lo aprendan más [sic] bien…le he hallado ventajas porque pues son dos cosas que sabes no, como por ejemplo, a veces estaba en el mercado y alguien enfrente de mi no habla inglés y yo le puedo ayudar. I always tell them [the children] to speak Spanish so they can learn it well… I have found advantages when you know two [languages]. For example, sometimes when I go to the super market and there is someone ahead of me that does not speak English, I help them.

5.2 Families’ perspectives on promoting literacy development in Spanish (eight out of 20 families) Eight of the families actively promoted literacy development in Spanish at home. For example, these families took the initiative to check out Spanish and bilingual books from the library to make sure children had the opportunity to listen to stories in Spanish. Moreover, parents reported participation in a variety of literacy events throughout the evening when children arrived from school and during weekend when they participated in community activities. For example, Ilda, mother of two girls (Jazlynn, 4 year-old and Berenice, 3-year-old), reported that their two daughters enjoyed reading, writing cards, and working with crafts. Their home contained plenty of literacy tools and materials, including pencils, markers, crayons, scissors, coloring books, letter magnets, and cuentos (storybooks) in Spanish that the family checked out from the local library or that relatives brought to them from Mexico. Ilda also described how she used recycled magazines and paper materials collected from the office she worked to promote educational play.

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Me gusta que jueguen y les ayudo hacer diferentes cosas; así ellas se entretienen y aprenden a escribir y hacer diferentes figuras con material y revistas que les traigo de la oficina. I like for them to play so they can do many things; they entertain themselves and learn how to write and make different figures with materials and magazines I bring from the office.

An important finding from the interviews and observations made from home is that we learned that these young immigrant children often participated in literacy activities in which an older sibling scaffold the learning between and among themselves (Reyes, Alexandra and Azuara 2007). For example, Ms. Gallegos described how Ariel’s older sister took often on the role of the teacher, and during the evenings played “escuelita” (school) at home. This adaptation of schooled literacy practices during pretend play influenced and shaped Ariel’s language and literacy learning through the use of scaffolding (e.g., the sister modeled how to pronounce and write in English making connections to the native language). This type of activity contributes to language learning and socialization in the community where they are growing up bilingual (Valdés 1996; Zentella 1997). Parents participated in early literacy activities because they viewed them as important and necessary to support their children’s language and literacy development; moreover, some parents also view these activities as a way for them to be socialized into the second language (even though it could be basic L2 vocabulary they acquired from their children). Therefore, children from language minority families often learn the dominant language with greater ease than their parents and end up becoming their de facto language instructors (Reyes and Moll 2008). As it pertains to schooling practices, these parents believed that their children received academic support in their native language, believing for instance, that because the teacher is bilingual their children were receiving bilingual instruction. For some of the parents this was a misunderstanding that impacted their trust in the system and teachers about the programs and services offered to their children.

5.3 Families’ perspectives on learning Spanish at home, English at school (six out of 20 families) Six out of the 20 participant’s families explicitly encouraged Spanish literacy development at home and expected the school to help develop their child’s English literacy. They liked the fact that their child was attending a preschool program that supported both languages and cultures. They were not very concerned, however, about whether their children received formal bilingual education. They explained

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that their children, regardless of whether they attended a bilingual program, were growing up bilingual because they combined the two languages at home and planned to continue this practice. This perspective is different from that of the previous group were parents expressed their concern about maintaining the native language through the help and support of the school staff and programs available to the children outside their home. Perhaps this can be explained by the parents’ awareness that they had limited knowledge of academic English. During the interview, one of the mothers, Mrs. Romero, asked me about the possibility of taking English classes in a community program. She said that she would like to improve her English skills, including writing and reading, but as she explained: “…not from my husband because I’m embarrassed, so I would like to know where they offer English classes.” Mrs. Romero was very conscious of her limited proficiency in academic English but was interested in improving it because she felt it was very valuable for her and her children to become biliterate. Another example of strong emphasis on maintaining Spanish at home and separate from English at school was the case of the Ramirez family, and specifically Ms. Ramirez. As part of school-home literacy support activities, every Thursday, the preschool teacher invited parents who wanted to check out books from her mobile library to take them home with them. Ms. Ramirez said she was very careful when selecting books from the school library to bring home, only allowing her daughter Jazlynn to bring home books that were in Spanish. She explained that this was in part because Spanish was the language she knew how to read, but also because she wanted her daughter to read in Spanish and practice the heritage language at home. As she noted: El inglés lo aprenden ya en la escuela con Ms. Vásquez, así que allá aprenden inglés y aquí en casa el español. They can learn and acquire English at school with Ms. Vásquez, so they can learn English there [at school] and Spanish here at home.

5.4 Families’ perspectives on promoting bilingualism and biliteracy development at home (six out of 20 families) From the interviews and observations I learned that six of the families utilized a combination of strategies and practices to promote both native language maintenance in their children and supporting the development of English at home. When asked about their language ideology in terms of promoting bilingualism and biliteracy, they reported advantages (e.g., job opportunities, able to read in both languages) and a positive value when able to speak and communicate in two languages in oral interaction and written form, such as Marta:

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Es importante el inglés y también pues el español porque muchas veces también lo ocupan, porque hay gente que no habla el inglés aquí o muchas veces viene gente de fuera que habla el español también. Pues para mi los dos son importantes para aprender. English is important and also Spanish because it is often used by people who cannot speak English or sometimes people who come and visit only speak Spanish. From my perspective both [languages] are important to learn.  – Marta, mother of three children

This mother is one of the few parents from this group of families who have lived in the US for more than ten years. It is interesting to see a strong emphasis in developing bilingualism as opposed to only English learning or native language maintenance because the different linguistic resources available to her children. This family evidenced different efforts to facilitate the development of English literacy. One example was the fact that mothers in three of these families had recently started taking ESL classes at a local community college; hence, they not only motivated their children to do schoolwork, but were able to sit down and do school assignments with them. Moreover, Mrs. Guerrero, in particular, reported initiating school-like activities with her child in Spanish, as well as reading books to him in the native language. Another important finding is the role reported by the parents on older siblings. Specifically, parents reported that older siblings supported English literacy development at home for the younger children by reading books to them in English, exposing the younger children to school like activities in English. The Beltrán family also reported using a combination of strategies to support maintenance of L1 while promoting development of biliteracy. Both parents reported bilingual fluency and supported home and community activities in both languages. In addition, the grandmother, who was living with this family temporarily, had a great influence on the L1 maintenance of their two children. Grandma, a Spanish monolingual, was the person the two children spent most of the afternoon with, while the parents were still at work. Angel, the target child of this study, was clearly a fluent bilingual (according to the teacher and my observations during home visits) and enjoyed using the two languages. The parents were glad to have another adult who reinforced the use of Spanish at home and also mentioned that the grandmother’s presence forced the children to make an effort to use only Spanish with her and during other family interactions when she was around. The parents reported a decrease in English use during sibling interactions while grandmother was living with them. An important finding to highlight here is the role that extended family and other family networks play on the lives of children and on their language and literacy development of Spanish and English. It could be assumed that because of parents’ dominance and use of one language,

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children are only exposed to that language; however, the findings from these interviews revealed a much more complex role of the extended family involved in the young child’s bilingual and biliteracy development.

5.5 Teacher’s perspective on language development among preschool immigrant children The children’s preschool lead teacher, Ms. Vásquez, supported efforts by parents on the use of the native language to develop children’s bilingualism. However, through observations in the classroom it was clear that she mainly used English as the language of instruction. It is interesting to see ‘competing’ ideologies with her literacy practices in the classroom and school activities. For example, even though she said that she wanted to support children with their language maintenance and acquisition of English, during the spring semester she switched to almost entirely English instruction. Ms. Vásquez explained during an interview that her main job as the lead teacher was to prepare the preschool children to be ‘ready’ for kindergarten. Specifically she talked about children’s English competence: “Our goal is to help children who are English language learners, become proficient enough in English, so that they can handle kindergarten successfully” (Ms. Vásquez, interview, February 2, 2005). During my classroom observations, I noticed that at times, both teachers, Ms.€Vásquez and the teacher assistant, Ms. Mora, used code-switching for clarification purposes and when explaining to children the instructions for an activity. During the fall semester, both teachers used the children’s native language and often code-switched to Spanish mostly when shifting topics during informal conversations with the children, and occasionally to explain the lesson and activity of the day to the children. However, the use of English as language of instruction increased during the spring semester, and I observed a shift towards English use for both the teachers and the children. Ms. Vásquez mentioned that children needed to make the transition from Spanish to English because they were not going to have any support in their L1 once they attended elementary school. Paradoxically, Ms. Vásquez also expressed during the interview and through our conversations her solidarity in helping families raise their children bilingually, and she was conscious of her influence in children’s language learning: … no estamos tratando de borrar el español para enseñar inglés. Hay que aprender los dos. … we are not trying to erase their Spanish to teach them English. They should learn both [languages]. – Ms. Vásquez, interview, February 2, 2005 

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Ms. Vásquez’s ideology contrasted at times with the literacy practices I observed in her classroom in which she emphasized the use of English to help the children make a successful transition from her perspective. These competing and conflicting language ideologies impacted this teacher’s language and literacy practices in the classroom (Relaño Pastor 2008). Although the teacher emphasized the importance of developing bilingualism and biliteracy during the interview, something important was missing as part of the teachers’ literacy activities: children were not encouraged to develop literacy in Spanish. The children were only encouraged to write in English and to learn the association between the ABC’s and English pronunciation as the main goal for their literacy development. Fortunately, the children continued using Spanish as a linguistic resource to make sense of classroom discourse and during peer interaction as they developed English, despite a lack of encouragement on Spanish use in the classroom (Reyes and Soltero 2006). Most importantly, children develop spontaneous biliteracy through these daily interactions at home and school in which they transfer their knowledge from one language to another. Despite the emphasis on English during most of the classroom activities, children continued to use their native language, Spanish, to make connections between what they listened and observed during instructional activities in English (e.g., story time, journal time, circle time) and their own experiences in Spanish.

6.

Discussion

In this article I have described the different language and literacy maintenance strategies used by first generation Mexican immigrant parents and their ideology behind implementing these strategies. One important finding is that all of the participating parents and their families used and reinforced the Spanish language at home. Also important was the continuous effort these parents made to support their children’s bilingualism development, even though some of them acknowledged limited knowledge of English and faced different challenges. The findings show that parents have different practices and ideologies toward their children’s biliteracy development, and that they supported their children’s early bilingual literacy development with various resources at home. Specifically, they made efforts to participate with their children and family in community activities to maintain the home language. Of course, each family also had diverse language practices due to different factors such as family structure and living arrangements (see Zentella 1997 for bilingual development in Puerto Rican families in New York). Some of the general findings from the interviews that took place with these first generation Mexican immigrant parents are as follows:

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1. All of the Mexican immigrant parents valued their children’s development of literacy and bilingualism. They considered bilingualism an asset and believed their children could benefit in the future from being bilingual. 2. The parents felt confident that their children would develop English fluency and literacy with the support of schoolteachers; however, they also expressed concern over how they would maintain Spanish, the family heritage language, in an English-dominant school context. These parents attempted to provide their children and family with activities to maintain the L1 (e.g., family gatherings, communities festivals) while trying to support the development of the majority language as well. 3. Although many parents expressed interest in supporting their children’s development of Spanish and English biliteracy, only a few had taken specific steps in this direction by teaching the alphabet in both languages, reading and telling stories in Spanish, or reading bilingual books and other bilingual materials. As Zentella and colleagues (2005), I found evidence of a “strong commitment to a better life for the children and concrete efforts to foster language and literacy” in various ways and words (Heath 1983). This study contributes to our understanding of language and literacy practices issues among first-generation immigrant families. In addition, this study shows that parents have different ideologies and perspectives toward their children’s biliteracy development. These perspectives and practices highlight the complexities and many challenges involved in maintaining the immigrant native language, learning a second language, and becoming fluent bilingual and biliterate (Wong Fillmore 2000; Worthy and RodríguezGalindo 2005). Specifically, it is important for educators to learn about the larger social networks impacting the lives of children in their language acquisition and development of literacy. It is not uncommon in language minority communities for a rich network of relatives, friends, and other community members (e.g., store owner, neighbor, other children) to participate in supporting the use of the native and dominant language involved in daily discourse practices. As teachers learn about their students’ cultural and linguistic backgrounds they could integrate this knowledge into their day-to-day classroom practices and enhance students’ learning as they design meaningful activities that support children’s English literacy learning as well as their heritage language (Gutiérrez, Baquedano-Lopez and TejadaÂ� 1999; Griego-Jones and Fullerton 2003). These Mexican immigrant parents expressed the advantages of keeping the native language alive and developing bilingualism. Despite subtractive political ideologies and agendas dominating the public discourse in US communities, families continued supporting their children’ native language development. First,

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents 107

they view bilingualism as the key for keeping family ties alive and to communicate with family members who could only speak Spanish or English, and parents also talked about bilingualism as an asset to achieve upward social mobility (Farr and Domínguez Barajas 2005). Second, the strategies used across families to maintain the native language and develop bilingualism depended on how comfortable the primary caregivers felt about using each of these languages. Although they all supported bilingualism and biliteracy, they had different strategies to promote them: some focused on promoting literacy in Spanish because that is the language they can speak best at home, and many relied on school teachers and staff to help their children develop English, both orally and written, at School. And there was a smaller number of families who promoted and organized activities directly related to bilingualism and biliteracy. In order to succeed with these goals it is critical for parents to examine their own beliefs, ideologies, and practices related to maintaining the native language and the role they play in supporting their children’s own biliteracy development (Li 2006). This examination would impact the language socialization of their children and other family members during the different literacy events in which they participate (Schecter and Bayley 2002).

7.

Conclusion

As previous studies by Schecter and Bayley (2002), Worthy and RodríguezGalindoÂ� (2005), and Zentella (2005), this study’s findings challenged the stereotype that Mexican parents are not interested in their children’s schooling or supporting the learning of the second language. Instead, their stories and narratives through interviews and conversations provide us with more accurate descriptions of the different situations Mexican families with young children experience as they settled in their new communities in the U.S. As González (2001) observed with the families in her ethnographic study, these immigrant families also adopted a borderland ideology that allowed them to navigate between their different languages and cultures rather than only one. Unique to this study is the fact that working with families of young preschool children allowed us to understand what families see as early challenges while children still have the potential to develop bilingualism, as opposed to when children have already gone or started the process of language shift towards the dominant language. Moreover, the process of literacy acquisition for young 4- and 5-year-olds might be impacted differently because of these early experiences; those children whose parents have emphasized literacy development in the native language will be able to make connections between their early literacy foundation while adding the second one. However, it is still not clear how does learning English literacy first by Spanish speakers impact

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their overall literacy and language development in the two languages (August and Shanahan 2006; Reyes and Uchikoshi 2010). It is clear, though, that two labels for Spanish and English are “too broad and too narrow” to describe the rich linguistic variety that represent Latinos, and in this case first generation Mexican immigrants (Zentella 2005:â•›177). Instead, children and their families engaged in a linguistic transformation that allowed them to participate in various contexts for a range of communicative purposes. The knowledge acquired from this study should help modify theoretical models in which Latino families' cultural and linguistic characteristics are viewed as deficits and the parents as uninvolved in their children’s education. The findings should help us create new models for language and literacy that focus on family linguistic characteristics as resources on which to build when designing early childhood programs. In particular, this study’s findings will be important for early childhood educators to strengthen their classroom practices based on family home language and literacy practices. Specifically, educators could develop literacy activities for children who might need greater support in L2 or in L1 depending on the child’s abilities, and support provided by family members at home. These activities, based on the knowledge learned on home literacy practices, should help young preschool children in their transition between early literacy experiences at home and those experienced in the kindergarten classroom.

Appendix A Parent interview sample questions Language use at home What language(s) do you use to communicate with your children at home? Do you mix the two languages when speaking to your children? Does your child mix languages when communicating with you? What kind of Spanish proficiency do you expect your children to achieve? What kind of English proficiency do you expect your children to achieve? What language do your children use to communicate among themselves? What language do you think your children should use to communicate at home? Other language influence at home How often do your children watch TV programs and/or movie in English per day? How often do your children watch TV programs and/or movie in Spanish per day? In what language do you like to listen to the radio?

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Bilingualism at school What do you think is the goal of bilingual education in the US? Do you consider bilingualism important for your child to develop? Do you think that if students first develop literacy in the native language, then this will facilitate the development of reading and writing in the second language? If a second language learner is placed in English only classes, do you think he/she will learn English more efficiently? What types of schools would you like your children to attend?

References Ada, F. A. & Zubizarreta, R. 2001. Parent Narratives: The cultural bridge between Latino Parents and their children. In Best for our children: Critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students, M. Reyes de la Luz & J. J. Halcón (eds), 229–244. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Arizona Revised Statutes, Title 15 (Education), 3.1 (English Language Education for Children in Public Schools), 751–756.01. August, D. & Shanahan, T. 2006. Developing Literacy in Second-Language Learners: Report of the National Literacy Panel on Language-Minority Children and Youth. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Baker, C. 2001. Foundation of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 3rd edn. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Brisk, M. E. & Harrington, M. M. 1999. Handbook on Literacy and Bilingualism. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Clyne, M. 1987. ‘Don’t you get bored speaking only English?’ Expressions of metalinguistic awareness in a bilingual child. In Language Topics: Essays in Honor of Michael Halliday, R.€Steele & T. Threadgold (eds), 85–103. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Combs, M. C., Evans, C., Fletcher, T., Parra, E. & Jimenez, A. 2005. Bilingualism for the children: Implementing a dual-language program in an English-only state. Educational Policy 19: 701–728. Dworin, J. 2003. Insights into biliteracy development: Toward a directional theory of bilingual pedagogy. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education 2(2): 171–186. Dworin, J. & Moll, L. C. 2006. Introduction to special issue on biliteracy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 6(3): 234–240. Erlandson, D. A., Harris, E. L., Skipper, B. L. & Allen, S. D. 1993. Doing Naturalistic Inquiry: A Guide to Methods. Newbury Park CA: Sage. Ervin-Tripp, S. 1973. Identification and bilingualism. In Language Acquisition and Communicative Choice, A. Dil (ed.), 1–14. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. Farr, M. & Domínguez Barajas, E. 2005. Mexicanos in Chicago: Language Ideology and Identity. In Building on Strength: Language and Literacy in Latino Families and Communities, A. C.€Zentella (ed.), 46–59. New York NY: Teachers College Press; Covina CA: California Association for Bilingual Education. Garcia, O., Barlett, L. & Kleifgen, J. 2007. From biliteracy to pluriliteracies. In Handbook of Applied Linguistics, 5: Multilingualism, P. Auer & L. Wei (eds), 207–228. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

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Garcia-Coll, C., Chin, C. & Silver, R. 2001. Parents’ Involvement in their Children’s Education: Lessons from Three Immigrant Groups. Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. Minneapolis, MN. Genesee, F. 1989. Early bilingual development, one language or two? Journal of Child Language 16: 161–79. González, N. 2001. I am my Language: Discourses of Women and Children in the Borderlands. Tucson AZ: The University of Arizona Press. Griego-Jones, T. & Fullerton, M. L. 2003. Teaching Hispanic Children. Boston MA: Allyn & Bacon. Guerra, J. C. 1998. Close to Home: Oral and Literate Practices in a Transnational Mexicano Community. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Gumperz, J. J. & Berenz, N. 1993. Transcribing conversational exchanges. In Talking Data, J.€A.€Edwards & M. D. Lampert (eds), 91–122. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Gutiérrez, K., Baquedano-Lopez, P. & Turner, M. G. 1997. Putting language back into language arts: When the radical middle meets the third space. Language Arts 74(5): 368–378. Heath, S. B. 1983. Ways with Words: Language, Life, and Work in Communities and Classrooms. Cambridge: CUP. Landry, R., Allard, R. & Théberge, R. 1991. School and family French ambiance and the bilingual development of Francophone Western Canadians. Canadian Modern Language Review 47(5): 878–915. Leopold, W. 1949. Speech Development of a Bilingual Child, Vol. 4. Evanston IL: Northwestern University Press. Li, G. 2006. Biliteracy and trilingual practices in the home context: Case studies of Chinese Canadian children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 6(3): 355–382. Moll, L. C. 1992. Literacy research in community and classrooms: A sociocultural approach. In Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Literacy Research, R. Beach, J. Green, M. Kamil & T.€ShanahanÂ� (eds), 211–244. Urbana IL: National Conference on Research in English. Mora, J. K. 2001. Learning to spell in two languages: Orthographic transfer in a transitional Spanish/English bilingual program. In Raising Scores, Raising Questions: Claremont Reading Conference 65th Yearbook, P. Dreyer (ed.), 64–84. Claremont CA: Claremont Graduate University. Pérez, B. (ed.). 2004. Sociocultural Contexts of Language and Literacy. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Reese, L. 2002. Parental strategies in contrasting cultural settings: Families in Mexico and ‘El Norte’. Anthropology & Education Quarterly 33(1): 30–59. Relaño Pastor, A. M. 2005. The language socialization experiences of Latina mothers in southern California. In Building on Strength: Language and Literacy in Latino Families and Communities, A. C. Zentella (ed.), 148–161. New York NY: Teachers College Press; Covina CA: California Association for Bilingual Education. Relaño Pastor, A. M. 2008. Competing language ideologies in a bilingual/bicultural after-school program in southern California. Journal of Latinos and Education 7(1): 4–24. Reyes, I. 2006. Exploring connections between emergent biliteracy and bilingualism. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 6(3): 267–292. Reyes, I., Alexandra, D. & Azuara, P. 2007. Home literacy practices in Mexican households. Journal of Cultura y Educación 19(4): 395–407. Reyes, I. & Moll, L. 2008. Bilingual and biliterate practices at home and school. In The Handbook of Educational Linguistics, B. Spolsky & F. Hult (eds), 147–160. Malden MA: Blackwell.

4.╇ Literacy practices and language ideologies of€first generation Mexican immigrant parents

Reyes, I. & Soltero, L. 2006. Literacy Development in Preschool Bilingual Children. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association. San Francisco CA. Reyes, I. & Uchikoshi, Y. 2010. Families and young immigrant children: Learning and understanding their home and school literacy experiences. In Immigration, Diversity, and Education, R. Takanishi & Gregeronki, E. (eds), 259–275. London: Routledge. Reyes, M. L. 2001. Unleashing possibilities: Biliteracy in the primary grades. In Best for our Children: Critical Perspectives on Literacy for Latino Students, M. Reyes de la Luz & J.€J.€Halcón (eds), 96–121. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Roca, A. 2005. Raising a bilingual child in Miami: Reflections on language and culture. In Building on Strength: Language and Literacy in Latino Families and Communities, A. C. Zentella (ed.), 110–118. New York NY: Teachers College Press; Covina CA: California Association for Bilingual Education. Rodriguez. 2005. Dominican children with special needs in New York City: Language and literacy practices. In Building on strength: Language and literacy in Latino families and communities, A. C. Zentella (ed.), 119–133. New York:Teachers College Press; Covina: California Association for Bilingual Education. Rothman, J. & Niño-Murcia, M. 2008. Multilingualism and identity. In Bilingualism and Identity: Spanish at the Crossroads with other Languages [Studies in Bilingualism 37], M. NiñoMurcia & J. Rothman (eds), 301–329. Amsterdam: John Benjamin. Sampson, W. A. 2003. Poor Latino Families and School Preparation: Are They Doing the Right Things? Lanham MD: Scarecrow Press. Schecter, S. R. & Bayley, R. 2002. Language as Cultural Practice. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Schieffelin, B., Woolard, K. & Kroskrity, P. (eds). 1998. Language Ideologies: Practice and Theory. Oxford: OUP. Trumbull, E., Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. & Quiroz, B. 2001. Bridging Cultures between Home and School: A Guide for Teachers, with a Special Focus on Immigrant Latino Families. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Tse, L. 2001. Why Don’t They Learn English? Separating Fact from Fallacy in the U.S. Language Debate. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Valdés, G. 1996. Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Vásquez, O. A. 2003. La Clase Mágica: Imagining Optimal Possibilities in a Bilingual Community of Learners. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wong Fillmore, L. 1991. Latino families and the schools. California Perspectives 1: 30–37. Wong Fillmore, L. 2000. Loss of family languages: Should educators be concerned? Theory into Practice 39(4): 203–210. Worthy, J. & Rodríguez-Galindo, A. 2005. ‘Mi hija vale dos personas’: Latino immigrant parents’ perspectives about their children’s bilingualism. Bilingualism Research Journal 30(2): 579–601. Zentella, A. C. 1997. Growing up Bilingual. Malden MA: Blackwell. Zentella, A. C. 2005. Building on Strength: Language and Literacy in Latino Families and Communities. New York NY: Teachers College Press; Covina CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

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chapter 5

Ethnolinguistic identity The challenge of maintaining Spanish-English bilingualism in American schools Guadalupe Valdés Stanford University

Contrary to what is frequently imagined by many monolingual Americans, maintaining a non-English language in the United States is an extraordinarily difficult task. In the case of Latinos, in spite of the continuing arrival of new, Spanish-speaking immigrants, the shift toward English is unmistakable. Among Latino professionals, the shift is extremely rapid and appears to take place by the second generation (Valdés, Fishman et al. 2006). If Fishman (1991) is correct about the importance of intergenerational transmission for minority language maintenance, Spanish will only be maintained in the United States if parents commit to speaking Spanish at home with their children; however, the development of high-level, literacy-related proficiencies in Spanish, cannot be brought about by parents alone. This development will require the direct involvement of educational institutions. Unfortunately, the American educational system – in its present configuration€– has not been designed to involve itself in the maintenance and development of non-majority languages. This paper examines the ongoing journey of two sisters (now 10 and 14 years old) who have developed their English/Spanish bilingualism primarily through American schools. It presents data on the characteristics of both their Spanish and their English language development and on their evolving sense of identity as Latinas. It also presents information about the school contexts in which the girls developed their bilingualism, the challenges faced by these schools in providing instruction in a minority language, and the dilemmas facing other Latino families in maintaining Spanish for another generation.

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When language plays an important role in defining cultural or ethnic identity we refer to identity as ethnolinguistic. Ethnolinguistic identity can thus be viewed as a subjective feeling of belonging to a particular ethnolinguisitic group for which the language spoken by the group is an important characteristic.



(Hamers and Blanc 2000:â•›202)

1.

Introduction

Marisa and Adriana are sisters of mixed heritage who are now 11 and 14. They are the children of a second-generation Latina whose dominant language is English and an Anglophone father who does not speak Spanish. Their grandmother, the author of this paper, is a Latina professional who grew up on the US-Mexico border and who has a strong commitment to the maintenance of Spanish among Latinos in this country. Her family continues to reside in Mexico, and her own professional identity is closely linked to the teaching of Spanish to heritage speakers in the United States. Marisa and Adriana, then, have grown up in a family context in which Spanish is valued, in which attention and thought has been given to the development of their bilingualism, and in which there is much current concern about the maintenance of their existing Spanish language competencies as they enter the next phases of their formal education. The purpose of this paper is to describe the ongoing journey of these two sisters as well as the challenges faced by the children and their family in creating a home and school context in which Spanish might be maintained for another generation. In describing the experiences of youngsters whose bilingualism has been developed to a great degree through American schools, I hope to problematize the role of American educational systems in maintaining and developing minority languages in this country as well as the dilemmas facing other immigrant families in maintaining their heritage language for another generation. I first begin by briefly describing the current context of hostility toward Latinos and popular concerns about their failure to learn English. I review the strong evidence countering this position which clearly documents the reality of a pattern of transitional bilingualism among Latinos leading to English monolingualism by the third generation. I then turn to the challenges and to the resources available to families who, in spite of the strong existing ideologies of monolingualism that surround them, elect to develop non-English language proficiencies in their children. Using the experiences of Marisa and Adriana as a lens through which to present information about the challenges of maintaining bilingualism primarily



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through American schools, I present an overview of their bilingual trajectory at home and at school, examine the characteristics of the two girls’ written and oral Spanish, and discuss their evolving sense of identity both as Americans of mixed background and as bilingual individuals. I conclude by proposing an ecological vision of languages for the language-teaching profession that might support the maintenance of heritage languages in third-generation children.

2. Language shift and language maintenance and the context of hostility toward Latinos in the United States The political environment surrounding Spanish-speaking persons in the United States is currently a hostile one. In the existing anti-immigrant climate, the image of Latinos has been deeply tainted by debates about the number of both documented and undocumented immigrants currently in this country and the lack of a coherent national policy on immigration. Not surprisingly, given hostility toward immigrants in general and toward Latino immigrants in particular, there is a fear all over the country – especially in states where recent influxes of Latino immigrants have increased dramatically – that Spanish might replace English and that the dominant culture will be polluted by foreigners. In a recent article a distinguished Harvard University scholar, for example, argued that Mexican immigrants in particular pose special challenges to the American state. He speaks of immigration from Mexico as “a unique, disturbing, and looming challenge to our cultural integrity, our national identity, and potentially to our future as a country” (Huntington 2004:â•›8). Research on language maintenance and language shift, by comparison, presents a very different picture. English acquisition among Latinos has followed the same pattern of transitional bilingualism typical of other immigrant groups in this country which, according to Fishman (1964), inevitably leads to English monolingualism by the fourth generation. In the case of Latinos, this rapid language shift is masked by the continuing arrival of new, monolingual, Spanish-speaking immigrants into communities in which both English and Spanish are spoken. As a result there is a belief that Latinos are linguistically incapable of assimilating into the American identity (de la Garza 2006). Notwithstanding popular concerns about the “refusal” of Latinos to learn English, both long term and recent research on language use in Latino communities has made clear that, in spite of the influx of monolinguals into Latino communities, the shift toward English by Hispanics or Latinos in the United States is unequivocal. In the early eighties, for example, several scholars (e.g., Fishman 1985, 1987; Veltman 1983, 1988) clearly demonstrated that late twentieth century

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immigrants to the US, including Latinos, were regularly acquiring English and shifting away from the use of their ethnic languages. Research in the 90s (de la Garza, R. O., DeSipio, L., Garcia, F. C., Garcia, J. and Falcon, A. 1992) also directly supported these findings. More recent work on Latino immigrants and language use (Hakimzadeh and Cohn 2007; Portes and Rumbaut 2001; Rumbaut 2004; Tienda and Mitchell 2006a, 2006b; Potowski 2004) strongly supports the position that in spite of the continuing arrival of new, Spanish-speaking immigrants into bilingual communities, a shift toward English is taking place. According to Hakimzadeh and Cohn (2007), “half of the adult children of Latino immigrants speak some Spanish at home, but by the third and higher generations, that has fallen to one-in-four.” Among Latino professionals in states like California, the shift is still more rapid and appears to take place by the second generation (Valdés, Fishman, Chavez and Perez 2006). Even foreign-born Latinos who came to this country as children, report becoming English dominant and exclusively English-speaking in their adult years. For those who worry about Latinos’ being left out of the American dream, it may be comforting to discover that Latinos are learning English and that this language is rapidly displacing Spanish. For those concerned about maintaining immigrant language resources in the United States for both economic and strategic purposes, on the other hand, the news about the rapid shift away from Spanish – even with the potential support of groups of fluent native speakers – is not encouraging. It means that maintaining non-English languages – whether widely spoken or not€– involves a set of serious challenges that make the current goal of dramatically increasing the number of Americans who speak critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Farsi, and others an extremely difficult task.

Strategies and resources for maintaining non-English languages in the United States Bilingual acquisition has been defined as “the acquisition of two languages in childhood” (Deuchar and Quay 2000:â•›1). There is disagreement among researchers, however, about the precise time in childhood when exposure to the

. In January, 2006, President George Bush launched the National Security Language Initiative (NSLI), a plan to further strengthen national security and prosperity in the 21st century through education, especially in developing foreign language skills. The NSLI will dramatically increase the number of Americans learning critical need foreign languages such as Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Farsi, and others through new and expanded programs from kindergarten through university and into the workforce.



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two Â� languages must begin in order to be considered acquisition of two L1’s. McLaughlinÂ� (1978), for example, defined simultaneous acquisition as a situation in which a child is exposed to two languages before the age of three and successive acquisition as a situation in which exposure to a second language after the age of three. Other researchers (e.g., De Houwer 1995), reserve the term bilingual language acquisition to the exposure of a child to two languages within the first month of birth. Exposure to a second language after one month up to the age of two is described instead as bilingual second language acquisition (De Houwer 1995). Deuchar and Quay (2000:â•›2) use the term bilingual acquisition “to refer to situations where the child is regularly exposed to two languages from birth or during the first year of life”. Romaine’s classification (1995) of the principal types of bilingual families, acquisition contexts, and strategies used in exposing children to two languages in infancy include: one person-one language, one language-one environment, and one language used in the home, and the other language used outside the home. What is common to these examples of acquisition contexts and strategies is that at least one of the two parents committed to bilingual acquisition is a strong native speaker of the language that is to be transmitted to the child. Many of these parents are first-generation immigrants or relatively recent sojourners of different types. They frequently maintain very strong ties to their countries of origin and often have strong dominance in the language in question. By comparison, individuals who are committed to maintaining and developing non-dominant or minority languages in the third generation face an extraordinarily difficult task. In the United States, whether such individuals are parents or grandparents, community activists, language planners and/or government strategists, they must counteract the ubiquitous presence of English in the lives of “normal” American children and attempt to motivate them to develop or maintain a language that has much less currency and prestige. This is a challenge because many third-generation English-speaking youngsters often pass undetected among their white, ethnic, or multi-ethnic peers and are exceptional only because they still happen to have access to a non-English language in their homes and families. It is important to emphasize that such second generation parents and other family members may agree with Fishman (1991) that intergenerational transmission is essential to language maintenance, but because of the strong Englishspeaking context that has surrounded them their entire lives, they may not have the personal language resources themselves to provide their children with the type of exposure to the non-English language that they consider essential. A one parent, one language strategy, for example, may not be appropriate or sustainable for individuals who are quite conscious of their language limitations in a variety

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of areas. Second-generation parents, therefore, may use a range of other complementary resources (listed in Figure 1) including hiring nannies who speak the non-English language, calling upon fluent speakers of the language in their family circle to spend time with their children, and arranging for visits to and from the home country. As far as possible, they also will attempt to create opportunities outside the home for language use by joining other like-minded individuals in play groups in which their children will have increased access to the language. In some contexts, other community resources may be available such as church services in the non-English language and Saturday language schools staffed by teachers recruited in the home country. In general, such Saturday schools or classes are found in communities that have strong feelings about maintaining the ethnic language abilities of the children. Many such schools also offer instruction in traditional customs, ceremonies, dances and other practices. Language instruction in such programs frequently assumes that students have oral skills developed by using the language with family members and concentrates on developing reading and writing abilities in the language in question. Personal/Family Resources

Community Resources

Use of language in the home by parents

Church Resources

Use of baby sitters and nannies who speak the language Planned frequent interactions with older relatives in the area who speak the language

Saturday language schools

Frequent visits to the family by relatives from the home country

Ethnic festivals and celebrations

Ethnic community centers

Visits to the home country by the children Organized language play groups with children of acquaintances

Figure 1.╇ Personal and community resources for developing/maintaining non-English languages

What is often evident to second (and third) generation parents, especially those that are members of interlingual families (those in which the one parent is bilingual and the other monolingual in the dominant language) is that the children will have much greater exposure to English both at home and in the surrounding community than they will have to the minority language. This is particularly the case if they live in largely English-speaking neighborhoods where relatives and other bilingual individuals cannot provide necessary support. Additionally, however, they may also be quite aware that, regardless of the resources available



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 119

to them, the development of the non-English language for both personal and professional purposes will require the direct involvement of educational institutions. As a result, second/third generation parents will logically look to resources available outside the community and the home within the public (and private) educational system with the hope that there might be programs that can assist them in developing the non-English language proficiencies that they envision for their children. As Figure 2 suggests, they have two choices: (1) regular foreignlanguage programs which normally start in middle school and high school and (2)€elementary school programs that were established as part of the bilingual education initiative in many parts of the country. Foreign Language Program Resources

Bilingual Education Program Resources

Foreign Language in the Elementary School Programs (FLES)

Bilingual Programs (K-3) for newly arrived monolingual speakers of non-English languages

Middle School Foreign Language Programs

Dual (two-way) immersion programs (K-5 or K-8) for both newly arrived and Englishspeaking students

High School Language Programs

Figure 2.╇ Resources for maintaining/developing non-English language available within the American public education system

3.

Foreign language program resources

Unfortunately, school foreign language programs are not a particularly strong resource for parents wishing to raise bilingual children because these programs have been concerned with teaching foreign or non-English languages to monolingual speakers of English beginning generally in at the middle-school level. Although some school districts provide foreign language classes in elementary school (grades K-5), such instruction generally has modest goals. At the secondary level, foreign language study is seen as a college-preparatory experience that may or may not result in the development of even intermediate levels of interpersonal, interpretive, or presentational communicative proficiencies (ACTFL 1996).

. For information on heritage language instruction in the U.S., the reader is referred to the National Heritage Resource Center (http://www.international.ucla.edu/languages/nhlrc/).

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At most high schools, instruction offered in the commonly taught languages (e.g., Spanish, French, German), includes four full-year courses (beginning and intermediate) and possibly one or two courses offered to prepare students for advanced placement (AP) examinations in either literature or language. In general, however, traditional foreign language programs were not designed to help parents raise bilingual children or to develop and maintain immigrant languages for another generation. Heritage language programs, on the other hand, developed in the last several decades, are intended to develop the home languages of non-English-background students who have already acquired English. These programs have been implemented at the high school and college levels in languages such as Spanish, Chinese, and Russian in many parts of the country. Nevertheless, these programs are small in number and outside the training and experience of most foreign language professionals. The maintenance and development of languages already spoken by American students outside of school, therefore, still continues to be seen as the responsibility of the home and the community. Parents hoping to utilize existing foreign language programs to foment bilingualism in their third generation children will unfortunately be seriously disappointed.

Bilingual education program resources By comparison with foreign language programs, “bilingual education,” in the U.S. context refers to educational programs designed for newly-arrived, non-English speaking youngsters who cannot profit from instruction conducted solely in English. Conceptualized as compensatory, these programs were implemented primarily at the K-3 levels and expected to offer children access to the curriculum in their primary or first language during the period that they were learning English. Federal policies (e.g. the Civil Rights Act of 1968, and the 1974 Lau v. Nichols Supreme Court decision requiring schools to take “affirmative steps” to provide equal educational opportunities for non-English-speaking youngster) resulted in many states repealing existing laws limiting or prohibiting the use of non-English languages in education. Specific implementations of “bilingual education” have varied across the country and include K-3 programs known as transitional programs as well as K-5 programs referred to as maintenance bilingual programs because they continue to provide instruction in two languages for a few years after children have acquired minimal proficiencies in English. Common to all bilingual programs is the use of two languages in instruction whether that involves

. See Potowski et al. (2008) about a K-8 heritage speaker curriculum.



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instruction in particular subjects in one language and other subjects in the other, or whether it involves an alternate days or alternate times approach in the use of two languages. Also common to bilingual education programs is that they allow non-English-speaking youngsters to be educated separately from other students because of the special language needs of particular groups of students (e.g., �Spanish-speaking versus Chinese-speaking youngsters). By comparison with the original compensatory models of bilingual education, two-way bilingual education program (also known as dual immersion or dual language programs) bring together majority English-speaking youngsters and minority English-language learners. Based on research carried out over a multiyear period on Canadian Immersion Programs (e.g., Genesee 1987; � Lambert and Tucker 1972) which established that mainstream children can be educated through a second language quite successfully, two-way bilingual education programs bring together Anglophone majority youngsters and English-language learners. Such programs typically follow a specific formula for using the two languages in instruction. Programs following a 90-10 model, for example, initially use the minority language 90% of the time and English (the majority language) for 10% of the instructional period. Over time, the percentage of time devoted to the two languages increases to 50-50. Dual language instruction or two-way immersion programs are expected to result in the development of stronger second-language skills for young Anglophone learners than those that are normally produced by regular foreign language programs. The presence of native speakers of the minority language in the same classroom who can serve as models of language for majority children is seen as a particular advantage. At the same time, from the perspective of educators concerned about the education of linguistic minority children, the concept of two-way immersion builds directly on the body of research that has focused on the benefits of primary language instruction for at-risk, minority children. For many advocates of such programs, two-way bilingual education offers primary language instruction for minority children in programs that are highly prestigious and in contexts in which there is access to the majority language through same-age peers.

. For a very complete description of bilingual education programs the reader is referred to Brisk (1998).

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One journey: Marisa’s and Adriana’s becoming bilingual In 2001, Pavlenko (167) argued that “learning stories” are “unique and rich sources of information about the relationship between language and identity in second language learning and socialization.” She added, moreover, that “it is possible that only personal narratives can provide a glimpse into areas so private, personal, and intimate that they are rarely – if ever – breached in the study of SLA, and that are at the same time at the heart and soul of the second language socialization process.” The story of Marisa and Adriana’s bilingual development is an example of one particular “learning story,” that reflects the challenges faced by third generation Americans who hope to pass on their ancestral language to their children. In this section, I present, not a biographical narrative from the perspective of the girls, but rather a chronological description of different stages in the girls’ journey toward becoming bilingual. I begin with the year in which Marisa, the oldest child, was born, and I end with an examination of the opportunities available to the girls for maintaining Spanish in the future. As compared to the trajectories of children raised with two languages by first generation immigrants or recent sojourners, Adriana and Marisa’s journey has involved the use of a combination of the strategies described in Figures 1 and 2 above, including the use of personal and family resources as well as the use of the public and private educational institutions. In this particular case, community resources including church services or Saturday schools did not play a major role in the development of the children’s strengths in the acquisition of two languages. Their family did, however, take advantage of a variety of personal and family assets listed in Figure 1 as well as of extensive public resources made available through a dual-immersion public school program.

Use of personal and family resources: The pre-school years Marisa was born in California in 1993. At the time that Marisa was born, her parents (Patti and Keith) had moved to California after completing their graduate studies in Texas. Keith, who had earned a doctorate in electrical engineering at UT Austin, was a member of a German-background Texas family whose members were exclusively English-speaking. Patti, who had earned her doctorate in . Interestingly, Patti recalls that Keith’s maternal grandmother spoke to her in fluent Spanish at a family reunion. Given that they were a New Mexico/Texas farming family, Patti conjectures that the grandmother might have acquired her Spanish in interactions with Spanishspeaking workers. Keith has no information about this aspect of his grandmother’s linguistic proficiencies.



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communication, was a second generation Latina who in her early teenage years had at times rejected Spanish but who during her late college years had added a second major in Spanish. Her doctoral dissertation focused on political communication in the Spanish-language media in the United States and made extensive use of her proficiencies in Spanish. Patti and Keith had not specifically discussed a bilingual language acquisition strategy for Marisa or for her sister Adriana who arrived 3 years later. For Patti, Spanish was a language that she used personally with her extended family on both sides of the Mexican border and professionally in working on Spanish language media. She valued her own bilingualism and simply assumed that her children would speak Spanish. The strategies to be used in bringing about the development of bilingualism in Marisa were not immediately obvious. The language of interaction between Patti and Keith was exclusively English, and even though Keith was attempting to learn Spanish, it was not at the level that would allow him to participate in interactions conducted entirely in this language. Patti’s mother, who is a Spanish speaker, lived in the area, but she was not in the position to provide the everyday contact with Spanish that is essential in early language acquisition. The selection of Spanish-speaking baby-sitters turned out to be the ideal strategy for the family. Norma, a Guatemalan woman who had been in the country a number of years, took care of Marisa and her sister for a period of six years. After that, Nina, a Mexican-origin woman who had originally been trained as an accountant, took over the care of the children. Since both babysitters were incipient English learners, all interactions between Marisa and Adriana and their caregivers were in Spanish. More importantly, perhaps, both women cared for a child of their own along with Marisa and Adriana. All interactions between the two women and their own children took place exclusively in Spanish. While the language of the home was English – in that it was the language of interaction between Patti and Keith – during their parents’ work day the children were surrounded by the Spanish of their baby-sitters and of the babysitters’ children. Additionally, they heard Spanish from their grandmother who attempted to speak only in Spanish to them when not in the presence of their father and other English monolingual members of the family. Patti spoke both languages with the children and often used common Spanish euphemisms (pompis (fanny), chones (undies)) with the children. As they grew older, she used Spanish as a secret language to admonish them in public settings. It was the Spanish-speaking baby sitters who provided a stable and continued presence of one Spanish-speaking monolingual in their lives so that by the end of the preschool years, both children had acquired the ability to understand and respond to ordinary requests for action and information, to complain, to argue

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with directives, and to inform the baby sitter about their sister’s supposedly unacceptable behavior. The language produced was typical of children’s language with intimate interlocutors and characterized by elliptical utterances, single word utterances, lexical phrases and formulaic chunks such as quiero lechita, no me gusta, Marisa me pegó. Marisa and Adriana’s exposure to Spanish decreased somewhat when they were enrolled in a nearby pre-school morning program. However during those years, the family made an effort to spend time in Mexico with relatives in the summer and to expose the children to their Spanish-speaking cousins.

Use of public education resources The decision to enroll Marisa (and later Adriana) in a two-way immersion program involved choosing a school in the district that was not the children’s nearby neighborhood school. It was a complicated decision because the school at which the two-way immersion program was offered had experienced “white flight,” that is, the abandonment of the school by the middle-class, English speaking population. In 1996, however, district administrators had enthusiastically established a two-way immersion following the 90-10 model described above program hoping to attract more mainstream middle-class families to the school. In the 1998–99 school year, the year that Marisa entered kindergarten, the school had an enrollment of 511 pupils. Of these, 429 were Hispanic or Latino, 405 were English language learners, 32 students were Fluent English-Proficient and 449 children qualified for free or reduced price meals. In an interview, Patti, the girls’ mother, recalled her commitment to her children’s bilingualism but also her concerns about enrolling Marisa in the lowest performing school in the district. So the school seemed like a good idea. But then you have all those issues that I think are the standard middle class concerns as you’re going into a school of this type. test scores were a big deal then... this school doesn’t test high. That then puts in all the doubts of well... maybe they’re just really not teaching well, are they going to teach my children well? How are my kids going to compete when they come out of this school in all the other places that I want them to compete… which ultimately is get into a good college and... you know do well in life and all those good things. All the theory tells you that kids of his particular type in particular excel in ways that kids... who have not had ah a second language ever do, they just do a whole lot better and so I wondered. My concerns early on were, as usual, with the first child because you don’t really know at all what’s going to happen.



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 125

When Marisa entered kindergarten, there were two full classes of dual immersion students with roughly equal numbers of Spanish and English-speaking children. Over the next 5 years, the cohort of English-speaking children steadily decreased so that from grades 2 to 5, a total of 5 English-speaking children (3 girls and 2 boys) remained in the program traveling together to the next grade. Figure€3, summarizes key characteristics of the two-way immersion program during Marisa’s school years. Grade EnglishSpeaking Children in Program

SpanishSpeaking Children in Program

Teacher Characteristics

K

10

10

Non-native Spanish-speaker Some years of teaching

1

8

11

Native Spanish-speaker Older, experienced veteran

2

5

14

Non-native Spanish-speaker First-year teacher

3

5

15

Same as 2nd grade teacher

4

5

14

Non-native Spanish-speaker First-year teacher

5

5

15

Native Spanish-speaker Older, experienced veteran

Figure 3.╇ Marisa’s immersion experience

Academically, Marisa did well in the dual immersion program as evidenced by her strong performance in subsequent grades, particularly in mathematics. However, Patti recalled her daughter’s apparent difficulties in beginning to read in Spanish. At six years old, Marisa struggled with Spanish reading and, unlike Patti’s co-workers’ English-speaking children of the same age, could not read simple English words. Patti was embarrassed and seriously wondered if she had made the right decision. Fortunately, Marisa’s first grade teacher took her in hand toward the end of the first grade and provided her with one-on-one instruction. After that, reading became effortless in both languages, and she became a voracious reader. The rocky beginning in Spanish reading might have been due to her limitations in Spanish itself. She had an extensive vocabulary in English and a much more limited vocabulary range in Spanish. Marisa was surrounded by children who were native Spanish-speakers, and instruction followed a strict 90-10 pattern. She thus had many opportunities to hear Spanish from her teachers (both native and non-native) and from her peers in a whole-class setting. The same was not true for one-on-one interactions with

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her classmates. Marisa speaks with some sadness about the social isolation she experienced in the dual immersion program recalling that, in the upper grades, she was considered to be an Anglo by the Latino girls and ridiculed for her “nerdiness.” Even though she understood and produced Spanish, she was primarily addressed in English by her Spanish-speaking peers perhaps to emphasize her “outsider” status or because, as Martin-Beltran (2006) suggests, she was “perceived” to be an imperfect speaker of Spanish. As a result, the expected advantages of the dual-immersion program (access to Spanish at both the curricular and the interpersonal levels) were not consistently available to her. For Adriana, the situation was somewhat different. The decision was made to structure class enrollment in order to ensure that a sufficient number of Englishspeaking children were available to serve as models for English language learners. They thus configured a number of combination classes which kept the Englishspeaking children together over most of their elementary school years. Figure 4 illustrates the characteristics of Adriana’s K-5 two-way immersion experience Grade

Class English– configuration Speaking Children in Program

Spanish– Speaking Children in Program

K

K

10

10

Native Spanish–speaker Older, experienced veteran

1

1

10

10

Native Spanish–speaker Older, experienced veteran

2

2–

10

10

Co–teachers One native Spanish–speaker Several years teaching One non–native Spanish– speaker Several years teaching

3

2–3 combo

10

10

Non–native Spanish–speaker Several years teaching

4

4–5 combo

10

10

Non–native Speaker–speaker Several years teaching

5

4–5 combo

10

10

Same teacher as above

Teacher Characteristics

Figure 4.╇ Adriana’s immersion experience

Academically, Adriana sailed through the program much more smoothly. Patti commented that the program was more established after three additional years and that the teachers were quite experienced. Moreover, all of Adriana’s teachers had received extensive training in teaching both reading and writing, and they



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 127

worked to develop strong literacy skills in two languages. The dual immersion program was valued by the school, and Adriana and three other little Anglophone girls were often put on display in the district and at parent meetings to showcase their very extensive Spanish. Interestingly, because of this, they were admired and looked up to by many of the Latina immigrant girls and, for that reason, Adriana did not sense the exclusion that was part of Marisa’s school experience.

Use of private school resources Upon completing 5th grade, Marisa (and now) Adriana enrolled in a private, single-sex middle school. Fortunately, because the school sought to attract minority students in addition to white, middle-class girls, it offered special Spanish classes for “heritage” students, that is for students who had grown up with Spanish at home. Marisa enrolled in these courses during her three years at the school, and Adriana is currently taking 6th grade Spanish for heritage speakers. As is the case in many private schools, the Spanish teachers at the school are not credentialed and have received no training as language teachers. As native speakers educated in their own countries, however, Marisa’s teachers focused on carrying out activities that primarily followed the curriculum they themselves had used as young students including extensive reading of literary texts and writing of reports. Adriana’s teacher, by comparison, is seeking to bring “rigor” to the class by teaching traditional grammar using materials designed for second-language learners. Children thus struggle in learning rules for making distinctions (e.g., the use of ser vs. estar) that they have already acquired and that are normally never directly taught to native speakers of Spanish at any level. However, the children also read literary texts and produce written reports thus “developing” their Spanish further. The classes at the private all-girls school have not been perfect, and the amount of Spanish present in their lives has been greatly reduced. Nevertheless, in comparison to a class where all students might be beginning students of Spanish, both girls have had the good fortune of continuing the everyday contact with children whose dominant language is Spanish, who use it everyday with their parents, and who use it orally in class while they work hard to acquire literacy skills in the language. In this context, while not the strongest speakers in their classes, Adriana and Marisa have been able to maintain their already developed reading and writing skills. . Here I follow Tomlinson’s (2007:â•›2) position and view “acquisition” as the initial stage of acquiring communicative competence, and “development” as “the subsequent stage of gaining the ability to use the language successfully in a wider range of media and genre for a variety of purposes.”

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4. What about the language? The characteristics of Marisa and Adriana’s Spanish By a variety of definitions (Fishman 2001; Valdés 2001; Polinksky and Â� Kagan 2007), Marisa and Adriana can both be categorized as “heritage” speakers of Spanish. They are not monolingual native speakers of the language, nor are they second-language learners. Using a broad definition of bilingualism (Haugen 1970), we can say that both girls are indeed bilingual. The operative definition is the expression more than one. While not ambilingual or equilingual, both girls have “more than one competence” as evidenced by the fact that they can function in ordinary family conversations as well as read and write in both languages. The two girls, however, have doubts about their own bilingualism and state that their preferred language is unquestionably English. For many students of second language acquisition, the most important questions to be asked include: what is the quality of their Spanish? How native-like is it? How accurate is it? How different are they from ordinary second-language learners? Unfortunately, these questions make a number of assumptions about the nature of bilingual competence. Rejecting these assumptions, Vivian Cook (1992, 1996, 2002) suggested the use of the term multicompetence to refer to the linguistic characteristics of individuals who regularly use more than one language. Drawing from research on bilingualism, Cook draws attention to the fact that L2 users, that is, individuals who have knowledge of and use two languages in the course of their everyday lives, are different from monolingual speakers. Rejecting the view that the ultimate state of L2 learning is to pass undetected among native speakers, Cook (2002:â•›9) argues that “the minds, languages and lives of L2 users are different from those of monolinguals,” and that “L2 users are not failures because they are different.” Recently, I have suggested (Valdés 2005) that the term L2 user is not entirely appropriate for the description of heritage language learners. Pointing out that the term L2 user still tends to emphasize and focus attention primarily on the L2, I proposed the term L1/L2 user to describe heritage learners many of whom acquire the L2 in a combination of naturalistic and instructed settings and continue to use the L1 to some degree in their everyday lives. Marisa and Adriana are a special kind of L1/l2 user who can be classified as simultaneous bilinguals by McLaughin’s (1978) definition because they acquired both languages before the age of three. Subsequently, they have used the two languages in a combination of naturalistic and instructed settings. Their access to the two languages, however, has been unbalanced. The very personal caretaker Spanish they have been exposed to has given them an emotional connection to the language, but the intense presence of English in their household and their social



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 129

circle has offered them many more opportunities to become participants in an Anglophone community of speakers whose ways of speaking privilege intellectual communication, subtle humor, and verbal performances of various types. Even during the years in which Spanish was used for 90% of their formal education, the Spanish language affordances available to the children were outdistanced by those available to them in English. I argue, then, that the challenge of evaluating Marisa and Adriana’s Spanish is avoiding the temptation of looking for gaps in their knowledge and counting errors and flaws in their production by using as a baseline the language of adults or even same-age speakers who have grown up and been educated in monolingual Spanish-speaking settings. As Polinsky and Kagan (2007:â•›374) point out, the study of heritage speakers of different types presents numerous methodological and analytical demands that have not been surmounted. They suggest (386) that heritage speakers fall along a continuum ranging from “basilectal” speakers (ACTFL intermediate low or mid) who are distant from an empirically-establishedÂ� baseline to “acrolectal” speakers whose proficiency is much more analogous to that of advanced high speakers. In the case of Marisa and Adriana, establishing a pre-immigration baseline€– as suggested by Polinsky and Kagan (2007) – is complicated by the fact that one is not dealing here with a single language variety spoken in the pre-immigration environment by the family. Throughout their lives, Marisa and Adriana have had exposure to a number of different native and non-native varieties of Spanish. At home, their most frequent interactions with native speakers were with both rural Guatemalan Spanish and then urban Mexico-city Spanish from their two baby sitters and their children. They were exposed less frequently to their grandmother, a speaker of standard northern Mexican Spanish. At school, they were exposed to (1) the non-native varieties of the majority of their teachers, (2) the mainly rural Mexican Spanish of the newly-arrived immigrant classmates, and (3) the learner varieties of their Anglophone background peers as well as (4) textbooks and other class materials written in standard edited Spanish. I have chosen, therefore, to examine segments of Marisa and Adriana’s oral production from the perspective of a participatory metaphor. This perspective, as Larsen-Freeman (2002) suggests, contrasts with that informed by the acquisition metaphor and views what is to be acquired in language “learning” not as a system of rules, but as knowledge of the ways in which language is used by members of a certain community for a variety of purposes and as the ability to use the language according to its norms. In the case of Marisa and Adriana, the “communities of language practice” in which they have been participants have primarily been (1)€interactions at home involving everyday out-of-school tasks and activities and (2)€a dual-immersion academic setting in which the rules for speaking

130 Guadalupe Valdés

and Â�interacting are clearly defined. At home they responded to inquiries about their needs; they followed directions; they argued and tattled; and they dealt with the exigencies of getting through mealtimes and homework. At school, Marisa and Adriana listened to teacher explanations. They displayed information when requested to do so, asked for information when appropriate, and jointly “collaborated” with other children to produce particular assignments. The segments of their Spanish that I have chosen to present here include sections of a biographical interview conducted with each girl in the past year as well as examples of their written language. As will be noted, Marisa and Adriana engage appropriately in this particular one-on-one interview. Knowing the girls well and their interaction styles in English, however, I would characterize the communication with the interviewer as a “pulling teeth” interaction that is entirely appropriate in a family context with a familiar interlocutor but one that did not produce extensive examples of their oral Spanish range. Segment 1. â•⁄ 1. 2. 3. 4.

I: M: I: M:

5. 6. 7.

I: M: I:

8. 9. 10.

M: I: M:

11.

I:

12.

M:

eres tú bilingüe, te sientes tú que eres bilingüe? no completamente. no completamente. qué sería ser completamente bilingüe? ah no… sí hablo en español pero no pienso en español, pienso en inglés. ah:: y si podiera pensar en español e inglés podía ser bilingüe ah,eso eso es. muy buena definición, muy buena definición. entonces tu lengua fuerte siempre es inglés. sí. qué puedes hacer en inglés que no puedes hacer en español? describir cosas más…saber dicir palabras ..pensar en español eso es que necesito.. hacer mucho más de eso Okay háblame un poquito de cómo llegaste a ser bilingüe. háblame de cuando estabas chiquita..qué te hablaban en la casa y luego fuiste a la escuela y luego que pasó ahm cuando tenía como un año a cuatro años... ahm... me hablaban un poquito de español en la casa y tú me hablastes español. y sabía unas palabras y entendí mucho. pero cuando entré a kinder, ahm... estábamos haciendo como matemáticas en español y fue …me hizo ah ah...(sigh)

In this first segment, Marisa talks about her own bilingualism. She offers a reason for not classifying herself as bilingual in turn 4: sí hablo en español pero no pienso en español, pienso en inglés and in turn 6: y si podiera pensar en español e inglés podía ser bilingüe. There are flaws in her production of the type that have been



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 131

examined by other researchers in both L2 learners and in 3rd generation speakers of Spanish (e.g., Silva-Corvalán 1994), but she is able to express herself with some precision and to describe what would, in her opinion qualify her as bilingual. There is, of course, a lot more that could be said about this segment. There are many interesting features of her production (e.g., the very non-native regularization of the verb poder and the much more native-like regularization of hablastes) but because I have chosen to reject the comparison and judgments about accuracy, I will allow readers to engage in this activity on their own. In segment 2, Marisa also comprehends the interviewer’s questions completely and is able to respond appropriately to requests for information. She corrects the interviewer’s misapprehension about the length of her stay in Mexico in turn€2: ahm fue más de una semana como diez días and she attempts to describe the use of Spanish by members of her class. In this case, she is not entirely successful and finds herself facing a lexical gap in the same turn that brings her to a stop. As in the previous segment, there are both accurate and questionable uses of gender, aspect, and tense that can be interpreted from a number of theoretical perspectives. What is clear is that Marisa has acquired enough Spanish to recount a personal experience. Segment 2.╇ Marisa – Recalling a recent school trip 1.

I:

2.

M:

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

I: M: I: M: I: M:

9. 10.

I: M:

ahora cuéntame de tu viaje a México porque sé que fuiste con tu clase a México, que pasaron una semana no? en México qué hicieron? ahm fue más de una semana como diez días. y fuimos a un campamento que fue un ciudad muy pequeña que se llama (unclear), ah dentro de Michoacán. y cuando fuimos…nadie quería hablar español pero cuando fuimos afuera a jugar con los niños de la ciudad y comprar cosas y e y hacer cosas fuimos hacer como…como eh giras? no a ver dilo en inglés y te doy la palabra para que sigas blankets ah entonces hicieron como cobijas o mantos o lienzos, algo así sí ..y …todavía todos no querían hablar español pero hablaban más porque tenían que hablar porque nadie entendía ingles ahí. y tú qué función tuviste en todo esto ahm el ahm ..fueron siete niños que hablaban español fueron biÂ� lingüe y los otros treinta y dos hablaban inglés en sus casas y solo sab- estaban aprendiendo español y para ellos fue ..fue más para ellos porque ellos no sabían nada. pero para nosotros fue diferente porque hablamos español y um las de la ciudad sabían que nosotros hablaban español a otro nivel así que fue un cona ahm conección más

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Segment 3 presents a poem written by Marisa for her Spanish 8th grade heritage class. This is an example of her edited written Spanish. It was produced in a class context in which both the Spanish class and the English humanities class worked to develop the voice of the young writers by focusing on creative writing. As will be noted, the poem, which in spite of its being edited extensively still contains flaws, offers evidence of Marisa’s ability to produce written assignments at the level expected in a class of students who use Spanish in their everyday lives. Segment 3.╇ Marisa – Poem written for her Spanish class (age 13, grade 8) Romance de la infancia – Ese trampolín En el verano, lleno de niños En el invierno Solamente yo Muy frió Agua y hojas cubriéndolo Si brincabas te resbalas Pero yo no brinque Solo me senté Pensé imaginé Fue años atrás que hice esto Y de vez en cuando Salgo de la casa para brincar en el trampolín Brinco y brinco Subo y subo Y recuerdo los momentos en que Tenía amigos quienes brincaban conmigo Trato de imaginar a mis amigos conmigo ahora Hablando Brincando Tal vez jugando un juego Aunque mis amigos no están aquí Mis memorias viviran en mi corazón

Like her sister, Adriana can also answer questions about her own bilingualism. In Segment 4, turn 12, she offers a somewhat labored but communicatively successful explanation of why writing in Spanish is easier than writing in English. She is less



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 133

successful in explaining why it is more difficult for her to think in Spanish in turn 18. To be fair, however, the question is a difficult one and calls for metalinguistic self-perceptions that may be beyond her both conceptually and linguistically. Segment 4.╇ Adriana – Talking about her own bilingualism 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

I: A: I: A: I: A: I: A: I:

10. 11. 12.

A: I: A:

13. 14. 15.

I: A: I:

16. 17. 18.

A: I: A:

ah eso es…eres bilingüe? sabes lo que es eso Sí qué es eso es como hablar... hablar dos um lenguajes (xxxxx) tú eres bilingüe? qué crees ahm , ahm, es bueno es um es… useful, Útil para poder hablar otras personas que no hablen inglés.. ah también yo creo que sí, efectivamente. que más me podrías decir. yo sé que tu lees y escribes y todo en español. qué es lo que se te hace más fácil... hablar o escribir escribir por qué ahm... yo puedo pensar en qué quiero decir y yo puedo ah... tener más tiempo y ahm.. es muy muy fácil escribir porque lo escribes como se oya y en inglés no es así y cuando piensas en qué piensas, en inglés o en español inglés ahora por ejemplo cuando me estás hablando estás pensando en inglés o español en inglés qué pasa si nada más piensas en español hm es muy fácil, pero es muy difícil pero es muy fácil como ahm es... es... muy fácil no hacerlo porque si trato de hacerlo, solo pienso en la palabra en inglés ahm.. ahm.. uh.. pienso en inglés pero estoy tratando de pensar en español

Also like Marisa, Adriana writes about the family’s trampoline in segment 5. In segment 6, she also shows that she is growing in her ability to write personal letters in Spanish in a style usually expected of American school-children writing in English. Here again, there are typographical errors as well as other infelicities. It is evident, however, that she can complete written assignments in Spanish, and, to that degree, participate in the community of which she is a part.

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Segment 5.╇ Adriana –Text written at age 7, grade 2 Mi trampolín Mi trampolín es algo especial para mí. A todos les gustan porque pueden brincar en el tampolín. Yo puedo hacer muchos trucos en él. El trampolín es muy grande y por eso todos pueden brincar, también los adultos. Todos cuando vienen a mi casa solo quieren estar en el trampolín. Yo creo que voy a aprender muchos trucos en él ya todos les van a gustar porque todos les gustan mis trucos.

Segment 6.╇ Adriana –Text written at age 8, grade 3 Querido visitante En nuestra clase estabamos aprediendo de los insectos. Teníamos unas mariposas: Damas pintandas. Teníamos escarabajos de gusanos de harina. Estudiamos mucho sobre los insectos y aprendimos mucho. Ahora estamos aprendiendo a escribir una carta Como esta. Siempre vamos a estudiar otra cosa. Saludos, Adriana Hardwicke

Segment 7.╇ Adriana – Text written at age 11, grade 6 Charlie y el gran ascensor de cristal Por : Roald Dahl Yo leí el libro Charlie y el gran ascensor de cristal por Roald Dahl. Este libro se trata de un niño que se llama Charlie que estaba viviendo con el Señor Wonka en la fábrica de chocolate. En el principio, el Señor Wonka, Charlie, y su familia estaban dentro de el gran ascensor de cristal. El Señor Wonka dice que tienen que ir muy arriba para que puedan bajar muy rápido y pueden poner un hoyo en el techo de la fábrica. Cuando estaban subiendo, se fueron en el espacio y el Señor Wonka lo dejó subir por demasiado tiempo y ya estaban en órbita de la tierra. Había algo más en órbita de la tierra también, que era el hotel especial.



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 135

Cuando entraron al hotel especial, ellos vieron una cosa llamada knido. El Señor Wonka sabía que los knidos eran muy peligrosos y les dijo a todos que tenían que ir. Después más knidos se pelean con ellos cuando están en el gran ascensor de cristal. Una vez muchos knidos se juntaron y formaron una línea, y el knido en el fin de la línea se juntó con el ascensor. El ascensor empezó a jalar a todos los knidos, y ellos no pudieron vivir en la tierra, y cuando llegaron muy cerca de la tierra todos los knidos se volvieron nada. El presidente vio que estaba pasando en el espacio y quería saber quienes eran los que estaban en el espacio. Mientras el presidente trató de averiguar quiénes eran, los demás estaban en la fabrica y el Señor Wonka quería que los ancianos se levantaran de la cama. Ellos no iban a levantar, así que se los dieron Vite-Wonka, pero todos tomaron demasiado y la abuela se convirtió a un menos y se fue a Menoslandia. Charlie y el Señor Wonka salvaron a ella con la Wonka-Vita, pero les dio demasiado y la abuela tenía 358 años de edad, pero en el fin todos se regresaron a su vida normal otra vez. En el fin de la historia, el Señor Wonka recibe una carta del presidente invitando a ellos a ir a la Casa Blanca, y el Señor Wonka dijo que los ancianos no podían ir porque no podían tomar la cama entera. En ese momento, se levantaron muy rápido y se prepararon a ir a la casa blanca.

In sum, in terms of their acquisition of Spanish – even though I am deliberately avoiding an analysis of flaws, errors and inaccuracies in their language production – we can conjecture that in their classroom communities, first in a dual immersion class and then in a heritage class made up primarily of newly-arrived youngsters, it is likely that they would be able to participate successfully in wholeclass interactions in which their teachers control turns of speaking and focus on academic content rather than linguistic form. It is far less likely that they would be entirely successful in participating in extended one-on-one or small-group personal or classroom interactions with first generation speakers of Spanish.

Ethnolinguistic identity: Who do Marisa and Adriana think they are? According to Tajfel (1974) social identity develops from the process of social categorization, an activity in which individuals group and classify others according to criteria that are meaningful to them at that time. Social identity itself is defined as “that part of an individual’s self-concept which derives from his knowledge of his membership of a social group (or groups) together with the emotional Â�significance

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attached to that membership” (Tajfel 1974:â•›69). At various times, individuals engage in the process of social comparison and both identify and are identified by groups as having or not having characteristics in common deemed salient to that group’s sense of its particular distinctive nature. Groups provide feedback to individuals and either recognize or reject them as potential members of the group based on specific features such as ancestry, race, skin color, religion, territoriality, history and the like. Tajfel (1974:â•›68–69) argues that all individuals strive “to achieve a satisfactory concept or image” of themselves and that membership in numerous social groups contributes negatively or positively to that image. According to Silverstein (2003), ethnolinguistic identity emerges from people’s assumptions about the centrality of language in constituting socially meaningful distinctions between groups of people and in defining their group membership. In contexts in which there are intercultural and interethnic contacts (migration, conquest, colonization), language becomes particularly important in the process of social categorization and social comparison. In interethnic interactions, language becomes salient when it can be seen as a condition of group membership, as a cue for ethnic classification, as an emotional aspect of identity, or as a means of ingroup cohesion (Giles and Coupland 1991). Poststructuralist views of identity use terms such as subject positions, positioning, and subjectivities and see identity as contested, fluid and fragmented (Block 2007). From this perspective, identity is a self-conscious, reflexive project that involves the negotiation of differences, human agency, and structures that condition individuals’ lives. In assuming an identity, persons resolve ambivalence (e.g., feeling and not feeling a part of group) and often make choices on a moment-tomoment and day-to day basis. Moreover, environments impose constraints that lead to an individual’s positioning herself in the world (Davies and Harré 1999) in interactions with others. Children first develop a sense of cultural and ethnolinguistic group membership within the home and community contexts in which they are raised. They develop positive or negative perceptions about other groups and perceive themselves as either similar or different from other people. At any point in time, however, ethnolinguistic identity is flexible and dynamic and determined by the characteristics of the social interactions in which individuals engage and closely linked to the ideologies present in the society. If the society views dual cultural and ethnic membership as positive, and if children are made to feel that there are no insurmountable contradictions in belonging to two groups, it is likely that they will develop a bilingual and bicultural ethnolinguistic identity.



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 137

The development of ethnolinguistic identity in educational settings The question for children like Marisa and Adriana who are raised in generally monocultural (although mixed heritage circumstances) is: do two-way immersion programs contribute to the development of positive bilingual and bicultural identities? Unfortunately, to date we have little information about whether such contexts will provide support for third-generation parents who value both the language and the minority culture and who wish for their children to identify with their ancestral communities. Based on research carried out on Canadian French immersion programs (Lambert & Tucker 1972; Genesee 1979, 1984; Swain & Lapkin 1982), the hope is that two-way or dual immersion classrooms will nurture positive attitudes in mainstream, Anglophone children toward the minority cultural group with which they are in close contact. Researchers however, have not yet systematically explored the effect of such programs on English-dominant, second and third generation youngsters who share a heritage with the non-English-speaking children enrolled in dual immersion programs. In terms of intergroup relations in dual immersion programs, Valdés (1997) argued that school personnel need to be particularly sensitive to the realities of the ways that children interact with one another and to the messages that they send to each other in numerous ways. She pointed out that children have a clear sense of what their place is in the wider society. Majority Anglophone children, for example, bring to their interactions with less privileged peers a mixed bag of negative and positive attitudes and feelings. And while we know that these attitudes can change – indeed that is one of the benefits that has been ascribed to dual immersion programs – we know little about how majority children’s original attitudes can impact on minority children at whom they are directed. Majority children may express these attitudes in a hundred ways – both direct and subtle€– while they are in the process of changing. It is not clear what the long term effects of being in contact with majority children who have initially negative attitudes will be on minority children. Similarly, minority children also bring to the classrooms attitudes and beliefs about majority children. In the case of Marisa and Adriana’s school, minority children were first generation immigrants who had recently arrived in this country. Their parents live in crowded apartments near the school, while the majority children live in spacious houses in other parts of town. There was little social interaction between the parents of both groups of children, and initial attempts by Anglophone parents to include Latino youngsters in birthday parties and other activities were soon abandoned. There were immense differences between the everyday lives of the children and very dissimilar ways of celebrating birthdays. It became evident that socioeconomic status mattered in important ways – even for young children.

138 Guadalupe Valdés

When asked today about her social life in the dual immersion program and in her middle-school heritage Spanish class, Marisa seems quite aware of the ways in which she was perceived by her classmates. She states in turns 34 and 36, for example, that she never was considered Latina by her peers. 1.

I:

2.

M:

3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

I: M: I: M: I: M: I: M:

11. 12.

I: M:

13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

I: M: I: M: I: M:

19. 20. 21.

I: M: I:

22.

M:

23. 24.

I: M:

25.

I:

okay, ahora cambiando un poquito el tema, háblame un poco de tu vida social en la escuela Castro. cómo era tu vida social en la escuela Castro? ahm... fue diferente porque no ve, cuando miras a mí, no sabes que soy mexicana soy.. piensan que eres americana? Sí que eres anglo? Sí um hum pero para mi fue fue .. better. mejor porque para mí hablé más español que los otros niños ahm de los otros que los otros niños que son anglo ...porque sabía más español... era en mi familia.. así que fue más fácil para mí... pero no fue fácil qué fue lo mas difícil ahm no sé exactamente pero habían ah ..fue mas difícil para nosotros porque fuimos un grupo mas pequeño ah y.. los chicos que hablaban inglés en la casa? Sí eran un grupo muy pequeño? como de cinco cinco niños y todos los demás hablan español en la casa y de los cinco, hablé con como tres, porque los otros dos.. nadie ..nobody got along –(laughter) no se llevaban bien Nadie y los chicos latinos los inmigrantes más recientes que hablaban español en casa, cómo eran contigo? uhm …cambió mucho. como cuando estábamos en kinder fue como ..todos son equal Iguales todos son iguales...y cuando estábamos en quinto grado fue como... tú eres diferente y nosotros no nos gusta no queremos juntarnos contigo



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 139

26. 27. 28. 29.

M: I: M: I:

30.

M:

31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.

I: M: I: M: I: I: M: I:

yeah me imagino que fue difícil para ti eso sí y en la escuela otra, donde estabas por los últimos tres años en la escuela secundaria..háblame de tu vida social ahí ahm allí uhm fue muy muy diferente. todos teníamos una comunidad muy grande donde aceptamos todos y para las niñas latinas como las cuatro o cinco en nuestra clase, ellas no fueron, no querían conectar. tenían un grupo muy pequeño aparte? sí entonces tú.. en esa escuela ya no te identificaban como latina no nunca fue nunca te identificaron como latina? nunca ahm... ahm en esa escuela no fue in no tenía un label una etiqueta, una etiqueta.

As a light-skinned girl who personified all the characteristics of a middle-class, nerdy, politically and environmentally correct background, she was seen as an outsider by her Latino classmates. More importantly, the ways in which she was perceived directly affected the quality of interactions with her native Spanishspeaking peers. As Kinginger (2004:â•›221) argues: “Access to language is shaped not only by learners’ own intentions, but also by those of the others with whom they interact – people who may view learners as embodiments of identities shaped by gender, race and social class.”

5.

Ethnolinguistic identity

5.1

Marisa’s ethnolinguistic identity

Given that belonging to a group involves the group’s recognition of the individual as a member, it is not surprising that knowledge of Spanish alone has not yet resulted in Marisa’s developing a bilingual and bicultural ethnolinguistic identity. Language appears not to be salient in her developing sense of herself. And yet, from time to time in recalling her experiences with her classmates€– such as her trip to Mexico – she includes herself in a “we” that suggests that there is hope.

140 Guadalupe Valdés

1.

M:

ahm el ahm ..fueron siete niños que hablaban español fueron bilinÂ� güe y los otros treinta y dos hablaban inglés en sus casas y solo sab- estaban aprendiendo español y para ellos fue ..fue más para ellos porque ellos no sabían nada. pero para nosotros fue diferente porque hablamos español y um las de la ciudad sabían que nosotros hablaban español a otro nivel así que fue un cona ahm conección más

5.2 Adriana’s ethnolinguistic identity Adriana’s experience has been different. A confident competitive gymnast, she is generally popular and admired by her peers. Her Anglophone classmates in the dual immersion program protected each other from possible rejection. Still, she views the Latina girls as friends, not her best friends, but still her friends. 1.

I:

2.

A:

3.

I:

4.

A:

6.

entonces cuéntame algo de tus maestros, de tus compañeras, quiénes eran, todas hablaban inglés o algunas hablan español ah mis amigos también hablaron español pero también hablaron inglés porque era como español y ingles, pero mis amigas como más buenos hablaban inglés, hablaban inglés primero y luego aprendieron español como mí y luego tenías amigas de las que hablaban español en la casa o esas no eran muy amigas tuyas Ah, eran amigas pero los otras amigas que hablaban inglés eran amigas más buenas

Next steps in the journey: Formal schooling and other resources

For Marisa and Adriana, public school resources in the form of a dual immersion program provided the family with an important foundation in Spanish for both children. After that, the heritage Spanish program at the private middle school allowed them to continue their study of Spanish in the company of fluent strong Spanish-speaking youngsters. From here on, however, the next steps in the journey are less well defined. In the 9th grade, Marisa did not enroll in a formal Spanish class. Her choices were limited to honors Spanish for L2 learners (a course that teachers at the school considered too easy for her) and AP Spanish (a class made up of college-bound seniors including heritage speakers and L2 learners). Aware that Marisa has little knowledge of the grammatical metalanguage used by L2 students, both her mother and her grandmother encouraged her to wait. Next year, she plans to enroll in the honors Spanish class hoping that she can be tutored in the metalanguage and get by on her strong reading and writing skills and on



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 141

her ability to use Spanish in actual communication in a variety of contexts. The same will be true for Adriana if she goes to the same high school. What is evident is that foreign language programs have not been designed to maintain language primarily acquired in dual immersion programs. In terms of language study, in high school, the girls will enter a different territory, a territory in which they will be compared to L2 learners and evaluated for their accuracy, for their conscious knowledge of grammatical rules and for their ability to use a metalanguage about language. They may succeed in these new “communities of practice.” They may come to see Spanish as yet another academic subject, become concerned about correctness, and even develop a strong monitor that will allow them to edit out at least a certain category of flaws not typical of standard educated varieties of Spanish. They may be able to build on their strengths, and they may find ways of integrating formal traditional instruction with the language that they have already acquired. Unfortunately, I am not optimistic. My greatest fear is that they will become discouraged, that the voice that Marisa displays in writing about her trampoline will not be heard by AP Spanish teachers focused exclusively on rules for using the subjunctive. I am also pessimistic about the possibility that during their high school years they will be develop a subject positioning that includes language as a value and that allows them to identify with Latinas or to be identified by them as members of the same group. High school is the time of cliques and exclusions and perceptions about popularity and advantage. Marisa and Adriana live in a world in which gymnastic competitions, rock-climbing clubs, trips to Europe, and weekend sleepovers fill their days. Moreover, while Marisa and Adriana have little difficulty in identifying with their middle-class cousins in Mexico whose activities and lives mirror their own in the United States, they see themselves as having little in common with newly arrived immigrant girls who lead very different lives. Unfortunately, as Urcuoli (1996) points out, for Latinos identifying as white versus “other-Spanish” is about their perceptions of their own class status. Because race, class, and language are conflated, and, in the case of Hispanics connected to the idea of underclass, it is not surprising that young and relatively privileged thirdgeneration young people do not perceive themselves consistently as Latinas. As their grandmother, my hope is that Marisa and Adriana will develop strong ethnolinguistic identities that, while fluid, dynamic and multiple, still continue to consider Spanish part of their heritage and a doorway to a world of which they are part. I hope that they will spend time working and living in Spanish- speaking communities, and that they will be continue to develop their Spanish so that at some point in their lives they will be able to use two languages for both personal and professional purposes in the context of at least two different national settings.

142 Guadalupe Valdés

7.

Imagining a different path

As a researcher and as a student of societal bilingualism very much influenced by Fishman, I nevertheless still want to be optimistic about the development of a coherent language-in-education policy that can support efforts to revitalize and maintain non-English languages (whether or not these languages are momentarily strategic) using the resources of existing educational institutions. In spite of his cautionary statements (Fishman 1991) concerning the limitations of educational institutions in reversing language shift, for third generation children, I believe strongly that educational institutions must become a very large part of the solution. I propose, then, that guided by an ecological vision of languages in the United States, the major language-teaching professional organizations identify key steps in promoting, not just the formal study of a finite menu of languages in schools, but also the maintenance and development of community languages that are spoken today by members of immigrant and indigenous communities. These steps might include: 1. Advocating publicly for all languages.

At the local level, efforts by families and to maintain the bilingualism of their children would be applauded by language-teaching professionals. The importance of such efforts for personal and professional purposes would be emphasized. At the state level, efforts made by communities to maintain their languages would be publicized extensively, and youngsters who have developed strong English skills and maintained their heritage languages would be identified. This public relations effort would also be reflected at the national level where the strategic importance of non-English languages would be highlighted frequently.

2. Supporting community organizations that are engaged in formal languageteaching endeavors.

Such support might include language celebration activities carried out in school settings as well as providing access to school facilities for community language teaching after school hours or on Saturdays. The point of such support would be to send a clear message about the value of maintaining heritage languages for all Americans.

. This section draws extensively from Valdés (2006).



5.╇ Ethnolinguistic identity 143

3. Providing assistance to language communities in obtaining training and preparation for members engaged in the teaching of heritage languages.

Assistance might involve identifying appropriate formal study for such individuals, familiarizing them with the American education establishment, and identifying the best ways of publishing or duplicating materials in the heritage language.

4. Lobbying for the establishment of special teaching credentials in the teaching of heritage languages within school settings.

According to Potowski (2003), not a single state currently offers certification or a special endorsement for the teaching of heritage languages. A unified effort by language-teaching professionals at the local, state and national levels might move the profession forward in this direction and ensure the preparation of future teachers of critical heritage languages.

5. Establishing language programs in traditionally taught languages (e.g., French, German) that are designed for students who have maintained a heritage language and are adding a third language.

An ecological vision of language would imagine not only that students would maintain home and community languages, but also that they would avail themselves of opportunities to acquire other languages taught formally in schools. Language programs created with the view that entering students are already sophisticated speakers of two languages might be able to accelerate such students in their acquisition of a third language.

6. Establishing research and training programs within colleges and universities that can prepare a generation of young scholars and teachers who specialize in the study of language ecology and focus on heritage languages. The learning stories of third generation youngsters such as Marisa and Adriana suggest that the American educational system has an important role to play in the process of maintaining and developing non-English languages in this country. The creation of a language-competent America may have to begin not with national policies and national agendas, but with local activities that bring together parents and their youngsters, grass roots supporters of community languages and language-teaching professionals who understand the importance of providing an appropriate academic context that can help strengthen and maintain these important language resources.

144 Guadalupe Valdés

References American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). 1996. Standards for Foreign Language Learning; Preparing for the 21st Century. Yonkers NY: National Standards in Education Project. Block, D. 2007. The rise of identity in SLA research, post Firth and Wagner (1997). Modern Language Journal 91: 863–876. (Focus Issue). Brisk, M. E. 1998. Bilingual Education: From Compensatory to Quality Schooling. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Cook, V. 1992. Evidence for multi-competence. Language Learning 42(4): 557–591. Cook, V. 1996. Competence and multi-competence. In Performance and Competence in Second Language Acquisition, G. Brown, K. Malmkjaer & J. Williams (eds), 57–69. Cambridge: CUP. Cook, V. 2002. Background of the L2 user. In Portraits of the L2 User, V. Cook (ed.), 1–28. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Davies, B. & Harré, R. 1999. Positioning and personhood. In Positioning Theory, R. Harré & L.€van Langenhove (eds), 32–52. London: Sage. DeHouwer, A. 1995. Bilingual language acquisition. In Handbook of Child Language, P. Fletcher & B. MacWhinney (eds), 219–250. Oxford: Blackwell. de la Garza, R. O. 2006. Understanding contemporary immigration debates: The need for a multidimensional approach [Electronic Version]. Social Science Research Council Forum: Border Battles: The U.S. Immigration Debates. (June 24, 2008). de la Garza, R. O., DeSipio, L., Garcia, F. C., Garcia, J. & Falcon, A. 1992. Latino Voices: Mexican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban Perspectives on American Politics. Boulder CO: Westview Press. Deuchar, M. & Quay, S. 2000. Bilingual Acquisition: Theoretical Implications of a Case Study. Oxford: OUP. Fishman, J. A. 1964. Language maintenance and language shift as fields of inquiry. Linguistics€9: 32–70. Fishman, J. A. 1985. Mother-tongue claiming in the United States since 1960: Trends and correlates. In The Rise and Fall of the Ethnic Revival: Perspectives on Language and Ethnicity, J. A. Fishman, M. H. Gertner, E. G. Lowy & W. G. Milan (eds), 107–194. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Fishman, J. A. 1987. What is happening in Spanish on the US mainland. Ethnic Affairs 1: 12–33. Fishman, J. A. 1991. Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Fishman, J. A. 2001. 300-plus year of heritage language education in the United States. In Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource, J. K. Peyton, D. A. Ranard & S.€Mcginnis (eds), 81–97. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics/Delta Systems. Genesse, F. 1979. Les programmes d’imersion en Français du Bureau des Ecoles Protestantes du Grand Montréal. Quebec: Etudes et Documents du Ministere de l’Education du Quebec. Genesee, F. 1984. French immersion programs. In Bilingual and Multicultural Education: Canadian Perspective, S. Shapson & V. D’Oyley (eds). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Genesee, F. 1987. Learning through Two Languages: Studies of Immersions and Bilingual Education. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Giles, H. & Coupland, N. 1991. Language: Contexts and Consequences. Pacific Grove CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing.



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Hakimzadeh, S. & Cohn, D. V. 2007. English Usage among Hispanics in the United States. Washington DC: Pew Hispanic Center. Hamers, J. F. & Blanc, M. H. A. 2000. Bilinguality and Bilingualism, 2nd edn. Cambridge: CUP. Haugen, E. 1970. On the meaning of bilingual competence. In Studies in General and Oriental Linguistics, R. Jakobson (ed.), 222–229. Tokyo: TEC. Huntington, S. P. 2004. Who Are We? The Challenges to America’s National Identity. New York NY: Simon & Schuster. Kinginger, C. 2004. Alice doesn’t live here anymore: Foreign language learning and identity reconstruction. In Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts, A. Pavlenko & A. Blackledge (eds), 219–242. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Lambert, W. & Tucker, R. 1972. Bilingual Education of Children: The St. Lambert Experiment. Rowley MA: Newbury House. Larsen-Freeman, D. 2002. Language acquisition and language use from a chaos/complexity theory perspective. In Language Acquisition and Language Socialization, C. Kramsch (ed.), 33–46. London: Continuum. Martin-Beltran, M. 2006. Opportunities for Language Exchange among Language-minority and Language-majority Students. PhD dissertation, Stanford University. McLaughlin, B. 1978. Second-language Acquisition in Childhood. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Pavlenko, A. 2001. ‘How am I to become a woman in an American vein?’: Transformations of gender performance in second language learning. In Multilingualism, Second Language Learning and Gender, A. Pavlenko, A. Blackledge, I. Miller & M. Tersch-Dwyer (eds), 133– 174. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Polinsky, M. & Kagan, O. 2007. Heritage languages: In the ‘wild’ and in the classroom. Language and Linguistics Compass 1(5): 368–395. Portes, A. & Rumbaut, R. 2001. Legacies: The Story of the Immigrant Second Generation. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Potowski, K. 2003. Chicago’s heritage language teacher corps: A model for improving Spanish teacher development. Hispania 86(2): 301–311. Potowski, K. 2004. Spanish language shift in Chicago. Southwest Journal of Linguistics 23(1): 87–116. Potowski, K., Berne, J., Clark, A. & Hammerand, A. 2008. Spanish for K-8 heritage speakers: A standards-based curriculum project. Hispania 91(1): 25–41. Romaine, S. 1995. Bilingualism, 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell. Rumbaut, R. G. 2004. Ages, life stages, and generational choices: Decomposing the immigrant first and second generations in the United States. International Migration Review 28(3): 1160–1205. Silva-Corvalan, C. 1994. Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: OUP. Silverstein, M. 2003. The whens and wheres – as well as hows – of ethnolinguistic recognition. Public Culture 15(3): 531–557. Swain, M. & Lapkin, S. 1982. Evaluating Bilingual Education: A Canadian Case Study. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Tajfel, H. 1974. Social identity and intergroup behavior. Social Science Information 13: 65–93. Tienda, M. & Mitchell, F. (eds). 2006a. Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies. Washington DC: National Academy Press.

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Tienda, M. & Mitchell, F. (eds). 2006b. Hispanics and the Future of America. Washington DC: National Academy Press. Tomlinson, B. 2007. Introduction: Some similarities and differences between L1 and L2 acquisition and development. In Language Acquisition and Development: Studies of Learners of First and Other Languages, B. Tomlinson (ed.), 1–12. London: Continuum. Urciuoli, B. 1996. Exposing Prejudice: Puerto Rican Experiences of Language, Race, and Class. Boulder CO: Westview Press. Valdés, G. 1997. Dual-language immersion programs: A cautionary note concerning the education of language-minority students. Harvard Educational Review 67(3): 391–429. Valdés, G. 2001. Heritage languages students: Profiles and possibilities. In Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource, J. K. Peyton, D. A. Ranard & S. Mcginnis (eds), 37–77. Washington DC: Center for Applied Linguistics/Delta Systems. Valdés, G. 2005. Bilingualism, heritage learners and SLA research: Opportunities lost or seized. Modern Language Journal 89(3): 410–426. Valdés, G. 2006. Toward and ecological vision of languages for all: The case of heritage languages. In Realizing our Vision of Languages for All, A. Heining-Boynton (ed.), 135–151. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall. Valdés, G., Fishman, J. A., Chavez, R. & Perez, W. 2006. Developing Minority Language Resources: The Case of Spanish in California. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Veltman, C. J. 1983. Language Shift in the United States. Berlin: Mouton. Veltman, C. 1988. The Future of the Spanish Language in the United States. New York NY: Hispanic Policy Development Project.

Canada

chapter 6

From parental attitudes to input conditions Spanish-English bilingual development in Toronto Ana T. Pérez-Leroux,* Alejandro Cuza** and Danielle Thomas* *University of Toronto / **Purdue University

Research shows correlations between proficiency and language attitudes. Other studies associate performance in young bilinguals more strongly with adult language input and practice at home than with individual attitudes in youth. No studies, however, have examined how attitudes and family practice are implicated in the linguistic development of bilingual children. This study examines (1) the interplay between attitudinal and objective factors in setting the input conditions relevant for child bilingual acquisition; (2) how parental attitudes and community context shape home language practices and input conditions; and (3) how input conditions determine bilingual proficiency and degree of morphosyntactic transfer in young bilinguals. Twenty three bilingual children participated in the study. Children completed an elicited narrative and a word order task to assess the extent of transfer. They were asked to repeat sentences with clitics in reconstruction environments. If object pronoun linearization was vulnerable to transfer, children with stronger English dominance were expected to favor postverbal positioning. Results show strong correlation between family’s attitudes to Spanish and bilingualism, but only moderate association between these and language practice. The most important difference in terms of dominance between the children was related to onset of bilingualism. Results from the repetition task show a tendency by bilinguals to reposition preverbal pronouns as postverbal, a pattern not attested among monolinguals, and a lesser degree of the preverbal pattern. The simultaneous bilinguals favor the predicted transfer pattern more strongly, and also show high rates of pronoun omissions. These results suggest that input conditions are the primary factor in language maintenance in young bilinguals.

1.

Introduction

This study examines how Spanish-English bilingual children are able to inherit and retain their parents’ minority language (Spanish) in an English-dominant

150 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

context. The study of language maintenance in a minority language setting has demonstrated the relevance of both external, community-level factors such as demographic characteristics of the community, language policies, and subjective, as well as that of personal level-factors including cultural identity, solidarity and relative prestige of the language variety. This paper aims to examine how external and internal factors jointly determine the parental practices that support or hinder language transmission. Some studies reveal general associations between bilingual proficiency and instrumental and integrative attitudes towards the minority language in adult bilinguals (e.g., Baker 1992; Coté and Clement 1994; Pieras-Guasp 2002). Other studies link performance in young bilinguals more to adult language input and practice at home than with individual attitudes towards the language and bilingualism (e.g., Hakuta and D’Andrea 1992). In this study, we examine language transmission and language retention in a group of seventeen Spanish-speaking immigrant families in Toronto, Ontario. We seek to explore the extent of retention in simultaneous and sequential bilingual children, and what variables determine their language dominance and their performance on several measures of Spanish ability, their parents’ attitudes and language practices at home, and what the children themselves think of their bilingual abilities and environments. In Section 2 we summarize the literature on bilingual acquisition, language maintenance and shift and family language transmission. Section 3 presents the bilingual families in our study, their social context, and the interview methods employed. Section 4 discusses results on children’s abilities and language dominance and on family attitudes and practices, and finally, children’s own perceptions and attitudes about their bilingual circumstances. Section 5 summarizes our observations and presents our proposal.

2.

Language transmission in bilingual children

2.1 Simultaneous and sequential bilingual acquisition How are children able to grow up in two languages? The two main routes into childhood bilingualism are sequential and simultaneous acquisition. Simultaneous bilingual acquisition refers to the acquisition of two languages consequently during the period of primary linguistic development (birth to 3;0). Bilingual children can acquire both languages autonomously from the beginning of the preverbal stage, and are fundamentally comparable to monolingual peers in terms of rates and patterns of development (e.g., De Houwer 1994; Grosjean



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 151

1989; Meisel 2001; Schlyter 1993). However, as Grosjean (1989) points out, autonomy in bilingual development does not mean that simultaneous bilinguals are two monolinguals in one. Although both languages develop independently, there is always a degree of interaction between both languages (e.g., Müller and Hulk 2001; Müller 2003). Sequential or successive bilingualism, also known as child second language (L2) acquisition, refers to the acquisition of two languages after the age of 3;0 (e.g., Grosjean 1989; MacLaughlin 1978; Romaine 1995). The primary question is to what extent these bilingual children are like adult L2 learners or like simultaneous bilinguals. Sequential child bilinguals often show instances of transfer from the second or dominant language and distinctive patterns of development from monolingual peers. Although most authors agree on a cut-off point ending at the age of 3;0 to differentiate simultaneous versus sequential bilingualism, age of onset of acquisition does not condition the degree of bilingual development of the child (e.g., Â�Grosjean 1989). Within bilingual populations, there is a wide range of variation of the relative dominance and acquired abilities in each of the languages. Socio-cultural and linguistic factors such as motivation, parental language use, educational access and length of exposure to each language are important determinants in bilingual dominance and attainment (e.g., Hakuta and D’Andrea 1992; Grosjean 1989; Jia 1998). In situations where the input available in one language is reduced, the less accessible language – often the minority family language – develops more slowly and bilinguals show patterns of transfer and difficulties sometimes comparable to those of L2 learners (e.g., Cuza 2010; Schlyter 1993). Many bilinguals within minority language communities do not develop full competence in the heritage language. This is a common scenario for Spanish heritage speakers in the US and Canada who show incomplete acquisition of their first language in areas such as tense and aspect (e.g., Montrul 2002; Potowski 2005; Silva-Corvalán 1994, 2003; Zentella 1997), gender agreement (e.g., Montrul and Potowski 2008) or knowledge of morphosyntactic and semantic features (e.g., Montrul 2005). These authors primarily attribute heritage language incompleteness to insufficient exposure to the home language. The success of simultaneous bilingual children at bilingual development is an argument for the robustness of the language acquisition device under conditions of reduced input (e.g., Paradis and Genesee 1996). However, at some point, when sharing the input time in one language approaches the limits of the capabilities of the system, acquisition is placed at risk. Contra Meisel (2007a), who defines bilingual success as full convergence with two first languages, we adopt a broader notion of bilingual success as the attainment of some degree of fluency in both languages, even if development is asymmetric to the extent that it results

152 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

in incomplete acquisition in the language that is weaker in development or less preferred in use. The question we ask is what conditions and practices at home support successful bilingual development, when the outside environment offers limited support.

2.2 Language maintenance and shift in bilingual communities Traditionally, language attitudes (i.e., favorable or unfavorable dispositions to a language variety or to bilingualism) have been recognized as an influential variable in language maintenance or shift in minority language communities (e.g., Atzen 1988; Lambert 2008; López-Morales 1993; Romaine 1995). The extent of retention of the minority language depends both on objective and subjective factors (e.g., Weinreich 1974). While external factors such as demographic density, endogamy, economic situation of the subgroup, and governmental policy are important determinants of language maintenance, one can argue that family transmission practices are equally fundamental. However, little is known to what extent the attitudes and beliefs specifically shape family language transmission. For Hispanic families in Western Canada (Guardado in press), the crucial variables favoring the maintenance of the minority language may be cultural awareness and familism (family ties and communication). Guardado found that the level of cultural awareness was directly related to the level of cultural identity and commitment to the maintenance of the home language among Spanishspeaking families in Vancouver. He concludes that the most culturally aware immigrant families are more likely to raise their children bilingual and to preserve strong cultural ties (Guardado in press:â•›11). So, what is the basis of extended family orientation or familismo? Family orientation is probably an expression of the more general notion of ethnolinguistic vitality. Perception of ethnolingulistic vitality is a related but different construct from language attitudes. Vitality refers to the beliefs about a group that makes it likely to behave as a distinctive and active collective entity in inter-group relations (e.g., Bourhis Giles and Rosenthal 1981; Giles, Bourhis and Taylor 1977). One could have positive beliefs about the minority language, but not engage in the relevant language practices if one believes that the ethnolinguistic group is not likely to remain distinct. Results on the predictive power of ethnolinguistic vitality are mixed (e.g., Köpke 2004). For instance, Yagmur, de Bot and Korzilius (1999) examined the role of subjective ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions in the maintenance of Turkish in Australia. Participants reported that preserving Turkish was very important for self-identity but the data from the ethnolinguistic vitality questionnaires showed very low group vitality for Turkish, and no direct



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 153

correlation between actual linguistic performance and participants’ ethnolinguistic vitality perceptions and language attitude. However, other studies suggest that attitude and autobiographical factors have an important role in L1 attrition (e.g., Schmid 2002). Schmid (2002) studied German Jewish immigrants to the U.K and the U.S and found that the degree of attrition among the three different groups was much more significant among the speakers that immigrated during the time of more intense political persecution. She also found a correlation between attrition and other external factors such as level of education, length of immigration and ethnicity. The studies above all investigate language maintenance in adults. Can attitudes determine the language affiliation of young bilinguals? In a study on the role of language attitude and the maintenance of Catalan in Mallorca, Pieras-Guasp (2002) found that Catalan/Spanish bilingual adolescents valued their language mostly for instrumental purposes, but showed no interest in Catalan for social interaction. Pieras-Guasp predicted that attitudinal conditions in the younger generation would limit the future success of language maintenance goals. Crucially, attitudinal and environmental variables may function differently across the lifespan in the acquisition of the dominant L2 and in the maintenance or attrition of the L1 (e.g., Jia 1998; Potowski 2004; Schmid 2002). Jia (1998) studied how environmental factors related to age of arrival in the L2 setting determine the English language performance of Chinese children in New York City. Jia’s data replicated age effects in the second language acquisition of children and adults but she used it to question the view that age effects are due to biological differences (i.e., on critical periods on language learning). She found an inverse relationship between L1 and L2 proficiency, and strong association between L2 proficiency and communicative networks in the L2. She argues that age effects should be reconsidered in terms of children’s capacity to integrate to the new culture and establish strong new socio-cultural networks, and their willingness to join language networks in the L2. The older immigrants in her study often made social choices that put them in contact with speakers of their L1 resulting in limited exposure to the L2. Their recognition of the instrumental value of the new language did not lead them to make personal choices that led to the development of a new linguistic identity. Potowski (2004) also observed a tendency of children to integrate into their peer culture in the dominant L2. She noted that dual-language immersion Hispanic children in Chicago used Spanish almost exclusively to speak to the teacher (82%) while they communicated mostly in English (68%) among themselves and peers. English was the dominant choice for popular culture topics. Hakuta and D’Andrea (1992) studied the maintenance of Spanish among 308 high school students of Mexican background in Northern California. The adolescents in their study spoke the language mainly at home with their parents, but

154 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

outside the parental environment there was a rapid shift towards English. Their findings strongly suggested that Spanish proficiency among young bilinguals is primarily associated with adult language input and practice at home, rather than with attitude itself. However, choice of language outside the home (English) was predicted by the speaker’s attitude to the language, not by language proficiency. In sum, while there is some evidence of a relationship between attitudes and maintenance, and to attitudes as capable of shaping the language practices of youth, these studies do not directly consider transmission, i.e., whether families are able to establish conditions for the home language to lead to successful bilingual acquisition.

2.3

Family language transmission

Family language transmission refers to the intergenerational transmission of a minority language within the family unit (e.g., Döpke 1992; Fishman 1991; Â�Lambert 2008; Romaine 1995). The day-to-day communication in the family language is established either because the parents are not fluent in the societal/dominant language (default transmission) or because they have made the informed choice to raise bilingual children as an act of identity and linguistic family planning (strategic transmission) (e.g., Cunninham-Andersson and Andersoon 2004; Lambert 2008). On the opposite spectrum, there are bilingual parents with an ethnic link to the family language who sometimes opt for no family language transmission (e.g., Ager 2001; Lambert 2008). Another common transmission scenario is when bilingual parents with a direct ethnic link speak to their children consistently in the family language, but have no expectations or intentions of developing productive skills (oral or written). The goal and expectation of the parent is that the child understands what she/he is saying, and that often suffices. The intent of the parent is to foster receptive bilingualism rather than communicative competence or productive skills. As pointed out by Lambert (2008), the parent’s motives, attitudes and expectations determine the transmission strategies to be used, and, ultimately, the type of bilingualism and language dominance achieved by the child.



3.

6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 155

Methods and participants

3.1 Context We designed a parent-child study to explore language transmission and language competence in simultaneous and sequential bilingual children growing up in Toronto, which has the greatest concentration of Hispanics in Canada. The Greater Toronto Area (GTA), the largest urban setting in Canada, represents an intensely multilingual environment. Telephone-based services and public interest documentation is commonly offered in dozens of languages. Schools routinely offer interpretation services and circulate information to parents in half a dozen languages, which vary across neighborhoods. In the 2006 Statistics Canada Census, only 54.1% of the GTA families reported English as a mother tongue, an additional 1.2% reported French, and the remainder report a non-official language. The most common non-official languages are the Chinese languages (8.1%) (primarily Cantonese, Mandarin, and Hakka), followed by Italian (3.7%) and Punjabi (2.6%), Spanish (2.4%), Portuguese (2.3%) and Tagalog (1.9%). More than one third of Canadians that report Spanish as their mother tongue live in this multilingual area. In sum, the community conditions are favorable to bilingualism in terms of general positive attitudes to multilingualism, but demographically unfavorable since the overall density of Spanish speakers is low.

3.2

Participants

We recruited seventeen families from the GTA. In these families, the children spoke Spanish; the parents had knowledge of the majority language (English), had a direct ethnic link with the family language and had made the choice to raise their children as bilinguals. Most of the families in our study had low socioeconomic status. They had few economic resources, few travel opportunities and lived in communities where English was dominant. These families showed high levels of language maintenance motivation and language identity. Six of these families had sibling pairs, so that a total of 23 children were interviewed. We recruited families from three main areas within the GTA characterized by relatively higher and lower density of Hispanics. The high-density areas included Toronto West and the downtown core. A total of 10 children came from these two areas. These neighborhoods were considered as high density due to the large number of Hispanic families located in them, and they are described as within the top 50 areas of Spanish mother-tongue distribution in Toronto (Farley and Listar 2007).

156 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

The Community and Neighborhood Services analysis based on the 2001 Census also shows higher density of Spanish households in the northwest areas of the city. Thirteen children came from these lower-density areas, located north of the city such as Richmond Hill and Markham. The majority mother-tongue distribution in these parts of the city is Italian and Chinese and fewer Spanish-speaking families reside in here in comparison to Toronto West and the downtown core. Most families came from Mexico, with one family from El Salvador, two from Colombia, and one from Argentina. All parents were sequential bilinguals, born and raised in their country of origin (first generation speakers). Following standard criteria (e.g., Genesee, Paradis and Crago 2004), children were classified into a simultaneous bilingual group, i.e., those born in Canada or the U.S., or who arrived before the age of 3 (N = 13), and a sequential bilingual group, i.e., born outside of Canada or the U.S. and only initiated contact with English after 3;0 (N€=€10). The simultaneous bilingual children ranged in age from 3;0 to 7;9 (mean€5;2), and their families had been in the US or Canada between 5 and 20 years (except for a younger child, aged 3, whose family moved 2 years ago). The sequential bilingual group was older, ranging in age from 4;9 to 8;4 (mean 6;3). Length of residence in Canada for these families was between 1 and 2 years, except for two siblings and another child who had arrived just 8 and 7 months before the time of the interview, respectively.

3.3 Parent instruments Parents were asked to complete questionnaires about their language abilities, the language situation and language abilities of the child, their attitudes to the Spanish language and to bilingualism and the general ethnolinguistic characteristics of their community. These instruments were administered in Spanish, unless the parent requested an English version, and included the following five components: 1. Parental language history questionnaire. This survey elicited information on occupation, languages of education, educational level, age of onset of bilingualism, length of residence in Canada, parents’ L1, present contact with Spanish and English, how frequent they visit Spanish-speaking countries and self assessment of L2 language ability among other topics. 2. Attitude to bilingualism questionnaire (adapted from Pieras-Guasp 2002). This survey included 33 questions on parents’ instrumental and integrative/ personal attitudes to bilingualism in general and Spanish–English bilingualism in specific within the Canadian context.



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 157

3. Attitude to Spanish language questionnaire. Parents responded to specific questions about their perceived vitality and importance of the Spanish language and culture. 4. Community characteristics/ethonolinguistic vitality questionnaire. The purpose of this questionnaire was to evaluate the ethonolinguistic vitality of each community (e.g., Bourhis, Giles and Rosenthal 1981). It included questions on the demography and status of the community (e.g., local businesses, proportion of members, economic wealth and prestige, social status) as well as on how integrated the members of the community were. 5. Child language background questionnaire (adapted from Paradis, Nicoladis and Crago 2007). The child language background questionnaire requested overall fluency ratings from not fluent, somewhat fluent, quite fluent to completely fluent. Ratings were requested for child, mother, siblings, in addition to other main caregivers, such as babysitter or grand parents, plus additional questions about the language environment, including levels of exposure and preferred language by activities, and language of daily use by settings. An additional set of questions about home language practices (language choice, feedback and repair strategies), was included as a final section to the standard children’s language history (Appendix A).

3.4

Child instruments

The children’s involvement in the study included the following components: a Spanish speech sample taken from the child, an elicited imitation task, and an interview that covered the child’s beliefs about language and bilingualism. The speech sample contained both an elicited narrative, and a segment of conversational interaction. For the elicited narrative, children were asked to retell a fairy tale in both English and Spanish, using a wordless picture book. The children chose a book (from a choice of Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White and Cinderella) and proceeded to tell the story on the basis of the images. They told the story first in Spanish and then in English, each time to one of the testers according to their native language. Narratives were digitally recorded and later transcribed for analysis. As an additional measure of language skill in Spanish, an elicited imitation task was employed (e.g., Crain and Thornton 1998). Studies of literacy skills have shown that sequential bilinguals have significantly lower scores in non-word repetition tasks (e.g., Lipka, Siegel and Vukovic 2005). Therefore, we proposed to test whether a repetition task could be used to measure retention of proficiency in Spanish. We adapted the test in Eisenchlas’ (2003) study of Spanish monolinguals,

158 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

which targeted the position of enclitic/proclitic pronouns. The sentences included 8 clitic tokens (4 proclitic and 4 enclitic) plus 6 additional non-clitic items. They were of comparable complexity, and ranged in length from 8–10 words including the clitic, as shown in examples in (1): (1) a. Por la tarde Aladín quiere darme un caramelo.  “In the afternoon, Aladdin wants to give me a candy.”



(Enclitic)



b. La princesa Jasmín lo puede ver esta noche.  “Princess Jasmin can see him tonight.” c. Dora juega con sus amigas en el parque.  “Dora plays with her friends in the park.”

(Proclitic) (Non-clitic control)

Children were instructed to repeat as much as they could remember. The native Spanish interviewer then read target sentences, twice if necessary. Performance was measured by calculating the proportion of words correctly repeated, and the correct proportion of sentences repeated with the correct word order. The attitude component of the interview was conducted in English, by another bilingual interviewer who presented herself as not fluent in Spanish. The interview followed a set of questions about attitudes to Spanish and bilingualism. Our goal in including this part of the interview was to assess children’s understanding of their own bilingual situation, their language preference, their feelings about being bilingual and about speaking Spanish, and their views on who spoke which language in their social and familial networks. There is some data on children’s sensitivity to bilingual situations in terms of language choice, and communication repair strategies. Comeau and Genesee (2001) show that bilingual children as young as two and a half use code switching as a strategy to repair communication breakdowns, differentiating language from other kinds of communication breakdowns. However, there is little beyond anecdotal evidence about children’s experiences and their perceptions of their bilingual situation.

4.

Results

4.1

Language dominance and general language measures

We first examined these bilingual children’s success at developing and retaining Spanish by considering parental reports of fluency in their two languages. To calculate dominance, the scores given to fluency in Spanish were subtracted from those given to English. Unsurprisingly, parental reports described the simultaneous bilingual children as less dominant in Spanish than sequential bilinguals. In both groups there was a wide range of dominance ratings, but the simultaneous



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 159

bilinguals were mostly balanced or English-dominant, whereas the sequential children tend to be Spanish dominant. Figure 2 reports the observed counts of children in each group, rated as balanced (dominance = 0), or English dominant (negative portion of scale), or Spanish dominant (positive side of scale, with 3 = as Spanish monolingual). 6

Observed number of children

5

4

3

2

1

0

–3

–2

–1

0

1

English dominance

2

3

Spanish dominance Simultaneous

Sequential

Figure 1.╇ Parental reports of language dominance for sequential and simultaneous bilingual children (observed number of children)

Children’s elicited narratives were transcribed and analyzed for productivity, measured in terms of total number of clauses or Terminable Units, which include a main clause and dependents (Castilla 2008), and complexity, measured in terms of subordination index. The subordination index is the ratio of total number of clauses over number of T-units. Table 1 shows that the older Spanish dominant sequential children produced longer narratives in Spanish, and a slightly higher rate of subordinate clauses than their simultaneous counterparts. The sequential children also produce more sentences in Spanish than in English, unlike the simultaneous children, who are only slightly more productive in Spanish. Subordination scores are higher in English in both groups. The two groups are undistinguishable in terms of their measures of productivity and complexity in English.

160 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

Table 1.╇ Children scores on measures of productivity and complexity in both languages Age in months

Simultaneous 41 43 46 46 46 48 59 66 81 81 81 83 93 Means 62.61 Sequentials 57 60 66 70 72 76 78 82 95 100 Means 75.6

Reported child dominance

Number of T-units in Spanish

Sub. index in Spanish

Number of T Units in English

Sub. index in English

3 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 0 −2 −2 −1 −1 0.23

36 38 76 21 20 3 26 47 47 32 66 36 41 37.6

1.14 1.29 1.04 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.00 1.11 1.04 1.06 1.02 1.31 1.07 1.08

15.00 15.00 29.00 11.00 â•⁄ 2.00 15.00 38.00 57.00 45.00 30.00 34.00 52.00 28.58

1.40 1.00 1.48 1.09 1.50 1.07 1.29 1.58 1.44 1.47 1.18 1.52 1.33

1 2 0 3 1 1 1 2 1 0 1.2

116 59 40 39 52 61 57 94 61 20 59.9

1.17 1.05 1.20 1.03 1.00 1.23 1.11 1.47 1.05 1.10 1.14

31.00 â•⁄ 5.00 47.00 13.00 22.00 28.00 37.00 47.00 46.00 12.00 28.80

1.19 1.00 1.57 1.31 1.14 1.18 1.51 1.21 1.41 1.75 1.33

We tested the associations between these measures and parental reports of child language dominance. Parental report was not well correlated with productivity and complexity measures. We found no significant correlations between reported dominance and productivity and complexity measures, except for the subordination index in English, which showed a significant negative correlation with the parental report of dominance (r = −.473, p = .03).



4.2

6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 161

Results on elicited imitation

Performance on the sentence imitation task showed that the sequential bilingual children performed better on both the proportion of words correctly imitated, and on the proportion of sentences with the correct clitic order. Group means and standard deviations are reported in Table 2. Table 2.╇ Performance on the elicited imitation task for simultaneous and sequential bilingual children

Simultaneous Sequential

Mean proportion of words correctly repeated

Mean proportion of utterances repeated with correct clitic order

.81 (sd = .14) .94 (sd = .03)

.40 (sd = .27) .61 (sd = .19)

The relationship between parental dominance reports and performance in the imitation task was examined using partial correlations that controlled for age. The parental dominance report showed a significant positive correlation with the proportion of words correctly imitated (r = .681, p = .002), and a positive, but nonsignificant, correlation with percentage of utterances where the clitic word order was repeated correctly (r = .338, p = .15). These correlations suggest that elicited imitation provides a good assessment of children’s Spanish ability. To compare the performance across groups, we corrected the age imbalance between the simultaneous and bilingual children by eliminating 5 of the younger children in the simultaneous group. This rendered the age groups more comparable, as the corrected mean age of the simultaneous group raised to 7;3.7 (N =€8), just two months younger than the sequential groups (mean = 7;5.6, N = 10). The difference between the proportion of words correctly imitated across groups was found to be significant even after correcting for age (F1,16 = 6.676, p = .02). The difference between the proportion of sentences with the correct clitic order approached significance at (F1,16 = 3.955, p = .06).

4.3 Perception and attitudes of the bilingual families The families of simultaneous bilinguals were primarily from low-density neighborhoods (7/9), while families that arrived more recently tended to live in the high-density neighborhoods (7/8). Neighborhood selection itself did not make a difference for the average responses to the questionnaire on neighborhood density. In general, families tended to describe their neighborhoods as allowing low access to contact with other speakers and resources in Spanish. The recently �arrived

162 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

families were more likely to describe their neighborhoods as having some Spanish speakers, and as having some degree of contact with Spanish in their community. Similarly, these families were more likely to give positive responses to questions about the ethnolinguistic vitality of the Spanish speaking community than the families that had immigrated earlier. With regards to attitudes to bilingualism, or attitudes to Spanish, the differences across the families were slight. Of the seventeen families, three strongly agreed with all positive statements about Spanish, nine tended to agree, and five others expressed neutral attitudes on the average. None of the parents provided answers in the negative range of the scale. Family’s attitudes to Spanish and their expressed attitudes to bilingualism were strongly correlated (r = .82), with most families agreeing with positive statements to Spanish. Interestingly, more of the recently arrived families had a more neutral stance towards Spanish than longtime resident families. One possibility is that the recent arrivals place more instrumental value on mastery of English, and only later feel the desire to maintain Spanish. Shenk (2008), in a study of kindergarteners and second grade students who choose to speak Spanish, describes a parent who switched orientation after immigration. This father favored learning English when he lived in Mexico, for the instrumental value it offered. Once in the U.S., his focus shifted towards Spanish retention. This parent consistently saw bilingualism as both granting economic and cultural benefits, but his relative orientation towards Spanish changed in response to the external setting. Table 3 summarizes the scores across the various variables for the families of simultaneous and sequential bilingual children. Table 3.╇ Average scores per family type to responses about perception of community density, ethnolinguistic vitality of the community, and attitudes to the Spanish language and to bilingualism in general. Scored ranged from 0 (none/never/strongly disagree) to 5 (many/very frequent/strongly agree) Family types Simultaneous bilinguals (Early arrivals) (N = 10) Sequential bilinguals (Recent arrivals)(N = 8)

Community Ethnolinguistic density vitality

Attitudes to Spanish

Attitudes to bilingualism

1.68

2.41

4.07

3.88

3.15

3.11

3.79

3.96

There were some differences between recent arrivals and long-time resident families in Toronto. More of the recent arrivals lived in the high-density core of the city, and consequently reported greater contact with the language and access to other speakers. They also tended to agree more with statements about the vitality



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 163

of the language in the community. Curiously, all but one of the adult respondents grossly overestimated the percentage of speakers in the area: estimates ranged from 10 to 40 percent. There were no differences among families in term of attitudes to bilingualism, which was primarily positive, with some wider differentiation in the questionnaires on attitudes to Spanish.

4.4

Characteristics of the home context of bilingual children

We also analyzed the results on the portion of the questionnaires devoted to questions about the language within the home environment. The more obvious differences between the families were, naturally, related to the length of stay. The sequential bilinguals had families that were much more dominant in Spanish, and the children were also described by their parents more often as Spanish-dominantÂ�. Furthermore, these children, according to parental reports, were more likely to have less exposure to English during daytime/outside the home settings. We observed no differences in the parental report of children’s preferred language choice in interactions with various family members. However, parents of sequential bilinguals described themselves as initiating a conversation in Spanish very frequently or always, whereas parents of simultaneous bilinguals reported initiating an exchange in Spanish at slightly lower rates. When a child spoke in Spanish, adults in both groups consistently report responding in Spanish. When the child spoke in English, on the average, families of sequential bilinguals more frequently reported following up with English rather than switching to Spanish. There were few differences between the two groups in the parental response when the child changed the language of the conversation. Few parents corrected the child who spoke Spanish in an English conversation, unless the interlocutor was a monolingual English speaker, in which case parents tended to remind the children of this fact. Some parents reported correcting grammatical errors, and others reported reminding children of how things are said in English. When the conversation was in Spanish, and the child switched to English, parents reported correcting around 70% of the time, just slightly less than when the other interlocutor was a Spanish monolingual. Parental feedback was slightly different in quality: use of Spanish is directly encouraged with expression such as habla español (Fam4) (“speak Spanish”), contesta en el idioma en que se te habla (Fam13) (“reply in the language in which you are addressed”), or in our family we speak Spanish (Fam9). Again, there were no differences in reported response across family types. We also found no difference between groups in the reported frequency of mixing, with most parents reporting regular to occasional mixing. The most common parental response of the simultaneous bilinguals was single-language recast,

164 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

where the parent repeats the utterance without mixing, with other parents reporting making explicit observations to the child. For the families of sequential bilinguals, half of the families had similar patterns, but half of them also reported explicit negative feedback. In the words of one parent: “cuando se habla una frase, que se diga toda en español y toda la frase en inglés sin mezclar una con la otra” (Fam16) (“when you say a phrase, it should be all in Spanish or all in English without mixing one language with the other”). Overall, this data suggests continuity in home language practices as time goes by in terms of response to children’s language switching and language mixing. Recent arrivals were no different from the families that had been living here for several years and were raising simultaneous bilinguals. We interpret the absence of difference to indicate that language practices within these bilingual families are not necessarily changing as time goes by. There were also little differences in the reported preferred language of interaction with family members, and only small differences in how adults report their interactions with their bilingual children when these children spoke in English, with the more recent immigrants describing more supportive actions towards their children’s English. We explored the statistical association between the various variables for family conditions and child dominance. The most significant variable associated with dominance was the time spent in an English speaking environment (r = −.685, p€<€.000), followed by parental initiation in Spanish (r = .602, p = .002). To examine whether attitude had an effect on language practices at home, families were split into those with average attitude scores around the positive range, to those in the very positive range. The results reported on Table 4 show some differences for attitude groups, more visibly in the case of the simultaneous bilinguals. However, these differences were not significant. Table 4.╇ Average ratings on contextual variables (family members dominance, daytime exposure and parental initiation) and child dominance across attitude stance in families Average dominance of family members (−3 to 3)

Proportion of daytime exposure in Spanish (0–1)

Parental initiation in Spanish 0 to 5

Child dominance

Simultaneous neutral

0.38

0.67

4.67

0.83

Simultaneous positive

0.33

0.46

3.29

−0.29

Sequential neutral Sequential positive

1.50 1.40

0.26 0.25

4.50 4.50

1.50 1.20

−3 to 3



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 165

The data suggest that attitude was unrelated to language dominance of family members for the simultaneous and sequential bilinguals, and had little or no effect in parental response to child language switch. The effect of attitude was apparent only for the simultaneous bilingual groups, in terms of the degree of parental initiation, and the degree of Spanish exposure during daytime outside the home activities. In sum, we find some trends suggesting that parent’s choices and attitudes may create the conditions to sustain Spanish dominance in the simultaneous bilinguals, and to assist in the retention of Spanish dominance in the sequential bilinguals. However, the limits of this exploratory study prevents statistical confirmation of this trend.

4.5 Children’s own attitudes and perceptions The child interview asked whether the children themselves liked speaking two languages, how come they were able to, who spoke which language among their families and friends, and which language they preferred to speak and why. Nineteen children completed the interview. While these children were not always willing to state a language preference, or to discuss their attitudes, they were clearly able to describe to whom they spoke which language, and they often linked their attitudes to these interactions. In this part of the interview, children frequently confirmed parental report of the linguistic situation: Spanish was spoken mostly by other family members, but friends at school spoke mostly or all in English, corroborating previous studies (e.g., Potowski 2004). Only a handful of the children reported that they knew one other child who also spoke Spanish. One child (EM€4;11) said that he generally spoke Spanish in school, and gave a positive answer when the interviewer asked if many children spoke in Spanish. He was then contradicted by his older brother, aged 10, who explained to the interviewer that only one of the school friends actually spoke Spanish. Most children did not respond to the question of how they learned each language. A few of these children were able to point out to context (learning Spanish from parents/English at school), and yet others answered “by myself ”. A few of them acknowledged that speaking two languages was a bit difficult. Lexical gaps, or inability to understand or say certain things, were the most common explanations provided about why they thought that being bilingual was hard. One child (JPM 7;9) described Spanish as hard because there were words he did not know. His description of his Spanish ability as low does not match either the parental report nor the interviewers’ direct observation (see (2)). A six-year old sequential child, provides a similar explanation, shown in (3).

166 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

(2)

*JPM: It was hard for me *DLT: Yeah? Is it hard for you to speak or no? *JPM: Kind of hard. *DLT: A little bit? Why? *JPM: Cause I still cause there’s some words I don’t know in Spanish *DLT: so you have to practice? So how is it that you know both though? How do you know both English and Spanish? *JPM: I don’t know; I don’t really speak Spanish. *DLT: Well I heard you speaking […] *MOT: Sí hablas…  (JPM 7;9)

(3)

*DLT: is it hard or is it easy to speak both languages? *DAN: sometimes when we have it’s a little bit hard *DLT: oh really? Why? *DAN: because sometimes I don’t know the question 

(DAN 6;10)

And yet another sequential child described being comfortable with both languages, because of the separation by situation: (4)

*DLT: *ADE: *DLT: *ADE:

Now is it hard to speak both Spanish and English or is it easy? easy It’s really easy, why do you think so? because sometimes at school I talk English and in my home I talk Spanish and then I start getting it.  (ADE 5;6)

With respect to attitudes, children generally reported that they liked Spanish, and liked being able to speak in two languages. Among the children in the simultaneous group who completed the interview (n = 9), one child did not state a specific preference, and the others were equally divided among those who preferred English and those who preferred Spanish. There was no correlation between the children’s preferences and the parental responses in the attitude questionnaires. It is important to recall that there were no families with explicit negative attitudes in our sample. This may reflect either a general positive stance towards multilingualism in the Toronto community, or a self-selection bias for individuals with a positive attitude to participate in our study. Surprisingly, more children in the families that expressed positive or highly positive attitudes to Spanish and bilingualism reported a preference for English. These data are presented in Table 5.



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 167

Table 5.╇ Number of simultaneous bilingual children who declared a language preference, according to their family’s ratings of attitude towards the Spanish language Child preference

Neutral family stance

Positive family stance

For Spanish For English No preference

3 0 0

1 4 1

As mentioned above, the families of sequential bilinguals expressed more neutral attitudes towards the language, but most of their children showed no preference towards either language. Among the sequential families with positive attitudes towards Spanish and towards bilingualism, most children preferred English, with one child enthusiastically expressing a preference for both languages. This is summarized in Table 6. Table 6.╇ Number of sequential bilingual children who declared a language preference according to their family’s ratings of attitude towards the Spanish language Child preference

Neutral family stance

Positive family stance

For Spanish

1

0

For English

2

3

No preference

3

1

Taken together, these responses already indicate a language orientation towards English. Interestingly, when asked to explain their preference, many of the children, expressed their preference in terms of their ability, even when this justified choices in the direction opposite to their actual language dominance. For example, a seven year-old sequential child described as Spanish dominant declares she prefers English because it is easier: (5)

*DLT: *LIN: *DLT: *LIN: *DLT: *LIN:

and which language did you tell me you like speaking more? English and why English? because it’s more easy Ok and Spanish is a little bit harder? Why is it hard? cause sometime I cannot say it the words.  (LIN, 7;11)

There were some other types of responses. One child explained his preference for Spanish in terms of family affiliations (6). Yet another sequential child, described as a strongly Spanish dominant, explains that she prefers English because that is what their friends speak (7).

168 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

(6)

*DLT: Which one do you like more? *ANG: Spanish *DLT: You do. Why? *ANG: Because it’s what my dad and mom speak 

(ANG, 6;11)

(7) *KAR: English. *DLT: You like English more. Really? Why? *KAR: Because I # Because I like # because # because my friends speak English  (KAR, 5;10)

Two children pinpointed to school interactions as the source of choosing English. One girl (IVA 6;8) explained that she “hated Spanish” because her friend said he did. Another girl, also a sequential bilingual, says she prefers speaking English, even when her friends also spoke Spanish, because it can create conflict. (8) *DLT: *MIR:

Why do you speak English with your friends? Yeah and sometimes when I speak Spanish to the people that speak Spanish some other people think they’re talking bad about them and some people feel left out. (MIR 8;4)

In sum, these children are already developing a language orientation which may determine their future language choices, and possibly their future ability. Interestingly, it is not clear that the parental attitudes are a determinant factor, as children’s declared preferences seem unrelated to parental overall attitudes to bilingualism and to the Spanish language. Instead, when asked to explain their preferences, these children mainly pointed to their perceived abilities, and experience of successful or unsuccessful use. While all children demonstrated clear awareness of the language affiliation and abilities of the members of their social network, some of these children were able to establish a link between their own current preference, and specific interactions with their peers.

5.

Conclusions

The families we interviewed had, for the most part, favorable views towards the Spanish language and towards bilingualism in general. This matches the overall stance of the Toronto community, where languages and diverse ethnic backgrounds are accepted as the norm, and there is an abundance of multilingual media, street signs, language services in government, education and commercial establishments and community support for ethnic celebrations. Whether they lived in the downtown core, or in the more dispersed neighborhoods around the Greater Toronto Area, the community conditions for our bilingual families were



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 169

not radically different. Newly arrived families (the sequential bilingual children and their parents) were living in the more dense downtown areas, while the simultaneous bilinguals tended to come from the less dense suburban context. There were no great differences in language practices among these two types of families. Parental interaction around language switching appeared to be fairly neutral, and parental feedback seemed to be more concerned with repairing conversational exchange, than on enforcing the use of one language or the other. Parents of sequential bilinguals more often reported they reacted to their children’s code-switching, but there was no overall effect of attitude to code-switching and dominance. Overall, these recent immigrant families showed a slight trend towards more maintenance of a Spanish-home language policy, but also seemed more willing to provide English language support for their children. Differences between the two groups of families in terms of the attitudes were small. However, despite the small range elicited, these were related to family practice in two of the dimensions assessed: the proportion of parental conversation initiated in Spanish, and the degree of exposure outside the home (via school or social networks). Although these differences were modest, they seemed to be enough to have an impact on the language dominance of the children, particularly in the case of the simultaneous bilinguals. There is one potential methodological concern, the question of whether parental attitude is determining actual dominance, or parental perception of child dominance. However, it is worth noting that the validity of parental rating is clearly supported by the correlation data with the objective measures in the language tasks, particularly in the case of the elicited imitation task, and the English measures of complexity. Spanish narrative data is less strong, suggesting the need for more research on language measures for bilingual children. The opposite methodological concern is also an issue: that the narrowness of the population selected masked the true size of the effects, since our selection strategy targeted successful families (i.e., where the children maintained Spanish), which also happened to have attitudes in the neutral to positive range. Unfortunately, we lack general data on maintenance trends among the Toronto Hispanic population. To conclude, these bilingual Hispanic children in Toronto remain speakers of the language, and are growing up in families actively engaging in language transmission. During these preschool and early school years, half of the simultaneous bilinguals retain a Spanish dominance affiliation, and in many ways appear to be quantitative but not qualitatively different from the more recently arrived sequential bilinguals. The family conditions and external environments of these two sets of children retain their characteristics over time, but the families with more positive orientation engage in language practices that favor maintenance, such as initiation of conversations in Spanish.

170 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

Predicting language outcome in bilingual children is the result of a complex web of factors, some social, some familial, some linguistic. Minimally, one can assume that input conditions are the single most relevant determinant factor, and that these can fluctuate in the course of the life of a young bilingual. Input conditions for younger children depend primarily on the various household members, and their language practices i.e., how often they speak in each language during the language transmission process. Adult language practices are determined by their life experience, their attitudes towards majority and minority language, and possibly, by their perceptions of the vitality of their linguistic community. In addition to these, child input conditions are also partly determined by the external context, such as how much access to the Spanish language there is outside the home, both through the media as well as by means of passive exposure; how many additional relevant conversational partners will the child be able to encounter outside the home, etc. For school-aged children, clearly, the school setting is a crucial determinant. Finally, it is conceivable, as suggested by Meisel (2007b), that the young bilingual could also exhibit language preferences that could to a certain extent be independent of input conditions. Whether these language preferences or language orientation are determined by child attitudes and beliefs is an open question. We propose thus a multidimensional model of language transmission in bilingual families, as shown below:

Home Language Practice TRANSMISSION

TRANSMISSION Language in Community

Adult Language Practice

Child Language Competence

Figure 2.╇ Dimensions of language transmission

TRANSMISSION

Adult Language Attitudes

Language in Community

Child Language Attitudes



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 171

In this model, the adult dimensions of language (both subjective, i.e., attitudes, and objective, i.e., language at home and at the community), determine the transmission process (the home language practice), and this in turn is the primary determinant of the child dimension of use, at least in the initial phase of childhood, and possibly reversed at the onset of schooling. In addition to this, attitude, both in the adult and the child, may have a direct role. Finally, the family language transmission is likely to be affected by the community conditions. We hypothesize that all these factors determine child language use, but that language practices at home are the crucial determinants of bilingual success. While we don’t know how many of these children of the Hispanic diaspora in Toronto will grow up to be full participants in their heritage language community, three notions emerge from our study: (1) that the potential for language maintenance exists; (2) that family choices can make a difference; (3) and that the future Spanish of these young speakers will exhibit their own distinct features; the structural footprints of their bilingual status.

References Ager, D. 2001. Motivation in Language Planning and Language Policy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Atzen, I. 1988. Attitudes, Personality and Behavior. Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Baker, C. 1992. Attitudes and Language. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Bourhis, R., Giles, H. & Rosenthal, D. 1981. Notes on the construction of a ‘subjective vitality questionnaire’ for ethnolinguistic groups. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 2(2): 145–155. Castilla, A. 2008. Developmental Measures in Spanish Acquisition. PhD dissertation, University of Toronto. Comeau, L. & Genesee, F. 2001. Bilingual children's repair strategies during dyadic communication. In Trends in Bilingual Acquisition [Trends in Language Acquisition Research 1], J.€Cenoz & F. Genesee (eds), 231–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Coté, P. & Clement, R. 1994. Language attitude. An interactive situated approach. Language and Communication 14: 237–251. Crain, S. & Thornton, R. 1998. Investigations in Universal Grammar: A Guide to Experiments on the Acquisition of Syntax and Semantics. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Cunninham-Andersson, U. & Andersoon, S. 2004. Growing Up With Two Languages. A Practical Guide. London: Routledge. Cuza, A. 2010. The L2 acquisition of aspectual properties in Spanish. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 55(2): 1001–1028. De Houwer, A. 1994. The Acquisition of Two Languages From Birth: A Case Study. Cambridge: CUP. Döpke, S. 1992. One Parent–One Language: An Interactional Approach [Studies in Bilingualism€3]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

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Eisenchlas, S. 2003. Clitics in child Spanish. First Language 23(2): 193–211. Farley, C. & Listar, D. 2007. The language quilt. The Toronto Star. <www3.thestar.com/static/ PDF/20071230_ID06.pdf> Fishman, J. 1991. Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Genesee, F., Paradis, J. & Crago, M. 2004. Dual Language Development and Disorders: A Handbook on Bilingualism and Second Language Learning. Baltimore MD: Brookes. Giles, H., Bourhis, R. Y. & Taylor, D. M. 1977. Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relations. In Language, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations, H. Giles (ed.), 307–348. New York NY: Academic Press. Grosjean, F. 1989. Neurolinguists beware! The bilingual is not two monolinguals in one person. Brain and Language 36: 3–15. Guardado, M. In press. Language, identity and cultural awareness in Spanish-speaking Families. Canadian Ethic Studies. Hakuta, K. & D’Andrea, D. 1992. Some properties of bilingual maintenance and loss in Mexican background high school students. Applied Linguistics 13: 72–99. Jia, G. 1998. Beyond Brain Maturation: The Critical Period Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition Revisited. PhD dissertation, New York University. Köpke, B. 2004. Neurolinguistic aspects of attrition. Journal of Neurolinguistics 17: 3–30. Lambert, B. 2008. Family Language Transmission: Actors, Issues, Outcomes. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Lipka, O., Siegel, L. S. & Vukovic, R. 2005. The literacy skills of English language learners in Canada. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice 20(1): 39–49. López-Morales, H. 1993. Sociolinguistica. Madrid: Gredos. MacLaughlin, B. 1978. Second Language Acquisition in Childhood. Hillsdale NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Meisel, J. 2001. The simultaneous acquisition of two first languages: Early differentiation and subsequent development of grammars. In Trends in Bilingual Acquisition [Trends in Language Acquistion Research 1], J. Cenoz, & F. Genesee (eds), 11–41. Amsterdam: John Â�Benjamins. Meisel, J. 2007a. The weaker language in early child bilingualism: Acquiring a first language as a second language? Applied Psycholinguistics 28: 495–514. Meisel, J. 2007b. On autonomous syntactic development in multiple first language acquisition. In Proceedings of Boston University Conference in Language Development, H. Caunt-NultonÂ�, S. Kulatilake & I. Woo (eds), 25–45. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press. Montrul, S. 2002. Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinction in adult bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5: 39–68. Montrul, S. 2005. On knowledge and development of unaccusativity in Spanish L2 acquisition. Linguistics 43(6): 1153–1190. Montrul, S. & Potowski, K. 2008. Command of gender agreement in school-age Spanish-EnglishÂ� bilingual children. International Journal of Bilingualism 11(3): 301–328. Müller, N. & Hulk, A. 2001. Crosslinguistic influence in bilingual language acquisition: Italian and French as recipient languages. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 4: 1–21. Müller, N. 2003. (In)vulnerable Domains in Language Acquisition [Hamburg Studies on Multilingualism 1]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.



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Paradis, J. & Genesee, F. 1996. Syntactic acquisition in bilingual children. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 18: 1–25. Paradis, J., Nicoladis, E. & Crago, M. 2007. French-English bilingual children’s acquisition of the past tense. In Proceedings of Boston University Conference in Language Development, H. Caunt-Nulton, S. Kulatilake & I.-H. Woo (eds), 497–507. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press. Pieras-Guasp, F. 2002. Direct versus indirect attitudes measurement and the planning of Catalan in Mallorca. Language Problems and Language Planning 26: 51–68. Potowski, K. 2004. Student Spanish use and investment in a dual immersion classroom: Implications for second language acquisition and heritage language maintenance. Modern Language Journal 88(1): 75–101. Potowski, K. 2005. Tense and aspect in the oral narratives of dual immersion students. In Proceedings of the 6th Conference on the Acquisition of Spanish and Portuguese as First and Second Languages, D. Eddington (ed.), 123–136. Somerville MA: Cascadilla. Romaine, S. 1995. Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell. Schlyter, S. 1993. The weaker language in bilingual Swedish–French children. In Progression and Regression in Language, K. Hyltenstam & A. Viberg (eds). Cambridge: CUP. Schmid, M. 2002. First Language Attrition, Use, and Maintenance. The Case of German Jews in Anglophone Countries [Studies in Bilingualism 24]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Shenk, E. 2008. Choosing Spanish: Dual language immersion and familial ideologies. In Bilingualism and Identity [Studies in Bilingualism 37] M. Niño-Murcia & J. Rothman (eds), 221–256. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Silva-Corvalán, C. 1994. Language Contact and Change. Oxford: OUP. Silva-Corvalán, C. 2003. Linguistic consequences of reduced input in bilingual first language acquisition. In Linguistic Theory and Language Development in Hispanic Languages, S.€Montrul, & F. Ordóñez (eds), 375–397. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press. Weinreich, U. 1974. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton. Yagmur, K., de Bot, K. and Korzilius, H. 1999. Language attrition, language shift and ethnolinguistic vitality of Turkish in Australia. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 20(1): 51–69. Zentella, A. C. 1997. Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Malden MA: Blackwell.

174 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas

Appendix A Child language background questionnaire •

Child’s language environment

Child’s place of birth: __________________________________ If not born in Canada, how old was child upon arrival in Canada?: _________________ In a given year, how often has your child visited a Spanish-speaking community? i.╇ Year: __________ Cumulative length of stay: _____ months _____ weeks _____ days English only

Proportion of exposure to both languages during visit(s): Mostly English



Slightly more English Slightly more English & Spanish Spanish equally

Mostly Spanish

Spanish only

ii.╇ Year: __________ Cumulative length of stay: _____ months _____ weeks _____ days English only

Proportion of exposure to both languages during visit(s): Mostly English



Slightly more English Slightly more English & Spanish Spanish equally

Mostly Spanish

Spanish only

iii.╇ Year: __________ Cumulative length of stay: _____months _____weeks _____days English only

Proportion of exposure to both languages during visit(s): Mostly English

 •

Slightly more English Slightly more English & Spanish Spanish equally

Mostly Spanish

Spanish only

Child’s language behavior (please circle only one option)

Speaks mostly â•›English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•› English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•› English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•›English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•›English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•›English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•›English / Spanish Speaks mostly â•›English / Spanish Watches mostly English / Spanish

with mother. with father. with sibling 1. with sibling 2. when playing with friends at school. when playing with friends at home/in the community. with maternal grandparents. with paternal grandparents. television and videos.

**Please add any information you feel is pertinent to your child’s language acquisition (learning difficulties with language, hearing difficulties, referral to speech pathologist, etc.):



6.╇ From parental attitudes to input conditions 175

Language of daytime child-care or schooling Day-time child care/

Dominant language

Secondary language

When your child was…

school program

(Please circle one)

(if applicable)

0 to 2 years

Home parenting ____

English ____

English ____

Day care ____

(Please check one)

2 to 3 years

Spanish ____

Spanish ____

Home childcare

____

Other _________

Other _________

Home parenting

____

English ____

English ____

Spanish ____

Spanish ____

Day care ____ 3 to 4 years

4 to 5 years

Home childcare

____

Other _________

Other _________

Home parenting

____

English ____

English ____

Pre-school

____

Spanish ____

Spanish ____

Home childcare

____

Other _________

Other _________

Home parenting

____

English ____

English ____

Pre-school

____

Spanish ____

Spanish ____

Home childcare

____

Other _________

Other _________

Percent use at school:

English _____ %

English ____ French ____ Kindergarten

French ______%

French immersion ____ French bilingual ____

Spanish _____% Other __________

_____%

Comments (please add any information you feel is pertinent with respect to your child’s exposure to language): Home language practices 1.╇ Topic initiation In which language do you initiate conversation with your child (named above)?

English only



Mostly English

Slightly more English Slightly more English & Spanish Spanish equally

Mostly Spanish

Spanish only

2.╇ Adult response

In which language do you respond when your child speaks in



English:

English only

Most often Slightly more English OR Slightly more Most often in English often in English Spanish often in Spanish in Spanish (50/50)

Spanish only

176 Ana T. Pérez-Leroux, Alejandro Cuza and Danielle Thomas



Spanish:

English only

Most often Slightly more English OR Slightly more Most often in English often in English Spanish often in Spanish in Spanish (50/50)

Spanish only

3.╇ Correcting child

i.╇ Do you correct your child for using Spanish:



When you speak to him/her in English? When an English-only person is around?

Y Y

N N



If yes, what do you say? (i.e. how do you correct him/her?):________________________



ii.╇ Do you correct your child for using English: When you speak to him/her in Spanish? When a Spanish-only person is around?



Y Y

N N

If yes, what do you say? (i.e. how do you correct him/her?): _______________________

4.╇ Language mixing

i.╇ How often does your child mix languages?

Never

Rarely

Often

Frequently



ii.╇ What do you usually do when your child mixes languages?



□ Nothing □ Point out mixing to child

In every turn

□ Repeat utterance without mixing □ Point out to child that they shouldn’t mix

chapter 7

Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada Martin Guardado University of Alberta

By drawing on data from participant observation, interviews and E-mail communication, this chapter, part of a larger study (Guardado 2008), examines the language and literacy socialization attitudes and experiences of a Spanish speaking family of Mayan-descent from Guatemala living in a large urban centre in Western Canada. It examines the family’s constructions of Spanish maintenance and provides an analysis of the challenges they faced in and outside the home in relation to the language and literacy socialization of their children. The chapter describes a particular family literacy event designed to socialize the children into Spanish language, literacy, and academic content, which at times was also used to raise questions about the hegemony of Western civilization. The analysis reveals the parents conceptualized Spanish maintenance as a necessary factor in socializing their children into positive ideologies and affiliations about their languages and cultures. At the same time, the analysis illustrates how the parents fought an ongoing battle against the societal assimilative forces in their efforts to raise multilingual children. These findings also highlight how the parents’ understanding of the complexities associated with language maintenance is one of the keys to success in this regard, along with the cultural, social and economic capital (Bourdieu 1986) necessary to provide children with an enriching experience. The chapter concludes with policy, pedagogical and research implications.

1.

Identity and bilingual development

The relationship between identity and language learning has generated significant scholarship in the last decade. Norton (2000), for instance, posits that social identity refers to “how people understand their relationship to the outside world, how that relationship is constructed across time and space, and how people understand their possibilities for the future” (410). From this poststructural perspective, identity is to be understood as situated, fluid, dynamic, Â�multifaceted,

178 Martin Guardado

Â� interactionally-negotiated and tied to one’s sense of agency (Eckert 2000; Â�Johnstone 1996; Norton 2000; Schiffrin 1996; Zilles and King 2005). As it relates to language learning, identity is also seen as playing a key role in learners’ access to opportunities to acquire language and as an important factor in their “investment” in language learning (Norton 2000). Likewise, a significant body of research shows that identity is a key factor related to first language (L1) maintenance. The L1 is an essential tool for transmitting a sense of families’ ethnolinguistic background to their children and inculcating a sense of cultural pride (Cummins 1984; Dagenais and Day 1999; Â�Guardado 2002, 2006, 2010; He 2006; Kouritzin 1999; Schecter and Â�Bayley 1997; Schecter, Sharken-Taboada and Bayley 1996; Suarez 2007). For instance, Sakamoto’s (2000) findings in a study with Japanese-Canadian families in Ontario suggest that cultural awareness and the connection of L1 maintenance and identity are important factors in these processes. Additionally, many studies have highlighted this phenomenon with Spanish-speaking participants. Schecter and Bayley (1997), for example, found that their Mexican-descent study participants understood L1 loss as cultural identity loss. L1 was seen as “a necessary social resource for maintaining cultural tradition and ethnic identity” (Schecter and Bayley 2002:â•›79). Although all the parents in the study reported having a strong Mexican cultural identity and attempted to pass down their cultural roots to their children as a way of maintaining their heritage, not all the families succeeded. Pacini-Ketchabaw et al. (2001) also reported that in their Ontario, Canada study, the participating families saw L1 maintenance as a way to foster family unity, Latino identity and future professional advancement. Thus, while the ability to successfully maintain the home language in a dominant language environment gives minority language speakers a stronger minority cultural identity, and generally a sense of self with tighter links to the heritage of their families, a strong L1 identity can be identified as an important factor conducive to L1 maintenance. Hence, the relationship between language maintenance and cultural identity can be conceptualized as a dialectical one. In this vein, children who do not develop a strong L1 attachment may even be ambivalent about their identity and feel “shame about the home language and culture” (Cummins 1984:â•›119). Such issues of identity, and the ideological forces contributing to its shaping, can be investigated from a language socialization perspective, because “local values, ideologies, patterns of social organization, and cultural preferences are inscribed in everyday discourse and social interactions” (Garrett and Baquedano-López 2002:â•›341). . Although proficiency in the home language can be seen as an important factor for constructing a strong identification with a particular cultural group, this is not seen as essential (see, e.g. Pease-Alvarez 2002; Rothman and Niño-Murcia 2008)



2.

7.╇ Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada 179

Theoretical framework

This study utilized language socialization as its analytical lens. The notion of language socialization draws on “sociological, anthropological, and psychological approaches to the study of social and linguistic competence within a social group” (Schieffelin and Ochs 1986b:â•›163), clearly situating language learning in the social realm (Ochs and Schieffelin 1995; Ochs and Schieffelin 2008). Language socialization refers to the process by which children are socialized both through language and into language use within a community (Ochs and Schieffelin 1995, 2008; Schieffelin and Ochs 1986a, 1986b). From this perspective, children’s socialization into the cultural practices of their group is mediated by language. Language is the chief tool that members of the social group use in order to transmit their values and beliefs to the child, and the language itself codifies many cultural elements, such as hierarchical relations, which helps form the child’s emerging sense of self. By the same token, through social interaction and “in the process of acquiring social knowledge, children acquire knowledge of language structure and use” (Schieffelin and Ochs 1986a:â•›163–164). According to this theoretical framework, it is through the process of socialization that children are taught to use language – and thus acquire language. Hence, the language variety, language use patterns and communication style that children develop are based on the practices of the speech communities in which they interact. Likewise, linguistic ideologies “envision and enact links of language to group and personal identity…” (Woolard and Schieffelin 1994:â•›55–56), making them particularly explicit in multilingual contexts (Ochs and Schieffelin 1995). Therefore, in these settings, the attitudes and beliefs of the community members about language are critical to their L1 maintenance success in the language socialization process as their ideologies are transmitted to the new generations. The larger study (Guardado 2008) involved a full-blown 18-month ethnographic examination of the language socialization ideologies and practices experienced by immigrant Hispanic families and their children in home, school, and community settings in Metro Vancouver. It used a combination of discourse analysis techniques and provided a rich description and interpretation of the relevant micro and macro dimensions and factors affecting the research questions. Therefore, despite the lack of a full articulation of theoretical, methodological and analytical aspects of language socialization in the present chapter, the larger study provides a contextual backdrop that may serve to strengthen the validity of the current analysis. As part of the larger study, this chapter focuses on one family,

. The larger study was a doctoral research project supervised by Dr. Patricia Duff.

180 Martin Guardado

the Fernández-Maradiaga family, in order to investigate the following question: What are the parents’ attitudes, goals and practices surrounding the language and literacy socialization experiences of their children?

3.

The study

The Fernández-Maradiaga family was recruited through a local Hispanic radio program in which Hispanic families with school-age children were invited to participate. The main data collection strategy used was the semi-structured interview, which is a flexible type of interview that allows new questions to be brought up in order to probe themes more deeply or to get the interviewees to elaborate on their responses. I considered this strategy valuable in order to “respond to the situation at hand, to the emerging worldview of the respondent(s), and to new ideas on the topic” (Merriam 1991:â•›74). Over a period of 18 months, four interviews were conducted in Spanish and digitallyrecorded, lasting about eight hours in total. These were transcribed and the excerpts used in this chapter translated into English. Additionally, the parents were asked to write a type of acculturation and language socialization reflection journal, which they delivered by E-mail. In these E-mail communications they described their language and literacy practices and reflected on various aspects of these issues, adding another longitudinal dimension to the ethnographic nature of the research and further providing an insider layer to the analysis. Moreover, other forms of data were collected during participant observation, such as fieldnotes and fieldwork journal entries. Analyses of these and other data are not included in this chapter; however, it is prudent to discuss them here, albeit tangentially, since they served to formulate interview questions during the data collection process. The interview transcriptions were analyzed and categorized according to Bogdan and Biklen’s (1998) guidelines for analyzing qualitative research data as well as some of the steps suggested by Ryan and Bernard (Ryan and Bernard 2003). These procedures served in the development of coding categories and the identification of emergent themes. Data analysis was an ongoing process that began with the collection of data and ended with the writing of the chapter. The data were analyzed keeping in focus the overriding theoretical proposition (Yin 1994) of language socialization, which guided the data collection and analysis. The data were analyzed using the qualitative data analysis software package NVivo 7, which allows researchers to manage, code, analyze and report on text data. This computer program was used to help in the coding and identification of emerging themes.



3.1

7.╇ Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada 181

Family background

The family profiled in this chapter consisted of Idalia Fernández and José Â�Maradiaga, who were middle-aged professionals from Guatemala that immigrated to Canada in 1995 with their two-year old daughter, Idalia (Idalita). Diana, their younger daughter, was born in Canada in 1997 (see Table 1 for other family demographics). Ethnically, Mrs. Fernández identified herself as mestiza and only spoke Spanish prior to immigrating to Canada. Mr. Maradiaga, however, was Mayan and could still speak Quiché, his native Mayan language. He reported having learned Spanish when he entered school at age five, at which time, according to him, Quiché began to lose its status as his mother tongue and he began the process through which he was largely assimilated into Guatemala’s dominant Spanishspeaking society. The parents’ particular ethnolinguistic characteristics, as well as other aspects of their life histories (e.g., family factors, education), point to a rich and highly complex cultural baggage, which added further layers to the complexities of their goals and practices in the language and literacy socialization of their children. This would pose unique challenges to the family’s definition of linguistic and cultural heritage, but ideally, also important opportunities for their daughters to develop and maintain such a rich heritage. For the purposes of transmitting their “language and culture,” however, the family privileged Spanish and relegated Mayan culture and Quiché language to the periphery. The parents, most notably Mr. Maradiaga, often talked about Mayan culture and Quiché language, but based on observations and self-reports, no significant efforts were made to transmit these elements to the girls, aside from occasional tellings of traditional legends, stories, childhood experiences and family histories. During these and other times, Mr. Maradiaga would also attempt to teach isolated Quiché words and phrases to the family and visitors, but appeared to have accepted the fact that only the Spanish language and culture could realistically be transmitted to the girls. These activities could be interpreted as an effort to instill pride for his Mayan heritage in the girls, but he seemed to doubt this endeavor would have a substantial effect. A more in-depth analysis and discussion of this and related themes is beyond the scope of this chapter. Hereafter, therefore, discussions of issues associated with linguistic, ethnic, and cultural heritage generally refer to Spanish. Although both Mrs. Fernández and Mr. Maradiaga had come from working/ lower middle class families, they had enjoyed some upward mobility through their university education in Guatemala. In Canada, however, the family had struggled considerably in their adaptation process. Still, they had been able to obtain a variety . All names are pseudonyms.

182 Martin Guardado

of literacy resources and other materials in order to pursue their family language and literacy goals and to support their children’s school education in Canada. Based on observations and on self-reports, they could be categorized as communicative competent in English, but after ten years in the country, they had been unsuccessful in their efforts to secure professional employment or a middle-class lifestyle. The family lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a Vancouver suburb in spring 2005 when data collection began, but moved to subsidized housing in the same municipality in the summer of 2006. Table 1.╇ Family profile Country of origin: Guatemala Year of arrival in Canada: 1995

Idalia Fernández



José Maradiaga

• • • •

Year of birth: 1967 Years of formal education: 15 (Engineering, incomplete) Current occupation: Stay at home mother / Part-time student English proficiency: Advanced

• • • •

Year of birth: 1959 Years of formal education: 17 (Engineering, incomplete) Current occupation: Full-time college student English proficiency: Advanced

Children: 2 girls Diana: 83 Idalia: 13

4.

Findings

4.1

Language and literacy socialization: Attitudes and practices

The Fernández-Maradiaga family had a strong commitment to the transmission, maintenance and use of the Spanish language in the home. To that end, they had a Spanish-only policy in all family communication, including all communication between the two siblings. Along with the Spanish language, knowledge of the Hispanic culture was promoted proactively in all facets of family life. Mrs. Fernández stated: “knowledge of our culture is even contained in our food and our traditions” (Interview: 05/09/05). The details of the family’s views on language, identity and culture are discussed in sections below. . Ages at start of fieldwork. . Since all interviews were conducted in Spanish, excerpts are translations. In the spirit of the ideology to acknowledge and validate different languages (L1 and L2), I intended to provide the original quotes in an appendix. However, space constraints made this goal impossible.



7.╇ Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada 183

4.2 Family literacy socialization practices Family literacy refers to parents, children and other family members’ participation in literacy activities in home and community settings, either initiated purposefully or occurring spontaneously in their quotidian lives (DeBruin-Parecki and Paris 1997). It is currently claimed that language and literacy develops more successfully when children engage in reading activities with family members (AndersonÂ� et al. 1985; Saracho 2002; Teale and Sulzby 1986), a belief that seemed prevalent in the Fernández-Maradiaga family. Along with culture and spoken language, written language was emphasized and promoted by the family. Upon entering their apartment, visitors might readily notice their collection of Spanish literature for children as well as school textbooks in Spanish (e.g., math). During our interviews, the parents also proudly pulled stacks of books from their shelves to show me. They had many collections in various genres including literature, textbooks, comics, and reference books. They had materials for teaching Spanish literacy and other subjects, which they had obtained from Guatemala and from other Latin American countries. They explained that they had content area textbooks, as well as literacy textbooks, that were appropriate for their children’s current age and books saved for future years as well. In general, Mrs. Fernández took the lead in instructing the girls in Spanish literacy as Mr. Maradiaga was a full-time student in a local community college. However, he engaged the girls in language and literacy exercises whenever he had the time. They used various strategies to support the girls’ language and literacy development and often reported to me on their progress during interviews and by E-mail. Mrs. Fernández explained that the girls’ vocabulary in English was more varied than in Spanish and sometimes they tended to get confused with words. Whenever the girls used the wrong word or used an English word in their speech, their mother asked them to write the Spanish word five times on a piece of paper. The girls were present when this strategy was described and their reaction was just to nod and shrug their shoulders. Besides addressing issues that arose from interactions in daily life, the parents also engaged in more structured and focused family literacy activities. An example of the family’s regular literacy activities was one undertaken by Mr. Maradiaga in January 2006, which was still ongoing at the time fieldwork ended in October of that year. This activity involved regular sessions of reading, discussion and explanation using a small whiteboard. It was based on two books. The parents selected a book, El Hombre que Calculaba (The Man that Counted, Tahan 1996), which was set in the Middle East. It was a book that related the adventures of a man who used his mathematical abilities to solve problems he encountered in his travels, to amaze and entertain people, to resolve disputes and to do justice. This book was somewhat advanced and was used mainly to support

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Idalita’s language development and to promote her mathematical understanding. Diana also participated in this book activity, but at a more elemental level as the book was recommended for children over 14 years old whose Spanish competence was age-appropriate. A second book, El Libro de la Selva (The Jungle Book, Kipling 1967), was used at the same time in order to address the level of Diana. The activity was conducted with these two books two or three times a week for 30–60 minutes, usually before bedtime. Mrs. Fernández told me there was no fixed schedule, and that they just looked for the right time when the girls were willing, were not too tired and did not have much homework. The following is a description of the routine: Mr. Maradiaga read to them and when the girls did not understand a word, they interrupted and he explained. In the case of El Hombre que Calculaba, Mrs. Fernández stated that “in the end each chapter is understood in its entirety including the math problem (in Idalita’s case)” (Mrs. Fernández, E-mail communication: 02/08/06). She added that this activity helped Diana increase her vocabulary, but the mathematical problems were beyond her level. When working with El Libro de la Selva, however, Mrs. Fernández asserted that Diana understood it in its totality. The girls’ attitude, according to Mrs. Fernández, was good. She wrote: “the response is quite positive and better than expected. They comment on what’s been explained, and in the case of Idalita, she has understood the philosophical aspect of mathematics very well. Diana likes to hear the stories and the ironies that come up” (Mrs. Fernández, E-mail communication: 02/24/06). In response to an E-mail question I posed about the reasons for selecting those books, Mrs. Fernández explained their rationale. She stated that initially they considered other books such as the bible, popular novels, children’s stories, etc. However, they felt these books were not appropriate. She said: “they fulfilled only part of our objectives and some of them are alienating” (Mrs. Fernández, E-mail communication: 02/21/06), in the sense that the content provided a view of the world that was narrower than what they intended to promote. Because part of their broader language and literacy socialization objectives included countering “the hegemony of the culture” (Mrs. Fernández, Interview: 05/02/05), they wanted to use books that allowed them to pursue the goal of interrogating the dominance of Anglo-Canadian culture. They felt El Hombre que Calculaba was ideal for several reasons. She explained that they wanted to foster vocabulary development, philosophical understanding and to improve their skills in mathematics. She also wrote: “so they have a solid intellectual basis with knowledge in various areas, in the exact sciences and in the social sciences” (E-mail communication: 02/21/06). Additionally, she wrote that another important reason was to give the girls an opportunity to “learn that the cradle of the sciences was not exactly in the West, the story is set in the Middle East, Baghdad” (Mrs.€Fernández, E-mail communication: 02/21/06).



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Mrs. Fernández also explained that part of the reason El Libro de la Selva was selected was because this book enabled them to help improve Diana’s comprehension through detailed explanations of the vocabulary and also explanation of the moral of the reading. According to the parents, the relevant moral of the book highlighted attributes of adaptability and survival in various circumstances, as well as responsibility, courage, friendship, and mutual support and solidarity, traits highly valued and dynamically promoted in other activities in which the family participated (see footnote above). This initiative provides a concrete and vibrant example of the range of possible family literacy practices that go beyond a focus on basic decoding-based or text-bounded practices. This example illustrates possible family literacy initiatives that can potentially connect language, culture and identity in novel ways.

4.3 The effect of school on home language socialization For the Fernández-Maradiaga family, the education of their children was the most important goal “after putting food on the table” (Mr. Maradiaga, Interview: 05/02/05). However, one of the most pervasive themes in our interviews was their dissatisfaction with the school experiences of the girls and the parents’ own experiences interacting with school personnel. Their complaints were related to various issues. The most important of these seemed to stem from their unsuccessful attempts to establish a closer relationship with school staff and both parents reported numerous negative experiences in this regard. They spoke of feeling ignored and discriminated against and of experiencing the assimilative practices prevalent in the school. For example, Mrs. Fernández explained that in the family’s many years of dealing with schools they had learned that schools strongly encouraged parents to become involved in their children’s education through participation in various school activities. However, she also noted that when they offered to volunteer in the girls’ elementary school, their offers were not taken up by the teachers and they felt excluded. Specifically, Mr. Maradiaga volunteered to assist with what he called the Running Club, since he was highly experienced in sports in general, and in particular, having participated professionally in track and field in Guatemala most of his life. He explained that his offer, made personally to the teacher in charge, was ignored and received no response. This is only one example of the many they related, which serves

. The parents were leaders in a Spanish-language Scout group and this book was the basis for the philosophy of the Scout section in which Diana was a member. See Guardado (2008, 2009) for a detailed description and analysis of the group.

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to illustrate the types of negative experiences with school employees about which they complained. Other sentiments arose from their initial frustrations in their efforts to socialize their children into particular ethnolinguistic identities. In the paragraphs that follow I explain how the parents felt the school had a strong influence on issues related to language, culture and identity in the lives of their children. According to both parents, schools were to blame to a great extent for children not learning Spanish or other heritage languages, or not wanting to learn about their ethnic background. They claimed that school multicultural workers regularly advised parents that their children did not need to speak Spanish. Mr.€Maradiaga stated: The fact that Hispanic children cannot speak Spanish is in part the responsibility of the School Board, because they tell parents not to put pressure on the children to speak Spanish in their homes because English is the official language: “The language of the children is English because they live here, they are small, and they (Interview: 05/02/05) are being educated in the Canadian culture.” 

Although the Vancouver School Board’s website (Vancouver School Board, Read with your Child 1) encourages parents to read to their children in their native languages, it is difficult to know how pervasive or effective such recommendations actually are. Mr. Maradiaga explained that when their older daughter started kindergarten in their neighbourhood school, the parents were given specific instructions not to speak Spanish to her. Mr. Maradiaga reported the following: In my older daughter’s case, it wasn’t the school board [multicultural] workers, but it was her kindergarten teacher. Since she entered kindergarten, her own teacher told her not to speak Spanish and that she should only speak English. For (Interview: 05/02/05) us this was frustrating… 

Mr. Maradiaga explained that during the first few months of school in Canada, Idalita resisted speaking Spanish at home, so they had to resort to various strategies that included taking privileges away for refusing to speak Spanish or giving her special rewards for speaking it. Mrs. Fernández added that during her first few years of schooling, Idalita’s school performance decreased: Her academic performance did not reflect the emphasis we put [on schooling] here. This was simply because she was in a situation of ambivalence. On one hand, we demanded that she speak Spanish. On the other hand, society, the school as a mini-society, demanded that she interact with them more and that she didn’t speak Spanish, because if she spoke Spanish, she wasn’t part of the system, of the group, which was also the attitude of the teachers. So, what she was exposed to there was reflected in a certain way, which was that her academic performance (Interview: 05/09/05) was low. 



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Idalita was caught in a difficult situation, experiencing contradictory socialization practices, between her parents’ wishes for the development and maintenance of a language and cultural identity that was at odds with that of the school, and the societal and peer pressures to assimilate to the dominant culture in order to belong. Membership in the dominant society required speaking English, which should not necessarily preclude Spanish. However, the family’s representations of the school’s discourse asserted that Idalita’s language was English, to the detriment of Spanish. Their comments also indicate they interpreted the constant pressures and contradictions as having a negative effect on her sense of self, which translated into stress and lack of interest – or resistance to doing academic work – and resistance to speaking Spanish. As the above quote indicates, the family identified Idalita’s cultural and linguistic ambivalence and made a clear connection between this contradiction and her disengagement from academic work. It is regrettable that the school personnel did not take the parents up on their offer and enthusiasm to become involved in school activities. Based on the issues analyzed in the Family Literacy Socialization Practices section above, the parents were clearly “well-equipped” to make a difference in their own children’s and other people’s children’s language and literacy socialization. Rather than creating a “subtractive” experience (Valenzuela 1999) with school personnel for the family, the school’s adoption of a synergistic approach (i.e., the promotion of parental involvement) might have cultivated a more positive effect of school on the home language socialization of these children.

4.4 The war against assimilation The school, as well as the broader society, presented to Mrs. Fernández and Mr. Maradiaga what they described as almost insurmountable challenges as they utilized all of their available resources in their unyielding impetus to transmit their heritage to their children. They often reported feelings of frustration and described the ongoing struggle to resist assimilation as taxing. Mr. Maradiaga once stated: “We are filling the burlap sack from the top and someone is emptying it from the bottom” (Interview: 05/02/05). Feelings of frustration were particularly common in Mrs. Fernández and Mr. Maradiaga’s recollections of the early years of Idalita’s schooling. At times they seemed to feel that school and society were strongly – and even actively – complicit in undermining their home socialization efforts. It may sound as if the family was resistant to integrating into the wider society. However, as I report in the next section, this was not the case. Mrs. Fernández and Mr. Maradiaga endevoured to socialize their children into a syncretic

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notion of cultural identity that embraced much more than their own cultures. Mrs. Fernández asserted: The cultural identity of the girls is a hybrid. We can’t create a mini-world inside these four walls. They have to know their culture, but we can’t enclose them in it. It can’t be done. We wouldn’t be achieving our goals for them to have a broad (Interview: 05/09/05) outlook. 

They reported that although it had been a major struggle to socialize their daughters into the use of Spanish, finally “the biggest battles have been won” (Interview: 05/09/05) and in the last few years things had changed. They contended that Idalita had a positive attitude toward the language and the culture. Mrs.€Fernández and Mr. Maradiaga asserted that Idalita used to reject her home culture and was ashamed of who she was, but eventually she became quite proud of her language and her name. They felt that it was through hard work and perseverance that they succeeded in fighting the assimilative forces and reversing their daughter’s rejection of her cultural identity. They saw this as an important victory in the struggle to raise awareness in their children of who they were culturally and in consolidating their language abilities. They also explained that with Diana, the younger girl, the process had been significantly easier. They felt that Idalita was a good example and role model for Diana to emulate. Additionally, they persevered in encouraging both girls to speak in Spanish between themselves, and claimed that the girls readily complied: “they speak Spanish to each other. They only speak in English when they don’t know the Spanish words” (Mrs. Fernández, Interview: 05/02/05). Mr.€Maradiaga added to Mrs. Fernández’s comment using the war metaphor again and said: “we have not won the war, but we have won an important battle” (Interview: 05/02/05), echoing comments made also by a father in a study on multilingualism and identity (Rothman and Niño-Murcia 2008) in which the parents expressed similar attitudes about the challenges they faced in relation to the societal assimilative forces. Part of the struggle, according to the parents in the present study, had to do with the assimilative forces the children faced outside the home. However, in our numerous interviews they suggested they were aware that the transmission of the language and culture was not a simple process. As well, they were keenly aware of the interrelationship of factors such as language maintenance, identity and cultural awareness and how these factors were part of, and perhaps added to, the complexities of language socialization (Duff 2003).



7.╇ Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada 189

4.5 Socializing affiliations and ideologies In various interviews and informal conversations, the family expressed a strong commitment to the transmission of Spanish to the girls and the promotion of a strong ethnolinguistic identity. They also implied and explicitly stated that the above was only possible when the parents were aware of their roots and of the significance of their cultural values. In one interview, Mr. Maradiaga stated: “one cannot transmit that which one doesn’t know” (Interview: 05/02/05). They often talked at length about their own cultural values and histories and the need to promote these in the Hispanic community. Also, they felt there was a need for the creation of programs to raise cultural awareness. They suggested it was important for parents to have a clear cultural understanding so that they could also inculcate it in their children from a young age. According to Mrs. Fernández, this should be done so that “…children learn where they come from when they’re very young” (Interview: 05/09/05). She added: It’s important that the girls know where they are from, where they come from. We always tell the younger one that even though she was born here, she is a national of Guatemala with Canadian citizenship. But culturally, she is Guatemalan, and what’s more, of Mayan descent. So, it’s important that they know where they come from so that they feel very proud. What we want is that in the future they feel good about what they are. That they feel they are complete persons. That they know Spanish, which is part of their culture. Part of our identity.  (Interview: 05/09/05)

This quote indicates there was a strong concern with passing a clear sense of the family’s ethnolinguistic background to the girls and inculcating a sense of cultural pride. Although this concern involved both girls, the parents seemed to emphasize this point especially to Diana, the younger girl, because she was born in Canada and they felt that citizenship by birth might send a message that she was ‘only’ Canadian or ‘more’ Canadian. Their words show that they did not only emphasize the girls’ cultural origins, but also informed them they were actually Guatemalan, and with the added characteristic of having Mayan cultural roots as well. The strong emphasis on not being only Canadians, but also Guatemalans of a particular ethnicity, Mayan, can be partly understood as being directed at countering the potential assimilative effects of society and cancelling out any possible leanings toward a dominant Canadian identity, while at the same time not being

. As mentioned earlier, Mayan language and culture as part of their heritage became diluted. They spoke of it with fondness, but mainly seemed to equate heritage language transmission with Spanish transmission.

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alienated from the broader Canadian society. Moreover, the quote shows that the goal of the parents was to build up their daughters’ self-esteem culturally in order to save them from future identity contradictions. That is, to help them become proud of who they were in order to value their origins and to have a strong ethnic point of reference, uncomplicating their sense of self and strongly socializing particular ideologies. In other words, the family attempted to socialize their children into a complexity of cultural and linguistic ideologies. The parents wanted their children to valorize their ethnic origins while avoiding alienation from the dominant Canadian society. They desired for their children to subscribe to a Canadian identity, but without being completely absorbed by it. Therefore, they attempted to cultivate a syncretic brand of identity in their children, ironically, one that neither parent fully possessed.

4.6 The construction of Spanish The Fernández-Maradiaga family constructed Spanish and language maintenance in a variety of ways. For instance, echoing Schieffelin and Ochs (1986a) who posit that through social interaction children acquire social knowledge and knowledge of language, the family constructed Spanish as a key factor in fostering strong cultural identities and as a medium that enabled their daughters to acquire knowledge and traverse borders. They stated: Spanish is important for their cultural identity and for being successful in all facets of their lives. The [Spanish] language helps them acquire knowledge. Know(Interview: 05/09/05) ing more than one language opens up borders. 

The family constructed Spanish as part of their culture, their identity, and as key to the above goals and to their future success in life. Additionally, they seemed to suggest that an additional language, in this case Spanish, was also key to present and future learning and to accessing otherwise inaccessible physical, symbolic and cultural spaces. When asked why they felt it was important for their children to maintain their Spanish, Mr. Maradiaga told me: A child that speaks more than one language grows intellectually. There have been studies, I believe, that [show] children are more intelligent, right? They have another vision of the world, which is the other aspect we want to give them. Another point of view, many points of view and later they can choose, right? Cultural identity is necessary in order to maintain Spanish. We can’t know about the culture if we don’t know the language. I can’t have a deeper knowledge of the Chinese and the Japanese, because I don’t speak their language. They could give



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me some information through conversation, but it’s not the same. The [Spanish] language gives the girls a broader vision of the world, not of something that is (Mr. Maradiaga: Interview: 05/09/05) smaller, but of the world. 

Mr. Maradiaga asserted that there were three main reasons they felt language maintenance was important. First, it would help their children to grow “intellectually.” Second, it was important for their children’s sense of cultural identity, reiterating previous comments, and third, it would provide their daughters with a “broader vision of the world.” This quote suggests that the family was aware of benefits of bilingualism beyond more usual expectations of future economic benefits. Perhaps through “casual empiricism” they had reached conclusions that echoed research claiming cognitive and other advantages of speaking two or more languages, as frequently noted by scholars (Bialystok 2006; Bialystok, Luk and Kwan 2005; Bialystok and Shapero 2005; Cummins 1989; Garcia 1995; KouritzinÂ� 1999). Although this line of research has not identified categorical cognitive advantages of bilingualism, it is relevant to the current analysis to note that no disadvantages have been identified either, and this family seems to be aware of this fact. Mr. Maradiaga also referred to the benefit of being able to function, think and conduct analyses through two or more cultural systems (Schecter and Â�Bayley 2002), enriching the person’s worldview and increasing her meaning-making capabilities. Thus, the families’ goal to socialize their children into ideologies that valued the maintenance of Spanish was part of their vision for their children to become legitimate members of – and identify with – a pluralistic society, as well as adopt a cosmopolitan outlook that emphasized global citizenry, and thus, a broader vision of the world.

5.

Discussion and conclusion

Drawing on data from participant observation, interviews and E-mail communication, this chapter sought to examine the Fernández-Maradiaga parents’ attitudes, goals and practices surrounding the language and literacy socialization experiences of their two daughters. The analysis revealed some of the challenges they faced in their efforts to raise their children as multilingual and multicultural people. Particularly, they attempted to respond to the societal assimilative forces that were also prevalent in their children’s schools. Part of the analysis focused on the family’s literacy practices designed to socialize the children into Spanish language, literacy, and academic content. These activities also served to transmit linguistic and cultural values the parents hoped the children would draw on as

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they negotiated and constructed their identities in their daily lives. Therefore, the parents conceptualized Spanish maintenance as a key factor in their children’s developing identities. The literacy initiative described in this chapter suggests that the family’s goals of socialization were multidimensional and included not only language, literacy and academic content, but also goals to socialize their children to particular values and identities. They attempted to foster holistic learning in their children in order to cultivate their moral development, a non-alienating stance and a broad worldview. Moreover, they assumed postcolonial attitudes and positioned their activities as oppositional discourses (Pratt 1991) in relation to the dominant society. Thus, through their language and literacy activities they also endeavored to foster a flexible and progressive – rather than a traditional – way of thinking, one that emphasized the possession of adaptable dispositions and values, and aspired to the promotion of social justice and a rejection of what they appeared to construct as prevailing grand-narratives (Lyotard 1984) (e.g., the supremacy of the Western world). It has often been argued in the education literature that promoting family literacy should be a key educational goal. Such scholarship has proposed that family literacy activities ought to be promoted as a valuable practice in families by encouraging parents to realize that children’s schooling begins at home with parents as children’s first teachers (Bhola 1996). Therefore, the language and literacy socialization activities in which this family engaged were in line with such propositions and could be characterized as exemplary and worthy of emulation. These activities boldly transcended decoding-oriented literacy practices, recasting family literacy as a critical family literacy that not only focused on meaningmaking and citizenship learning, but one that also interrogated the dominance of Western-origin meta-narratives, revealing ubiquitous societal assimilative forces, and at the same time fruitfully connecting language, culture and identity. School districts and ministries of education often complain of passivity on the part of parents – especially immigrant parents – when it comes to their children’s education and regularly call on them to become involved in their children’s schools (Bernhard et al. 1998). This family’s language and literacy activities teach us important lessons that ought to be heeded by educators in order to cultivate stronger parental involvement and establish more successful school-parent partnerships that are conducive to a more culturally, family and community responsive pedagogy. It is assumed, based on the experiences of this family, that some schools may not have adequate mechanisms in place in order to facilitate parent-school partnerships; therefore, it is essential that stronger efforts be made to remove institutional barriers and to integrate families into educational activities and decision-making processes in schools.



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It has been found that a family literacy program that incorporates components that go beyond just a focus on reading and writing seems to offer more possibilities for success (DeBruin-Parecki and Paris 1997). This suggests that the initiatives prevalent in the Fernández-Maradiaga family, such as the one described in this chapter, can have a positive effect on the education of their children. Since the promotion of family literacy activities and parental involvement with school have been suggested to have a strong potential to break down existing educational inequalities (e.g., those based on class and ethnicity) (Brain and Reid 2003), the study suggests that findings such as these can effectively inform educational policy and practice. It is important for policy-makers and educators to keep up to date on research findings concerning the literacy attitudes, goals and practices of families in order to design curricula that are consonant with families’ efforts in supporting their children’s schooling and work cooperatively in pursuing common educational goals. It is also critical for educators and researchers to continue to investigate the experiences and characteristics of families who face differing circumstances (e.g., in relation to educational background) and possible differing educational goals (e.g., literacy vs. biliteracy). By identifying such goals and circumstances and designing programs that take these issues into consideration and offering more flexible, culturally responsive, and effective programs (DeBruinÂ�-Parecki and Paris 1997), stakeholders may be able to more successfully address the education desires and goals of differently-advantaged families. There is a growing body of scholarship that provides rich descriptions of this and similar types of pedagogy (see, e.g., Cummins et al. 2005; García et al. 2006; Moll et al. 1992; Moll and Gonzalez 1994; Nieto 1999; Rodriguez 2007; Taylor et al. 2008; Valdés 1996; Vásquez 2003). This type of scholarship can be a starting point for pursuing pedagogies that address persistent school-family mismatch issues in various educational contexts. The family profiled in this chapter appeared to have a sense of the dynamic ways that identity and language are interrelated. Mr. Maradiaga and Mrs.€FernándezÂ� argued for the importance of Spanish in the development of cultural identity and also claimed that cultural identity was necessary for maintaining Spanish, indicating that a strong cultural identity would allow their children to want to maintain Spanish. Based on these findings, I argue that a strong L1 identity is one of the most critical factors conducive to L1 maintenance, highlighting the dynamic interrelationship that exists between cultural identity and language maintenance and revealing an iterative relationship between the two, as has been suggested by other study findings (Guardado 2009, 2010, in press; Pease-Alvarez 2002; Scheter and Â� Bayley 1997, 2002). At the same time, these findings point to the parents’ understanding of this complex issue as one of the keys to success in this regard, coupled with the complete cultural, social and economic capital (Bourdieu 1986)

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Â� necessary to provide children with an enriching experience. These parents were not only keenly aware of the complex ways language and identity are deeply and dynamically intertwined; they also had access to the necessary resources, and possessed the dispositions, to pursue their goals for their children. The study findings indicate that the family cultivated Spanish competence for transmitting their cultural roots and values to their children. These findings also reveal that the promotion of a sense of Hispanic cultural identity strongly contributes to resisting assimilation and to promoting language maintenance in children. It is important to note, however, that the parents spoke Spanish as a result of assimilation into a Spanish-dominant society. This assimilation took place generations ago for Mrs. Fernández’s family, but during childhood in the case of Mr.€MaradiagaÂ�, who experienced primary socialization through Quiché language and Mayan culture. Although Mr. Maradiaga identified strongly as Mayan and made efforts to highlight the importance of these roots to their daughters, this heritage was doubly encroached by the English-dominant society outside and the Spanish dominance in their private lives. This added further contradictions and complexity to the parents’ goals of socialization for their daughters, potentially posing a paradox for the girls’ identities and creating a cultural and linguistic conundrum they may have to grapple with during their lifetimes. It is possible, though, that as they mature these children will not claim either an English or Spanish identity – or Mayan€– but will see themselves as a symbiotic blend. These children’s experiences and identities will no doubt be shaped by the vibrant constructive interaction between home cultures and those of the rapidly changing Canadian society, which points to the development of unique hybrid identities. Therefore, it will be important for all stakeholders to examine how identities are negotiated, constructed and perhaps transformed into multilingual and multicultural identities when examining these issues with linguistic minorities. These findings remind educators and other scholars to be mindful of the identity work that is likely to be prevalent in multilingual families’ language and literacy practices. It seems many school educators and other school personnel are either not aware of current scholarship in the field of bilingualism (i.e., bilingualism has no detrimental effects on children and other individuals) or they choose to ignore this work and continue to follow practices that were much more prevalent in the recent past (i.e., recommending that parents speak only the dominant language to their children). In either case, researchers, scholars and policy-makers . Although there is a fair amount of anecdotal evidence of school personnel still urging parents to avoid the use of the home language with their children (see, e.g., Guardado 2008; KouritzinÂ� 1999; Schecter and Bayley 2002), there is a general sense that this practice has decreased significantly in recent years.



7.╇ Language and literacy socialization as€resistance in Western Canada 195

are encouraged to find ways of more successfully communicating research findings and other scholarly work to educational personnel working with linguistic minority children and their families so that this type of scholarship more strongly serves its ultimate objectives of reaching and benefiting the public. For this family, the construction of Spanish maintenance involved multifaceted goals that included giving their children the tools and the opportunity to become legitimate and active members of a pluralistic society. They constructed Spanish maintenance as the key to accessing symbolic and material spaces and as a way for their daughters to develop strong cultural identifications while strengthening their self-esteem. These conceptualizations of bilingualism are in perfect alignment with our understandings of this phenomenon based on previous research. Although these conclusions are based on a particular case study, they serve to corroborate previous conceptualizations of heritage language development and maintenance by providing insights from the perspective of a Guatemalan family in a particular English-speaking context. The analysis presented in this chapter provides concrete examples of the cultural and linguistic practices of a family undertaking the task of “defending” their children from the assimilative forces prevalent outside the four walls in which they lived their private lives.

Acknowledgments I thank Kim Potowski and Jason Rothman for their invitation in the first place, and also for their insightful comments and guidance throughout the preparation of this chapter. I am also grateful to an anonymous reviewer for the very helpful suggestions provided on an earlier draft. Finally, I am thankful to the Social �Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) for a Doctoral Fellowship that supported the research on which this chapter is based.

References Anderson, R. C., Hiebert, E. H., Scott, J. A. & Wilkinson, I. 1985. Becoming a Nation of Readers: The Report of the Commission on Reading. Washington DC: The National Institute of Education. Bernhard, J. K., Freire, M.,€Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. & Villanueva, V. 1998. A Latin-American parents’ group participates in their children’s schooling: Parent involvement reconsidered. Canadian Ethnic Studies€30(3):€77–98. Bhola, H. S. 1996. Family, literacy, development and culture: Interconnections, reconstructions. Convergence 29(1): 34–45.

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Bialystok, E. 2006. Second-language acquisition and bilingualism at an early age and the impact on early cognitive development. In Encyclopedia on Early Childhood Development, R.€E.€Tremblay, R. G. Barr & R. D. V. Peters (eds), 1–4. Montreal, Quebec: Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development. (7 October 2007). Bialystok, E., Luk, G. & Kwan, E. 2005. Bilingualism, biliteracy, and learning to read: Interactions among languages and writing systems. Scientific Studies of Reading 9(1): 43–61. Bialystok, E. & Shapero, D. 2005. Ambiguous benefits: The effect of bilingualism on reversing ambiguous figures. Developmental Science 8(6): 595–604. Bogdan, R. & Biklen, S. K. 1998. Qualitative Research for Education: An Introduction to Theory and Methods. Boston MA: Allyn and Bacon. Bourdieu, P. 1986. The forms of capital. In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education, J. G. Richardson (ed.), 241–258. Westport CT: Greenwood. Brain, K. & Reid, I. 2003. Constructing parental involvement in an education action zone: Whose need is it meeting? Educational Studies 29(2–3): 291–305. Cummins, J. 1984. Bilingualism and Special Education: Issues in Assessment and Pedagogy. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cummins, J. 1989. Language and literacy acquisition in bilingual contexts. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 10: 17–32. Cummins, J., Bismilla, V., Chow, P., Giampapa, F., Cohen, S., Leoni, L., Sandhu, P. & Sastri, P. 2005. Affirming identity in multilingual classrooms. Educational Leadership 63: 38–43. Dagenais, D. & Day, E. 1999. Home language practices of trilingual children in French immersion. Canadian Modern Language Review 56(1): 99–123. DeBruin-Parecki, A. & Paris, S. G. 1997. Family literacy: Examining practice and issues of effectiveness. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 40(8): 596–605. Duff, P. A. 2003. New directions in second language socialization. Korean Journal of English Language and Linguistics 3(3): 309–339. Eckert, P. 2000. Linguistic Variation as Social Practice. Oxford: Blackwell. García, O. 1995. Spanish language loss as a determinant of income among Latinos in the United States: Implications for language policy in schools. In Power and Inequality in Language Education, J. Tollefson (ed.), 142–160. Cambridge: CUP. García, O., Skutnabb-Kangas, T. & Torres-Guzmán, M. E. 2006. Imagining Multilingual Schools: Languages in Education and Globalization. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Garrett, P. B. & Baquedano-López, P. 2002. Language socialization: Reproduction and continuity, transformation and change. Annual Review of Anthropology 31: 339–361. Guardado, M. 2002. Loss and maintenance of first language skills: Case studies of Hispanic families in Vancouver. Canadian Modern Language Review 58(3): 341–363. Guardado, M. 2006. Engaging language and cultural spaces: Latin American parents’ reflections on language loss and maintenance in Vancouver. Canadian Journal of Applied Linguistics 9(1): 51–72. Guardado, M. 2008. Language Socialization in Canadian Hispanic Communities: Ideologies and Practices. PhD dissertation, University of British Columbia. Guardado, M. 2009. Speaking Spanish like a Boy Scout: Language socialization, resistance and reproduction in a heritage language Scout troop. Canadian Modern Language Review 66(1): 101–129.



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Guardado, M. 2010. Heritage language development: Preserving a mythic past or envisioning the future of Canadian identity? Journal of Language, Identity, and Education 9(5): 329–346. Guardado, M. In press. Language, identity and cultural awareness in Spanish-speaking families. Canadian Ethnic Studies 40(2). He, A. W. 2006. Toward an identity theory of the development of Chinese as a heritage language. Heritage Language Journal 4(1): 1–28. Johnstone, B. 1996. The Linguistic Individual: Self-expression in Language and Linguistics. Oxford: OUP. Kouritzin, S. G. 2006. Songs from taboo tongues: Experiencing first language loss. Language and Literacy 8(1): 1–28. Lyotard, J.-F. 1984. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press. Merriam, S. B. 1991. Case Study Research in Education: A Qualitative Approach, 2nd edn. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bass. Moll, L. C., Armanti, C., Neff, D. & Gonzalez, N. 1992. Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice 31(1): 132–141. Moll, L. C. & Gonzalez, N. 1994. Lessons from research with language-minority children. Journal of Reading Behavior 26: 439–456. Nieto, S. 1999. The Light in their Eyes: Creating Multicultural Learning Communities. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Norton, B. 2000. Identity and Language Learning: Gender, Ethnicity, and Educational Change. Harlow: Pearson Education. Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. B. 1995. The impact of language socialization on grammatical development. In The Handbook of Child Language, P. Fletcher & B. MacWhinney (eds), 73–94. Oxford: Blackwell. Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. B. 2008. Language socialization: An historical overview. In Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 8: Language Socialization, 2nd edn, P. Duff & N.€Hornberger (eds), 3–15. Heidelberg: Springer. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Bernhard, J. K. & Freire, M. 2001. Struggling to preserve home language: The experiences of Latino students and families in the Canadian school system. Bilingual Research Journal 25(1–2). Pease-Alvarez, L. 2002. Moving beyond linear trajectories of language shift and bilingual language socialization. Hispanic Journal of Behavioral Sciences 24(2): 114–137. Pratt, M. L. 1991. Arts of the contact zone. Profession 91: 33–40. Rodriguez, T. L. 2007. Language, Culture, and Resistance as Resource: Case Studies of Bilingual/bicultural Latino Prospective Elementary Teachers and the Crafting of Teaching Practices. PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Rothman, J. & Niño-Murcia, M. 2008. Multilingualism and identity: All in the family. In Bilingualism and Identity: Spanish at the Crossroads with Other Languages [Studies in Bilingualism 37], M. Niño-Murcia & J. Rothman (eds), 301–329. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ryan, G. W. & Bernard, H. R. 2003. Techniques to identify themes. Field Methods 15(1): 85–109. Sakamoto, M. 2000. Raising Bilingual and Trilingual Children: Japanese Immigrant Parents’ Child-rearing Experiences. PhD dissertation, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

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Saracho, O. N. 2002. Family literacy: Exploring family practices. Early Child Development and Care 172(2): 113–122. Schecter, S. R. & Bayley, R. 1997. Language socialization practices and cultural identity: Case studies of Mexican-descent families in California and Texas. TESOL Quarterly 31(3): 513–541. Schecter, S. R. & Bayley, R. 2002. Language as Cultural Practice: Mexicanos en El Norte. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Schecter, S. R., Sharken-Taboada, D. & Bayley, R. 1996. Bilingual by choice: Latino parents’ rationales and strategies for raising children with two languages. Bilingual Research Journal€20(2): 261–281. Schieffelin, B. B. & Ochs, E. 1986a. Language socialization. Annual Review of Anthropology 15: 163–191. Schieffelin, B. B. & Ochs, E. 1986b. Language Socialization across Cultures. Cambridge: CUP. Schiffrin, D. 1996. Narrative as self-portrait: Sociolinguistic constructions of identity. Language in Society 25: 167–203. Suarez, D. 2007. Second and third generation heritage language speakers: HL scholarship’s relevance to the research needs and future directions of TESOL. Heritage Language Journal€1(5): 27–49. Taylor, L. K., Bernhard, J. K, Garg, S. & Cummins, J. 2008. Afstrming plural belonging: Building on students’ family-based cultural and linguistic capital through multiliteracies pedagogy. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 8(3): 269–294. doi: 10.1177/1468798408096481. Teale, W. H. & Sulzby, E. 1986. Home background and young children’s literacy development. In Emerging Literacy: Writing and Reading, W. H. Teale & E. Sulzby (eds), vii–xxv. Norwood NJ: Ablex. Valdés, G. 1996. Con Respeto: Bridging the Distances between Culturally Diverse Families and Schools. New York NY: Teachers College Press. Valenzuela, A. 1999. Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring. Albany NY: State University of New York Press. Vásquez, O. A.€2003.€La Clase Mágica: Imagining Optimal Possibilities in a Bilingual Community of Learners. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Woolard, K. A. & Schieffelin, B. B. 1994. Language ideology. Annual Review of Anthropology€23: 55–82. Yin, R. K. 1994. Case Study Research: Design and Methods, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. Zilles, A. M. S. & King, K. 2005. Self-presentation in sociolinguistic interviews: Identities and language variation in Panambi, Brazil. Journal of Sociolinguistics 9(1): 74–94.

The United Kingdom

chapter 8

Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition?* Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten Durham University, UK / Newcastle University, UK

Whether an individual’s L1 syntax is affected by the acquisition of an L2 in adulthood is under debate. Also debated are the drivers of language change at the community level. Under strict generative views (e.g. Lightfoot 1999), change is led by children when they receive input different from the previous generations. Under other views, the grammars of individuals can change across the lifespan. We address these issues by looking at the knowledge and use of sentence-initial non-nominative constructions by first-generation adult immigrants to the UK from Spanish-speaking countries. Judgement/preference task and production data indicate monolingual-divergent use regardless of intensity of contact with English, and monolingual-divergent syntax when level of contact with English is high (and Spanish continues to be spoken). However because in the UK neither first nor second generation Spanish-speaking immigrants live in ethnic communities, the second generation is less likely than their US counterparts to use the parental language beyond early childhood. This in turn suggests that any psycho-social variables involved in heritage language maintenance are not applicable in the UK. This leads to the prediction that despite indications of individual syntactic attrition by first generation speakers, because the second generation does not actively use Spanish, the emergence of new varieties at the community level will not occur in the UK.

1.

Introduction

For nearly four decades, linguists have observed that language contact situations in which native speakers add to their linguistic repertoire a second language that

* Thanks go to the two reviewers whose comments we hope have improved this chapter, and to the audience at EUROSLA 17 whose valuable feedback we have also taken into consideration. All remaining errors of omission and commission are, of course, our own.

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they come to speak on a regular basis sow the seeds for new varieties of native languages/dialects (e.g., Fishman 1972; Gal 1979; Trudgill 1986; Winford 2003). Research has fallen into two broad categories: investigation of language shift at the level of the speech community and study of language attrition at the level of the individual from a perspective similar to that taken in language acquisition research (see, e.g., Köpke et al. 2007). In the United States, Spanish-English contact has for some time prompted study from both perspectives on non-hegemonic minority or “heritage” language shift (e.g., Fishman and Milán 1983; Flores-Ferrán 2002, 2007), and on the acquisition and attrition of the two languages to which heritage speakers are exposed (e.g., Montrul 2002, 2004, 2008; Silva-Corvalán 1994). The status of contact varieties sometimes referred to as “Spanglish” has not only received general critical attention (García 2005), but there is also ongoing debate about whether patterns of use that diverge from those of monolingual speakers reflect new, syntactically-defined varieties or simply point to expanded options in use. Pronominal subjects feature prominently in studies of heritage speakers of Spanish (Silva-Corvalán 1991, 1994; Flores-Ferrán 2007; Montrul 2004; Otheguy et al. 2007) as well in studies of heritage speakers of Italian and Greek outside the United States, namely in the United Kingdom (Serratrice et al. 2004; Sorace 2004, 2005; and Tsimpli et al. 2004). These studies indicate that speakers’ distribution of null versus overt subjects differs from that of monolingual speakers. In most null subject languages, including Spanish, the overt pronoun is the option selected when there is a switch in discourse reference or when the speaker places some type of emphasis on that pronoun and produces it as stressed. Otherwise, the pronoun will not be phonetically realized, i.e., it will be null. In discussion of the monolingual-divergent use of overt pronominal subjects observed for Â� Italian-English bilinguals, Sorace (2005) proposes that processing demands at the syntax-discourse interface account for heritage language speakers’ monolingual-divergence. Montrul (2004, 2008) adopts a different perspective, arguing that Spanish-English bilinguals’ overuse of overt subjects is the result of their incomplete acquisition of Spanish. When considering altered patterns of Romance language use by mature monolingual speakers who only as adults experience considerable contact with English, researchers such as Sorace take the position that changes in use do not represent changes in the underlying syntax. Rather, such attrition occurs at the information structure interface, along the same lines as for younger heritage language bilinguals. In this chapter, we report on a study conducted in the UK which is part . We use this familiar term simply as shorthand here while acknowledging its otherwise highly problematic use.

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 203



of a larger ongoing UK-USA project investigating how differences in migration and settlement patterns relate to individual attrition. The project aims look at the distribution of two types of subjects to track language shift in the United States where numerous multi-generational Spanish-speaking communities exist, and in the United Kingdom where Spanish immigration has only been occurring for a generation, and thus few communities have been established (see Cazzoli-Goeta et al. 2008). Unlike previous studies of null and overt subject distribution, the UK study we discuss here concerns those arguments of the verb appearing in sentence-initial position which are dative or locative rather than the nominative NPs expected in subject-verb-object/SVO language such as Spanish. This concerns a large number of verbs, for example faltar ‘to lack,’ shown in (1) with the dative NP a la mesa ‘to the table’ in sentence-initial position. (1) A la mesa le falta una pata. to the table-dat cl-dat lacks one leg-nom ‘The table is missing a leg.’

While the nominative NP una pata can appear in initial position, as shown in (2), various factors we discuss below dictate a lack of preference for this word order in Spanish in an out-of-the-blue reading. (2) Una pata le falta a la mesa. a leg-nom cl-dat lacks to the table-dat ‘A leg was missing from the table.’

Two grammatical variants do exist for all verbs that subcategorize for arguments which are not nominative; Example (4) gives the best alternative for a speaker wishing to produce a sentence with an initial nominative NP that expresses roughly the same meaning as gustar ‘to like.’ (3) Me gusta la cerveza. cl-dat like-3sg the beer ‘I like beer.’ (4) Prefiero la cerveza. prefer-1sg the beer ‘I prefer beer.’

However, there is evidence indicating that the Spanish variety spoken in Los Angeles (Parodi 1999) allows gustar to take a nominative subject (5). (5) Yo gusto surfear en la web. I-nom like surf-inf in the web ‘I like web surfing.’

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Example (5) illustrates both phenomena we have discussed thus far; as has been observed by, e.g., Montrul (2004, 2008), not only is the subject pronoun yo ‘I’ overt and (presumably) unstressed, but gustar seems to have undergone resubcategorizationÂ�, where it can take a nominative subject for the speaker who uttered this sentence. Whether these non-nominative elements have the status of subjects has been the focus of ongoing debate (e.g., Fernández-Soriano 1999; Gutiérrez-Bravo 2006; Masullo 1992, 1993; Rivero 2004). Before turning to this issue, we first lay out recent ideas on native language attrition and then we describe the distribution of the non-nominative elements under scrutiny here. We then discuss language contact data collected in the United Kingdom from 20 adult Spanish speakers with varying lengths of residence. Our analysis of the data reveals monolingual-divergentÂ� use, which in some cases points to changes in speakers’ syntax. We finish the chapter with a discussion of the implications for various existing accounts.

2.

General background

When investigating post-puberty immigrants’ (subconscious) knowledge of their native language in a language contact context, if we discover non-pathological (i.e., not induced by cerebral trauma) attrition in the grammar, in the syntax proper, this presents a problem under some views of language and its representation in the mind/brain. In generative linguistic theory, a central tenet is that acquisition of a language entails the establishment of a specific grammar in the speaker’s mind, i.e., a steady state grammar (e.g., Chomsky 1986). This grammar is the end result (reached relatively rapidly by children) of the interaction of innate, domain-specific linguistic mechanisms, i.e., the Principles and Parameters of Universal Grammar, with the input or primary linguistic data (PLD). It is a truism that a speaker continues to be surrounded by PLD throughout his/her lifespan, and one assumes that this input originates in a great range of sources which come to extend considerably beyond the immediate family after early childhood. Yet an individual’s linguistic competence – their syntax, morphology and phonology€– remains stable after early childhood. In addition to what need not be learned (invariant universal principles), learning a specific language also involves learning the lexical items in that language as well as the specifications of those syntactic properties which vary across languages. When it comes to such cross-linguistic variation, it is unsurprising that in the course of development, young children often omit subjects, including in those languages in which this is ungrammatical, e.g., English, French or German. Where the growing child varies in his/her production of subjects, this points to a stage where that which is obligatory in the adult language is optional



8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 205

for the child. Observation of the co-occurrence of optional tense and agreement marking with optional subjects in children’s early utterances has given rise to the terms Root Infinitive (Rizzi 1993/1994) and Optional Infinitive (Wexler 1994) to refer to this stage of development. Quickly enough (by around age three) children realize that they must project the functional IP-level that either allows unstressed pronominal subjects to be null (e.g., Greek, Italian, Spanish) or requires all subjects be phonetically realized (English, French, German). Non-convergence on the target language syntax by post-pubescent second language learners is well-attested, and persistent optionality has for some time been discussed as a characteristic of adult interlanguage grammars (Eubank 1994; Â�Eubank and Grace 1998) when these grammars are held to be constrained by Universal Grammar to some extent. Only recently has it come to light that individuals exposed to two languages from childhood, i.e., bilinguals, exhibit similar optionality. While not a new line of investigation, the study of monolinguals who as adults then experience intensive contact with a second language, i.e., who learn the language and in some cases speak it to the exclusion of their native language, has begun to reveal commonalities with second language and bilingual use. That is, one can observe optionality (a) among bilinguals in both languages used, (b)€in the target language for second language learners, and (c) in the native language of second language speakers. Where heretofore imperfect attainment or persistent optionality was accepted as the norm in adult second language acquisition, evidence that optionality also exists among bilinguals and among native language speakers in language contact contexts poses problems under a strictly generative view of language acquisition. For bilinguals and immigrant adults, the end steady state reached in childhood rules out optionality by its assumed final and invariant nature. To address the problem of an unsteady end state, Sorace (2004, 2005) has proposed that optional use (for example of null versus overt subjects) does not implicate the syntax proper. Rather, speakers’ choices are constrained by discoursepragmatics conventions. In the present paper, we ask: to what extent do speakers’

. The term used in the sociolinguistics literature is “simultaneous bilingual,” which we understand here to be combined with “balanced bilingual.” We use the term bilingual in opposition to child second language acquisition, where the former refers to exposure to two languages prior to the age of four, and the latter to acquisition of the second language after the child has fully established linguistic competence in a first language. We also assume the view of bilingualism under which the child’s two languages are acquired as two separate systems (see, e.g., Meisel 1990). . But note that for adult L2 learners, the very persistence of optionality, as demonstrated by learners’ indeterminate judgements about wh-movement, has been used as an argument against direct involvement of either the principles or parameters of UG (e.g., Bley-Vroman, Felix and Ioup 1988).

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patterns of use with respect to sentence-initial non-nominatives bear out Sorace’s views? Examples (1) and (2) above illustrate what also holds for null versus overt subjects: speakers’ choice between two options is a matter of discourse pragmatics and thus of preference rather than grammaticality. Yet the utterance in Example (5), which is ungrammatical in monolingual Spanish varieties, suggests a discourse-pragmatics account does not completely capture what seems to be occurring. Let us now consider in more depth this set of verbs in Spanish.

2.1 Sentence-initial non-nominative NPs in Spanish There has been much work over the past several decades on how the nature of individual verbs relates to their specific behavior in the sentences in which they appear. This revolves, on the one hand, around the semantics of a given verb, i.e., the theta roles a verb takes, and on the other hand, how this maps on to the arguments associated with that particular verb. Argument structure thus indicates what noun phrases are required for a given verb (its subcategorization) and the thematic or theta role each argument has. While terms used for theta roles vary, we adopt those used by Grimshaw (1990) in the hierarchy to which we refer below: agent, experiencer, goal, source, location, and theme. Under Chomsky’s Universal Grammar (1981), the theta criterion requires all arguments of a verb to be realized. For example, a transitive verb without a direct object such as ver ‘see’ is ungrammatical in a sentence such as *Juan ve ‘John sees.’ A verb such as poner ‘to put’ is ungrammatical without its two arguments: *Juan pone el libro/*Juan pone sobre la mesa/Juan pone el libro sobre la mesa ‘John puts the book’/‘John puts on the table’/‘John puts the book on the table.’ While the mapping of theta role to argument is not isomorphic, the subject (external argument) expresses the agent or the theme of the verb, as does Juan in the above examples. Objects (internal arguments) can be themes or locations where in the above examples, el libro is a theme and sobre la mesa a goal. In addition to the division of verbs into the two familiar main classes, transitive (those that require a direct object) and intransitive (those that do not allow one), three further subclasses exist. All are associated with specific, underlying syntactic structures. First, ergative verbs are those which can be either transitive or intransitive. When transitive, the subject is an agent, as in El cocinero derritió el chocolate ‘The cook melted the chocolate,’ but when intransitive, the direct object becomes the subject, as in El chocolate se derritió ‘The chocolate melted.’ Genuine (as opposed to ergative) intransitive verbs further subdivide into unaccusatives and unergatives, and each is associated with a certain underlying syntactic structure. Unaccusatives have a direct object/internal argument but no agent/subject,

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 207



while unergatives (always, as opposed to ergatives) have an external argument/ subject but no direct object. These are the default intransitives which take an agent subject, but never an object, apart from under idiomatic meanings, for example El hombre trabaja todo el día ‘The man works every day.’ In Spanish, unaccusatives include those listed below as well as verbs such as llegar ‘arrive,’ which do not take an agent subject, as in En 1896, Picasso llega a Barcelona ‘In 1896, Picasso arrived in Barcelona.’ Shown here are the categories into which those Spanish verbs fall that do not involve an agent and which do not select an external argument but rather a non-nominative element which then appears in sentence-initial position. (6)

Psych verbs: gustar ‘like,’ sorprender ‘surprise,’ antojar ‘crave,’ interesar ‘interest’ A mí me gusta / interesa / encanta la comida española. to me-dat cl-dat likes / interests / loves the food Spanish-nom ‘I like / am interested in / love Spanish food.’

(7)

Raising predicates: parecer ‘seem,’ empezar ‘begin,’ seguir ‘continue’ A nadie le parece bien eso. to nobody-dat cl-dat seems right that-nom ‘That does not seem right to anyone.’

(8) Ergative verbs marked by the clitic se: salirse ‘come off,’ descoserse ‘come unstitched,’ llenarse ‘fill’ Al libro se le salió la tapa. to the book-dat cl-refl cl-dat came off the cover-nom ‘The book’s cover has come off.’ (9) Verbs of involuntary bodily activities: temblar ‘shake,’ latir ‘beat,’ salivar ‘salivate,’ sangrar ‘bleed’ A mi abuelita le están temblando las manos. to my granny-dat cl-dat are-3pl shaking the hands-nom ‘My Granny’s hands are shaking.’

The sentence-initial elements shown here are dative, but are also internal arguments of the verbs which are unaccusative and which appear with de-thematized arguments, as well as in impersonal NPs. Thus, in addition to appearing in dative case (10), these sentence initial elements also include accusatives (11) and (12), and locatives (13) and (14). (10) A Andrés le gusta el golf. to Andrés-dat cl-dat likes the golf-nom ‘Andrés likes golf.’ (11) A Daniel lo llaman ‘Dany.’ to Daniel-acc cl-acc call-3pl Dany-nom ‘They call Daniel ‘Dany.’’

208 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

(12) A Juan lo consideran inteligente. to John-acc cl-acc consider-3pl intelligent ‘They consider John intelligent.’ (13) Aquí no crece el pasto. here-loc not grows the grass-nom ‘(The) grass does not grow here.’ (14) Aquí se hablan varios idiomas. here-loc cl speak-3pl several languages ‘Several languages are spoken here.’

What is the status of these sentential-initial non-nominatives? It has been argued that they are not left-dislocated elements, given the ungrammaticality of a nadie in (15), with the intransitive verb ir ‘go,’ but the grammaticality of (16) with gustar (Masullo 1992, 1993; Zagona 2002). (15) *A nadie, el profesor lo dejará ir. to nobody-acc, the teacher-nom cl-acc will let go ‘The teacher won’t let anybody go.’ (16) A nadie le gusta la opera en esta casa. to nobody-dat cl-dat likes the opera-nom in this house ‘Nobody likes choral music in this house.’

Like nominative subjects, sentence-initial-non-nominatives (henceforth SINNs) can occur in embedded clauses as in a Marcos in (17a) with the unaccusative verb interesar. However, as a left-dislocated element with the transitive verb dar ‘give’ this is only marginally acceptable. (17) a. Es una pena que a Marcos no le atraiga el arte. is a shame that to Marcos-dat no cl-dat attracts the arte-nom ‘It is a shame that Mark is not interested in art.’ b. ?Es una pena que a Marcos el arte no le atraiga. is a shame that to Marcos-dat the art-nom no cl-dat attracts ‘It is a shame that Mark is not interested in art.’

Examples from Masullo (1992, 1993) illustrate that, like nominative subjects, SINNs can be modified by solamente ‘alone’ (18a); however, topics cannot be (18b), indicating that the status of SINNs is not simply that of a topic. (18) a. A Julio solamente le puede gustar Verdi. to Julio-dat alone cl-dat can-pl like Verdi ‘Only Julio can like Verdi.’



8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 209

b. *A Julio solamente su novia le regalará un CD de Verdi. to Julio-dat alone his girlfriend cl-dat will give a CD of Verdi ‘To Julio alone, his girlfriend will give him a recording of Verdi.’

As a language with less fixed word order than English, Spanish allows information content, in terms of topic and focus, to shape the syntactic component of the grammar (Zagona 2002:â•›49). Where the preceding discourse and therefore the intonation pattern of a sentence with a SINN points to a topic-focus structure, the intonation peak of that sentence will fall on what represents new information. In Spanish, this is normally the rest of the predication, as shown in the second set of brackets in (19). (19) [A mí]Topic me sorprendieron [las noticias]Focus. to me-dat cl-dat surprised-pl the news ‘I was surprised by the news.’

When the focus of the sentence is a SINN, the theme la noticia raises to subject position as a topic and the SINN a Miguel appears after the verb. (20) [La noticia]Topic le sorprendió [a Miguel]Focus, no a mí. the news cl-dat surprised to Miguel-dat, not to me ‘The news surprised Miguel, not me.’

Alternatively, la noticia is post-verbal when predicate + theme become the topic of the sentence. (21) [Le sorprendió la noticia]Topic [a Miguel]Focus, no a mí. cl-dat surprised the news to Miguel-dat, not to me ‘The news surprised Miguel, not me.’

Raising of a theme is also possible when left dislocated, as in (22). (22) La billetera, me la acaban de robar. the wallet, cl-acc cl-nom finished of steal ‘My wallet has just been stolen.’

As mentioned in the introduction, sentences (1) and (2), repeated here as (23) and (24), are both grammatical and have a similar interpretation. However, discourse conventions dictate preference for (23) as the expected word order for an out of the blue utterance, while (24) would be the result of either topicalizing the theme una pata or focusing a la mesa, given a specific preceding context established by the interlocutors. Only when SINNs receive special intonation/stress can they be in a focus non-raised position.

210 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

(23) A la mesa le falta una pata. to the table-dat cl-dat lacks one leg-nom ‘The table is missing a leg.’ (24) Una pata le falta a la mesa. a leg-nom cl-dat lacks to the table-dat ‘A leg was missing from the table.’

An additional option (25) is a possibility observed for English learners of Spanish (see Cazzoli-Goeta 2006), which although grammatical, is less native-like in an out-of-the blue utterance: (25) La mesa sólo tiene tres patas. the table-nom only has three legs ‘The table has only three legs.’

Native speakers of Spanish may sometimes replace a transitive verb with little, if any, change in meaning; the second options in (26) and (27) provide further examples of such lexical choice. (26) A la maestra le duele la cabeza. / La maestra tiene dolor de cabeza. to the teacher cl-dat hurts the head / the teacher-nom has ache of head ‘The teacher has a headache.’ (27) Me llevó dos años perder peso. / Estuve dos años para perder peso. cl-dat took two years to lose weight / I was two years for to lose weight ‘It took me two years to lose weight.’

The syntactic analysis of these verbs is that they do not select an external argument, which then makes the highest position in the sentence, Spec, IP, available as a landing site for an internal argument. This does not account for why particular arguments appear in sentence-initial position, and here we appeal to semantic ranking. Belletti and Rizzi (1988) rank experiencers above themes whether they appear in nominative case or another case, as in Spanish. In her Thematic Hierarchy, Grimshaw (1990:â•›8) proposes a similar order, where, when the arguments in a sentence compete to appear sentence initial position, in Spec, IP, the one in the highest position in the hierarchy takes priority: (Agent(Experiencer(Goal/Source/ Location (Theme)))). This explains the tendency of dative NPs (experiencers) to appear preverbally with unaccusative verbs that lack an agent but have a theme. Referring to the set of examples in (28), Masullo (1992) argues that, syntactically speaking, for NPs that involve transitive verbs, even if Spec, IP, is underlyingly empty at DS, the agent and nominative subject (here José) will take priority over any internal arguments to become subject of the entire clause.



8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 211

(28) DS: [IP[I’[VP José[VP dio un beso a María]]]] ‘José gave a kiss to María.’ SS1: [IP Joséi[I’le dioj[VP tj un beso a María]]]] SS2:*[IP A Maríai[I’le dioj[VP José[VP tj un beso a María ti]]]] SS3:*[IP A Maríai[I’le dioj[VP [VP tj un beso ti ] José]]]

Grimshaw’s Thematic Hierarchy can be overridden by discourse factors: SS3 is rendered grammatical if the goal María is contrasted by the speaker by his/her mention of another goal in the preceding discourse. (29) again shows just the Thematic Hierarchy being overridden by discourse, namely the speaker’s preference to emphasize the dative. (29) [IP A ningún estudiante [I’[VP[VP le aceptó el trabajo tarde] el profesor]]] to no student-dat cl accepted the work late the professor ‘The professor did not accept late homework from any of his students.’

We have established that these non-nominative elements are not simply leftdislocated or topicalized, and that their appearance in sentence-initial position is semantically determined. There has also been discussion about whether one can refer to these elements as subjects (Fernández-Soriano 1999; Masullo 1992, 1993). Quirky or non-nominative subjects have been argued for in a range of other Romance languages such as Italian (Belletti and Rizzi 1988) and Romanian (DumitrescuÂ� and Masullo 1996), and such subjects have also been discussed in the literature on South Asian languages (Verma and Mohanan 1990), on Japanese (Ura 2000) and on Icelandic (Sigurðsson 1991). Icelandic quirky subject NPs can be dative, genitive and accusative, with a lexically selected case., Given subsequent counter claims regarding Spanish (e.g., Gutiérrez-Bravo 2005, 2007), we remain agnostic regarding the syntactic minutiae; nothing in the present study hangs on the subject status of these sentence-initial non-nominative elements, and we shall continue to refer to them simply as SINNs.

. Lexical case can be defined as being determined as a lexical property of certain heads, like verbs (V) and prepositions (P), rather than in terms of syntactic configuration assigning case (Freidin and Sprouse 1991). . See also Eythórsson (2001), Masullo (1993), Rivero (2004), Rögnvaldsson (1991), Â�Sigurðsson (1989, 1991, 2000) and Zaenen et al. (1985) on quirky subjects in a range of languages.

212 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

3.

The study

3.1

Spanish speakers in the United Kingdom

Although substantial immigration of Spanish speakers to the United Kingdom first began in the second half of the 20th century, there is now a substantial number from both Latin America and Spain. The former will have – as in the USA€– fled their respective countries due to economic hardship or political persecution and violence. The most recent estimates from embassies, community centers and refugee groups give the figure one million for Latin Americans in the UK. While few, if any, Spanish-speaking communities seem to exist, Latin Americans are one of the UK’s fastest growing ethnic groups, suggesting that this may be a future development. One million is, however, not a reliable figure for all Spanish speakers for several reasons. To begin with, the last UK census did not include “Latin American” as a subcategory under “white other.” Calculation of numbers of migrants from Spain is difficult due to the freedom of movement within the 21st century European Union (EU); those in this group can include university students on one-semester exchange programs and professionals such as dentists, along with hotel, restaurant, and factory workers. Immigrants from Latin America are likely to be under-counted, where those who are descendents of European emigrants may arrive in the UK with EU country passports also allowing them automatic entry. This results in misleading point-of-entry immigration statistics.

3.2 Methods and materials A small-scale cross-sectional study was carried out with 24 Spanish speakers living in the UK and a control group of 10 monolingual speakers. The control group comprised 10 monolingual speakers in Argentina with very little English contact whose ages ranged from 15 to 70. The immigrants were between 25 and 65, had immigrated between the ages of 18 and 25, and were from Spain, Colombia, Venezuela, and Peru, where varieties spoken adhere to the constraints on SINNs noted above. They had all resided in the UK a minimum of five years (range 5 to 25 years). We adopted as minimum residence the number of years mentioned in many age factor studies (see, e.g., Patkowski 1990) and included a range of residence lengths in order to compare length of residence and intensity of English contact. In order to investigate the role played by intensity of contact/interaction with English versus Spanish, speakers were given a linguistic background

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 213



Â� questionnaire to establish daily language use (see Tables 1 and 2). Level of contact with English was extrapolated from their responses regarding their continued use of Spanish, which we already knew varied due to type of employment, but we were interested to see where there was additional variation in contact/use through internet access, satellite/cable television and low international phone rates. Those in our lower English contact group were working as university lecturers or language teachers of Spanish and used Spanish on a daily basis. Those in the higher English contact group were working as cleaners or babysitters and spoke English at work and all had monolingual English spouses. We were solely interested in level of language contact and therefore did not include a measure of English proficiency. We note, however, that the English proficiency of at least all low English contact individuals was commensurate with what is expected of professionals working in the UK, e.g., at universities. Speakers were divided into two groups each of which was then labeled by level of contact with English rather than with Spanish. The shaded cells in these tables show Spanish contact, either in situations where both English and Spanish were used, or only Spanish was used (“yes” in the tables). Apart from “Isa,” who is in the higher English contact group due to her non-Spanish speaking spouse, the only other area of overlap with respect to Spanish use/contact is use of this language with children. Nearly all of the Lower English Contact (LEC) group speakers, but only one of the Higher English Contact (HEC) speakers, phone home regularly or make frequent visits home. (There were no sex-based patterns found, and this information is thus not included; names are abbreviated). Table 1.╇ Intensity of Spanish use by the Higher English Contact (HEC) group

Luí

Ed

Bla

Lil

Cris

Alb

Lau

Lui

Man

Isa

UK years

25

20

18

16

15

15

12

6

5

5

spouse

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Work

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Both

internet

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Both

children

Rare

Rare

Both

Rare

Both

Rare

Yes

Both

Both

Both

friends

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Both

Both

Both

Rare

Rare

Both

reading

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Both

Both

Both

Both

music/TV

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Both

Rare

Both

Both

Both

home visits Rare calls home 2/yr

Rare Rare

Rare Rare 2+/yr Rare

Rare 2/yr

Yearly Yearly 2+/yr Rare Yearly 2+/yr 2/mn Mnthly Mnthly weekly

214 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

Table 2a.╇ Intensity of Spanish use by the Lower English Contact (LEC) group

Carr 1

Mar

Pen

Álv

Bea

Car 2

Gus

UK yrs

20

18

18

17

16

15

12

spouse

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Work

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

children

Yes

Yes

Rare

Yes

Yes

Yes

n/a

friends

Both

Rare

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

reading

Yes

Both

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

music/TV

Both

Both

Both

Yes

Both

Both

Both

internet

Both

Both

Both

Rare

Both

Both

Both

home visits calls home

3+/yr mthly

2/yr 2/mn

Yrly wkly

2/yr 2/mn

2/yr mthly

2/yr 2/mn

Yrly mthly

Table 2b.╇ Intensity of Spanish use by the Lower English Contact (LEC) group

Áng

Dio

Ma

Vic

Est

Jos

Hei

UK yrs

12

10

10

9

7

6

5

spouse

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Rare

Yes

Yes

Work

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

Both

children

Yes

n/a

n/a

n/a

Yes

n/a

Yes

friends

Both

Both

Both

Both

Sp

Sp

Yes

reading

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

music/TV

Both

Both

Yes

Rare

Rare

Both

Both

internet

Both

Both

Yes

Both

Both

Both

Yes

home visits calls home

3+/yr 2/mn

3+/yr 2/mn

3+/yr wkly

Yly wkly

3+/yr wkly

3+/yr daily

Rare wkly

To collect data relevant to use of and preference for SINNs versus nominative subjects, all participants were given two tasks: a picture description (PD) task and an aural preference (AP) task. The PD task required participants to orally describe 10 pictures whose aim was to induce utterances with SINNs by prompting speakers’ use of unaccusative verbs. Participants were shown one picture at a time while their responses were recorded and subsequently transcribed. Some sample pictures and responses from the monolingual control group follow.

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 215



(30)

A Tito se le cayó el helado. to Tito-dat cl-refl cl-dat fell the ice-cream-nom ‘Tito dropped his ice-cream.’ (31)

A la mujer le duele la cabeza. to the woman-dat cl-dat hurts the head-nom ‘The woman has a headache.’

While the picture description task was meant to elicit certain verbs, speakers had the freedom to choose any verb fitting the picture. They also had the opportunity to demonstrate their use of clitics and personal a; we take this latter point up when discussing the data. The aural preference task contained 24 pairs of pre-recorded sentences for which a short context preceded each. This task functioned in part as a grammaticality judgment task where six of the items were ungrammatical sentences showing either absence or incorrect use of SINNs. These sentences included nominative subjects with unaccusative verbs, absence of obligatory dative clitics, missing personal a and SINNs in non-initial positions. (32)

Context: Al verla me enfadé bastante… when see-cl-acc cl-refl became angry a lot ‘When I saw it I got quite annoyed.’

. These are also typical errors in the L2 acquisition of Spanish SINNs by adult English speaking learners. For more details regarding this, see Cazzoli-Goeta (2006) and CazzoliGoeta et al. (2004).

216 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

Choices: a. A la campera se le rompió el cierre otra vez! to the jacket-dat cl-refl cl-dat broke the zip again ‘The jacket’s zipper broke again!’ (gramatical option) b.

*La campera se le rompió el cierre otra vez! the jacket-dat cl-refl cl-dat broke the zip again ‘The jacket’s zipper broke again!’ (ungrammatical option; missing personal a leads to nominative subject)

As discussed in Section 3, the preceding context can determine whether a constituent in a given utterance is topicalized or focused, and thus in each pair, there was a pragmatically felicitous sentence whose context-determined intonation pattern made a SINN felicitous, and a pragmatically infelicitous sentence which would have required a different intonation pattern to result in that constituent not being in initial position, i.e., being in focus rather than topic position. (33)

Context: La anécdota la escuchamos todos. Mientras bailaba… the anecdote cl heard all. while dancing ‘We all heard the anecdote. While dancing…’

Choices: a. El pantalón se le descosió a Pedro. the trousers-nom cl-refl cl-dat came.unstitched to Pedro-dat ‘Pedro’s trousers came unstitched.’ (option [33a] is infelicitous without special intonation) b. A Pedro se le descosió el pantalón. To Pedro-dat cl-refl cl-dat came.unstitched the trousers-nom ‘Pedro’s trousers had come unstitched.’ (option [33b] is felicitous with no special emphasis)

The order in which these types of utterances appeared in this task and in each pair was randomized. Participants listened to each of the audio-recorded pairs of sentences once, and with no time pressure were asked to state their preference in terms of what they would naturally say for one member of the pair. The AP task was administered first for all participants. Three hypotheses were formulated taking into account the linguistic factors previously discussed as well as the exposure variable relating to the two subgroups of UK residents.

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 217



Hypothesis 1: There will be a preference for nominative subjects over SINNs. Hypothesis 2: Monolingual-divergent patterns will involve discourse-pragmatics constraints (context-determined felicitousness) rather than ungrammaticality. Hypothesis 3: The HEC group will evidence higher degree of monolingual-divergent patterns than the LEC group in terms of: (a) preferring the English option in the AP task; and (b) using English-like NPs on the PD task.

4.

Results

We begin by looking at the results by group, first considering the second task described above, the aural preference task. We consider the picture description task results second, as they are more varied and involve examples pointing to possible changes in speakers’ grammars. Figure 1 shows the general trends exhibited by both groups, where we immediately note that the rate at which they prefer Spanish options directly varies with intensity of contact with English; one might also express this as lack of preference for non-Spanish options, since one can surmise that, in a contact situation, speakers come to disfavor options in their own language rather than to prefer options based on the dominant language. Higher English Contact Group Lower English Contact Group Control Group

100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00%

1

Figure 1.╇ Overall preference for Spanish options on AP task

Figure 2 displays preference for ungrammatical sentences (labeled UNG), as in the example in (35b) in the leftmost columns, and preference for infelicitous sentences (labeled inf), as in (36a) in the right-hand columns.

218 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

Higher English Contact Group Lower English Contact Group Control Group 100.00% 80.00% 60.00% 40.00% 20.00% 0.00%

UNG

INF

Figure 2.╇ Preference for grammatical (UNG) and infelicitous (inf) SINN sentences on AP task

Speakers showed preference for these sorts of sentences in the pairs: (34) is missing personal dative a, (35) was preferred by some speakers despite lack of special intonation; and (36), although grammatical, avoids the expected use of gustar and a sentence initial dative. (34) *La chaqueta se le rompió el cierre. the jacket ref cl-dat broke the zip-nom (instead of A la chaqueta se le rompió el cierre.) (35) ?La arqueología siempre le interesó a nuestra prima. the archaeology always cl-dat interests to our cousin-dat (instead of the more authentic Spanish option A nuestra prima siempre le interesó la arqueología.) (36) Elsa no disfruta la bebida blanca. Elsa no enjoys the drink white. (instead of the Spanish option A Elsa no le gusta la bebida blanca.)

In the picture description task, data displayed in the bar chart in Figure 3, a comparable pattern to that in Figure 1 is observed regarding ungrammatical, infelicitous use of SINNs.

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 219



80%

Higher English Contact Group Lower English Contact Group Control Group

60%

40%

20%

0%

1

Figure 3.╇ Overall use of SINNs on PD task

Examples of non-use in the oral production data of SINNs include the examples shown below. The utterance in (37), even if grammatical, does not use the gustar SINN structure; (38) is possible, though it does not accurately express the idea of accidental dropping of the ice-cream, and (39) is like (38) in that the structure with the nominative subject el saco ‘the jacket’ eliminates the idea of accidental (i.e., non-volitional) stretching conveyed by a structure with a nonagentive argument. (37)



La mujer tiene dolor de cabeza. the woman has ache of head ‘The woman has a headache.’ (Instead of A la mujer le duele la cabeza.)

220 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

(38)



El hombre dejó caer el helado. the man let fall the ice-cream ‘The man dropped the ice-cream.’ (instead of Al hombre se le cayó el helado.)

(39)



El saco se agrandó en la lavadora. the jacket cl-refl stretched in the washer ‘The jacket stretched in the wash.’ (Instead of Al hombre se le estiró/agrandó el saco en la lavadora.)

Group scores, however, do not tell us enough about the nature of our immigrant Spanish speakers’ individual grammars, and we therefore turn to specific speakers’ preferences and production patterns. Four speakers were selected from each group to represent points on the spectrum of length of residence, as displayed in Figures€4 and 5. For the HEC speakers, we see that their preference for nominative subjects increases with UK residence in terms of both infelicitous and ungrammatical use. Figure 5 reveals that length of residence plays a less important role for those with low English contact. This is particularly the case when it comes to ungrammatical patterns, where there is no attrition at all. While Manuela and Esther, with five and seven years’ residence, pattern similarly, HEC Lily with 16 years’ residence evidences considerably more monolingual divergence in her SINNs than does LEC Carmen 1, with 20 years’ residence. It turns out to be instructive that we have included in our group speakers with only as little as five years’ residence. Our span of length of residence illustrates that contact produces an effect within the first five years of residence, but the real effects of dominant-language contact intensity are not visible until after many more years of residence.

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 221



100% 80% 60% UNG INF

40% 20% 0% Luís (25 years)

Lily (16 years)

Luisa (6 years)

Manuela (5 years)

Control Group

Figure 4.╇ Performance comparison on the AP task by HEC and control group

100% 80% 60%

UNG INF

40% 20% 0%

Carmen 1 (20 years)

María (18 years)

Victoria (9 years)

Esther (7 years)

Control Group

Figure 5.╇ Performance comparison on the AP task by LEC and control group

5.

Discussion and conclusion

Both consideration of the group scores and of individual patterns of Spanish use provide support for Hypothesis 1; there is a trend towards preference for nominative subjects over SINNs. Hypotheses 2 and 3 are also broadly supported; there is more monolingual divergence with respect to SINNs where discourse pragmatics is involved than there is outright ungrammaticality (Hypothesis 2), and this

222 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

trend is more striking for those with the most contact with English (Hypothesis€3). Thus, it appears that the syntax of those with high English contact who have also spent a long time in the UK is undergoing English-influenced attrition, and that attrition is not limited to the syntax-discourse pragmatics interface, but is occurring in the syntax proper as well, where re-subcategorization of verbs may be taking place. We began this chapter by pointing out how explanations for Â�monolingual-divergentÂ� patterns of bilinguals’ use of overt subjects invoke interface factors rather than implicating the syntax proper. Our AP task results point to a gradual decline in preference for SINNs and suggest a categorical difference in acceptance of ungrammatical options with increased English contact. The picture description task results also show a gradual and more marked decline in use of SINNs with increased English contact. How can we account for the observation that bilingual grammars seem to allow illicit/ungrammatical options? According to Sorace (2005) grammars under attrition do not diverge from monolingual grammars. Our study’s findings strongly suggest that this may not be the case. The effect of socio-economic stratum is perhaps obvious in the small-scale study reported on here: those whose Spanish use changed the most were employed in low-skilled occupations. We suggest that the higher rates of attrition evidenced by cleaners and babysitters may be due to the additional effect of lack of continued contact with Spanish through reading. All members of the low English contact group, because they were academics and teachers, had daily exposure to written Spanish while the high contact group had considerably less, if any, such exposure. Further research is required to determine the effect of continued exposure to written Spanish on UK immigrants; our questionnaire unfortunately did not include questions to determine the amount of interaction with written text in Spanish. The sentence-initial non-nominatives we have looked at the attrition here seem to be connected to the subject phenomenon discussed at the start of this chapter, at least in terms of what typically appears in sentence-initial position. Masullo (1992, 1993), who, as we pointed out above, argues that these SINNs are quirky subjects, claims that they are not an isolated phenomenon but rather in given languages they cluster together with subject-related properties including pro-drop, lack of expletives and post-verbal nominative DPs in presentational sentences. Referring to a range of languages, Masullo links this cluster of properties to how nominative case is assigned in a given language. In Spanish, for example, . One cannot rule out the possibility that this is the result of lack of use of Spanish rather than influence of use of English, despite the fact that sentence-initial nominative subjects are characteristic of English. . Note that the pattern of native language use among low-skilled Spanish speaking workers is generally reversed in the USA.

8.╇ Yo gusto… Expanding choice or€syntactic€attrition? 223



nominative case is canonically assigned within VP via government by INFL. In languages such as English, nominative case is uniformly assigned via spec-head agreement. In both instances, INFL contains features for Tense and Agreement, but it is the latter that play a decisive role in the different ways in which case is assigned. In Spanish, INFL assigns case to an NP to its right in connection with the morphological richness it exhibits (e.g., person and number agreement markers; see Contreras 1991; Koopman and Sportiche 1988, 1991). In English INFL assigns case only to Spec, IP, due to its non-lexical (non-rich) properties, specifically the possibility of assigning nominative case within VP (Contreras 1991). This is connected to the fact that English is not a pro-drop language; i.e., it allows neither null subjects (40b) nor postverbal subjects (41b) and, unlike Spanish, uses expletive subjects (42a); note every example in (b) would be grammatical in Spanish. (40) a. He is speaking on the phone. b. *Is speaking on the phone. (41) a. The match is starting now. b. *Is starting the match now. (42) a. It is raining. b. *Is raining.

In our larger study, we are beginning to look at the inter-relationship of these properties in English-contact Spanish in the UK and the USA. Ultimately, we hope that results from all our work will shed light on attempts to model the connections between acquisition and diachronic variation (e.g., Lightfoot 1999; Â�Roberts 2007). Proposals of language change and dialectal variation make predictions for language acquisition based on changes in the input available to children; under these views, adults do not come to speak a variety with a different syntax. But let us suppose that individual attrition is indeed occurring among Spanish speaking adults in the UK. Under some views of language and its acquisition, particularly with respect to argument structure (see, e.g., Pinker 1989; Goldberg and Â�Casenhiser 2006), changes in the input can be expected to result in changes in speakers’ grammars, regardless of their age. When it comes to changes that are transmitted across generations, i.e., real language change, it may take a village. As noted above, unlike in the USA, Spanish speaking communities do not currently exist in the UK, and thus we predict that attrition at the level of the individual would fail be transmitted to the next generation. Such a proposition requires considerable further investigation, and this is what we intend to do in our larger study.

224 Marcela Cazzoli-Goeta and Martha Young-Scholten

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García, O. 2005. Positioning heritage languages in the United States. Modern Language Journal 89(4): 601–605. Grimshaw, J. 1990. Argument Structure. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Goldberg, A. & Casenhiser, D. 2006. Learning argument structure generalizations. In Constructions in Acquisition, E. V. Clark & B. F. Kelly (eds), 185–204.€Stanford CA: CSLI. Gutiérrez-Bravo, R. 2005. Structural Markedness and Syntactic Structure. London: Routledge. Gutiérrez-Bravo, R. 2006. Reinterpretation of quirky subjects and related phenomena in Spanish. In New Perspectives on Romance Linguistics, Vol. 1 [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 275], J. P. Montreuil & C. Nishida (eds), 127–142. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Gutiérrez-Bravo, R. 2007. Prominence scales and unmarked word order in Spanish. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 25: 235–271. Koopman, H. & Sportiche, D. 1988. Subjects. Ms, UCLA. Koopman, H. & Sportiche, D. 1991. The position of subjects. Lingua 85: 211–58. Köpke, B., Scmid, M. S., Keijzer, M. & Dostert, S. 2007. Language Attrition: Theoretical Perspectives [Studies in Bilingualism 33], Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Lightfoot, D. 1999. The Development of Language: Acquisition, Change, and Evolution. Malden MA: Blackwell. Masullo, P. 1992. Incorporation and Case Theory in Spanish: A Crosslinguistic Perspective. PhD dissertation, University of Washington. Masullo, P. 1993. Two types of quirky subjects: Spanish versus Icelandic. Conference Proceedings in Linguistics: North East Linguistic Society 23: 303–317. Meisel, J. 1990. Two First Languages: Early Grammatical Development in Bilingual Children. Dordrecht: Foris. Montrul, S. 2002. Incomplete acquisition and attrition of Spanish tense/aspect distinctions in adult bilinguals. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 5: 39–68. Montrul, S. 2004. Subject and object expression in Spanish heritage speakers: A case of morphosyntactic convergence. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(2): 125–142. Montrul, S. 2008. Incomplete acquisition in Spanish heritage speakers: Chronological age or interface vulernability? Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 299–310. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press. Otheguy, R., Zentella, A. C. & Livert, D. 2007. Language and dialect contact in Spanish in New York: Towards the formation of a speech community. Language 83: 1–33. Parodi, T. 1999. Clitic doubling in Spanish as a native language and in second language acquisition. Ms, University of California, Los Angeles. Patkowski, M. 1990. Age and accent in a second language. Reply to James Emil Flege. Applied Linguistics 11: 73–89. Pinker, S. 1989. Learnability and Cognition: The Acquisition of Argument Structure. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Rivero, M. L. 2004. Quirky subjects, person restrictions, and the PCC. Linguistic Inquiry 35(3): 494–502. Roberts, I. 2007. Diachronic Syntax. Oxford: OUP. Rögnvaldsson, E. 1991. Quirky subjects in Old Icelandic. In Papers from the Twelfth Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, H. A. Sigurðsson, Þ. G. Indriðason & E. Rögnvaldsson (eds), 369–378. Reykjavík: University of Iceland. Sigurðsson, H. A. 1989. Verbal Syntax and Case in Icelandic. PhD dissertation, University of Lund.

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Sigurðsson, H. A. 1991. Icelandic case-marked PRO and the licensing of lexical arguments. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 9: 327–363. Sigurðsson, H. A. 2000. The locus of case and agreement. Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 65: 65–108. Silva-Corvalán, C. 1994. Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: Clarendon. Serratrice, L., Sorace, A. & Paoli, S. 2004. Transfer at the syntax-pragmatic interface: subjects and objects in Italian-English bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(3): 183–205. Sorace, A. 2004. Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax-discourse interface: Data, interpretations and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7: 143–145. Sorace, A. 2005. Selective optionality in language development. In Syntax and Variation: Reconciling the Biological and the Social [Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 265], L.€CornipsÂ� & K. Corrigan (eds), 55–80. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Trudgill, P. 1986. Dialects in Contact. Oxford: Blackwell. Tsimpli, I.-M., Sorace, A., Heycock, C. & Filiaci, F. 2004. First language attrition and syntactic subjects: A study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism 8(3): 257–277. Rizzi, L. 1993/1994. Some notes on linguistic theory and language development: The case of root infinitives. Language Acquisition 3: 341–393. Ura, H. 2000. Checking Theory and Grammatical Functions in Universal Grammar. Oxford: OUP. Verma, M. & Mohanan, K. 1990. Experiencer Subjects in South Asian Languages. Stanford CA: CLSI. Wexler, K. 1994. Optional infinitives, head movement and the economy of derivation. In Verb Movement, D. Lightfoot & N. Hornstein (eds), 305–350. Cambridge: CUP. Winford, D. 2003. An Introduction to Contact Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell. Zaenen, A., Maling, J. & Thrainsson, H. 1985. Case and grammatical function: The Icelandic passive. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 3: 441–483. Zagona, C. 2002. The Syntax of Spanish. Cambridge: CUP.

chapter 9

Voicing language dominance Acquiring Spanish by British English/Spanish bilingual children* Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis University of Plymouth / University of Reading

This paper investigates the linguistic performance of a group of English-SpanishÂ� bilingual children (N = 44, age range: 10–14) with different degrees of language dominance in their use of the Spanish preposition ‘a’ using a completion task which measures the different conditions that relate to the distribution of a personal (Torrego 1998; Zagona 2002). The children’s performance was compared to a group of monolingual Spanish children of similar age (n = 10, age range: 12–15). All participants had also to complete an ethno-linguistic task which elicits data to address the impact of some external factors (e.g., language dominance and language choices) in language performance. Results revealed that bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children in the use of the preposition ‘a’, but the two groups showed a similar pattern of errors regardless of their grade of bilingualism. More importantly, their linguistic performance does not seem to be related to any of the external factors included in this study. In line with previous research in the field, we also claim that phenomena involving the syntax-semantics interface are vulnerable in bilingual children irrespective of the grade of bilingualism and external factors (i.e., language dominance and language choice).

* Firstly, we would like to express our gratitude to Claire Thomas (Waltham Forest Bilingual Group, London) and to the children and parents without whose generous participation this project would not have happened. We also would like to thank the editors for their invitation to contribute to the present volume and to the reviewers for their very valuable and acute comments which helped us immensely to improve our initial manuscript and clarify our ideas. Any remaining errors are solely ours.

228 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

1.

Introduction

Bilingualism presumes knowledge of two languages, although most bilinguals tend to have a dominant language. It is therefore important to be mindful of different factors affecting the rate of bilingualism when exploring the performance of bilingual children who are still in development. Sociolinguistic research has explored not only the linguistic factors, but also the social and individual factors that influence the construction of personal identity in a particular bilingual community and the individuals that comprise it. For example, research investigating issues of identity has highlighted the connection between the nature of language influence on the negotiation and performance of identity (e.g. Cameron 2005, 2006; De fina et al. 2006; see Niño-Murcia and Rothman 2008 for Hispanic bilingualism in particular). Linguistic identity has come to be considered the reflection of both the individual and communal identity at the supra-level. In an effort to describe the linguistic patterns of immigrant families, Grosjean (1982) noted that first generation immigrants tended to learn the dominant language as an L2 to attain greater social mobility, which very often resulted in L1 attrition. Second generation speakers, on the other hand, generally grow up in more complex linguistic environments because they are often exposed to both languages from birth and often use two or more languages at work, although this depends on many factors, such as their socio-economical status, and whether they are raised in mixed families. Many of these children, despite being raised by monolingual or bilingual parents of the heritage language, end up either being monolingual speakers of the dominant language of the society or acquire an incomplete system for the heritage language spoken at home (see Montrul 2008 and literature within). Other bilingual children, in contrast, who live in homes where the minority language is used exclusively or is greatly valued and used in diverse social situations with families and peers, are more likely to attain full bilingual abilities. Other external factors (namely, educational level, social class, age of immigration, and contact with other immigrants from the same language community) are also deterministic factors

. Following Romaine (2004a), the minority (or subordinate) language will be the language with a non-hegemonic, non-elite status within a particular community; whereas the dominant language will be the hegemonic language. This division may have both numerical and social/political dimensions depending on the linguistic community and the administrative unit in question. . Recall that in these populations attrition is argued to not affect narrow syntax properties, but only language use (but see Domínguez and Arche 2008; Cazzoli-Goeta, Rothman and Young-Scholten 2008).



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 229

influencing language use and preferences for bilingual Â�individuals, in particular at a very young age (see Padilla et al. 1991; Romaine 1995; Silva-Corvalán 1994). In addition to those external factors, other external factors such as language dominance, language choice and language attitudes also condition linguistic performance for bilinguals and multilinguals. As Grosjean claims, “what is essential in the maintenance of the ‘weaker’ (often the minority) language and hence in the development of bilingualism is that the child feels the need to use two languages in everyday life” (1982:â•›175). Indeed the need for language use within a bilingual community is vital insofar as it provides motivation for linguistic maintenance (Watson-Gegeo and Nielsen 2004). Culture and, more importantly for our purposes, linguistic performance/competence is clearly affected by the linguistic environment (i.e., family context/home/institutional environment) in which the bilingual child grows up. Parents often adhere to a particular framework, namely, “one-parent, one-language” (Döpke 1992). However, in practice this framework varies from family-to-family, from parent-to-parent within the family and fluctuates over time. In that regard, some parents believe that speaking the dominant language at home is the best way for their children to learn the language of the dominant culture, which is often reinforced by uninformed common thought and current linguistic policy. Outside the family context, bilingual children have contact with the languages they speak through social events (e.g., with other family members, acquaintances, members of the bilingual community who share the same languages) and through an institutional setting (e.g., schooling which provides significant linguistic exposure in same cases to both the majority and minority languages, but in others to the majority language only). However, the maintenance and linguistic development in bilingual speakers is also affected by their conscious desires and efforts (i.e., language attitudes) to develop their proficiency in the minority language (Romaine 1995; Rothman and Niño-MurciaÂ� 2008). Positive or negative attitudes towards the minority language also affect language maintenance of the minority language and linguistic identity (RomaineÂ� 2004b). Language attitudes and choices exemplify the linguistic decisions (mostly unconscious) that bilingual speakers are constantly making with respect to how they identify or create distance with respect to either of the languages they speak (i.e., identity construction and performance). A bilingual speaker has the choice of convergence with or divergence from the minority language. More importantly, bilingual speakers have the ability to construct multifarious identities compared with a monolingual speaker who possesses a monolithic one. . However, for a contrastive view on that see Cameron (2005, 2006) and De fina et al. (2006). They argue that monolinguals do not have monolithic linguistic identities since “identity” is perceived as a fluid entity that is in a constant state of re-negotiation.

230 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

The constant/consciousÂ� choice that bilingual speakers are making in speaking one language or the other in different linguistics situations is a clear indication of their own identities (Zentella 1997). As Wei (2000) proposes, language choices are an indication of alternative interpersonal relationships. Having just reviewed some of the basic conceptual notions with regards to bilingualism, now we turn our attention to the situation of bilingualism in the UK. Bilingualism is an increasingly wide-spread phenomenon in Europe and in the UK, and according to the National Centre for Language, more than 300 languages are spoken in London schools. In clear contrast to other bilingual situations (i.e., the USA) where bilingualism is viewed with a negative stigma (Grosjean 1982) compounded by the global status of English as a lingua franca and the economic power of the United States, minority languages in the UK enjoy similar social status at the community level as English. There are no precise statistics on the distribution or the number of bilingual English/Spanish speakers in the UK, but we estimate that the Spanish community is one of the smallest non-English speaking groups inside or outside institutional settings (e.g., schools). Children tend to achieve similar grades at school as English monolingual children. However, children from bilingual families must learn the dominant language in order to take advantage of full integration in all social-economicÂ� domains. Since bilingual linguistic performance is related to exposure to language and social experiences in both languages, the external conditions under which bilinguals come into contact with the dominant language€– English, in this case – have a great effect on the performance (i.e., use) and competence of their primary/minority language. For instance, SuárezOrozco and Suárez-Orozco (2001) found that native language use at home correlates with linguistic performance rate in English at school. Although research in this area has been limited, there are some indications (Paradis and Navarro 2003, for instance) that these external factors (i.e., language input) are likely . Throughout the present paper, when we are referring to the “Spanish” speakers, we are referring to Spanish people descended from the Iberian Peninsula. There are no figures available which directly indicate the number of bilinguals in the population in the UK. Census data on the different ethnic groups give some indication of the linguistic minorities in the UK. Questions on language use have been included in recent census (1991 and 2001), but there are limited to the main indigenous languages (i.e., Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic). As mentioned above, the Spanish community in the UK is rather small compared to similar communities in other European countries (i.e., France, Germany or Switzerland). That said, when considering the Hispanic population as a whole regardless of their origin, Cazzoli-Goeta and Young-Scholten (2007) offer statistics suggesting roughly 700,000 to 1,000,000 Hispanics are residing in the UK.



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 231

to affect outcomes for both monolingual and bilingual children (see Rothman 2007 for such outcomes in adult heritage language competence). In particular, Paradis and Navarro (2003) studied the role of parental input by two monolingual Spanish children and one English-Spanish bilingual child in the acquisition of subject pronouns. This study showed that the Spanish/English bilingual child produced a higher rate of inappropriate subject pronouns than their Spanish monolinguals peers. However, the dataset of this study was very small and the children were exposed to different varieties of Spanish, e.g., one parent spoke a Caribbean dialect, in which the switch-reference and focus use of subjects, is not limiting in the first place. However, although these findings do not provide conclusive evidence that parental input predetermines children’s output, they indicate infelicitous application of the pragmatic/discourse conditions which regulate their realization by the child. In this paper, we explore the performance of school-aged simultaneous British English-Spanish bilinguals who have been raised in a predominantly English society, namely within the United Kingdom. In particular, we investigate the linguistic performance of English-Spanish bilinguals with different degrees of language dominance via a linguistic task. In keeping with the overall theme of the present volume, we present ethno-linguistic data from the children that can address the impact of external factors (e.g., language spoken at home, school and social events) in language performance. We hypothesize that the amount of exposure to either English or Spanish outside and inside the home and the quality of the language input received at school (e.g., number of years of education in the minority language) would support the dual/simultaneous complete linguistic development. Furthermore, we work under the hypothesis that linguistic identities and consequently linguistic performance by bilingual speakers would mirror their language choices. This chapter is set up as follows. The next section presents the linguistic analysis that formed the basis of our experimental study. Next, we present the methodology and results of the present study. Finally, we discuss our findings in relation to the aforementioned external factors that could affect their linguistic performance.

2.

Linguistic analysis

The present paper follows the line of enquiry outlined in the previous section by looking at the use of the personal preposition a – often referred to as an overt accusative Case marker – in direct objects noun phrases (NPs) in Spanish which

232 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

relates to the syntax-semantics interface (namely, definiteness/specificity of the NP, animacy/agentivity of the subject, and verb semantics, cf. Torrego 1998; Zagona 2002). There is a cluster of properties which are responsible for Spanish accusative objects being marked by the dative preposition a. The first property relates to specificity and definiteness. Objects marked by a in Spanish are necessarily interpreted as specific and definite as shown in (1a) and (1b) below. (1) a. b.

Busco a la secretaria. I.am.looking.for prt the (specific) secretary ‘I am looking for the secretary.’ Busco una secretaria. I.am.looking.for a secretary ‘I am looking for any secretary.’

The second property relates to the animacy of the object. In Spanish, a is restricted to animate accusative objects, as illustrated in (2a) and (2b) below, and this is irrespective of the specificity and definiteness of the object. That is, inanimate objects such as el hospital as in (2b) do not take the preposition a. (2) a. b.

Ayer visité a los vecinos. yesterday I.visited prt the neighbors ‘Yesterday, I visited the neighbors.’ Ayer visité el hospital. yesterday I.visited the hospital ‘Yesterday, I visited the hospital.’

The third property relates to the θ-role of the subject (Torrego 1998), which necessarily relates to the v head, as being responsible for theta assignment to the subject. Details aside, Torrego argues that the sensitivity of objects marked with a to the thematic nature of the subject can be accredited to the v-VP structure. Hence,

. Following a modular view of mental linguistic architecture along the lines of Reinhart (2006) sub-modular components (for instance, morphology, syntax, semantics, the lexicon, phonology and so on), which join to form the mental grammar, are located such that they are narrowly unique components; nevertheless, these components must interface with each other to accomplish the task of encoding and decoding linguistic information. The aspects at which these sub-modules integrate information are known as interfaces (e.g., syntax-semantics�, �syntax-pragmatics [discourse], morphology-phonology, and so on). While some linguistic properties are condensed within specific sub-modules, the narrow syntax for instance, other properties require cross-sub-modular integration. These latter properties are known as interface properties.



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 233

the preposition a is compulsory with verbs that take an agent or cause as subject as in (3a), but not in (3b). (3) a. b.

El paciente reclamaba a una enfermera. the patient demanded prt a nurse ‘The patient demanded a nurse.’ *La situación reclamaba a una enfermera. the situation demanded prt a nurse ‘The situation demanded a nurse.’

In (3a) the object of the transitive verb is overly marked by the preposition a because the subject of ‘reclamar’ demand is agentive. (3b) is ungrammatical because here the subject of ‘reclamar’ demand is not agentive. The fourth property relates to the aspectual class of the predicate. Following Travis (1992), Torrego claims that object raising seems to affect the aspectual behavior of predicates. That is, marking of accusative objects either morphologically or structurally relates to (inherent/lexical) aspect (Comrie 1976). Aspect is relevant for verbs, predicates, and whole sentences. Verbs are classified depending on whether or not they have an endpoint (telic vs. atelic) together with the contrast between stative vs. dynamic and durative vs. punctual. One of the factors that determine the use of the preposition a with accusative objects is the aspectual class of the verb. Following Vendler’s (1967) and Dowty’s (1979) classification of verbs, there are two basic categories events and states, which are further subdivided into activities (e.g., ‘walk’ caminar), statives (e.g., ‘know’ conocer), accomplishments (e.g., ‘build’ construir), and achievements (e.g., ‘find’ encontrar). In principle, events (accomplishments and achievements) inherently indicate an end in time (telic), whereas states and activities do not (atelic). Objects of verbs classified as accomplishments and achievements are therefore telic, (e.g., ‘become drunk’ emborrachar) and require the object of the sentence to be marked with the preposition a regardless of whether or not the subject of the predicated is animate (4a)–(4b). (4) a. b.

Pedro emborrachó a los invitados. Pedro made.drunk prt the guests ‘Pedro made the guests drunk.’ El vino emborrachó a varios invitados. the wine made.drunk prt several guests ‘The wine made several guests drunk.’

. Telic predicates require the object to be marked with a regardless of the animacy of the subject but not regardless of the animacy of the object: Dios creó el (*al) unicornio versus Dios creó a Eva.

234 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

In contrast, with stative and activity verbs a is required only when the subject is animate, as shown in (5a) and (5b) below. Here, the marked accusative on the object carries an intentional reading of the subject, a reading that is lacking in the corresponding sentence with structural case (Torrego 1998). (5) a. b.

Inés conoce a varios€artistas. Ines knows prt various artists ‘Ines knows various artists.’ El cine conoce varios artistas the cinema knows various artists ‘The cinema knows various artists.’

Summarizing, the essential interplay of syntactic and semantic factors that govern the distribution of personal a is listed in the following. 1. The object is [+specific] and [+animate] 2. The subject is [+animate] (which covers the cases with stative and activity verbs) 3. The subject is CAUSE (which only happens when the predicate is an accomplishment/achievement). It is clear, then, that in addition to narrow syntactic properties, semantic features play a role in the realization of NP objects in Spanish (that is, marked accusative case are instances of lexical case controlled by interpretable, semantic features). In contrast to Spanish which possesses marked inherent accusative case via the use of preposition a, English only possesses structural accusative case, that is, NP direct objects are not preceded or marked by a preposition. Having described the linguistic aspect relevant to the present study, in the next section we outline the empirical study itself.

3.

The present study

To our knowledge, very little attention has been paid to the study of bilingualism of Spanish migrants in the UK. This research was carried out within this understudied population looking at linguistic development of the minority language and how this relates to the social and cultural context. We hypothesized that linguistic performance of our school-aged bilingual children would be closely related to their linguistic environment and their language choices. The particular relationship between the preferred/dominant language at home and other linguistic contexts (e.g., school, social events and so on) and the language of the community



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 235

would act as benchmarks for bilingual performance, and presumably competence as well. The research questions that guide the present chapter are as follows. 1. Is there a significant difference in the linguistic performance of school-age English-Spanish bilingual children in the UK compared to a monolingual group of Spanish children in Spain? 2. Which external sociolinguistic factors influence the linguistic performance of the bilingual children?

3.1

Participants

Forty four English-Spanish bilingual children and 10 monolingual Spanish children participated in this study. The bilingual children were recruited from several mainstream English schools in the London city area and come from families of Spanish migrant origin, mostly from Galicia and Andalusia. The monolingual children were recruited from a mainstream secondary school in Spain. The bilingual children had a mean age of 12.5 (range: 10–14, SD = 1.4), and were slightly younger that the monolingual children who had a mean age of 13.6 (range: 12–15, SD = 1.2) (t (52) = 2.295, p < .05). All children completed two written placement tests in Spanish, which consisted of the vocabulary and cloze sections of a Spanish proficiency test standardized for adults (Diploma Español de Lengua Extranjera [DELE]). This was to determine the participants’ level of proficiency and showed that the monolingual children had a slightly higher accuracy (mean accuracy: 79%, range: 68–88, SD:€6.1) compared to the bilingual children (mean accuracy: 72.8%, range: 46–90, SD: 9.9), and this difference was approaching significance (t (52) = 1.892, p = .06). To address our research questions, we devised a linguistic task together with an ethno-linguistic questionnaire that addresses the external aspects of bilingualism. The responses from the ethno-linguistic questionnaire reflect how the children’s bilingualism was obtained, developed outside and inside home and is currently sustained. Parents of these children manage to organize the linguistic needs of their children (e.g., formal education) in different ways, with a view to

. We focus on this age group because for most bilinguals age 14 represents the last year of formal Spanish compulsory education provision, so then, the end of some individuals’ bilingual experience at school level. . A package with all the materials was sent out to schools in London (UK). A total of fifty four packages with all materials were returned, but only forty four completed all the materials.

236 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

linguistic, social and cultural maintenance. In some cases the one-parent one language model is used, whereas in others both parents speak Spanish at home. The ethno-linguistic questionnaire elicited information about linguistic and demographic variables together with information regarding exposure to languages at home, at social events and at schools. The language use and language exposure variables from the questionnaire were represented on a 5-point scale where 5 =€only English, 4 = mostly in English, 3 = equal amounts of English and Spanish, 2 = mostly Spanish, 1 = only Spanish. High values represent using English more than Spanish; low values, on the contrary, represent using Spanish more than English; middle values (i.e., 3) represent a balanced use of the two languages. Parents were also asked to indicate how many years of education their children had in each language. Table 1 shows the results from the ethno-linguistic questionnaire for the bilingual children. Table 1.╇ Results from the sociolinguistic questionnaire for the bilingual children Years of education Language spoken Language spoken Language spoken in Spanish at home at school at other events Mean SD Range

4.41 .816 3–6

2.93 1.3 1–5

3.7 .7 2–5

3.25 .6 2–5

As far as input at home is concerned, 7 children spoke only Spanish at home, 10 spoke mainly Spanish, 11 spoke both Spanish and English, 11 spoke mainly English and 5 spoke only English. At school, 1 child spoke mainly Spanish, 16 spoke both Spanish and English, 22 spoke mainly English, and 6 only English. All but one child bilingual went to mainstream English schools, so use of Spanish at school was in the children’s interaction with their peers. In other events, 3 children spoke mainly Spanish, 28 spoke both languages, 12 spoke mainly English, and 1 child spoke only English. See Appendix for individual data.

3.2 Material and procedure To test the children’s knowledge of the distribution of the personal preposition a we used a completion task consisting of 42 experimental sentences ranging over 6 conditions (all the aforementioned properties from Section 2) as shown in Table€2 below, and 6 control items (i.e., the control condition 7).



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 237

Table 2.╇ Experimental conditions of the Completion Task Condition 1 Condition 2 Condition 3 Condition 4 Condition 5 Condition 6

+animate, +specific −animate, +/−specific +animate, −specific stative/activity verb, +human subject stative/activity verb, −human subject accomplishment/achievement verb, +/−human subject

+a −a −a +a −a +a

There were 6 items for conditions 1–5 and 12 for condition 6 (6 with [+human] subject and 6 with [−human] subject). The 6 control items did not involve the preposition a, and involved a variety of aspects of the Spanish language, for example, the omission of function words, such as articles and conjunctions. For conditions 4, 5 and 6 the inherent aspectual class of the verb was determined taking into consideration the distinctions [+/−] telic, [+/−] stative and [+/− punctual]. All sentences included a gap; participants were asked to fill in the gaps with one word or leave the gaps empty. It was explicitly mentioned that they do not have to fill all gaps. Examples (6) and (7) are sample items for this task. (6) Juan persigue ____ los presos que se han fugado de la cárcel. (a is obligatory) Juan chases ____ the prisoners that have escaped from the prison. (7) La universidad necesita ____ estudiantes extranjeros para cubrir las plazas libres. (a should not be used) The university needs ____ more foreign students in order to cover all unfilled places.

The vocabulary used in designing the experimental items of the completion task was familiar to the participants. Participants were allowed to take as much as they needed to complete the task; nevertheless, all participants completed it within 45 minutes. In order to avoid any comprehension problems as to what they were expected to do, instructions were given verbally in English by their teacher and in writing (and in the case of the Spanish monolingual children the instructions were given in Spanish in the same manner). Children were told to read each sentence and to fill in the gaps with the first word(s) that came to their mind (that is, their “first intuition”), and that they were not allowed to change or modify their answers.

238 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

3.3 Results One bilingual child scored 0 (zero) percent in the control condition (condition€7) correct, and was thus excluded from further analyses because it was not clear whether s/he understood the task. The results from the remaining data are given in Figure 1 below. 100 90 80 70 60 50

Bilingual children

40

Monolingual children

30 20 10 0 C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

C7

Figure 1.╇ Mean accuracy of bilingual and monolingual children (in percentage) C1 = +animate, +specific, C2 = −animate, +/−specific, C3 = +animate, −specific, C4 = stative/activity verb, +human subject, C5 = stative/activity verb, −human subject, C6 = accomplishment/achievement verb, +/−human subject, C7 = control condition

Table 3 shows mean accuracy, standard deviation (SD) and range. Table 3.â•… Mean, standard deviation, and range (in percentage) C1

C2

C3

76 50 20.7 23.3 33–100 0–100

Bilingual children [N = 43]

Mean SD Range

72.5 25.9 0–100

Monolingual children [N = 10]

Mean SD Range

85 88.3 56.7 9.5 8.1 14.1 67–100 83–100 33–83

C4

C5

C6

C7

56.2 26.5 0–100

40.7 21.3 0–83

67.6 29.9 0–100

95.3 9.1 67–100

65 41.7 16.6 19.6 50–100 17–83

90 100 7.7 0 75–100 100

C1 = +animate, +specific, C2 = −animate, +/−specific, C3 = +animate, −specific, C4 = stative/activity verb, +human subject, C5 = stative/activity verb, −human subject, C6 = accomplishment/achievement verb, +/−human subject, C7 = control condition



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 239

A repeated measures ANOVA with the factors “group” (bilingual, monolingual) as the between-subjects variable, and “sentence type” (7 conditions) as withinsubjects variable showed a main effect for “group” (F (1, 51) = 6.547, p = .01). Bilingual children were overall less accurate than monolingual children. There was also a main effect of “sentence type” (F (6, 306) = 29.724, p < .001) reflecting differences between the experimental conditions, but there was no significant interaction between “group” and “sentence type” (F (6, 306) = .943, p > .1). This shows that although bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children, the two groups showed a similar pattern of performance in the experimental conditions. Pair-wise comparisons using Bonferroni correction showed that monolingual and bilingual children were more accurate in the control items (condition€7) that did not involve the preposition a, compared to all experimental conditions (conditions 1 to 6) (all p values < .001). Conditions 1 (78.7%), 2€(82.2%), and 6 (78.8%) showed higher accuracy than conditions 3 (53.3%), 4€(60.6%), and 5€(41.2%) (all p values < .01), and there was no significant difference between conditions 1, 2, and 6. Finally, children were more accurate in condition 3 than in condition 5 (p < .05), but there was no significant difference between conditions€3 versus 4 and 4 versus 5. To investigate individual variation within each group of participants, we calculated how many participants performed above chance level in each group and each condition, as shown in Table 4. Table 4.╇ Percentage of participants performing above chance Bilingual children [N = 43] Monolingual children [N = 10]

C1

C2

C3

C4

C5

C6

C7

â•⁄ 79% 100%

â•⁄ 84% 100%

28% 40%

42% 60%

21% 20%

â•⁄ 60% 100%

100% 100%

C1 = +animate, +specific, C2 = −animate, +/−specific, C3 = +animate, −specific, C4 = stative/activity verb, +human subject, C5 = stative/activity verb, −human subject, C6 = accomplishment/achievement verb, +/−human subject, C7 = control condition

The two groups showed a very similar pattern. The majority of the participants in both groups scored above chance in conditions 1, 2, 6, and 7. In addition, the majority of the monolingual participants performed above chance also in �condition€4. In the case of the bilingual children, their performance was below chance in condition 3, 4 and 5. The individual results corroborate the group results presented above. . Recall there were 7 filler sentences in total which measured different aspects of the Spanish grammar, but none of them were targeting the syntax-semantic interface. These results, although tentative, show bilingual children are as accurate as monolingual children which strengthen our general claim for the selective vulnerability of interface domains in bilingual acquisition.

240 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

To investigate whether the groups of participants showed more errors of omission or commission, we averaged the conditions requiring the preposition a (C1, C4, C6) and the conditions requiring leaving a gap, as shown in Table 5, and conducted a repeated measures ANOVA with the factors “group” (bilingual, monolingual) as between-subjects variable, and “error type” (omission, commission) as within-subjects variable. Table 5.╇ Percentage of errors of omission vs. commission omission

commission

Bilingual children [N = 43]

Mean SD Range

34.6 23.8 6–100

44.4 15.4 11–72

Monolingual children [N = 10]

Mean SD Range

20 8.9 0–31

37.8 11.9 17–50

This showed a main effect of “group” (F (1, 51) = 5.963, p < .05) reflecting a higher error rate in bilingual children. A main effect of “error type” (F (1,51) = 7.901, p <€.01) revealed that children made more errors of commission than errors of omission. The lack of a significant interaction between “group” and “error type” shows that both groups of children showed the same error pattern. It should be noted that the higher error of commission could not be attributed to a strategy of the children to fill in all gaps.10 If this was the case, we would expect to find an even higher rate of commission errors. In addition, they would have produced errors of commission also in the control items, which they did not do (commission errors in bilingual children = 4.7%, monolingual children = 0%). To investigate a possible relationship between the amount of input the bilingual children had in Spanish and English and their accuracy in the use of the preposition a, we conducted correlations between the language input at home, school, in other events and the performance of the children in the experimental conditions. This showed that there was no correlation between the performance of the children in the experimental conditions and the language input at home (all p values > .1), the language input at school (all p values > .1), and the years of education

10. Instructions for the completion of the task were clearly stated in English and in Spanish, and from the results on condition 7, it is clear that all participants understood what they were supposed to do.



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 241

in Spanish (all p values > .1). There was only a weak negative Â�correlation between language used in other events and condition 4 (r (41) = −.316, p < .05).11 To investigate a possible relationship between the children’s performance in the use of the preposition a, their age, and language proficiency in Spanish we conducted correlations between their performance in the experimental conditions, their language proficiency, and their age for both the monolingual and bilingual children. For the monolingual children there was no correlation between their proficiency in Spanish and their performance in the experimental conditions (all p values > .1), no correlation between their age and their performance in experimental conditions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6 (all p values > .1), but there was a positive correlation between the performance of the children in condition 5 and their age (r (8) = .803, p < .01). On the other hand, for the bilingual children there was no correlation between their age and their performance in all experimental conditions (all p values > .1), but there was a positive correlation between their proficiency in Spanish and their performance in condition 4 (r (41) = .379, p€<€.01), C€= condition 6 (r (41) = .447, p < .01), and in the control condition 7 (r€(41) =€.455, p < .01).

4.

General discussion

This study examined factors related to language use of bilingual children and their influence on linguistic performance in Spanish. In particular, we sought to investigate possible predictors for the linguistic performance of Spanish in 44 school-aged bilingual children compared to a group of 10 Spanish monolingual school-aged children. The overall results indicate that bilingual children were less

11. We agree with one of the reviewers on the fact that the null results on the correlation between amount of exposure and linguistic performance are quite disappointing and go against our own predictions that some (or all) sociolinguistic variables under consideration and discussed at length in the first part of the paper should have predicted some kind of language performance. However, the size and nature of the sample may play a part on such findings. Looking closer at the data provided in Table 1, one can notice a rather balanced exposure to both languages and, therefore, it is not completely unexpected that amount of exposure was not a significant predictor. In addition, even though the experimental sample was fairly large (N = 44 participants in total), it is very heterogeneous in terms of relative exposure to the two languages. Future research studies would benefit by the inclusion of much bigger and clearly defined groups (e.g., 30 children with mostly English, 30 with mostly Spanish, 30 with similar exposure, which would allow such correlations to be carried out. For those readers interested in pursuing that type of research, see Gathercole (2007) where different levels of exposure to Welsh and English inside and outside the home are explored.

242 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

accurate than monolingual children; however, the two groups showed a similar pattern of performance in all experimental conditions that regulate the use of personal preposition a: they performed better in condition 2 ([–animate, [+/– specific]: –a) (82.2%) followed by conditions 1 ([+animate], [+specific]: +a) and 6 (accomplishment/achievement verb, [+/–human subject]: +a) (78.7% in both conditions) and they performed worst in conditions 5 (stative/activity verb, [–human subject]: –a) (41.2%), 3 ([+animate], [–specific]: –a) (53.3%) and 4 (stative/ activity verb, [+human subject]: +a) (60.6%). These findings are corroborated by the individual performances showing the same pattern of errors (i.e., more errors of commission than omission). Furthermore, our results from the analyses conducted between their linguistic performance and some external factors (i.e., language use and language exposure) demonstrate that linguistic performance is not determined by any of the external factors that we included in this study. Let us now turn to the research questions addressed in this paper, repeated here. 1. Is there a significant difference in the linguistic performance of school-aged English-Spanish bilingual children in the UK compared to a monolingual group of Spanish children in Spain? 2. Which external sociolinguistic factors influence the linguistic performance of the bilingual children? In answering question one, and in light of current bilingual and SLA findings we predicted that we would find significant differences between the two groups of school-aged children which ultimately relate to difficulties acquiring phenomena relating to the syntax-semantic interface.12 Both groups of school-aged children showed a low performance in some of the conditions of our experimental task. This indicates their difficulty in acquiring structures involving the syntax-semantics interface. Recall that recent linguistic research maintaining a modular structure of mental grammatical representation envisions linguistic information as being both encapsulated as well as cross-modular, in the sense that various linguistic and cognitive domains must integrate information for particular properties (Bos, Hollebrandese and Sleeman 2004; Jackendoff 2002; Reinhart 2006). This modular/interface approach has proven particularly helpful in SLA and bilingualism

12. Recent research has proposed that structures involving the interfaces (e.g., syntax-pragmatics and syntax-semantics) are particularly vulnerable to processes such as attrition, fossilization, and incomplete L2 acquisition. The vulnerability was proven in various acquisitional scenarios, i.e., bilingual acquisition, adult L2 acquisition, and language loss or attrition (Guijarro-Fuentes and Marinis 2007; Sorace 2004; Serratrice, Sorace and Paoli 2004; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock and Filiaci 2004, 2004; White 2009).



9.╇ Voicing language dominance 243

research that seeks to explain the delay or ultimate non-convergence of particular properties; interface areas (for instance, syntax/pragmatics and syntax/semantics) are particularly vulnerable to attrition, fossilization and incomplete acquisition in bilingualism and second language (L2) acquisition (Montrul 2008; Serratrice, Sorace and Paoli 2004; Sorace 2004; Tsimpli, Sorace, Heycock and Filiaci 2004). Serratrice et al. (2004) and Sorace (2004) made the claim that structures involving syntax proper are by and large easier to acquire and less vulnerable than the ones involving the interfaces. The differences observed between the bilingual and the monolingual children in our study may reflect different transitional stages in language development of the bilingual and monolingual children. Ultimately, bilingual performance and competence does not seem to depend on a variety of factors such as language choice and language aptitude at large (a point to which we return later). The absence of these linguistic properties in their dominant community language (i.e., English) of the bilinguals might have determined the development of the construction under investigation since there is no a match in the two systems. That is, the fact that English does not possess inherent case, coupled with the fact that the semantic features are not very salient in the linguistic contexts, could have affected the rate of acquisition. The perceptual saliency (i.e., lack of transparency in the input) of the personal a can be another factor affecting its acquisition. This argument can also be applied to adult learners of Spanish as L2 who also seem to have difficulties in acquiring the semantic constraints related to the use of personal a. In a different paper (Guijarro-Fuentes and Marinis 2007), we argued about a link between complexity and the order of emergence of the semantic constraints related to the personal preposition a. Given that the monolingual children in our study also showed a low performance in some experimental conditions, an important question that needs to be addressed is whether this low performance is due to a problem with the task. To address this possibility, in Guijarro-Fuentes and Marinis (2007) we tested a group of adult native speakers of Spanish with the same task and found that native speakers showed an accuracy rate of 88 percent or above in all experimental conditions. This rules out the possibility that low performance in monolingual children is due to a problem with the task. A possible reason for the low performance in some of the L1 children is that the use of the preposition a in some conditions is part of a formal register that is acquired later and is connected to schooling. If this is the case, we would predict older L1 children to perform similarly to adults. This is an empirical issue that needs to be tested in future research, but it is highly relevant for child L2 and heritage speakers’ acquisition research because if this is true, it has serious implications for the role of literacy in grammatical development (Rothman 2007). Besides, taking into consideration the results from the

244 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

group of adult native speakers from our previous study, it is clear that this type of limitation by the children would require more time for its acquisition and maybe even more than other “pure” syntactic properties. However, we leave this issue for future research. Let us now address our second main research question, that is, which external/social factors could be responsible for the performance of the bilingual children. We hypothesized that language dominance/preference and type of input in a bilingual setting could play a significant part in modeling bilinguals’ performance. This predicted a different pattern of performance in the children whose dominant language is Spanish compared to the children whose dominant language is English based on previous findings showing that there is a relationship between the amount of input in one language and the child’s performance (Paradis and Navarro 2003; amongst others). Contrary to our predictions, bilingual children with very little Spanish input at home showed a similar pattern to bilingual children with Spanish as the home language. Furthermore, in our study we did not find lower accuracy in the performance of children from families in which the parent-child communication occurs in English. Therefore, it seems that the performance of the bilinguals under investigation in the specific phenomenon (acquisition of the preposition a) does not seem to be sensitive to family, social and communal influences. However, the bilingual children’s performance seemed to rely more on their proficiency in Spanish. One way of explaining this pattern of results would be by saying that similar performances from all English/Spanish bilinguals seem to indicate that parents/ families value the use and maintenance of both language profiles and cultures. Unlike other bilingual communities in the USA and Canada, both languages€– English and Spanish – are attributed the same status in the UK. We claim that becoming more or less proficient in either Spanish or English ultimately reflects the support at school and social support/parental use. Another possibility is that there was not enough variation in the sociolinguistic questionnaire results given that we used 5-point scales. Small variation in the scores could have led to the non-significant correlation between the language input and performance in the preposition a. Therefore, the lack of a correlation between input and performance should be interpreted with caution. We do not wish to discard the possibility that with a different and larger group of bilinguals (maybe older children) in a different community and with a large variation of input the individuals’ linguistic performance could be affected by language dominance (see footnote 10), by other external factors (i.e., choice, attitudes), language identity and culture maintenance (Cameron 2005).



5.

9.╇ Voicing language dominance 245

Concluding remarks

We can conclude then that in our study individuals’ bilingual linguistic performance does not represent multiple individual grammars affected by all external dimensions of social identity – e.g., background, language choices (Cameron 2005, 2006). Different bilingual speakers may define themselves by contrast with speakers and linguistic characteristics of their peers and of themselves compared to other monolingual speakers. Our claims are in keeping with previous research that posits that social identities are not stable or fixed, but rather are constructed in particular contexts in response to individual practices. However, British Â�EnglishSpanish bilinguals’ linguistic performance on an interface phenomenon in Spanish does not mirror the ways and contexts in which they use their languages. Although bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children, their accuracy in the use of the preposition a did not correlate strongly with any of the external factors measured. More research is needed to better understand the influence of external factors on the acquisition of interface phenomena in bilingual children. Future studies should investigate other external variables that may affect linguistic performance in school-aged bilinguals and should also address developmental issues by investigating the impact of external factors over time using longitudinal data.

References Bos, P., Hollebrandese, B. & Sleeman, P. 2004. The pragmatics-syntax and the semantics-syntax interface in acquisition. International Review of Applied Linguistics 42: 101–110. Cameron, D. 2005. Language, gender, and sexuality: Current issues and new directions. Applied Linguistics 26: 482–502. Cameron, D. 2006. On Language and Sexual Politics. London: Routledge. Cazzoli-Goeta, M. & Young-Scholten, M. 2007. Attrition at the interface vs. competing grammars. Paper presented to the European Second Language Association 2007 Conference. Newcastle, UK. Cazzoli-Goeta, M., Rothman, J. & Young-Scholten, M. 2008. Cross-disciplinary investigation of heritage language variation. GLOW Newsletter 60. Comrie, B. 1976. Aspect: An Introduction to the Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems. Cambridge: CUP. De fina, A., Schiffrin, D. & Bamberg, M. 2006. Discourse and Identity. Cambridge: CUP. Domínguez, L. & Arche, M. J. 2008. Optionality in L2 grammars: The acquisition of SV/VS contrast in Spanish. In BUCLD 32 Proceedings, H. Chan, H. Jacob & E. Kapia (eds), 96– 107.€Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.

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Döpke, S. 1992. One Parent – One Language: An Interactional Approach [Studies in Bilingualism 3]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Dowty, D. 1979. Word Meaning and Montague Grammar. Dorchecht: Reidel. Gathercole, V. (ed.).€2007.€ Language Transmission in Bilingual Families in Wales. Cardiff: Welsh Language Board. Grosjean, F. 1982. Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge: CUP. Guijarro-Fuentes, P. & Marinis, T. 2007. Acquiring the syntax/semantic interface in L2 Spanish: The personal preposition a. Eurosla Yearbook 7: 67–87. Jackendoff, R. 2002. The architecture of the language faculty: A neominimalist perspective. Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta, Filologiya 56(9): 157–189 Montrul, S. 2008. Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism Re-examining the Age Factor [Studies in Bilingualism 39]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Niño-Murcia, M. & Rothman, J. (eds). 2008. Bilingualism and Identity: Spanish at the Crossroads with Other Languages [Studies in Bilingualism 37]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Padilla, A.-M., Lindholm, K. J., Chen, A., Durán, R., Hakuta K., Lambert W. & Tucker, G. R. 1991. The English-only movement: Myths, reality, and implications for psychology. American Psychologist 46(2): 120–130. Paradis, J. & Navarro, S. 2003. Subject realization and crosslinguistic interference in the bilingual acquisition of Spanish and English: What is the role of the input? Journal of Child Language 30: 1–23. Reinhart, T. 2006. Interface Strategies: Optimal and Costly Computations. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Romaine, S. 1995. Bilingualism, 2nd edn. Malden MA: Blackwell. Romaine, S. 2004a. The bilingual and multilingual community. In The Handbook of Bilingualism, T. K Bhatia & W. C. Ritchie (eds), 385–405. Malden MA: Blackwell. Romaine, S. 2004b. Bilingual language development. In The Child Language Reader, K. Trott, S.€Dobbinson & P. Griffiths (eds), 287–303. London: Routledge. Rothman, J. & Niño-Murcia, M. 2008. Multilingualism and identity: All in the family. In Bilingualism and Identity: Spanish at the Crossroads with Other Languages [Studies in Bilingualism 37], M. Niño-Murcia & J. Rothman (eds), 301–329. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Rothman, J. 2007. Heritage speaker competence differences, language change and input type: inflected infinitives in heritage Brazilian Portuguese. International Journal of Bilingualism€11: 359–389. Serratrice, L., Sorace, A. & Paoli, S. 2004. Transfer at the syntax-pragmatic interface: Subjects and objects in Italian-English bilingual and monolingual acquisition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(3): 183–205. Silva-Corvalán, C. 1994. Language Contact and Change: Spanish in Los Angeles. Oxford: OUP. Sorace, A. 2004. Native language attrition and developmental instability at the syntax-discourse interface: Data, interpretations and methods. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 7(2): 143–145. Suárez-Orozco, C. & Suárez-Orozco, M. 2001. Children of Immigration. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Torrego, E. 1998. The dependencies of Objects. Cambridge MA: The MIT Press. Travis, L. 1992. Inner aspect and the structure of VP. Cahiers de linguistique de l’UQAM 1: 130–146.



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Tsimpli, I. M., Sorace, A., Heycock, C. & Filiaci, F. 2004. First language attrition and syntactic subjects: A study of Greek and Italian near-native speakers of English. International Journal of Bilingualism 8(3): 257–277. Vendler, Z. 1967. Verbs and times. In Linguistics in Philosophy, Z. Vendler (ed.), 97–121. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press. Watson-Gegeo, K. A. & Nielsen, S. 2004. Language socialization in SLA. In The Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, C. Doughty & M. Long (eds), 155–177. Malden MA: Blackwell. Wei, L. (ed.). 2000. The Bilingualism Reader. London: Routledge. White, L. 2009. Grammatical theory: Interfaces and L2 knowledge. In The New Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, W. Ritchie & T. K. Bhatia (eds), 49–68. Leeds, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. Zagona, K. 2002. The Syntax of Spanish. Cambridge: CUP. Zentella, A. C. 1997.€ Growing Up Bilingual.€Malden MA: Blackwell.

Appendix Individual data from the ethno-linguistic questionnaire Participant

Years of education Language spoken Language spoken Language spoken in Spanish at home at school at events

â•⁄ 1 â•⁄ 2 â•⁄ 3 â•⁄ 4 â•⁄ 5 â•⁄ 6 â•⁄ 7 â•⁄ 8 â•⁄ 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

4 3 4 4 5 4 3 3 5 5 4 5 4 5 3 4 5 6 5 4 5

3 2 2 4 4 2 5 2 4 5 5 1 1 2 2 3 3 1 3 4 5

4 4 4 4 4 3 5 3 4 5 5 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 4 4

4 4 3 4 4 3 5 3 3 4 4 3 2 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 4

248 Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes and Theodoros Marinis

Participant

Years of education Language spoken Language spoken Language spoken in Spanish at home at school at events

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44

4 3 5 5 5 4 5 3 5 5 3 4 5 4 5 5 5 4 5 5 5 6 4

4 2 1 4 3 4 4 2 1 3 3 4 3 3 4 2 2 5 3 1 3 1 4

4 3 4 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 3 4 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 3 4 3 4

3 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 2 3

Australia and New Zealand

chapter 10

Children’s voices Spanish in urban multilingual and€multicultural€Australia Criss Jones Díaz University of Western Sydney, Australia

There has been little research into the experiences of and connections between language retention and identity construction among bilingual Spanish speaking children from Latin American backgrounds living in urban communities in Australia. Theoretical frameworks and research that examine the intersections between language retention and identity construction in the early years of children’s lives is a crucial in understandings the complexity of identity and bilingualism from a sociocritical perpective (Jones Díaz 2007). This is of particular relevance to educators working with families raising bilingual children as the formation of identity is constantly negotiated, transformed and contested amidst a background of dominant English-speaking social fields that exist in multicultural Australia. This chapter draws on selected findings from recent qualitative research that examined young children’s bilingual voices and experiences using Spanish and English across a range of family, educational and community settings. The analysis draws on Bourdieu’s (1990, 1991) theory of social practice to examine the children’s views and perceptions of their proficiency and use of Spanish which constructed various dispositions through which they were able to deploy linguistic, cultural and social capital in these social fields. Other questions investigated in this chapter detail the importance of the linguistic habitus in shaping identity which can permit or prohibit the children’s use of Spanish in educational, family and community contexts.

252 Criss Jones Díaz

1.

Introduction

1.1

Children’s attitudes towards the use of their home language

Children’s attitudes and dispositions towards their home language play a significant role in the retention of the home language. Yet, Australian research in this area is scant, particularly in relation to how children’s attitudes may impact on processes of language shift/retention in childhood. Research that does focus on bilingual children’s use of the home language is not specifically concerned with language shift in young children. Oliver and Purdie’s (1998) research revealed that children were highly aware of their own and others’ attitudes towards their home language and English. In particular, the children in this study were cognizant of negative attitudes from other children, parents and teachers towards the use of the home language. While this study suggests how attitudes play a key role in language retention, questions remain as to how institutional power relations and social identity shape and construct the views of teachers, parents and children about languages. This has an important impact on children’s interest in identifying with their home language. Therefore, the findings from this study examine bilingual children’s voices in their experiences of accumulating cultural and linguistic capital through the deployment of dispositions that can prohibit or enhance the use of Spanish across different fields.

1.2 Researching languages, power and equity in education Within recent years studies have begun to emerge that examine issues of power and equity in relation to language practices, bilingualism and identity in education (see for example, Heller 1996; Heller and Martin-Jones 2001a; Martin 2003; Martin-Jones and Heller 1996; Martin-Jones and Saxena 2001; Pacini-Ketchabaw and Armstrong de Almeida 2006; Willett, Solsken and Keenan 1999). A common thread in these studies is the examination of linguistic discursive practices that are evident in the daily life of educational institutions. They point out that the language practices in multilingual and multicultural settings are constituted in the legitimization of power relations among cultural and language groups. These language practices are embedded in pedagogies shaped by processes of legitimization most often found in primary and early childhood education. For example, Heller and Martin-Jones (2001b) point to the significance of linguistic difference in education, which they argue is a matter of symbolic domination. They focus on the concept of legitimate language to draw attention to ways some languages and language practices are valued and normalized and oriented towards broader �social,



10.╇ Children’s voices 253

economic and political interests in society. More recently, Pacini-Ketchabaw and Armstrong de Almeida’s (2006) study reveals that dominant monolingual discourses shape parental and institutional language practices and responsibilities. This study highlights various discourses that implicitly privileged monolingualism in early childhood pedagogical practices.

1.3

Spanish language retention in Latin American families, communities and educational settings

There have been many international studies investigating the benefits of bilingualism and social, cultural, intellectual, linguistic and sociopolitical issues that impact on bilingual children (see, for example, Cummins 1991; Fillmore 1991; Hornberger and King 1996; Mills 2004; Romaine 1995; Saunders 1982; Siren 1991; Skutnabb-Kangas 1988; Wee 2002; Zentella 1997). However few of these studies have specifically investigated Spanish language retention and its relationship to identity. More recently however, research in Canada and the United States where sizable communities of Latin Americans reside has investigated Spanish language retention and its relationship to identity. These studies break from traditional psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic studies of childhood bilingualism, going beyond learnability, cognitive and intellectual influences from the first (home) language to second language learning demonstrating the significance of broader social factors in language retention. Schecter and Bayley’s (1997) study based in the United States investigating family perspectives revealed contradictions and dilemmas in parents’ decisions about maintaining Spanish with their children. Emphasis on speaking English with their children during the early years to ease the transition into formal schooling was evident as well as parental concern for their children’s lack of Spanish. This study highlighted the direct link between Spanish language proficiency and cultural identity: In Canada, Pacini-Ketchabaw, Bernhard and Freire’s ethnographic study (2001) of home language practices of Latino families investigated how these families adapted to the Canadian educational system. It focused on the experiences of Latin American parents raising their school-age children in Spanish highlighting families’ views about issues of language retention. Despite strong assimilative pressures to speak English, the families viewed Spanish language maintenance as a way of “fostering family unity, Latino identity, and professional advancement” (Pacini-Ketchabaw, Bernhard and Freire 2001:â•›128). Another study by McCollum (1999) examined how Mexican background middle school students from the United States came to value English over their home language, Spanish. This study revealed that the students reported positive

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attitudes towards bilingualism, yet English was used exclusively in the school. The study showed that within the school, the teachers undervalued the children’s use of vernacular varieties of Spanish at home. Many of these children’s English was devalued as they struggled with reading and writing. Consequently, many of the children in this study reported negative experiences and messages regarding their proficiency in both English and Spanish. This study critically analyzed how the privileging of English over Spanish was apparent throughout the school in Â�various social fields regarding assessment, curriculum and the school environment and within the peer culture of the school. Finally, Gutiérrez, Baquedano-Lopez and Asato (2000) responding to the emerging political English-only Movement in the United States, conducted a study investigating the affects of Proposition 227 in southern California which dismantled bilingual education in Californian schools (see Crawford 2000). The findings revealed that the district’s and school’s interpretation of the policy embedded monolingual discourses of English-only instruction combined with low levels of teachers’ expertise of pedagogies of literacy and English as a Second Language (ESL). Further, children’s responses to the new law indicated high levels of anxiety and fear of failure in fitting into the Englishonly context due to the prohibition of Spanish in the classroom. One child reported, “I was sad … I felt like I didn’t know anything … I thought I couldn’t make any friends with Mrs Hanover’s class because they all speak English” (Gutierrez, Baquedano-Lopez and Asato 2000:â•›102).

2.

Reframing bilingualism

The work of Pierre Bourdieu provides conceptual tools for educators working closely with bilingual communities (1977, 1990, 1991). His theory of social practice builds on key concepts of capital, habitus and field. These concepts can be applied to processes of language retention/learning and bilingual children’s construction of identity (Jones Díaz 2007). In understanding how dominant cultural practices impact on language retention and learning in bilingual children, Bourdieu’s theory assists in conceptualising how educational practices in general and language in particular, reproduce social and cultural power. He emphasizes the process of transfer and conversion of social, political and economic power across different social institutions and social practices. This assists our understandings of how mechanisms governing power and social inclusion and exclusion reproduce inequality in our society. Similarly, the distribution of cultural capital is directly connected to the use of languages in various social contexts, assigning them validity and legitimacy depending on the individual’s location in any given social field. What follows is a discussion of the major concepts that form Bourdieu’s theory of social practice.



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2.1 Cultural capital Cultural capital is described by Bourdieu as forms of advantage that some people acquire as a part of their life experiences, including family background, language background, knowledge and taste (Corson 1998). It includes language and Â�literacy discourse practices, knowledge and skills that are inculcated through socialization in the early years. Cultural capital constitutes various forms of linguistic capital which are specifically the language resources that make-up the different human dispositions that influence the way we act, think and carry out our daily lives. Bourdieu conceptualizes human activity and social practices as ‘exchanges’ that take place within an ‘economy of practices’ which may or may not yield material and symbolic ‘profits’ (Olneck 2000). In Australian education, ‘economies of practice’ that yield recognition and legitimacy are most often constituted in English-based language and literacy practices that inform curriculum, pedagogy and educational policy.

2.2 Embodied, objectified and institutional cultural capital Cultural capital comprises three forms: embodied, objectified and institutional. Embodied cultural capital incorporates modes of interaction and expression, cultural preferences and affinities, as well as ways of knowing and reasoning (Olneck 2000). In this sense, language, knowledge and other representational resources inculcated over time through social and cultural practices become ‘embodied’ by the individual (Carrington and Luke 1997). Objectified cultural capital includes representational artifacts and cultural texts produced and valorized through embodied cultural capital, such as books, art, media and music (Carrington and Luke 1997; Olneck 2000). Finally, institutionalized cultural capital includes titles, qualifications and certificates authorized by institutions, which are legitimized by state, corporate and professional institutions.

2.3 Social and economic capital Social and economic capital connects broadly to societal distributions of economic and social resources. Economic capital includes the material wealth represented by how much money one has to convert into material goods such as property and resources (Thompson 1991). It is critical in determining the levels of access individuals have to other forms of capital. For example, for children to have access to regular private fee-paying music tuition throughout childhood, this necessitates certain levels of economic capital that is converted to embodied cultural capital such as the ability to play an instrument and read music.

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Social capital then is having access to social institutions, social relations and resources accessible to individuals as a result of group membership. In Bourdieu and Wacquant’s (1992) words, social capital is the sum of the resources, actual or virtual, that accrue to an individual or a group by virtue of possessing a durable network of more or less institutionalized rela(119) tionships of mutual acquaintance and recognition.

For bilingual and immigrant families, social capital includes access to social networks within their particular cultural group that enables them to access the resources available in the broader community. For example, they may rely on friends and family members to get information about and access to various social institutions and community service organizations.

2.4 Habitus Bourdieu’s concept of habitus is the way in which individuals act and respond to day to day events and activities. Bourdieu’s (1993), habitus does not imply mechanical and automotive behaviour. It is the “system of schemes for generating and perceiving practices” (87). This involves the incorporation of dispositions, practices and perceptions realized both spontaneously and generatively at the moment of social practice within a social context or cultural field (Bourdieu 1990). The habitus includes the long lasting ways that individuals walk, talk, stand, eat, feel, think and speak. Bourdieu (1991) argues that linguistic practices, like other practices of eating, drinking, dress and cultural consumption are part of the larger class habitus occupied in social structure constituted in the habitus. Therefore, Bourdieu’s concept of linguistic habitus must be understood as one dimension of the habitus that is the product of social conditions that produce utterances and linguistic behaviours adapted to the requirements of a given social situation. As Bourdieu (1993) argues, “the situation is, in a sense, the permissive condition of the fulfilment of the habitus” (87). For bilingual children and adults living in Australia, the linguistic habitus generated in speaking English and the home language undergoes various transformations and conversions within the various social situations they encounter. As young children grow up bilingually, the linguistic habitus required in this process can be impeded or promoted. This can mean that unless the home languages of children are authentically authorized and taken up at home and in early childhood and primary school settings, the linguistic habitus generated in speaking the home language can be replaced by English. Consequently the habitus of speaking English may override children’s interest in using their home language.



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2.5 Habitus and disposition Bourdieu’s (1990) use of the concept of disposition is an integral component in his analysis of habitus. Dispositions generate practices, perceptions and attitudes which are inculcated in the early years. These practices reflect the social and Â�cultural conditions within which they are acquired. Bourdieu (1990) also argues that the habitus produces individual and collective practices, thoughts, perceptions and actions that ensure the active presence of past experiences that constitute systems of dispositions. Therefore dispositions of habitus predispose us to select various social practices, behaviors and resources that have succeeded in past experiences (Swartz 1997). In this sense, our past experiences provide information about how to act or predict actions appropriate to the future. Swartz (1997) argues that this idea of habitus enables us to understand how social practice is engendered and regulated by fundamental dispositions that are internalized from the early years. This involves a process of incorporation or internalization of the social conditions that construct dispositions. For example, children growing up in bilingual families, where the home language is strongly encouraged, supported and sustained are likely to grow up with dispositions of appreciation for their language and the cultural practices associated with using the language. In this process language retention is facilitated and generates a linguistic habitus that incorporates how individuals adapt to, transform and reproduce the various external cultural, social, linguistic and economic structures that surround them.

2.6 Social fields and linguistic markets The third important concept in Bourdieu’s (1977, 1990) theory is his notion of social fields. These are related to broader institutions like education, media, popular culture, family and law as well as micro institutions such as relationships, events, topics, social situations and interactions. For Bourdieu (1993) there are linguistic markets operating within social fields that exist when “someone produces an utterance for receivers capable of assessing it, evaluating it and setting a price on it” (79). Bourdieu (1991) uses the metaphor of the market analogy to draw attention to ways in which linguistic ‘products’ have value in social fields in similar ways to how market products have value. The value of the linguistic products depends on the laws that are determined by the market operating in various social fields.

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2.7 The conversion of capital in social fields The relationship between habitus and capital is apparent in ‘social fields’ in which different forms of capital can be converted into other forms of capital (Thompson 1991). Young bilingual children move across a number of social fields, such as day care, playgroup, school, places of worship and extended family networks. In this process they accumulate different types of capital. However, some of these social fields, such as day care, preschool and school do not give currency to the primary linguistic habitus of children’s home languages, resulting in an exchange for other forms of linguistic capital. In the process of acquiring such capital it is necessary to deploy a linguistic habitus adapted to the linguistic market in which English is assigned value and legitimacy. This process can often take place at the expense of the home language. For example, in Australia the linguistic markets of English-only early childhood and primary education the dominant language spoken is English. Many children ‘cash in’ the home language in exchange for English. In this linguistic exchange the convertible value of the home language is good for buying other forms of cultural capital that are constituted in English. In this context, English is afforded legitimacy through monolingual and monocultural discourses most often sustained in pedagogical discourses of early childhood and primary education at the expense of the home language.

3.

Context of the study

The participants in the study included 25 children and 29 family members, including grandparents and parents with different family structures from extended, blended, interethnic and interracial families. They were mainly from Latin American Australian backgrounds, living and attending educational and community settings in the inner-west, south-west and eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. The families who participated were from various income levels with most parents working in a range of skilled and non-skilled occupations. An additional 34 caregivers and teachers working in prior-to-school and school settings participated. The study incorporated a small pilot study and three phases of data collection drawing on case study and interpretative approaches using questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, participant observations, field notes, children’s work and the collection of documentation. The first phase involved 14 interviews of parents and grandparents. The second phase involved . The children in this study were represented by a least one adult family member.



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a case study of parents and their children attending an after-school Spanish Community Language School (La Escuelita). This school operates as a notfor-profit, community-based Spanish school that provides two hours of Spanish per week. In the third phase I surveyed 30 practitioners working with Spanishspeaking Latin American Australian children in prior-to-school and school settings. I interviewed twenty-six children, thirteen parents, and two practitioners and I surveyed the parents and practitioners. This chapter reports on selected findings from phases one and two only.

3.1

Interviews and observations of the children at La Escuelita

The information obtained from the family interviews was used to inform the direction of the interviews with the children in La Escueta. Most of the interviews with the children and parents were conducted in Spanish. This was an important strategy that would encourage greater participation from them. Specifically, I was interested in whether there were differences between the parents and children in their experiences of identity as Latin American Australians and if the parents’ or grandparents’ constructions of their identity had any influence on the children’s understandings of their identity. Further, I wanted to know if the parents’

. For the purposes of anonymity, the pseudonym La Escuelita is used to refer to the case study site which was the Community Language school that participated in the study. . In both the surveys and interviews, the families’ perspectives were sought in regards to their views about their children’s retention of Spanish and use of English. Both the questionnaires and the interviews were designed and translated by me in Spanish. As I am a ‘non-native’ speaker of Spanish, two’ native’ Spanish-speakers assisted me with editorial and proofreading of the Spanish questionnaires, consent forms and covering letter. The survey questions specifically aimed at obtaining demographic data about the families in regards to length of time in Australia, ages and country of birth of family members, occupation and levels of education both in Australia and Latin America, and the names of schools attended by the children. There were also brief questions about the use of Spanish and English in various social situations and whether children had access to Spanish in mainstream or non-mainstream educational settings. The survey questions were used to guide the interview discussion to explore in greater depth the families’ views and experiences of migration, identity, inequality and the use of Spanish and English in a range of social fields. The family interviews were conducted in Spanish or English on an informal basis and were semi-structured. Families’ perspectives were sought in regards to their views about their children’s retention of Spanish and use of English. The interviews were conducted on an informal basis and were semi-structured. The participants were encouraged to draw on their reflections, experiences and personal opinions. The use of Spanish in this context was effective in ‘breaking the ice’ with participants.

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Â� attitudes towards the use of Spanish influenced the children’s attitudes and use of Spanish. Also, whether the children reported different contextual uses of Spanish than did their parents was an important area to investigate. Hence the questions with the children were about their attitudes, perceptions, feelings and views about speaking Spanish. The findings reported in this chapter draw on Bourdieu’s frameworks to examine ways in which social, cultural and linguistic capital is accumulated in selective cultural fields, which may hinder or promote the retention and learning of languages in children. Therefore this study is grounded in the accounts of the participants. From this perspective the analysis was evidence driven and theoretically informed (Davis 1995; Patton 2002). Data from the questionnaires, interviews, journal entries and observations have been analyzed using thematic discourse analysis techniques in which potential themes were identified and linked to major categories and issues. Discourses apparent within the different themes were extracted. By drawing on grounded theory techniques, information gathered was discovered empirically by connecting themes and issues in a network or pattern as described by Reason (1981:â•›185–186).

4.

Findings and discussion

The discussion that follows examines the five key propositions that emerged from the research. The first proposition suggests that the views of bilingual children regarding their proficiency and preferences shaped a positive or negative habitus towards learning Spanish. The second proposition claims that imagi. There were questions about their preferences between Spanish and English and their perceptions of their proficiency in Spanish. Also, the questions explored the different situations and people with which Spanish was used. Finally, in the observations of classroom activities and interactions between the children, their teacher and the teacher’s assistant were also important data in the case study. The observations provided specific insights into the quality of Â�interactions between the children and the practitioners in relation to how the various scaffolding strategies employed by the teachers to encouraged communicative use of Spanish. Additionally, the relationships between each other and between the children and the teachers were observed in regards to how these relationships impeded or enhanced the use of Spanish. Here the link between Spanish proficiency and Latin American identity construction for the children was pertinent. Issues relating to the effectiveness of communicative language pedagogy in the classroom with multiple levels of Spanish proficiency were examined. Finally, some of the children’s written and visual work was collected. Also, observations of the children were audio and video taped. In the interviews we also talked about whether they enjoyed the classroom experiences, who their friends were and what they liked most and least about La Escuelita.



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nation is an important disposition of languages learning. The third proposition argues that the legitimacy of Spanish is produced in linguistic markets and through linguistic habitus. The fourth proposition highlights how various cultural and social fields important to the children and families in this study were key sources of cultural and social capital. Finally, the fifth proposition demonstrates how Community Languages schools (CL) are vital to the production of cultural and linguistic capital that assisted the children in this study in the retention and extension of Spanish.

4.1 Children’s views and languages learning The first proposition suggests that the children’s views of their proficiency and preferences shaped a positive or negative habitus towards learning Spanish. In this study, the children who were encouraged to speak Spanish also had positive experiences with and dispositions towards the use of the language. This came from the family, La Escuelita and popular culture. This assisted in structuring positive dispositions, actions, thoughts and perceptions. Words used by the children to describe their feelings about using Spanish included: happy, free, good, normal, fun, great, smart, proud and confident. In contrast very few (three) children expressed less positive views, including: weird, crazy and different. Specifically, ways in which the children in this study deployed their dispositions were demonstrated in their views, aspirations, and attitudes towards the use of Spanish. For example, Diego (12 years) and Ariel (12 years) shared their feelings about speaking Spanish:

. In Australia, CL schools and programs provide languages education including Indigenous languages for primary and secondary aged children. The CL schools are managed by communities after school hours and subsidized by state Departments of Education. CL programs are offered within the school hours and integrated into the school curriculum and they are administered by the state Departments of Education. These programs have a home language retention and cultural maintenance focus and the majority of children attending these schools are from culturally diverse communities. . As a second language speaker of Spanish checking for translation errors in transcribing the data in Spanish was of constant concern. As a way of addressing this issue, I embarked on a rigorous process of checking transcribed data with native speakers of Spanish. This was an attempt to ensure that meanings were not lost where there may have been ambiguity due to auditory or translation issues.

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(1) C: D: C: A: C: D: C: D: C:

So. ¿Cuando tú hablas español, te gusta ...? Yo le {A mí me}gusta. ¿Y tú? (to A) Si es fácil. ¿Es fácil? ¿Si? ¿Tú crees que Diego es fácil hablar español? Poquito. ¿Y por qué te gusta Diego? Porque yo puedo. Porque tú puedes.

C: So. When you speak Spanish, do you like it …? D: I like it. C: And you? (to A) A: Yes, it’s easy. C: It’s easy? Yeah? Do you think Diego that it is easy, to speak Spanish? D: A little bit. C: And why do you like it Diego? D: Because I can. C: Because you can.

Ariel (who spoke exclusively Spanish to his mother) and Diego (who spoke Spanish and English at home) were both positive about Spanish. Diego’s positive and confident disposition was highly connected to his capacity to speak the language. The extract continues. Note: the interview switches to English at mid point. (2) C: D:

¿Puedes decir un sentimiento cuando hablas español, a feeling? Smart.

C: Can you describe a feeling when you speak Spanish? Can you think of a feeling? D: Smart. C: Smart. D: Yeah you can speak two languages. It’s pretty good. C: What about you Ariel? A: Proud. C: Proud. Why proud? A: You’re proud that you can speak another language. D: You’re proud that you got so far with another language. You started off with like not knowing anything about Spanish, and then suddenly you can speak, you can speak >>> C: >>> you can speak to people in Spanish and have conversations with them. D: Yeah and be confident.



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Diego’s awareness of his learning trajectory also gave him further confidence in his ability. Ariel’s disposition of pride also produced a positive disposition. Bourdieu (1998) argues that socially constituted dispositions are aimed at practical functions. In other words, the notion of habitus incorporates various dispositions that internalize and orient our actions (Nobel and Watkins 2003). This can be applied to Diego and Ariel whose internalized dispositions towards their feelings for and proficiency of Spanish have oriented a confident approach towards their use of Spanish. In this study, the children were encouraged to embark on a conscious reflection of Spanish. The children’s views regarding English and Spanish were sometimes expressions of preference and choice between the different languages. For example, when the children were asked about what language they preferred to speak, different preferences emerged between Spanish and English. In the extract below, Martín’s brother Diego asked him which language he preferred: (3)

D: M: D: M: …

How do you feel when you speak English? Good. Why? Because I like English more than Spanish.

. Whilst the interviews were conducted in Spanish, there were many times throughout the interviews when English was used either to assist the children to feel at ease with the situation, or to clarify misunderstandings about the questions asked. Consequently, it became necessary to ask the questions in English when I observed children within the group struggling to keep up or being excluded from the conversation due to their limited Spanish. I needed to be mindful of the how this could set up unequal relations of power between the children, which could also enable these children to dominate the interview. Further, the use of English in these situations posed an ethical dilemma for me because of the multiplicity of subject positions I occupy. Since the interviews with the children were conducted during Spanish class time, which consists of a minimal two-hour session per week, the use of English within this timeframe did not conform to the School’s policy of trying to encourage the children to speak Spanish. At La Escuelita, the use of English is discouraged. As an academic, parent and member of the school community, I was mindful of the school’s objectives to encourage the use of Spanish, in accordance with our policy of Spanish-only. Due to this, I was somewhat uncomfortable using English with the children. Yet, as a researcher, the use of English was justified; this represents a conflict of interest within my own subjectivity. On the one hand, I wanted to ensure that the children were comfortable with the interview situation and not silenced and constrained by my presence as an adult Anglo-Australian fluent Spanish speaker, which could further limit their interest in expressing themselves freely throughout the interviews. For the sake of the data English was used. This was because of the extreme variations in proficiency levels of the children’s Spanish and the type of questions asked throughout the interview. On the other hand, I did not want to speak English and disrupt the Spanish-speaking relationship I have with these children, nor go against the philosophy and Spanish-only policy of the school.

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D: M: D: M:

Why do you like English, more than Spanish? Because it’s easier to um (pauses). … say? Spanish is quite hard.

For Martín, his preference for English over Spanish was dependent on his perception of ease with English and difficulty with Spanish. His orientation towards Spanish predisposed him to think about Spanish as difficult and English as easy. Bourdieu’s (1990) concept of habitus incorporates the notion of agency which is the ability to act intentionally and consciously. This is often demonstrated in dispositions of innovation, adaptation and strategic calculation. Swartz (1997) adds that within Bourdieu’s framework of habitus, agency is as an important aspect to its interaction with dispositions of habitus. It involves the activity that results from processes of conscious and critical reflection that informs choices made within external structures, discourses and social fields. Fundamental to choice is decision making and preference. To have a preference is to have a prior favor for one thing above another and the act of choice, or the decision making, will be influential in how the preference is realized. This connection between habitus, agency and preference can be applied to Diego, Ariel and Martín as they are able to articulate and express their preferences and perceptions of their proficiency of Spanish. In understanding that cultural conditions are multiple and even contradictory, locating agency in the capacity of persons who engage in dialogic acts is useful. The boys’ articulation of their preferences for either Spanish or English can be also understood from a Bakhtinian perpective of agency which Vitanova (2005) interprets as a reflexive process in understanding the self as a social being and actor within a context of sociolinguistic reality. For Bakhtin, how we engage in interpreting our worlds involves a ‘responsive understanding’ which is dialogic and creative. Creativity to Bakhtin, is a ‘response to a specific problem to a specific life situation’ (in Vitanova 2005:â•›16).

4.2 Identity and habitus For some of the children in this study, there were important connections between identity and habitus. In the extract below Diego and Ariel talk about the connections between their culture, knowledge and speaking Spanish. (4)

C: A: D: C: A: D:

So what do you mean, it’s your culture, it’s easier? You got the knowledge and Spanish is in your … … you got Spanish in your blood. You got the knowledge. So it’s easier Oh right. So what do you mean, you got the knowledge? You already know it and you have been raised by … … by Spanish people, so you’ve heard them talking.



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The connection between identity and habitus is found in systems of dispositions that give meaning to cultural practices and discourses operating in specific social fields. For both boys, the use of Spanish in their homes provided them with a sense of cultural history. There was a strong sense of history constituted in their dispositions of past and familiar experiences with their experiences of using Spanish at home. Crossley (2001) argues that Bourdieu’s concept of habitus emphasizes the collective as well as individual expression of cultural history. He argues that habitus is not identical in individuals as individual biographies are but strands in a collective history. Individuals belong to groups and they develop their habitus therein. Thus, the individual habitus tends to represent and manifest many groupspecific characteristics. In this way, individual habitus is a variant of a collective root. For Diego and Ariel, this variant is found in their individual and different trajectories in learning to speak Spanish. In the interview, Ariel reported to speak exclusively to his family members in Spanish at home, whereas Diego reported less opportunity to use Spanish. Their shared history and similar dispositions suggests a common ground upon which their close friendship was based.

4.3 Imagination and dispositions of languages learning The second proposition in this chapter suggests that imagination is an important disposition in languages learning apparent in the extracts below, in which Diego and Ariel reflect on their experiences of learning Spanish. (5) A: D:

I want to learn more, I know more English than Spanish, but I want to learn more because there is more to learn. English is like a pogo stick, I keep on bouncing and bouncing, eh it’s really boring, but Spanish is like a bike, you get on your bike and you never stop learning.

The boys’ positive dispositions towards learning Spanish shaped their perceptions of their own proficiency in terms of how they constructed themselves as learners of Spanish. This was specifically expressed by Ariel’s desire to “learn more … because there is more to learn”. An important strategy that operates as a learning disposition as outlined by Csikszentmihalyi (1997) is imagination – being playful and creative and being able to make connections to past and present. For example, in the above extract, Diego’s use of the metaphor of riding a bicycle suggests an imaginative disposition in which he was able to make playful connections. Diego’s metaphorical comparison between the pogo stick (English) and the bike (Spanish) represents experiences of learning language that are ongoing, continual and adventurous. Since Diego’s first language is English and in it he has greater proficiency, his

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metaphor of the Pogo Stick signifies a more predictable trajectory of learning; this, for �Diego, was not as exciting as the learning journey of Spanish.

4.4 The legitimacy of Spanish is produced in linguistic markets and through linguistic habitus The third proposition in this chapter claims that the legitimacy of Spanish is constructed through the linguistic habitus in various linguistic markets. Linguistic markets are specific cultural fields in which meaning making and communicating is played out through a linguistic habitus with various linguistic practices, styles and expressions (Bourdieu 1991). For the children in this study, the linguistic habitus generated in speaking Spanish undertook various adaptations and transformations within the various social fields they encountered. These different fields included the home, La Escuelita, relationships with family and extended family members, family visits overseas, Latino popular culture and community events (These cultural fields are discussed in detail later in this section). Inherent in social fields are linguistic markets in which the habitus is powerfully generative and unpredictable. The extract below is a continuation of the interview from the previous extract with Martίn. He was asked about his feelings of speaking Spanish in different places. (6) C: M: C: M: C: M: C: M: C: M: C: M:

When you speak Spanish, … when you are at Spanish school or when you are in Santo Domingo {capital city of the Dominican Republic}, talking to abuela [grandmother], when you are speaking to Papi or Mami. How … do you feel? (no answer) Do you feel different? Feel different, yeah. You do? Yeah, feel different. Really? How do you mean? What do you feel when you feel different? I don’t know. You don’t know? You just feel different. Do you feel good? Do you feel bad? (pauses) Oh I feel (pauses) Do you feel funny? Do you feel silly? … oh well I feel funny, good funny.



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Martίn is reminded of the linguistic market of the Dominican Republic where Spanish is the official language spoken and has institutional, cultural and social legitimacy and power. He is also reminded of the use of Spanish within his extended family. As a result, he appears to be more positive about speaking Spanish than in the previous extract. When the field was opened up to him he finally comments: ‘I feel funny, good funny’. His experiences of speaking Spanish where Spanish is the official language exemplifies Bourdieu’s (1990) concept of legitimacy. In the above extract Martín’s investment in that field is made explicit as he is reminded of the legitimate use of Spanish with family and in La Escuelita. Below, Diego’s description of his experiences of speaking Spanish in Santo Domingo illustrates the relationship between the linguistic market and linguistic habitus. Cos, it’s a totally different language and when I went to, when we went to Santo Domingo … it was really really different, because we were speaking Spanish and so when I came home it was it felt like I was speaking in Santo Domingo.

Diego’s participation in the linguistic market of daily interactions in Spanish demonstrates his disposition towards the use of Spanish. In his reflection on speaking Spanish overseas, the linguistic habitus generates a subjective disposition that was described in his ongoing tendency to speak Spanish upon returning home. For Diego, upon returning to Australia, the linguistic habitus in the home produced a linguistic market which enabled him to continue to use Spanish.

4.5 Linguistic markets shape disposition Carolina (eleven years old) and Dennis (ten years old) two other children from La Escuelita who participated in the study were also asked about whether they felt different speaking Spanish compared to speaking English: (7) C: Does it feel, how does it feel when you speak Spanish then? Cos I know you all speak English in the break, but you speak Spanish in the class [in La Escuelita] don’t you? Carolina: Yeah. D: Yeah. C: Good for you to practise that way. Is it, is it, does it feel funny? Or does it feel, or doesn’t feel anything? D: Normal.

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For Dennis who is proficient in both Spanish and English the linguistic markets of home and La Escuelita legitimizes the use of Spanish. His feelings of ‘normal’ demonstrate a disposition, which is transposable across these two distinct cultural fields. The relationship between field and habitus is apparent here, since Dennis speaks Spanish at home exclusively to his parents and extended family members. The linguistic markets of the Spanish-speaking milieu of the home and La Escuelita (fields) produces in Dennis a disposition (linguistic habitus), which he describes as ‘normal’. Hence, the habitus produced is transposable across the two fields where Spanish held similar levels of legitimacy. Further, representations of the legitimacy of Spanish were apparent in Carolina’s explanation for why she likes speaking Spanish at La Escuelita: “Because you speak to someone in Spanish apart from your mum and dad”. For Carolina, the linguistic markets of the home and La Escuelita represent a split between public and private use of Spanish. When the use of Spanish was made public at La Escuelita, its currency had legitimacy as the interactions were with other people besides family members. This gave rise to new opportunities to expand her linguistic habitus, which for Carolina was a worthwhile investment.

4.6 Cultural and social field are key sources of social and cultural capital The fourth proposition claims that the family, Latino popular culture, cultural community events and La Escuelita are key sources of cultural and social capital. These forms of capital provide cultural currency enabling the children and families to draw on their capacity to mediate and exchange social power across different cultural fields. The linguistic markets in these fields set a price valuation on the use of Spanish transforming the linguistic habitus which are accumulated through social, cultural, economic and symbolic forms of capital.

4.7 The family as a source of social capital The findings in this study emphasize the conversion of social capital to linguistic and cultural capital. For the families in this study the durable relationships where Spanish was spoken produced networks of interactions constituting a linguistic habitus of Spanish that ultimately converted into cultural and linguistic capital for both the children and their families. For example below, Marsella describes the use of Spanish in her family:



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(8) Si le si tratamos con los niños {para} que no puede hablar inglés porque la abuelita no entiende y les decimos que no está bien dejar de que ella no entienda. Entonces estamos manteniendo el español. A mi mami no le gustaba que hablemos {ingles}. Hay una regla en la casa que no hable inglés.

Yes we try to encourage the children not to speak English because the Grandmother does not understand and we try to get them to understand that it is not good to leave her out because she doesn’t understand. So we are maintaining Spanish. My mother doesn’t like it when we speak {English}. There is a in our house a rule that we don’t speak English.

The conscious effort made by the family to ensure that Spanish was spoken in the home so that the grandmother was not excluded from family interactions represents a strategy for establishing and maintaining a Spanish-speaking linguistic market. This market was instituted through the family rule of Spanish-only. The strategy provides advantages for both the adults and the children. It engenders the accumulation of social capital for the grandmother and also accumulated linguistic capital for the children. The children’s Spanish was extended as the rule predisposed them to speak to their grandmother in Spanish. Therefore, this conversion from social to linguistic capital for Marsella’s children resulted in the accumulation of embodied linguistic and cultural capital, through the use of Spanish.

4.8 Family visits overseas For the families in this study, their links to extended family residing in Latin American countries were strong as not all family members lived in Australia. Hence, the children had cousins, aunties, uncles and grandparents living in various parts of the Americas. The data reveals many references to adults’ and children’s use of Spanish during overseas family visits to family members living in Latin America. In this study, overseas family connections strongly contributed towards securing social, linguistic and cultural capital. On overseas family visits that many parents reported their children experienced, the children had many opportunities to reconnect with and share everyday cultural and social practices in which the use of Spanish was embedded. When considering the geographical distances between Australia and Latin America and the travelling expenses involved, it highlights the important contribution that overseas family connections make in securing social, linguistic and cultural capital.

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4.9 Latino popular culture, media, music and literacies In this study, the majority of children had access to Latino popular culture. Hence it was not surprising that many of the children and their parents made references to this in the interviews. The parents and grandparents viewed Latin music, dance and song as important influences in shaping their children’s identity and reinforcing the language. For example, Clarissa feels that the music and the culture could not be separated: (9) I don’t know. Latin American Spanish and everything that goes with it is sort of you can’t separate the language from the people and the music and the culture and it seems to be all one.

Some of the children’s references to popular songs, dance and particular artists reflected their knowledge of the various popular contemporary Latin musical and dance genres that were current as in the comments by Barbi (eight years old). (10) Because sometimes I listen to it {Shakira} when I’m bored I like and I know how to do, um like the way Jennifer López does it {dances}.

4.10 Spanish-speaking media Spanish language media including video, film and television gave important meaning to the lives of the children and the parents in this study. The renting of Spanish language videos and films from Latin America from the only local Spanish language video shop in the region is a common practice for some families. For many of the children in this study, experiences with Spanish-speaking media enabled significant opportunities for exchanging objectified capital. For example access to Spanish-speaking media provides opportunities for interacting with family members and participating in cultural daily practices in Spanish that validate the use of Spanish for the children and their families. (11) Yeah my mum watches these shows and … um they’ve got all these shows in Spanish and I watch it with my mum sometimes. (Sali, nine years old)

In this study, the cultural field of Latino popular culture enables forms of objectified and institutional cultural capital to be accumulated in Spanish language media, producing some forms of symbolic capital. Objectified capital is the cultural texts

. The term ‘Latino’ is commonly used to describe popular Latin music produced within Latin America, the United States and to a small extent in Australia. The term is an abbreviated construction from the Spanish term ‘Latinoamericana’, [Latin American].



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embedded in the media, popular culture, music and texts transformed by and institutionalized through the corporate globalization of the Latin music and popular culture industry. Examples of this kind of appropriation are found in the comments of Clarissa, Barbi and Sali in which the different experiences of Spanish-speaking digital media culture is recognized and valued by the children and adults.

4.11 The production of cultural and linguistic capital in CL schools The fifth proposition evident in this chapter argues that CL schools namely La Escuelita are pivotal in generating cultural and linguistic capital assisting bilingual children in the retention and extension of their home language. The following discussion highlights objectified, embodied and institutional cultural capital to show how the different cultural fields emerging from the data represent various linguistic markets. These markets either permitted or impeded the retention and extension of Spanish. In this study, non-mainstream settings provided important social fields in which the children and their families used Spanish. For example, the majority of the children attended either Spanish-speaking playgroup or La Escuelita for a period of up to two hours per week. La Escuelita was an important social field in which various forms of embodied, objectified and institutional forms of capital were accrued. The table below indicates how the children at the School accumulated these different forms of capital. (12) Embodied capital

Objectified capital

Institutional capital

Interactions between the staff (teacher and teachers’ assistant) which were mostly in Spanish

Learning experiences such as worksheets, reading, singing, games, dancing, discussion, music, art and craft were designed to extend children’s Spanish

Parents and other family members encouraged to speak Spanish to other children when at the school

Classroom experiences and family events that reflected children’s interests and cultural backgrounds

Parents invited to participate in classroom experiences using Spanish Children’s work samples published on the Internet

. Other terminologies used in Canada and North America are Heritage Language programs. In Europe similar programs are refereed to as Mother Tongue Maintenance programs.

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4.12.1╇ Examples The following selected data are of three children’s work samples that illustrate how institutional, embodied and objectified capital was accumulated at La Escuelita. The data below reveals learning experiences provided to the children as part of a CL schools’ project initiated by the Department of Education and Training (NSW).10 For La Escuelita the purpose of this project was to enable the children and parents to experience the conversion of Spanish into institutional capital as they were able to view their work samples on the internet. It also aimed to explore the concept of identity. The teacher asked the children to complete a worksheet with questions about where they were born, where their parents were born and what languages they spoke at home11. The children then drew the flag of their parents’ countries of birth, pasted their photo on the worksheet and drew an arrow from their picture to their parents’ country/ies of birth.12 Diego Diego’s father is from the Dominican Republic and his mother is from Australia. His drawings (see Figure 1) represent important Australian icons, such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Tower with the label ‘Australia’. He also represents his father’s country of birth with a palm tree and the label Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. Diego’s use of icons enables him to transform these illustrations into objectified cultural capital. They also represent his understanding of having multiple identities and a sense of belonging to two nation-states.

10. All CL schools in NSW were invited to submit children’s work samples to be published on the Migration Heritage website http://www.migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au/e107/content. php?article.31. The samples were collected by me for this research but were also sent to DET as a contribution to the project. The children’s work no longer appears on the website. 11. The English translation of the worksheet is [My name is ____________ and I was born in _____________. I Speak _____________ and ________________. My father is ___________ ___ he was born in _____________. My mother is _________ she was born in ____________. At home we speak _______________ and we like to maintain both ___________ and ______ _______ cultures]. 12. The photos have been deleted to protect the identities of the children. Diego’s label ‘Santo Domingo’ appeared below the palm tree but has been deleted due to limited space.



Figure 1.╇ Diego’s ‘From Here to There’

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Julia and Emilia Julia (nine years) and Emilia (twelve years) are sisters whose parents are from mainland China. The family lived in Venezuela where the girls were raised. The family had recently moved to Sydney, Australia at the time of this study. The girls’ drawings are highly illustrative depictions of their Chinese cultural identity (see Figures 2 and 3). Emilia drew traditional Chinese clothes whereas Julia drew various foods from China displayed on a table. In this picture, Julia’s talent for illustration is evident in the level of detail that she was able to use to represent Chinese culture, as depicted by the Chinese design on the bowl. She also wrote in Mandarin, Spanish and English the translated equivalents to “Hello, how are you?” Further, Julia wrote next to her arrow drawn from Venezuela: “Yo vivί en Venezuela y hablo español” [‘I lived in Venezuela and I speak Spanish’].

Figure 2.╇ Julia’ ‘From Here to There’



Figure 2. (continued)

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Figure 3.╇ Emilia’s ‘From Here to There’



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In the data above, the three forms of Bourdieu’s (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992) institutional, embodied and objectified capital were evident. In Bourdieu’s terms, the learning experience established a linguistic market regulated by the linguistic habitus of filling in the worksheet. The language features modeled by the teacher and the worksheet primarily legitimized Spanish as the children were required to complete the worksheet in that language. It also required the children to identify the use of more than one language and the allegiance to more than one culture. The children were required to identify two parents and one or two countries of birth. This was an effective strategy for activating embodied cultural capital for those children in the class whose cultural, language and family experiences were congruent with the requirements of the worksheet: speaking more than one language at home; having two parents; and negotiating both Latin American and Anglo-Australian cultures. However, Julia and Emilia, who did not speak Spanish at home, manage to make positive use of their cultural experiences, converting these into embodied capital. They both insert the language ‘Cantonese’ in addition to Spanish and English (see Figures 2 and 3). They went beyond the constraints of the worksheet to express their multiple identities. Julia even took a step further and inserted Mandarin text as an accompaniment to her illustration. In this way, the accumulation of linguistic capital in Mandarin and Spanish was exchanged in this experience and transposed to the linguistic market of Spanish. For Diego, Julia and Emilia, their artistic talents in illustrating aspects of their identity represent imaginative dispositions through which the conversion of embodied cultural capital is represented by their knowledge of their heritage through the depiction of cultural icons, cultural practices and textual features, transforming them into objectified capital as drawings and text.

5.

Conclusion

It is apparent from this study that the legitimization of Spanish and Spanish language learning plays a pivotal role in the experiences of and connections between language retention and identity construction in bilingual Spanish speaking children from Latin American backgrounds living in urban communities in Australia. The findings from this study have demonstrated that in Australia, the legitimization of Spanish is integral to assisting children in positive identification with their home language and cultural practices. Therefore, this notion of legitimacy is in keeping with the research of Heller (1996), Martin Jones and Heller (1996) and May (2000) who critically examine ideological nature of language practices in educational institutions and its impact on bilingual children’s language retention.

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However, in this study there was little evidence to demonstrate that mainstream schools and prior to school settings valued or supported Spanish, relegating this responsibility to small, poorly funded community-based CL schools. This bears out in a recent report of CL schools, which identifies Spanish as one of many languages yet to be prioritized by governments resulting in “limited opportunities to learn Spanish in government schools and a reliance on community language schools to fill in this gap” (Cardona, Nobel and Di Biase 2008:â•›18). Still, in this study, the evidence clearly identified CL schools, such as La Escuelita, and Spanish playgroups as making a worthy contribution the transmission of Spanish to younger generations in Australia. This study has highlighted the need for further research into the role of CL schools in producing institutional, objectified and embodied capital. The 2002 review of the Commonwealth Languages Other Than English Programs identifies, amongst other challenges, the need for increased funding to CL schools (Erebus 2002). This chapter has demonstrated how the children and families in this study have made use of opportunities to generate differentiated forms of capital due to the validation of Spanish in various linguistic markets to which the children had access. While recognizing the interconnections between habitus, field and capital, this chapter has shown the value of each concept by selecting various aspects of the data to illustrate how these tools operated in social practices. Specifically five propositions were examined. The first proposition revealed the importance of disposition in constructing the habitus. The children’s perceptions of their proficiency and their preferences tended to construct a positive or negative habitus towards their learning of Spanish. The second proposition illustrated how the children’s various dispositions of imagination shaped their learning and use of Spanish. The third proposition suggested that the legitimacy of Spanish created a relationship between the linguistic habitus and the linguistic market. The fourth proposition explored the relationship between social and cultural fields and habitus to demonstrate how individual children and their families responded, depending on how these fields validated the use of Spanish. In particular, the findings revealed that the family, Latino popular culture and cultural community events were important sources of social and cultural capital. Finally, the fifth proposition illuminated the important role played by CL schools, such as La Escuelita in the activation of different species of cultural capital that in turn assisted in the construction of the children’s identity and their Spanish language retention.



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References Bourdieu, P. & Wacquant, L. 1992. An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology. Oxford: Blackwell. Bourdieu, P. 1977. Outline of a Theory of Practice. Cambridge: CUP. Bourdieu, P. 1990. The Logic of Practice, transl. by R. Nice. Cambridge: Polity Press. Bourdieu, P. 1991. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press. Bourdieu, P. 1993. Sociology in Question. London: Sage. Bourdieu, P. 1998. Practical Reason. On the Theory of Action. Cambridge: Polity Press. Cardona, B., Nobel, G. & Di Biase, B. 2008. Pilot study of the NSW Community Languages School Program. Sydney. NSW Department of Education and Training (DET) and the University of Western Sydney (UWS). Carrington, V. & Luke, A. 1997. Literacy and Bourdieu's sociological theory: A reframing, Language and Education 11(2): 96–112. Corson, D. 1998. Changing Education for Diversity. Philadelphia PA: Open University Press. Crawford, J. 2000. At War with Diversity: US Language Policy in an Age of Anxiety. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Crossley, N. 2001. The phenomenological habitus and its construction. Theory and Society 30: 81–120. Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1997. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. New York NY: Basic Books. Cummins, J. 1991. Interdependence of first and second language proficiency in bilingual children. In Language Processing in Bilingual Children, E. Bialystok (ed.), 70–89. Cambridge: CUP. Davis, K. 1995. Qualitative theory and methods in applied linguistics research. TESOL Quarterly 29(3): 427–453. Erebus Consulting Partners. 2002. Review of the Commonwealth Languages other than English Programme. A report to the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training. , (13 November 2007). Fillmore, L. W. 1991. When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 6: 323–47. Gutiérrez, K. D., Baquedano-López, P. & Asato, J. 2000. English for the children: The new literacy of the old world order. Language policy and educational reform. Bilingual Research Journal 24(1–2): 87–216. Heller, M. & Martin-Jones, M. 2001a. Introduction: Symbolic domination, education, and linguistic difference. In Voices of Authority. Education and Linguistic Difference, M. Heller & M. Martin-Jones (eds), 1–28. Westport CT: Ablex. Heller, M. & Martin-Jones, M. 2001b. Voices of Authority. Education and Linguistic Difference. Westport CT: Ablex. Heller, M. 1996. Legitimate language in a multilingual school. Linguistics and Education 8: 139–157. Hornberger, N. H. & King, K. 1996. Language revitalization in the Andes: Can the schools reverse language shift? Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 17(6): 427–441. Jones Díaz, C. 2007. Intersections between Language Retention and Identities in Young Bilingual Children. PhD dissertation, UWS, Sydney.

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Martin, D. 2003. Constructing discursive practices in school and community. Bilingualism, gender and power. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 6(3–4): 237–251. Martin-Jones, M. & Heller, M. 1996. Introduction to the special Issues on education in multilingual settings: Discourse, identities, and power. Linguistics and Education 8(1): 3–16. Martin-Jones, M. & Saxena, M. 2001. Turn taking and the positioning of bilingual participants in classroom discourse: Insights from primary schools in England. In Voices of Authority. Education and Linguistic Difference, M. Heller & M. Martin-Jones (eds), 117–138. Westport CT: Ablex. May, S. 2000. Minority language rights: Challenges and possibilities. Journal of Mulitlingual and Multicultural Development 21(5): 366–85. McCollum, P. 1999. Learning to value English: Cultural capital in a two-way bilingual program. Bilingual Research Journal 23(2–3): 113–134. Mills, J. 2004. Mothers and mother tongue: Perspectives on self-construction by mothers of Pakistani Heritage. In Negotiation of Identities in Multilingual Contexts, A. Pavlenko & A.€Blackledge (eds), 161–191. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Nobel, G. & Watkins, M. 2003. So, how did Bourdieu learn to play tennis? Habitus, consciousness and habituation. Cultural Studies 17(3–4): 520–538. Oliver, R. & Purdie, N. 1998. The attitudes of bilingual children to their languages. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 19(3): 199–211. Olneck, M. 2000. Can multicultural education change what counts as cultural capital? American Educational Research Journal 37(2): 317–348. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V. & Armstrong de Almeida, A. E. 2006. Language discourses and ideologies at the heart of early childhood education. The International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 9(3): 310–341. Pacini-Ketchabaw, V., Bernhard, J. K. & Freire, M. 2001. Struggling to preserve home language: The experiences of Latino students and families in the Canadian school system. Bilingual Research Journal 25(1–2): 115–145. Patton, M. Q. 2002. Qualitative research & evaluation methods, 3rd edition. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. Reason, P. 1981. Patterns of discovery in the social sciences: An appreciation. In Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research, P. Reason & J. Rowan (eds), 183–189. New York NY: Wiley. Romaine, S. 1995. Bilingualism, 2nd edn. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Saunders, G. 1982. Bilingual Children: Guidance for the Family. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Schecter, S. R. & Bayley, R. 1997. Language socialization practices and cultural identity: Case studies of Mexican-descent families in California and Texas. TESOL Quarterly 31(3): 513–541. Sirén, U. 1991. Minority Language Transmission Early Childhood: Parental Intention and Language Use. Stockholm: Institute of International Education, Stockholm University. Skutnabb-Kangas, T. 1988. Multilingualism and the education of minority children. In Minority Education: From Shame to Struggle, T. Skutnabb-Kangas & J. Cummins (eds), 9–44. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Swartz, D. 1997. Culture and Power. Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu. Chicago IL: The University of Chicago Press. Thompson, J. B. 1991. Editor’s Introduction. Language and Symbolic Power. Cambridge: Polity Press.



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Vitanova, G. 2005. Authoring the Self in a non-native language: A dialogic approach to agency and subjectivity. In Dialogue with Bakhtin on Second and Foreign Language Learning, J.€K.€Hall, G. Vitanova & L. Marchencova (eds), 149–169. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Wee, L. 2002. When English is not a mother tongue: Linguistic ownership and the Eurasian community in Singapore. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 23(4): 282–295. Willett, J., Solsken, J. & Wilson-Keenan, J. 1999. The (im)possibilites of constructing multicultural language practices in research and pedagogy. Linguistics and Education 10(2): 165–218. Zentella, A. C. 1997. Growing Up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York. Oxford: Blackwell.

chapter 11

Reactions to the overt display of Spanish language maintenance in Australia* Mario Daniel Martín The Australian National University

Multiculturalism has been officially celebrated and endorsed in Australia since the 1970s; however, institutional practices are in sharp contrast to this rhetoric. Notably, the educational setting still favors monolingualism in English as the identity associated with success. The chapter will explore the subtle and not so subtle challenges to the overt display of a multicultural, multilingual identity in Australia. The focus will be on the experiences and perceptions of the second generation of Spanish speakers in Australia as reported by themselves and their parents. The chapter will also explore the social context in which Spanish-speaking children and adolescents are classified and valued by members of the host society and the Spanish-speaking community. For example, the effect of teacher’s perceptions of the adequacy of the children’s level of English, advice to parents to only speak English with children, and other practices that delegitimize the value of being a bilingual will be addressed. Their influence on the maintenance and use of Spanish in Australia by the second generation of Spanish speakers will also be evaluated and correlated with a chronology of the official rhetoric toward minorities.

1.

Introduction

Multiculturalism has been officially celebrated and endorsed in Australia since the 1970s; however, institutional practices are in sharp contrast to this rhetoric. Notably, the educational setting still favors monolingualism in English as the identity associated with success. This chapter will explore the subtle and not so subtle challenges to the overt display of a multicultural, multilingual identity in Australia. The focus will be on the experiences and perceptions of the second �generation

* I would like to thank Tarisha Kearney for her help editing the English of this paper.

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of Spanish speakers in Australia as reported by themselves and their parents. The chapter will also explore the social context in which Spanish-speakingÂ� children and adolescents are classified and valued by members of the host society and the Spanish-speaking community. For example, the effect of teacher’s perceptions of the adequacy of the children’s level of English, advice to parents to only speak English with children, and other practices that delegitimize the value of being a bilingual will be addressed. Their influence on the maintenance and use of Spanish in Australia by the second generation of Spanish speakers will also be evaluated and correlated with a chronology of the official rhetoric toward minorities. Political changes in Australia that have affected popular perceptions of the nonAnglo migrant community will also be examined. The data presented here was obtained in interviews with 73 members of the Spanish-speaking community, carried out between 1995 and 2007, and extensive participant observation in Canberra, Brisbane and Western Sydney. Of the 73 interviewees, 24 were born in Australia, or came to Australia as young children. In addition to this formally gathered data, the chapter also uses data generated from the author’s contact with university students from Spanish-speaking background. These students, who were the author’s students at the University of Canberra, the University of Queensland and The Australian National University since 1994, were born mostly in Australia or came of age in Australia.

2.

Maintaining Spanish in Australia: Some insiders views

We will now look at some interview and participant observation data to understand the challenges that Spanish children and adolescents faced when their maintenance of Spanish was overtly expressed, that is, when Spanish was used in public or the language of the household was declared to be Spanish in schools and other non-intimate settings. To establish how the Australian linguistic field has changed through the years, we offer a necessarily abridged chronology of the typical attitudes of members of the English-speaking majority towards the externalization of Spanish speaking proficiency in informal and institutional settings, notably educational ones. Such attitudes will be correlated with the official rhetoric toward minorities and political changes in the country which affected migrants since the 1940s. We will concentrate our analysis on the school domain and the house domain of linguistically

. For a history of the Spanish-speaking community in Australia, see Martín (2002).



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mixed families, that is, families where one of the partners is not a Spanish speaker, as the issues under examination are more salient in these two domains. A recently published study on advice to only speak English in Australia, as reflected in the Spanish-speaking community, found that the school setting was the setting where such advice was given most frequently (Martín 2008:â•›84–87). In the case of linguistically mixed families, Piller (2002) has argued that linguistic practices are central to contemporary couplehood, and that bilingual couples’ “linguistic intermarriage” constitutes a case study in language contact, where the (re)construction of identities and discourses of bilingualism can be studied. This focus on the social side of linguistic intermarriage should not ignore that “language use in intermarried families is deeply intertwined with the experience of childrearing… [and is] impossible to separate from interpersonal, family, and societal contexts” (Okita 2002:â•›232). In particular, we should not ignore that gender differences play a significant role in the transmission of minority languages to children. There is ample literature exploring this issue which shows that children with minority-language-speaking mothers ended up becoming more proficient bilinguals than those with minority-language-speaking fathers (Kamada 1997). The mother’s crucial role in language maintenance was shown to extend even to dialect acquisition when parents speak dialects of the same language (Potowski 2008; Tse and Ingram 1987). In the case of the Spanish-speaking community in Australia, these effects have also been attested. In particular, it has been found that when in an intermarried family where the father is Hispanic and the mother is not, the couple uses less Spanish in the home domain than when the nonHispanicÂ� is the father (Martín 1997:â•›122–125). The use of the Spanish language with the mother was a better predictor of Spanish language proficiency in Sydney Hispanic adolescents than the use of Spanish with the father (Gibbons and Ramirez 2004b:â•›120–123).

2.1 1945 through 1965 We will begin by considering data from the assimilation to integration period of Australian migration (1945–1965). Until the mid 1960s, migrants to Australia were required to assimilate quickly, and there was, in general, a paternalistic view of the migrant (Wilton and Bosworth 1984:â•›85). One of the most noticeable and consequently combated signs of “foreignness” was language. Teachers and Good Neighbors (an organization funded by the Department of Immigration to help migrants assimilate) advised migrant parents to only speak English with their children, regardless of their proficiency in the language. Students were consciously allocated to mixed classes to avoid the peril of the use of a foreign

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language amongst themselves. All this was a result of perceiving the assimilation of children as a crucial test for the immigration program. This led a prominent social researcher to raise the question of whether the Australian school at the time could be considered an assimilation agency (Smolicz 1971). The climate of the time is reflected on the account of an Australian, about 70 years old, married to a Spanish woman who had arrived in the early 1960s. I spoke in English, my wife spoke in Spanish, but the kids learned English. Now, at the time when the children were very young, one of our Spanish friend’s children started school, and she rang us up in tears because the teacher had said that they should stop speaking Spanish at home because the child could not understand what was happening at school. So we made a conscious decision that we would speak to the children in English. We regretted it, and regretted it and regretted it… Of course you spoke to them in Spanish a lot… but you also spoke in English if they did not understand Spanish, then you told them in English. There was a sort of ‘this is what I said so you understand it.’ But officially I certainly… If I had spoken to them in Spanish it would had been a different story. But I didn’t. I spoke in English, and she spoke in Spanish or English but… Our perception was we’d better speak to them in English otherwise they would be disadvantaged at school. That was as simple as that. Then our children were identified as being Australian, see? Australian names, a father who speaks… [English natively] and whose name is… [Australian] and so on. They would have never been perceived, to my knowledge, ever, as being foreign migrant children.

We see in this case that there is a confluence of the external assimilationist climate, represented by the advice of the teacher, and consequent behavior in terms of language following this advice for the benefit of the children, as having an Australian surname will make them the same as other children. Even when the advice was not directed at the informant’s family, it was effectively internalized by them as well. The change of norms in terms of recognition of languages other than English (LOTEs) in Australia at the time of the interview (1994) is also evident in the regretful account of the decision to speak English with his children, as these norms were no longer the accepted perception of languages other than English in the 1990s. There is also, in the informant’s own words, the lack of an “official” recognition of Spanish as a valid language at home, even when he was able to speak Spanish. This reflects the status of LOTEs in Australia in the 1960s. The assimilationist attitudes of the times were also felt very strongly in the case of migrant children, who have had to deal with a high level of discrimination in the schools, as is shown in the account of this Spanish woman, who arrived in Australia in the early 1960s when she was 10.



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At times the discrimination was simply unbearable. I suffered all kind of insults. I was even beaten in primary school and high school. This is why, the very day of my sixteen birthday, that is, the day on which I was legally entitled to decide for myself, I quit high school, in spite of my parents’ disappointment. As you grow up, you regret such decisions, especially in my case, as I had aspirations to keep studying, but at the time there was no other solution I could have think of. Now, after a life of hard work, I have decided to go to university.

2.2 1965 through 1975 Between the mid 1960s and early 1970s it became clear to Australian migration bureaucrats that the assimilationist policy was not producing the desired effect. The ideological assimilationist rhetoric was changed into one of integration, which ideally required the Australian government and the Anglo-Australian people to ease the pressure on migrants to conform to the British model of society, so migrants could make a contribution to Australian society without abandoning their cultures. The Department of Immigration began a grants-in-aid program to facilitate the employment of bilingual community welfare workers in community agencies. Adult English as a Second Language (ESL) classes recognizing the need of different levels of English on arrival began to be offered, and migrant organizations were being recognized as legitimate interlocutors for government bodies for the first time. The education system, however, apart from the introduction of sporadic special ESL classes for migrant children, and some rhetoric and cosmetic changes, did not make many concessions to the needs of migrant children (Bullivant 1984:â•›54–57; Martin 1978; Ozolins 1993:â•›79–108). This was legitimized by the social science of the time, which was proving that “the adjustment to school of immigrant schoolchildren was less than that of Australians” (Doczy 1969). The increasing pressures of well organized migrant associations at the time lobbied for the introduction of some of the migrant languages of the larger communities, such as Modern Greek or Dutch into the educational system, especially as university matriculation examination subjects. The status of these language subjects was suspect, as there was the perception that they would give “unfair advantage” to migrant children in their exams to qualify for a university position. As a consequence, a practice of systematically disadvantaging native speakers that sat such exams was established (Bonyhady 1965; Musgrave 1988:â•›116–119). The change of official attitudes does not seem to have changed the status of LOTEs in the Australian population, as suggested by the following account by a Chilean man, about 65 years old, who arrived in Australia in the late 1960s.

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During the ten years I was married to an Australian woman, she did not show any interest in learning Spanish. She always opposed my speaking Spanish with my children and friends, so I spent several years without speaking my language. Her opinion was that if you came to this country you have to adjust to the community’s rules and speak only English. In all my social encounters with Spanish-speakers, we had to speak English when she was present. This is one of the reasons why my children do not speak Spanish, and also the reason why I looked for a Spanish-speaking partner after my marriage failed.

Things in schools did not change very much either. However, the introduction of ESL classes began to have an effect. This is the account of an Argentinean man, who arrived in Australia as a child in the early 1970s. I learned English on the school of hard knocks. I got tired of telling the teachers that I was being hit, and decided to learn it to be able to fight the other children, but it was not that effective, and I was perceived as a bad student. When I was in year 3 they introduced the ESL class, and this allowed me to learn it properly and at my pace. And then I began to have better results at school. But I had to hang out with ethnics all the time. No matter how good my English was, I was not accepted by my Australian classmates.

Before analyzing this account in more detail, let us see what a Chilean migrant parent, who arrived in Australia in the early 1970s already married to a Chilean woman, stated. In the schools, at the beginning, when the children were attending primary school, the emphasis was given to our speaking English to the children, so they learned it, and also we learned it. According to them, they were trying to sweeten the pill, it was also because we could practice English this way. Fortunately, I did not need to do that, because I was practicing English all the time at work, and I always refused to speak English to the children. In my home, once the door is closed you speak Spanish; outside, you are free to speak English, or any other language. I have always recommended that to the other people (in the Spanishspeaking community), to the ones that are willing to listen, of course.

To situate the above cases, we should realize that the way in which the last person quoted struggled against the advice given at school was avoiding overt confrontation with the teachers. To counterbalance the external impositions, however, the one path left was imposing the use of Spanish at home. This is a pattern found over and over again in cases of Spanish language maintenance for people who came to Australia in this period. This kind of struggle was impossible for school children or the Chilean man in the former case. The only possible resolution for the Chilean man, being married to an Australian woman who strongly enforced



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the de facto English-only norms of the country, was to step out of the marriage, and find a Spanish-speaking partner. In psychological terms, such struggles were undoubtedly very costly. If we look at the previous five cases in terms of the power balance between the parties, in all these cases, and in several other cases analyzed in the data, there is little resistance to the external norms, or, if there is resistance, either it is not overt or it has a very high cost. What was expected from migrants at the time, that is, a complete shift to English, was extremely clear in all domains of social life in Australia, and especially in the institutional domain. At the end of 1972 the Australian Labor Party government led by Gough Whitlam came to power, setting an ambitious, social-democratic plan for social reform. Whitlam appealed to migrants, as he had the characteristics of a European politician. He was charismatic, intensely nationalistic, sophisticated and intellectual (a liability for an important proportion of the Australian electorate). Besides, Whitlam was determined to fight for “enlightening” ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity, which were common to a great proportion of non-British migrants, and which gave a new symbolic place in Australia to all those who, even if not attracted by these characteristics, were being oppressed by the structural and official discrimination of Australian society (Clark 1987:â•›277; Ozolins 1993:â•›109–110; Wilton and Bosworth 1984:â•›33 and 181–182). A Racial Discrimination Act, prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of race, color, descent or ethnic origin, was passed by the federal parliament; ethnic radio began in Melbourne and Sydney; Ethnic Communities Councils were organized by migrants, and a School Commission issued a report promoting migrant and multicultural education and shifting away from the education framework of segregation. All this activity was frozen in October 1975 when the Senate, with a Liberal majority, blocked the supply of funds to pay public servants, trying to force an election. After one month without compromise, the Governor-General, representative of the Queen in Australia, using his power to appoint and dismiss ministers, summarily dismissed the Whitlam government (Clark 1987:â•›278–285; Ozolins 1993:â•›110–155; Patience and Head 1979; Wilton and Bosworth 1984:â•›34 and 181–182). The Whitlam government set the stage for a formidable development of migrant awareness in the Australian political rhetoric. Even the most assimilationist and anti-foreign politicians had to pay lip service to migrant issues, and attacks on migrants, which were profitable politically until very few years before, had now become unacceptable. Whitlam’s successor in 1975, the Liberal Malcolm Â�Fraser (first nominated by the Governor-General, then democratically elected)

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still prides himself today as being a key figure in the development of Australia’s multiculturalism. In spite of the fact that he tried to dismantle most of the social initiatives of the Whitlam government, Fraser was, in fact, a strong advocate of multiculturalism and a strong opponent of racist attitudes towards immigrants and Aborigines (Jupp 1995:â•›218). Language questions, an initiative of the WhitlamÂ� government, were included in the 1976 Census to collect data for language planners for the first time. The Australian Ethnic Affairs Council was established in 1977, as well as the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters (Ozolins 1993:â•›150–205). In the family domain of mixed marriages, however, the external changes did not have much of an effect. Let us look at how this Spanish woman, who arrived in the early 1970s and very soon married an Australian, was able to maintain the Spanish language. I haven’t listened to anyone. I had a lot of people against me, in spite of the fact that when my children were born, there was more respect for foreigners. But for instance, my family-in-law, did not understand. Why do you speak to the children in Spanish? You are going to live here. They are not going to understand us. I kept silent, I kept speaking to them in Spanish when my in-laws were not around, to see what would happen. And what happened is that now my children are very grateful because they know another language.

We see that the symbolic climate gave some legitimacy to her maintaining Spanish, which was stronger at the time of the interview, but she could not confront the husband’s family, even when the husband agreed to speak Spanish to their children, and she had to speak Spanish to her children secretly. The pressure to conform to an English-dominated society is also evident in the account of a young woman, born in Australia in the early 1970s of Uruguayan parents from a German background. During primary and secondary school, the class where I was more successful was English. I used to write short stories, and I read many adventure books. I even won a short story prize organized by the Sydney Morning Herald, and my short story was published there. My life was English, English and more English. English at school, English in the TV, English with my friends, English with my brother. The only person I had to use a mix of English and Spanish with was my grandmother. She didn’t learn English. There was a time during my teens where I refused completely to speak Spanish. Almost all my friends were Australian, and I felt ashamed that my family was

. Sentences in Italics were delivered in English.



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not from this country. I hated when they described someone as a wog, because I saw myself as one. But they used to say that I was different, that I was not a wog. Maybe because I could write better in English than they could!

During this period we can see that in spite of the external changes, the assimilationist pressure on migrant children was still in effect. And there is a polarization between a total rejection of Australian values and a total assimilation of them. In those rare cases where proficiency in English was not a barrier, such as the last case discussed, rejection of the migrant background was still the only option acceptable in the peer group.

2.3 1975 through late 1980s Official acceptance of migrants consolidated in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1976, Vietnamese “boat people,” that is, people who sailed in precarious vessels to Australia escaping the fall of Saigon to the communist forces of North Vietnam, arrived in Darwin. This initiated a series of reconsiderations of immigration laws regarding refugees, a Determination of Refugee Status Committee was established, and refugees were built into the migration program, up to 22 percent of the total settler intake (Viviani 1984). Later, in 1981, a special humanitarian program was established for the entry of quasi-refugees, who were defined as people who technically would not qualify for refugee status but were in conditions of great hardship and required special treatment (Castles et al. 1990:â•›70–71). Multicultural Australia, a vague concept, was adopted officially under the recommendation of the Review of Post-Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants, better known as the Galbally Report (Australian Government 1978). The report maintained that the policy should favor social coherence against ethnic conflict, stressed the value of ethnic identity which did not compromise the democratic identity of the society or was not prevalent at the expense of society at large, and tried to establish policies to overcome the disadvantage of those who arrived to Australia without an adequate knowledge of English, mainly through funding of ESL classes for children and adults. In State schools, however, the allocation of resources and the implementation of initiatives depended on the particular situation of each school, in terms of the proportion of non-English speaking background children and of the attitudes of the schools principals, as, at the state level, there was a decentralized . Offensive term to refer to foreigners in the 1970s. As many of such derogatory words to describe minorities, it has now been appropriated by the minority as a self-classifying badge to express ethnic pride.

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decision-making system which gave each school flexibility in the implementation of curriculum and policies (Bullivant 1984:â•›57–71; Clyne 1991:â•›213–216; Ozolins 1993:â•›150–205). Increasingly militant migrant organizations combated the builtin system of discrimination against students from a non-English speaking background in schools. This discrimination was particularly evident in the advanced years of high school, that is, the subjects which had an impact on university admission scores (Clyne 2005:â•›118–136; Martín 2004:â•›86). By the 1980s, in the symbolic domain, there was undoubtedly recognition of migrants as having a place in Australian society. This recognition, in some cases, weakened the perception of being persecuted because one was a speaker of another language, and thus weakened the counterbalancing resistance at home and even the legitimacy of such resistance. This is shown in the case of this Argentinean man, about 35 years old, who arrived in Australia in the late 1970s. He is married to an Australian woman, and their children were born in Australia. My mother especially, and in general my family in Argentina, never stop pestering me about speaking Spanish to the children. I know it is important for them to know another language, and all that… But they don’t know what it is like to live here! If they were here they would think differently, or at least they would understand me. I try, but I always end up answering them in English. As soon as you relax they get you into the trap of speaking English. I know there are others that force their children to use their mother language at home. They pretend not to understand when the children use English. There was a Spaniard I used to work with when I was working as a cleaner who did that. But in his family there was always some tension… I don’t know how to explain it to you… he used to treat children like he was the boss. I cannot impose this kind of tyranny; I cannot treat my children like that. For me, if I were to choose between creating constant conflict and the advantage of their learning another language… Well, I prefer to have peace at home, to communicate with them, you know…

In the schools, however, things were taking another direction. There was a reaction against foreigners: attitudes that were previously implicit came out into the open. A good example of the forms that the anti-foreign reaction was taking is found in this incident, which happened in the late 1970s, which this Argentinean woman reports. She arrived in Australia when she was 12, and is married to a Spanish speaker. At a certain stage I was called once by the school, well, really twice, but the second time the matter was so serious I moved my daughter to another school. This was when she was eight, around year 2 or 3. They told me that she had problems in the English class because we spoke another language at home. So I went to a meeting with the teacher, because the child was being given very bad marks in English.



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I asked the teacher what the problem was, and she simply said that we spoke another language at home. I said, ‘It can’t be that, because in other subjects she is doing fine. Why only in English?’ I asked her to explain it to me. She refused to answer, she just said, ‘There are other children who also speak other languages at home, and you see, all of them have a low level of English.’ How did they reach this conclusion, well I don’t know, but I felt offended and asked to speak with the school principal. When I spoke to him, he gave me an example that I will never forget, because in less than a week from the interview, I had my daughter transferred to another school. When I explained the reason of my visit, he asked me, ‘But you speak other language at home, don’t you?’ ‘We speak Spanish,’ I told him, ‘but since she started school we also use English with her. I would like to know where the problem is exactly; my child is not going to fail the course because you said that to speak another language at home is against her interests’. So he told me that he had five children, and that one of them was spastic. I did not understand what he was implying. So he told me directly, ‘My child has a disability. So it is, in a certain way, the case with your child, she has a disability.’ So I felt really bad. After speaking with my husband and my family, even though it was really a good school, a private one, and we had to pay a lot, we decided that we were going to transfer her to another school.

What we see in the previous example is an instance of a phenomenon that consolidated further in the 1980s and 1990s: migrant children were classified as poor in English no matter what their actual level of proficiency in the language was. Even those who were good enough to pass English teachers’ grading prejudices were still painfully reminded of their status as migrants. The influence of the changes at a symbolic level, in terms of more acceptance of migrants, is reflected in two directions. We see in this period the emergence of more overt attitudes to impose English by the English-speaking majority than before the advent of multicultural Australia, but also some overt resistance. Resistance is still very costly, especially when dealing with peer pressure to conform at school. But this does not stop those coming from societies which were built by migrants, such as Argentina and Uruguay, from asserting that they were not going to tolerate the same kind of discrimination that they suffered previously. But the perception of belonging to a multicultural society can also lead to the relaxation of the pressure to require children to speak Spanish at home as in the case of the Argentinean man presented before, who felt that “tyrannical” measures were no longer necessary, which makes the quest for preserving identity through language less pressing. In the 1980s the politics of multiculturalism was already an official ideology (Ozolins 1993:â•›157). There was a heated debate about the role and place of ethnic schools in Australian society (Kringas and Lewins 1980:â•›3–12), and numerous debates on multiculturalism and the immigration program. Jupp (1997b) estimates

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that these issues have been regularly aired in the popular press roughly about every six months, and Hage (1998:â•›230–247) anthropologically interprets them as “Rituals of White Empowerment.” The two most important of these immigration “debates” were initiated by Professor Blainey (later adviser to the 1996 Howard government) and by John Howard himself. Blainey openly attacked the immigration policy, which he perceived as bringing too many Asian migrants to Australia, which the country could not digest without the creation of social tensions. In his view, such an immigration policy could not succeed, even when Parliament supported it, if millions of Australians did not support it (Blainey 1984:â•›164–170). He also criticized multiculturalism for emphasizing the rights of ethnic minorities at the expense of the majority of Australians, and by imposing tolerance on this majority by a variety of new laws (Blainey 1984:â•›170–171). Blainey was severely criticized in both the popular media and academic circles, but, as a result of the controversies concerning immigration initiated by Blainey, a Committee to Advise on Australia’s Immigration Policy was created by the Hawke Labor government (1983–1991), then in office. The 1988 committee report, the Fitzgerald report, acknowledged that there was a perception of widespread antipathy to non-European migrants, and that 20 percent of the submissions to the committee from individuals called for an end of non-European immigration. The report stressed that Australian identity needed to be reasserted in the face of perceived favored treatment of ethnic groups. John Howard, then leader of the opposition, tried to use the Fitzgerald report as a political tool against the Labor government, criticizing both multiculturalism and Asian immigration, along similar but more circumspect lines than Blainey. He proposed a nebulous policy, “One Australia,” to replace the “discredited” multiculturalism, creating a furor which contributed to his eventual loss of the leadership in 1989 (Castles et al. 1990:â•›169–173; Jupp 1995:â•›220). In spite of these debates, there were substantial policy moves favoring the teaching, broadcasting and maintenance of languages other than English. The most important was the Australian National Policy on Languages drafted by the linguist Joseph Lo Bianco (Lo Bianco 1987). The specific details of the policy, as well as its political significance, have been discussed by Clyne (1991:â•›213), Jupp (1995:â•›220–245), Ozolins (1993:â•›242–249), and Lo Bianco himself (2001, 2003, 2007). For our purposes it is important to highlight that it defined a group of languages in the educational context as “languages of wider teaching,” that is, languages that were targeted to be included in major curriculum and teacher training projects, which would lead schools, which were still decentralized with respect to curriculum implementation, to choose languages that have a systemic support. The languages of wider teaching proposed were Standard Chinese (Mandarin),



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Indonesian, Japanese, French, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Arabic and Spanish. The implementation of the teaching of these languages, however, in spite of the important provision of funds, still depended on state and individual schools initiatives, and on redefinitions and re-interpretations by the different government authorities. It is important to note that, even though when in practice these measures and policies did not change the essentially monolingual nature of the Anglo-Australian population, they introduced the issue of teaching LOTEs in the educational system as one of the concerns of parents and teachers. All the policy changes in the 1980s translated into substantial changes in the school domain, in terms of the kind of advice given to migrant parents. There was no longer direct advice to speak English with children, as such advice was no longer acceptable (and could be, theoretically at least, penalized by anti-discrimination laws). Advice became much more subtle, focusing on another “problem” of the child. This was the advice given to a Peruvian couple who arrived in Australia in the early 1980s when they transferred their daughter to a local school after the child had gone to the bridging English program then in place. When we transferred her to this new school, they detected she was a little slow in English or something like that, and they advised us to arrange for private English classes or to see a professional. Then we arranged for a tutor to come once a week so she would progress. The tutor came once a week for a long period, around a year. But the important thing is that, after the very first class I asked the tutor what my daughter’s problem was. She told me, ‘I can’t see any problem.’ And she was not an ordinary tutor, she was a speech therapist. I think that the problem was that in the school, they have looked at the registry and chose the children with “problems” by their surname. Well, with our elder son it was the same thing. He was ok in all subjects except English. But why? Too much of a coincidence!

The issue had become so common that the only way for parents to get out of having to come to school often or have children visit specialists to correct detected “problems” was to lie to the school bureaucracy and tell them that English was the only language used at home (Martín 1997:â•›195–198). Children who were sufficiently good at English to avoid being reported as having a problem were subjected to other forms of classificatory power by the school. This is shown in the following account by a young man who was born in Australia of Spanish parents and attended high school in the mid 1980s. Here, the institutional “concern” for classifying immigrant children’s English takes another direction. In spite of the fact that we spoke Spanish at home with my parents, in general my academic level has always been reasonably good, a little higher than average. But I had always had problems at school, especially in the English class. I remember

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that at high school they did not allow me to do “English A,” even though I had the marks to do so, because I was a “Non-English-Speaking-Background,” or other reasons like that. During years 9 and 10 I constantly got As in “English B,” and I always felt that they had not given to me the opportunity to do “English A” for stupid reasons.

In the domain of mixed marriages, we also began to see in the 1980s that the consequences of the past often overpowered the new policies, as it is vividly told by this Spanish teacher from the Spanish Educational Program run by the Spanish Embassy. Because of my job, I got to know a lot of mothers of Spanish origin that now have children of school age. Most of them were second generation, the rest came here as children. Poor things, all of them have suffered discrimination in the public schools, both from teachers and the other children. When I asked, ‘Why don’t you speak to them in Spanish, so you can maintain your language?,’ all the suffering from childhood came to their faces as they remained silent. It is like an unhealed wound, they are afraid to speak Spanish to their children. They do not want to speak Spanish because they don’t want to pass on to their children the suffering they experienced. They have married other migrants and speak English at home. They even speak English with their husbands, when the husbands are from Spanish background. Only the grandparents speak Spanish to these children because they do not know English. But the second generation, they do not want to transfer their sufferings to the children.

We can conclude that the 1980s and early 1990s saw the emergence of multiculturalism as an official policy in Australia, but also the emergence of more subtle means of controlling and forcing migrants to conform to the “standards” of Australian society. At school, parents were told to only speak English with children, but in an indirect way. They were referred to specialists, such as speech therapists, or were asked to speak with psychologists or student counselors because the children were now said to have attention disorders, they were not able to concentrate, or were slow readers. This difference in the way in which parents were told to speak English is, on the one hand, motivated by the changes in what was politically correct to verbalize, but on the other hand, was the result of a new way of conceptualizing, classifying and “processing” migrant children in schools – to make “well behaved” Australians of them. This does not mean that there was a conspiracy of school teachers against migrant children. Rather, it implies that the particular educative procedures that were applied to migrant children and which were used to classify them assumed that migrant children used another language at home and then manipulated it always to their disadvantage. The fact that “English” was the subject in which problems were Â�detected



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is not coincidental, as the children’s identity in institutional terms was defined by their speaking or not speaking English at home. In households with mixed marriages, there were increasing numbers of accepting Anglo-Australians who spoke community languages and tried to incarnate the evasive multicultural identity. However, in most cases, the shift to English was expected and any deviation was covertly perceived as suspect.

2.4 The early 1990s The early 1990s saw the advent of neo-liberal economic rationalist approaches to government. Although the rhetorical support for the idea of Australia as a multi-ethnic, multicultural society was maintained, language policy become much more restricted, and stressed those aspects of cultural differences that could lead to economic returns, such as using language resources to promote exports (Lo Bianco 2003:â•›23–25; Ozolins 1993:â•›256). For instance, just four years after its release, the community-centered and egalitarian National Policy on Languages was replaced in 1991 with Australia’s Language and Literacy Policy, where the emphasis shifted to literacy in English, especially literacy oriented for labor market access (Dawkins 1991). The Minister of Employment, Education, and Training took particular issue with the goal that all Australians should learn a language other than English, which he considered unnecessary, and downgraded significantly the ambitions of the policy. The policy also distanced migrant communities from policy decision-making and removed the emphasis on language services. Following a government report that examined the needs of languages for commerce (the so-called Ingram report), commercially relevant Asian languages over migrant languages were prioritized in the implementation of the new policy. There was a strong community reaction against this narrowing down of the language policy, but the minister did little to dispel criticism. When questioned whether the change in the policy name from “languages” to “language” was espousing a monolingual future for Australia, the minister even expressed the view that Australia was in essence a monolingual society (Brock 2001; Moore 2001). This signaled the beginning of a retreat from a commitment to pluralism that was further exacerbated in the 1990s and the early years of the 21st century. The transition of multiculturalism, from a policy to ameliorate migrant disadvantage and further cultural democracy into the “spaghetti and polka” superficial celebration of cultural relativism was complete (Cope, Kalantzis, and Poynting 1997; Â�Kalantzis, Cope, Noble and Poynting 1990:â•›21–22). In the minds of the Australian public, however, the significant increase of the teaching of languages in

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public schools, which included universal compulsory learning of (mainly Asian) languages in primary school, coupled with official statements of integration with Asia, furthered the publics’ concerns about language policy (Jupp 1995; Lo Bianco 2000, 2001, 2003; Martín 2005:â•›62–70). The same kind of institutional classification reported during the 1980s is reported by this Colombian woman. Her child was born in Australia in a household composed of Colombia-born parents who chose to speak mainly English to their children. The child referred to here as Douglas had only a passive knowledge of Spanish, and entered high school the year this account was given (1995). Last week something happened in Douglas’ new high school which made all of us very angry. Douglas had to write a group project for the English class. He worked with an Australian classmate he is becoming friendly with. They got very enthusiastic about the project, spent the whole weekend working on it, and they got a very good grade. But the very day he was given the good news, I was called by the other child’s mother. The English teacher had phoned her to make sure that Douglas had been an active participant in the project. He was presupposing that, because Douglas has a foreign surname, he could not get a good grade in English, and consequently, he could not have done the work. And he of course checked that with the Australian mother, he did not call me to check. He also said in class that the next project would be an individual one, and he would surely find every possible mistake in Douglas’ work. I am trying to make Douglas understand that the world is full of people like this, and that it is better to learn to deal with them early to learn how to defend himself in the future.

The early 1990s also saw a shift of responsibility to provide ESL classes from the Federal Government to the Australian states, many of which did not respond adequately to supplement federal funding for ESL classes or language maintenance programs either (Cahill 1996:â•›91–111). This change of responsibility resulted sometimes in confusing policies. Here is the account of a Salvadorian boy who entered high school in the early 1990s in the Australian Capital Territory. In spite that I spoke English almost natively, when I started high school they put me in an ESL class because I had a foreign surname. But at the same time they put me in an advanced English group in the normal classes because of my marks in English. I was simultaneously attending a class catering for those who could not speak English well and in a class for those who were gifted at the English language. The ESL teacher had no idea why I was in his class, and allowed me to read on my own or do whatever I wanted in the class.



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2.5 Late 1990s to early 2000s The media celebrations of the achievements of multiculturalism and tolerance, very common from the late 1970s until the mid 1990s, turned in the late 1990s into gloomy predictions that there was a “retreat from tolerance” in Australia (Adams 1997). The press stopped condemning people like Blainey and Howard who questioned the feasibility of Australian multiculturalism in the 1980s, and the perception was that there had been a resurgence of racism (Suvendrini and Pugliese 1997). The most prominent cause for this gloomy vision was the advent of the One Nation Party, a populist movement led by Pauline Hanson, a Queensland member of Parliament who wanted to put an end to the policy of multiculturalism, freeze immigration, reduce the proportion of Asians in Australia, end any special treatment for Aboriginal people, implement restrictions on foreign ownership and return to trade protectionism. Hanson also voiced long held assimilationist views on languages, condemned immigrants who came to Australia without knowing English, migrant enclaves and signage in “foreign languages” (Clyne 2005:â•›165–169; Jackman 1998; Jupp 1997a, b). After her first speech as a newly elected member to parliament in 1996, there was a significant increase in cases of racial harassment (Chow 1996) and an increase in the voicing of racist attitudes on talk-back radio (Adams and Burton 1997). One of the main themes in Hanson’s populism was the belief that mainstream (that is, Anglo-Australian) Australia had been betrayed by politicians, the media and a new class elite who favor migrants and Aborigines (Hanson 1997:â•›100–106). In its first electoral test in Queensland in June, 1998, Hanson’s One Nation party picked up 23 percent of the vote, winning 11 seats in the state parliament. In the federal election that same year, mainly because of the public perception that her movement was attracting a lot of opportunistic and dubious characters, Hanson lost her Parliament seat, and subsequently her movement imploded as a consequence of factionalism. At the same time that Hanson entered the political arena, a NationalCoalitionÂ� conservative government took office, led by the same John Howard who expressed the need to scale back Asian immigration in 1988. Howard not only refused to censor Hanson, but welcomed a new era of “free speech.” He also asserted that the Australian Government will no longer be dictated to by minority groups or political correctness, the latter meaning the censorship to discuss “difficult” topics, like the supposedly high level of Asian immigration to the country (Ang and Stratton 2001:â•›95–111; Kalantzis and Cope 1997:â•›58–63). Other subtle and not-so subtle messages included the nomination of four publicly identified critics of multiculturalism or mass immigration (including Professor Blainey) to

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Â� significant Â� advisory positions in his government, the stopping of the provision of bilingual Aboriginal education and focusing language policy exclusively on literacy in English. This prompted a tide of discussions on these topics in the popular media, where it was interpreted that the orthodoxy had changed, and that it was now possible to attack multiculturalism, migrants and foreign language learning. It is in this context of “free speech” that multiculturalism was sidestepped and the Australian conservatives carried out a campaign to rewrite Australian history to get Anglo-Australians morally off the back foot and re-vindicate Australia’s assimilationist policies. In the late 1990s we begin to see again open displays of intolerance similar to those prevalent in the assimilationist years. The following account is of a young woman who was born in Australia of Ecuadorian parents. She turned 15 in 1997. My school memories are bad because children made fun of me because I have black hair and dark skin. They would call me “coal” or tell me to “wash my dirty skin.” The worst memory I have is when I was to turn 15. I confessed to a friend at school that I felt bad because I did not have a boyfriend, and my 15th birthday party was coming. She told me, ‘You are very pretty, but if you were white boys would ask you out.’ After she told me that I ran home to cry.

Due to government cuts in school funding, not all schools were able to provide English bridging classes for migrants. This is the account of a young Venezuelan woman who arrived in Australia when she was 10 in the mid 1990s. I can picture myself walking to school in my first week in Australia, with my mother, my brother and my aunt. The school looked so small and quiet. I remember that we were told we were going to lose a year because we didn’t know any English. I was furious. I had to do grade 4 again! I wondered what the teacher was saying to the other children about me. That day I made no friends. Those who were interested in me only wanted to know what the bad words in Spanish were. Or they sat besides me and laughed. This day I had lunch with my brother and there were a lot of lunches we shared, the two of us alone. The entire year I felt vulnerable and rejected like an ugly duckling. We learned English to defend ourselves, but there were no special classes as in other schools. A few years later they began to accept us because we excelled at sports, something which is admired in Australia.

We can see that the coupling of the cuts to English ESL classes and a relaxation of the teacher’s control of children’s behavior resulted in this account, which is very . The 2001 terrorist attacks in New York only furthered this reaction against migrants. John Howard was able to win two more elections in 2001 and 2004.



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similar to those of the assimilationist years as well (Cahill 1996:â•›89–90). Despite this, the effects of the multicultural policies were still present, and it was possible for those children to negotiate a migrant identity after they had learned English by fitting in through activities such as sports. A measure that damaged migrant adolescents’ chances to get into university was a tightening of the rules of language studies in the final years of high school, where results count towards the university entrance score. Those who declared that they had a parent who spoke the language they wanted to study were forced to take it at an advanced level. This was, especially in some states like New South Wales, a rebirth of the practice of systematically discriminating against background speakers of LOTEs, which, as we have seen before, was normal practice in the 1960s and 1970s. I tried to explain that my mother is Australian and we spoke English at home, but they insisted that I had to do the advanced Spanish level in year 11 or 12 because my father was Mexican. This is why I had to postpone studying Spanish until university.

The increase of racist attitudes, however, was not necessarily openly supported in schools. A typical example of the official tolerance of migrants which is maintained in spite of the shift in social attitudes is found in the account of this Peruvian girl, who arrived as a child in Australia in the early 1990s. It was during the Pauline Hanson period here in Brisbane when I first realized how much of a “foreigner” people would perceive me. It was my second year in high school. I don’t remember exactly what we were discussing with a group of people in one of the breaks, but when I expressed an opinion that was interpreted as critical of this country, a classmate told me that if I didn’t like it, I should go back to where I came from. I tried to explain that I came here as a young child, that there was really no other place I knew, but this was dismissed and only generated more hate. I reported this to the teacher, and we had a class discussion about the issue. Luckily, most of the class agreed that we should try to live together in Australia. But those classmates who verbally abused me never forgot the issue, and even today, when I run across them at uni, they pretend they don’t know me.

The perceived threatening climate, had, as in assimilationist times, given some adolescents the strength and the desire to maintain their culture as a form of opposition. This is the account of a young Salvadorian woman who decided to . A study of teacher attitudes toward multiculturalism (McInerney 2003) found that 25 percent of teachers in the New South Wales state system believed that the maintenance of community languages was not good for Australia, and 57 percent of them believed that the existence of ethnic grouping within school hindered integration.

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� maintain her Spanish as a reaction to what she perceived in her linguistic environment, where many migrants switched to English. The account resembles very closely what Gibbons and Ramirez (2004a:╛112) called the resistance to the hegemony of English in their study of Hispanic adolescents in Sydney. The first years in this country were very difficult, in the sense of the adaptation. I was lucky to keep the Salvadorian friends with whom we lived in the migrant hostel when we arrived. We always tried to talk in Spanish. I also made the commitment that I would not forget my Spanish, as others did when they arrived. I always thought about a certificate for spelling and writing I won when I was a child in El Salvador. It was like a challenge that I gave myself, not to forget the language because I had won that prize.

In the domain of mixed marriages attitudes of the partners still played a key role. We were invited to a barbecue where I met a lot of people. When we sat to eat, in front of us there were two couples. The first was composed of a Chilean woman and her Australian husband, and the second of an Argentinean woman and her Australian husband. They were speaking English and we joined in. A little later, the men were called to help the host with something. I was still eating, so I stayed. When the husbands left, we switched to Spanish. This prompted us to talk about the children’s learning of Spanish. The children of the Chilean woman spoke Spanish to both of them. Her husband had learnt Spanish because they met in Chile, and when they had their first child, living in Australia, they decided that Spanish was going to be the language at home. The children grew up mostly in a Spanish-speaking environment. The only time when they spoke English was when the husband’s parents visited them. The Chilean woman said that she was worried because her husband’s Spanish had reached a plateau, he was not improving. The Argentinean woman said that she was lucky. Her husband never came around to learn any significant Spanish. He said he would, but he was busy at work. The woman tried to speak Spanish to her children, but she usually translated what she had just said, in case they missed it, and to avoid excluding her husband. And when they visited Argentina, she had to translate for her husband. The children made some effort to speak it while in Argentina, but as soon as they were back in Australia, they began answering in English again. I asked the Chilean woman if her children had had any problems at school. She said that when they had to go to school, they were helped in the school with bridging classes, as most migrant children were. She was very happy with the school their children were attending, as they respected their decision to speak Spanish at home. It helped a lot that she was very involved in the school and assisted the teacher with the Spanish classes which were offered there. The classes were not that good, but it helped the self-esteem of her children to be the best in Spanish in their classes.



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In the case of the Argentinean woman, she took her children to a bilingual childcare, but the lack of basic spoken Spanish of her children prevented to take full advantage of it. At school, she didn’t have to ask for bridging classes or anything. They were studying Spanish at their school, but it was only for half an hour a week, and the teacher was not very good. Unfortunately, someone else joined us and we changed the topic.

In this case we can see that, in spite of the institutional support at the two schools for the use of LOTEs and the extension of bridging classes to children born in Australia (an inheritance of the multicultural years), the crucial factor in determining if children would maintain Spanish was the actual support of the nonHispanic partner with acts and not intentions. The results of the two husbands’ attitudes toward language were clear to see. We can summarize the late 1990s and the first years of the 21st century by noting that the return to a more conservative official perception of migrants produced attitudes which were similar to those found previously in the assimilationist years. Migrants reacted by defending their languages, as well. This is especially clear in the case of the Salvadorian girl who made a commitment to herself that she would not forget her Spanish, but also in the case of the Peruvian girl who reported the verbal abuse to the teacher, prompting a class discussion which forced the school (or at least her class) to explicitly distance their official policies from the migrant bashing prevalent in the media. As the English-speaking majority was reassured of their supremacy by the Howard government, it relaxed the indirect measures to assert the supremacy of English and the perceived need to assimilate migrant children in schools. Although reports that children had problems in English became less frequent among our informants in this period, systematic discrimination against migrant children in language subjects that lead to university entrance began to be a problem again. The survival of community and institutional practices which began in the multicultural years also allowed the overt maintenance of Spanish in some cases. But as in the assimilationist years, the real test, in the case of mixed marriages, is the behavior of the non-Hispanic partner. The “natural experiment” presented in the last account shows that language maintenance requires an active commitment of both parents for it to be successful. In spite of all the advances and the school support, the case of the husband who is too busy to learn Spanish, and consequently, to be involved when the language is spoken to his children, has a very definite effect on the plausibility of language maintenance for those children. This is, in some way a full cycle return to the first case we analyzed in this chapter, that is, the case of the Australian partner of a Spanish speaker who decided to speak English to his children to

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avoid disadvantaging them at school. Teachers do not advise parents any longer to only speak English to their children. But the social climate does have an effect on people’s language choices.

3.

Conclusion

This chapter has summarized the evolution of the Australian context in regards to language maintenance, with chronologically parallel narratives provided by Spanish-speaking children, adolescents, and their parents. It has been shown that the official rhetoric towards minorities and the political changes that affected migrants in Australia were reflected in the attitudes of the English-speaking majority toward language maintenance of Spanish. The reflection was not as direct as would be expected. This is especially clear during the 1980s and early 1990s, when we found that, despite the increasing official rhetoric of a celebration of multiculturalism and tolerance for minorities, some institutional settings began implementing covert practices that systematically favored monolingualism as the only acceptable identity for migrant children. This was also the time when migrant children and adolescent’s level of English was used as a proxy for the symbolic battles fought in the society at large. The contradiction between what was proclaimed and what Spanish-speaking children and adolescents experienced in school and other settings can be meaningfully linked to the conflict and contest that any official recognition of linguistic and social rights for minorities entails. The stronger the official acceptance of migrants, the harder it was to gain legitimacy for the use of “proper” English, and for language maintenance. The reduction of the official acceptance of migrants from the mid 1990s reduced the need to use English as a proxy for such battles, at least as reflected in the accounts of the Spanish-speaking youth entering university in those years. Strategies for maintaining Spanish became similar to those encountered in the assimilationist years. In 2008, a new Labor government won an election in Australia, ending the long conservative years that covertly asserted the supremacy of Anglo-AustraliansÂ�, the largest ethnic group in Australian society. The new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, is a former diplomat, and very uncharacteristically for an Australian politician, is fluent in Mandarin. The first act of this government was to apologize to Australian Aborigines for the wrongs committed by previous Australian governments, especially for the practice of removing children from aboriginal communities, common until the 1950s. The Howard government had systematically refused to apologize for this during its eleven years in office. The world financial crisis has forced the Rudd government to focus all its energy on the economic front.



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A reopening of the discussion on Australia’s multicultural reality would have been the next logical step following these changes in federal policy regarding Aborigines but such a step has not yet been taken. Let us hope that, if such a discussion on multiculturalism happens, it would not trigger the same reactions found in the 1980s, and that this time Australians would be bold enough to conceive and realize a multicultural and multilingual identity.

References Adams, P. (ed). 1997. The Retreat from Tolerance. A Snapshot of Australian Society. Maryborough, Victoria: ABC Books. Adams, P. & Burton, L. 1997. Talkback: Emperors of Air. St. Leonards NSW: Allen and Unwin. Ang, I. & Stratton, J. 2001. Multiculturalism in crisis: The new politics of race and multicultural identity in Australia. In On not Speaking Chinese, I. Ang (ed.), 95–111. London: Routledge. Australian Government. 1978. Review of Post-Arrival Programs and Services to Migrants. Migrant Services and Programs. (‘Galbally Report’). Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Blainey, G. 1984. All for Australia. North Ryde: Methuen Haynes. Bonyhady, A. 1965. The matriculation level German examination in Australia. Babel 1(3): 24–31. Brock, P. 2001. Australia’s language. In Australian Policy Activism in Language and Literacy, J.€Lo Bianco & R. Wickert (eds), 47–74. Melbourne: Language Australia. Bullivant, B. M. 1984. Pluralism: Cultural Maintenance and Evolution. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Cahill, D. 1996. Immigration and schooling in the 1990s. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Castles, S., Kalantzis, M., Cope, B. & Morrisey, M. 1990. Mistaken Identity: Multiculturalism and the Demise of Nationalism in Australia, 2nd edn. Sydney: Pluto Press. Chow, L. 1996. White noise (racial discrimination in Australia). Far Eastern Economic Review 159(48): 27–29. Clark, M. 1987. A Short History of Australia, rev. edn. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin. Clyne, M. G. 1991. Community Languages: The Australian Experience. Cambridge: CUP. Clyne, M. G. 2005. Australia’s Language Potential. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press. Cope, B., Kalantzis, M. & Poynting, S. 1997. Building unity out of diversity in Australian schools: making ‘one nation’ the sum of its parts. Education Australia Online. . Dawkins, J. 1991. Australia’s Language: The Australian Language and Literacy Policy. Canberra: Department of Employment, Education and Training. Doczy, A. G. 1969. Some aspects of the education of immigrant children. Australian Journal of Social Issues 4: 59–71. Gibbons, J. & Ramirez, E. 2004a. Different beliefs: Beliefs and the maintenance of a minority language. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 23(1): 99–117.

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Gibbons, J. & Ramirez, E. 2004b. Maintaining a Minority Language. A Case Study of Spanish Teenagers. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Hage, G. 1998. White Nation: Fantasies of White Supremacy in a Multicultural Society. Annandale NSW: Pluto Press. Hanson, P. 1997. The Truth. Ipswich: Pauline Hanson. Jackman, S. 1998. Pauline Hanson, the mainstream, and political elites: The place of race in Australian political ideology. Australian Journal of Political Science 33(2): 167–77. Jupp, J. 1995. From ‘white Australia’ to ‘part of Asia’: Recent shifts in Australian immigration policy towards the region. International Migration Review 29(1): 207–229. Jupp, J. 1997a. An anxious society fears the worst (editorial). Journal of Australian Studies 54– 55: 1–12. Jupp, J. 1997b. Tacking into the wind: Immigration and multicultural policy in the 1990s. Journal of Australian Studies 53: 29–40. Kalantzis, M. & Cope, B. 1997. An opportunity to change the culture. In The Retreat from Tolerance: A Snapshot of Australian Society, P. Adams (ed.), 57–85. Maryborough, Victoria: ABC Books. Kalantzis, M., Cope, B., Noble, G. & Poynting, S. 1990. Cultures of Schooling: Pedagogies for Cultural Difference and Social Access. London: Falmer Press. Kamada, L. 1997. Bilingual Family Case Studies, Vol. 2 [Monographs on Bilingualism 5]. Tokyo: Japan Association for Language Teaching. ED422750. Kringas, P. & Lewins, F. W. 1980. Why Ethnic Schools?: Selected Case Studies. Canberra: Australian National University Press. Lo Bianco, J. & Australian Department of Education. 1987. National Policy on Language. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. Lo Bianco, J. 2000. Making languages an object of public policy. Agenda 7(1): 47–61. Lo Bianco, J. 2001. From policy to anti-policy: How fear of language rights took policy making out of community hands. In Australian Policy Activism in Language and Literacy, J. Lo Bianco & R. Wickert (eds), 13–44. Melbourne: Language Australia. Lo Bianco, J. 2003. A Site for Debate, Negotiation and Contest of National Identity: Language Policy in Australia. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. Lo Bianco, J. 2007. Contrasting and comparing minority language policy: Europe and Australia. In Maintaning Minority Languages in Transnational Contexts, A. Pauwels, J. Winter & J.€Lo Bianco (eds), 78–104. Basingtoke, Hampshire: Palgrave MacMillan. Martin, J. 1978. The Migrant Presence. Australian Responses 1947–1977. Research Report for the National Population Inquiry. Sydney: George Allen and Unwin. Martín, M. D. 1997. Spanish Language Maintenance and Shift in Australia. PhD dissertation, The Australian National University. Martín, M. D. 2002. El español en Australia. In Anuario del Instituto Cervantes 2002. El Español en el Mundo, J. Galli & P. Lorenzo (eds), 191–255. Madrid: Instituto Cervantes, Plaza and Janes and Círculo de Lectores. Martín, M. D. 2004. Who is to blame? The position of foreign languages in Australian society. In Proceedings of the Marking Our Difference Conference, G. Wigglesworth (ed), 75–91. Melbourne: The University of Melbourne. Martín, M. D. 2005. Permanent crisis, tenuous persistence: Foreign languages in Australian universities. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education 53(1): 53–75. Martín, M. D. 2008. Advice to speak English in Australia. Ethnicities 8: 68–101.



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McInerney, V. 2003. Multiculturalism in today’s schools: Have teachers’ attitudes changed over two decades? Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Australasian Association for Research in Education. Auckland, New Zealand, November 2003. Moore, H. 2001. Although it wasn’t broken, it certainly was fixed: Interventions in the Australian migrant English program 1991–1996. In Australian Policy Activism in Language and Literacy, J. Lo Bianco & R. Wickert (eds), 93–120. Melbourne: Language Australia. Musgrave, P. W. 1988. Whose Knowledge?: A Case Study of the Victorian Universities Schools Examinations Board, 1964–1979. London: Falmer Press. Okita, T. 2002. Invisible Work: Bilingualism, Language Choice and Childrearing in Intermarried Families. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Ozolins, U. 1993. The Politics of Language in Australia. Cambridge: CUP. Patience, A. B. & Head, B. (eds). 1979. From Whitlam to Fraser: Reform and Reaction in Australian Politics. Melbourne: OUP. Piller, I. 2002. Bilingual Couples Talk: The Discursive Construction of Hybridity [Studies in Bilingualism 25].€Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Potowski, K. 2008. ‘I was raised talking like my mom’: The influence of mothers in the development of MexiRicans’ phonological and lexical features. In Linguistic Identity and Bilingualism in Different Hispanic Contexts [Studies in Bilingualism 37], J. Rothman & M. NiñoMurcia (eds), 201–220. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Smolicz, J. J. 1971. Is the Australian school an assimilationst agency? Education News 13(4): 4–8. Suvendrini, P. & Pugliese, J. 1997. ‘Racial suicide’: The re-licensing of racism in Australia. Race and Class 39(2): 1–19. Tse, S. & Ingram, D. 1987. The influence of dialectal variation on phonological acquisition: A case study on the acquisition of Cantonese. Journal of Child Language 14: 281–294. Viviani, N. 1984. The Long Journey. Vietnamese Migration and Settlement in Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. Wilton, J. & Bosworth, R. J. B. 1984. Old Worlds and New Australia: The Post War Migrant Experience. Ringwood, Victoria: Penguin.

chapter 12

Reluctant migrants Socialization patterns among Salvadorian children Cristina Poyatos Matas and Loredana CuatroNochez Griffith University, Australia

Seven major Hispanic communities have contributed to the multicultural shape of Australia, Salvadorians being one of the prominent groups. As in the United States and Canada, immigration to Australia from El Salvador peaked in the mid 1980s during its civil war. This chapter describes the schooling experiences in Australia of 19 newly arrived Salvadorian children to Australia. It explores their initial schooling experiences, language use, and socialization patterns. This group represents an unusual subset of the total immigrant population insofar as these were the children obliged to accompany their migrant parents, who themselves were reluctant migrants, driven to immigrate by war and its consequences. This study is based on the analysis and interpretation of adult retrospective accounts of students who migrated to Australia between 1985 and 2002 as 8 to 17-year-olds. It discusses the factors that impacted on the socialization process of these young migrants in Australian schools. Overall, it was found that English language competence played an important role in the socialization process of these young Spanish-speaking migrants. Many of the participants experienced great difficulty during their initial school integration in Australia due to their lack of English competence. Bilingual (Spanish-English�) teachers and peer students played a major role in easing the transition of these young Spanish speaking migrants into English-speaking schools in Australia. The strategies proposed by the participants to support Spanish-speaking migrants in their integration into Australian society are reported.

1.

Introduction

Two important features of the process of socio-cultural globalization are the contemporary flow of international migration around the world and the formation of transmigrant ethnic communities, most notably in Europe, North America and Australia (Benitez 2006). Globalization involves a river of people shifted from their source, but

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this river is fed by many streams, one of which is refugees driven from their homeland by war, poverty or political oppression. This article deals with a subset of this group of what we call ‘reluctant migrants’: the children of refugees. Transnational communities are migrant populations living in one country while retaining ties to another country, their country of origin (Tsakiri 2005:â•›102). These communities wrestle with issues of dual or, at times, multiple cultural identities, since they are connected to two countries with their associated cultures, each country by no means mono-cultural in itself. It is becoming increasingly important in global societies to understand the ethnolinguistic experiences of adult migrants, as well as those of young children and adolescents. Speaking of the American situation, Park (2007) explains that there is a current “deficit of public attention concerning how ethnic minority adolescents…are growing up in terms of the particular subjectivities, identities, or cultural representations in multi-ethnic and multi-cultural environments” (53). This chapter provides a window into that world, exploring the schooling experiences of nineteen Spanish speaking children from El Salvador who migrated to Australia, an English speaking society, between 1985 and 2005. It explores their language use and socialization patterns using retrospective accounts.

2.

Literature review

2.1

Australian immigration

Successive waves of migration have contributed to the social composition of the six states and two territories making up Australia’s constitutional federation (Brändle 2001; Jupp 2001; Bridges and Poyatos Matas 2006). While early migration to Australia, following the arrival of the first white settlers, was relatively unplanned and unfettered, Australian immigration following Federation was planned on monocultural and indeed racial lines. After the Second World War, however, a labor shortage inspired the relaxation of what was openly dubbed the “White Australia” policy (Teicher et al. 2002:â•›1). The outcome of the post-war migration policy shift was the emergence of the concept of the multicultural society, admittedly more by default than design (Anderson 1993). Australia’s history has held a “visible tension between those urging diversity and those calling for adherence to a dominant, Anglo-Saxon value system” (Liffman 1988:â•›914). According to UN statistics, Australia nevertheless remains “the world’s most generous nation for resettling refugees, with Canada coming at the second” (York 2003; Haebich 2008:â•›93). Most immigrants now enter Australia under one of three



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broad categories: skilled, family reunification or humanitarian. Between 1984 and 1997 the highest proportion of settlers arrived under the family reunion program (Teicher et al. 2002).

2.2 Salvadorian migrants in Australia El Salvador, a republic since 1921, despite being one of the smallest countries in the Americas, is the most densely populated, with a population of over six million. A series of coup de etats during the 50s and 60s, followed by an undeclared war with Honduras meant the country the 1970s in an increasingly unstable state. With large disparities between the rich and poor, the country plunged into civil war, which most commentators agree lasted from 1980 to 1992 (LeoGrande 1998). With the war claiming some 70,000 casualties, a mass exodus resulted. At least half a million Salvadorians fled their country in 1980 alone, displaced directly and indirectly by war (Gorkin et al. 2000; Mejia and Silva 2000). Many Salvadorians were forced to find refuge beyond their country’s borders, with migration flowing particularly to the United States, Canada, Sweden and Australia. They began to migrate to Australia in the mid-1980s under the Refugee and Special Humanitarian Program (Jupp 2001; Martin 1998), starting in July 1983 after the government of El Salvador asked the Australian government to accept former political prisoners with permission to leave El Salvador under amnesty (Gil 2000:â•›32). The bulk of Salvadorians started to migrate to Australia in 1985 (Jupp 2001). Initially a group of 75 Salvadorians migrated to Sydney, mostly political prisoners who had suffered torture and physical deprivation (Adler 1988:â•›757). In 1985, Australia accepted around 10,000 Salvadorians under the government refugee program, operating under the special humanitarian programs. Many Salvadorians had poor or no English skills upon migration (Jupp 2001:â•›644). Most were of Mestizo origin, ancestors of Spanish and American Indians, speaking colloquial dialects of Spanish (Jupp 2001:â•›642). In general, most of the new immigrants were Catholic; however, some were Protestant. Similarly, there was a division in political groupings, but, more subtly, there were differences in cultural orientation in the population, according to Garcia (1994), that can be explained by age of immigration. According to the Australian Department of Immigration and Citizenship (2008), almost 13,000 Salvadorians live in Australia today. This is one of the largest Spanish speaking communities in Australia, with almost 87% of them now residing in Brisbane, the capital city of the state of Queensland.

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2.3 Migrants, ethnic identity and language use Social identity theory (Tajfel 1974, 1978; Tajfel and Turner 1986) has been a useful tool to demonstrate that the groups to which people belong are significant to the identity of that group’s members. As McDermott (2004) explains, once a person identifies as part of a group, that person derives self-esteem from membership of that group. Benitez (2006) proposes that notions of national culture, ethnic solidarity and the creation of new hybrid personal and collective identities can emerge from defining communities in historical contexts of displacement. Cultural identity is constructed and modified as individuals become aware of their ethnicity within the large socio-cultural setting (Phinney 2003). In this way, in diverse social contexts, the term ethnic or cultural identity has been used to represent "the psychological attachment to an ethnic group or heritage" (Cheung 1993:â•›1216). Phinney (2003:â•›63) explains that “ethnic identity is a dynamic, multidimensional construct that refers to one’s identity or sense of self as a member of an ethnic group”. Ethnic identity has been identified as a means to create boundaries that enables a group to distance themselves from one another (Barth 1969), bringing with them, as Tsakiri (2005:â•›102) puts it, their own identity. In the same sense, of course, it also provides the means of inclusion offering the notion of the “us” as much as setting the boundaries of what constitutes the “them”. Saharso (1989) extends the definition of “ethnic identity” to include social processes that determine, to some degree, one’s choice of friends, selection of a future partner, perception of life-options, and reactions of others in one’s social environment. Ethnic identity is usually contextual and situational because it derives from social negotiations where one declares an ethnic identity and then demonstrates acceptable and acknowledged ethnic group markers to others (Trimble and Â�Dickerson 2006:â•›2). In diverse social contexts, one of the most important markers of cultural or ethnic identity is the use of language. Giles and Johnson (1987) identified language as salient marker of cultural identity in their ethnolinguistic identity theory. Their theory explains that ethnic in-group distinctiveness is gained from out-groups by using language as a very clear means of social comparison with other groups. They argued that as an individual can be member of different ethnic groups at the same time, it is only through the use of language that a particular group membership becomes salient at any given time. In this way the choice of language facilitates the process of socialization with a particular cultural group, and as a result language use and cultural identity influence each other (Giles et al. 1977; Noels et al. 1996; Park 2007). People with mixed ethnic backgrounds present interesting cultural identification cases as they may have at least two cultures and languages from which to claim



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and negotiate an ethnic declaration, as well as two sites where they can legitimately stake an identity claim. As a result, ethnolinguistic identity has emerged as a field of study concerned with trying to understand the relationships between cultural identification and language use (Giles et al. 1977; Park 2007). The children that use a heritage language are described in the ethnolinguistic literature as Linguistic Minority Children (LMC).) The term heritage language has been used broadly recently in the literature to “refer to nonsocietal and nonmajority languages spoken by groups often known as linguistic minorities” (Valdés 2005:â•›411). Two categories of heritage language speakers have been identified by Valdés (2005), the “elite or elective” ones and the “circumstantial” ones. The “elite or elective bilinguals/multilinguals” have learnt a second language in classroom settings and have few opportunities to use the language for genuine communication. In contrast, “the circumstantial bilinguals/multilinguals” may acquire two or more languages to meet their everyday communicative needs (Valdés and Figueroa 1994; Valdés 2005). This second type of bilingualism/multilingualism is generally characteristic of populations that occupy subaltern positions and where there is a clear language hierarchy (Valdés 2005). When the first language of a child is the heritage language, then the adoption of the dominant language often entails what has been termed as “subtractive bilingualism”. This means that the child loses his or her native or heritage language at the same time s/he acquires proficiency in the dominant language of the country (Fillmore 1991; Tseng and Fuligni 2000:â•›474). As in the US, English is clearly the dominant language of Australia. As a result, migrants whose first language is not English are expected to learn English as a condition of assimilation in to Australia’s cultural majority. Therefore, young migrants in Australia, as in America, are susceptible to subtractive bilingualism (Park 2007). However, the difference between the US experience and Australia is that in the latter, the Spanish language in Australia is not perceived as a threat to the dominant language, English. As a result, the Australian government places less pressure for the loss of Spanish at the societal level, because Spanish-speaking communities have less ethnolinguistic vitality (Giles et al. 1977) than in the US. Consequently, Spanish is less stigmatized than it is in the US. Nonetheless, a key disadvantage of the low numbers of Hispanics in Australia who speak Spanish is that it makes it more difficult to form a meaningful and an economically advantageous infrastructure that could promote the Spanish use and maintenance at all levels, as is the case in the US. Its language vitality is low. The motives driving small heritage communities to maintain their native languages are varied. These include reasons such as familiarity, loyalty to their cultural backgrounds, preservation of culture and tradition, homesickness and lack of proficiency with the language of their new country (Finacchiaro 1995). The degree to which the social group of the migrant accepts the heritage language

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is pivotal for its maintenance, as is the belief amongst the group that the heritage language is a positive entity that should be nourished (Rajah-Carrim 2005; ThiebergerÂ� 1990). Language maintenance may be also related to the concerns that the migrant generation may have about the survival of their language in the younger generation (Tseng and Fuligni 2000). Amongst other things, the loss of the heritage language could be detrimental to the younger generations’ ability to communicate with relatives. Another factor that could influence heritage language use is the degree to which the immigrant has migrated in a group (Clyne and Knipp 1991; Finacchiaro 1995). Overall, immigrants from Latin America have been found to tend to maintain Spanish to a far greater extent than Spaniards living in Australia (Clyne and Knipp 1991:â•›7), perhaps because Latin Americans are more recent migrants than Spaniards and perhaps because the motive of Latin American immigration was different from that driving immigration from Europe, more due to political refugee than financial reasons.

2.4 Young migrants and schooling The influx of migrant children into the established school system of their new homeland is one of the realities of modern transnationalism. This is the inevitable result of whole families migrating to other countries due to socio-economic, political and environmental changes, and as a result financial struggle, in their own home countries. The 2006 Australian census shows that more than 15% percent of Australians used a “Language Other Than English” (LOTE) at home. However, no support or encouragement is given at school level to help those migrant children who speak a LOTE at home to maintain it or improve it. In fact, in Australia, as in the US, many children have reported losing their heritage language in the course of acquiring English, the dominant tongue, perhaps as a consequence of acculturation during schooling (Cummins 1981). Education in Australia is compulsory for all children, including migrants, up to an age specified by legislation. In general, the educational system follows a three-tier model that includes primary education (primary school, public school), followed by secondary (secondary college, high school), and then tertiary education (technical colleges, university). The age for completing secondary education varies from fifteen to eighteen depending on state differences, and the point at which students can choose to exit secondary education. Education is primarily regulated by the individual state governments, not the federal government. Overall, in the ten years of conservative government in Australia, 1997 to 2007, there were major changes in multicultural policies at state and federal level



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bearing a direct impact on the curriculum of Australian schools (Bridges and Poyatos Matas 2006; Poyatos Matas and Bridges 2005). A core component of the Australian curriculum now is “promoting concern for equity, excellence and the promotion of a caring, civil and just society” (Haebich 2008:â•›393). However in order to produce a more inclusive curriculum for all, it is important to understand the educational experiences of young migrants in their new host country. Schools as social settings can influence the ethnic and cultural development and identification of young people (Holcomb-McCoy 2005; Nieto 2000). They could also play an important role in the second language (L2) development of migrant children, as well as in the maintenance of their first language (L1). PhinneyÂ� (1989) argues that it is important for educators to understand the process through which early adolescents come to see themselves as belonging to particular ethnic groups as this could have an important influence on their academic achievement). The transition of children from home to school or from one educational environment to another is very important (Broström 2000; Margetts 2006; Peters 2000). For transnational students, the experience is more complex. Factors like child readiness, parental support, family and school community support and high quality learning environments influence the successful transitions of children into an educational system. Communication between school and home also appears to influence their successful transition (Peters 2000), as well as the language spoken at home. Margetts (2002) argues that additional or targeted opportunities should be provided for children from low socio-economic backgrounds who speak only languages other than English at home because they are at risk of adjustment difficulties. Moreover, adjustment to new challenges is a critical outcome of successful transition (Margett 2002), even though previous experiences with dealing with transitions to some extent dictate future ability to cope with change (Ladd and Price 1987; Rice and O’Brien 1990).

3.

Aims of the study and research methodology

The study reported here was conducted to extend our knowledge and understanding of the ethnolinguistic experiences of migrating Spanish speaking children in Australia from the point of view of the “insider” (Blaikie 2000). Case studies as a research methodology have been found ideal for holistic in-depth empirical investigations into contemporary phenomenon within its real life context (Feagin et al. 1991; Tellis 1997; Yin 1994). It is important to note that the intention of a case study, however, is not to generalize to other contexts per se but to gain a better understanding of the complexity of the phenomenon studied (Punch 2005).

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The study used a semi-structured interview format to collect the retrospective accounts of a group of nineteen Salvadorians who migrated as children to Australia between 1985 and 2002. Following piloting, some questions were modified to increase the validity of the instrument. The first part of the interview included eleven questions to gather general information about the participants. The second part of the interview included eight questions exploring the schooling experiences of the participants in El Salvador before turning to their schooling experiences subsequent to immigration. Finally the interview explored issues of language use and cultural identity. Nineteen Salvadorian migrants participated in the study, eleven females and eight males. Their age at the time of the interviews ranged from eighteen to thirtysix years old, however they described Australian schooling experiences that commenced between the ages of eight and almost eighteen. The reliability of the use of data coming from retrospective migration histories has been questioned over the years by survey researchers and psychologists. The literature indicates that recall of temporally distant events “tends to yield a less reliable response than a query about a similar event which took place last week or last year” (Smith and Thomas 2003:â•›24). However, the importance of studies based on long-term recall data cannot be underestimated. A scientific study conducted with Malaysian participants asked the same questions two times, twelve years apart, and demonstrated that during retrospective interviewing, participants remember salient elements linked to important life events quite consistently (Smith and Thomas 2003). Following ethical clearance protocols, participants were inducted through a consent process, and then interviewed face-to-face, with the interviews recorded, transcribed and analyzed (Rogers and Bouey 1996). Due to the importance of maintaining confidentiality, each participant was given a code name for the interview transcription and a different name followed by an asterix (*) during analysis, for example Ana*. The participants were invited to have their interview conducted in Spanish or in English. All of them chose to use Spanish, itself an indicator of their positive identification with the language, as well as their willingness to maintain their use in Australia. This uniform preference for Spanish did simplify the data analysis. Once the entire interview data was transcribed and corroborated with the participants, a coding system was developed to document extracts of data from the interviews. Numbers were allocated to all questions and sorted by themes. The data was reduced initially through editing, segmenting and summarizing. Then, a second stage of data reduction took place through coding and finding clusters and patterns (Miles and Huberman 1994). At the time of migration, ten of the participants were aged from eight to twelve and nine were thirteen to seventeen



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years old; data was analyzed in these two groupings for simplicity. In order to understand the schooling and migration experiences of the participants, the study explored the thematic similarities and differences in the participants’ accounts that emerged from the interviews (Freebody 2003; Silva 2005). It is worth noting that both researchers are migrants from a Hispanic background, which may have influenced responses in a systematic manner. While doubtless the ability of the interviewers to speak the native language of the subjects built rapport, it may have affected the validity of questions such as those relating to their identity. However, responses were internally validated against responses to other questions reported here, as well as questions that were not included in this study. It is worth noting that despite using Spanish in the interview context, and responding to questions from a Hispanic interviewer, some subjects nevertheless identified themselves as Australian.

4.

Discussion of findings

Little is known about the involvement of young migrants, including children and teenagers, in the decision to migrate to another country. The first section of the interview explored issues linked to the time of migration, its circumstances and reasons. The data analysis showed, not surprisingly, considering the age of the migrants in this study, the main reason why they migrated to Australia was because their parents made the decision to migrate to Australia, an English-speaking country. All of the interviewees were minors at the time, and thus, not surprisingly, only one of them claimed to have been consulted over their parents’ decision to leave El Salvador for Australia, despite the enormity of the decision. Therefore, this group of minors could fairly be described as “reluctant immigrants”, twice removed from the decision that was forced on their parents as well. The Salvadorian civil war, as well as crime and poverty associated with the war, were the main reasons why the subjects’ parents decided to migrate to Australia, according to the participants’ recall. Pedro*, for example, put it this way: Well, firstly the decision was my father’s… he decided to come to Australia because my mother had been kidnapped twice and threatened with death… Then my father felt that my family was in mortal danger, and it was not safe in El Salvador… and well…we decided…umm… he decided to apply… to submit an application to (Participant G2 M2 lines 7–12) be able to migrate here, to Australia. 

The first part of the interview also probed the English language knowledge and skills of the young migrants when they arrived in Australia, inquiring for �example,

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not just whether they could speak English, but whether they could read a newspaper or understand the TV news. The study found that out of the ten Spanish speaking children who started in an Australian primary school, only one of them reported to have a basic command of spoken English. However, this was not very helpful in an Australian school, as Felipe*, eight at the time, reported: I spoke a little English because my mum sent us to private classes in El Salvador with a lady, however I couldn’t remember what I learnt... that is, I forgot it when I came to Australia. I forgot it and I could not remember anything when I came here... but, anyway, the accent that she taught us was American... and the Austra(Participant G2 F1, lines 63–67) lian accent was different! 

In contrast to the lack of English teaching in the primary school curriculum of El Salvador, English language learning was part of the secondary school. Only three participants between thirteen and eighteen reported not speaking any English upon arrival in Australia. Six participants mentioned having basic knowledge of English. However, this knowledge was so limited, it did not allow these young migrants to effectively communicate with the English speaking students and teachers in their schools. Just two participants, Pedro* and Silvia*, said they had a good knowledge of spoken and written English, enough to be able to understand parts some news and to write a letter in English. But they later found that their perceived knowledge of English was not enough to be able to communicate effectively with the Australian peers. The second stage of the interview explored the schooling experiences of the participants in El Salvador and in Australia, both academic and interpersonal. All the participants experienced feelings of fear, anxiety and social isolation in their transitions to their Australian schools due to their inability to communicate in English. Some of them reported that their initial fear and anxiety was so great that they had to be forced by their parents to go to school. For example, Marisa*, who was twelve when she migrated in 1998, notes: My first day at school was terrible; I remember that my parents made me go. Well, I remember that they made me go to the front of the class to introduce me to the whole class. Then, they asked me my name and I could only say “yes, yes, yes”, and then I saw all of them laughing at me and after that, I said no more.  (Participant G3 F2 lines 101–106)

The first day in the English speaking school was also a traumatic experience for Monica*, who was thirteen at the time. Showing obvious distress in the interview many years later, her feelings of hopelessness, isolation and fear were intense:



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My first day at school was terrible. I was nervous and sad because I did not know anyone. I remember that I was in fear but at the same time I was happy because I was bored of being all of the time at home, but yes…. It was a time that I will never forget, I remember that I was in class, when, suddenly, I do not know what was wrong with me but I started to cry. I remember that my teacher was frightened. He did not know what was happening to me, and some boys were also trying to find out from me what was wrong with me…and I could only cry and cry… until they sent me to the office. They called my brother and then my parents. They arrived to collect me from school and they wanted to know from me what happened.   (Participant G4 F2 lines 127–140)

Naturally enough, interviewees tried to overcome their linguistic limitations and social fears as quickly as possible. Nonetheless, even though many of these young Spanish speaking migrants were highly motivated to be part of their Australian schools and speak English with their classmates and teachers, the onset of language proficiency was far from rapid, with many failing to obtain serviceable competency in the first year. Many reported struggling to communicate with other school children in English, being ignored by others, and feeling shame as their lack of English made them come across like stupid to others. In some cases, students felt, and were made to feel, humiliated. This lead to a sense of cultural and social disconnection from their host country, exacerbated by the response of their fellow students, as Maria* recalls I remember that at the beginning, I didn’t understand anything and when the teachers asked me a question, I didn’t know what to say and the other students (Participant G1 F5 lines 70–72) laughed at me… 

Some questions in this second section of the interview explored the possible relationships that could exist between the use of language of the participants and their socialization processes. In this way, they were asked questions such as: In what language did you speak at school and with whom? Did you speak Spanish at school and with whom? In what language did you speak at home? Why? Their answers reveal that their sense of isolation due to lack of English influenced their social choices. Even participants in the secondary school who had what they perceived as being a good knowledge of English experienced fear and anxiety. In this way, many of the participants explained how this use of language affected their ingroup categorization, identification and comparison processes. As a result, they tried to overcome their fear and feelings of inadequacy when using English to communicate with other children, by choosing to socialize predominantly with Spanish speaking children while at school. Ana*, nine years at the time, for example, was typical:

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…In high school I didn’t like it because it was only my sister, one other girl and me who spoke Spanish and the rest were Australian or Greek students.  (Participant G2 F1 lines 92–94)

The feelings of inadequacy that the young Spanish speaking migrants experienced in their first year at school were very common, and these were fed by their school experiences due to their lack of poor proficiency in English. In this way, Veronica* who was sixteen years, recalls being intimidated by her fellow students: Well, I didn’t understand anything in English when the teachers and other students spoke to me, and it was like I was living on the moon and… I wanted to answer them but nothing comprehensible would come out of my mouth even though I really tried. I also remember that I had a bad experience where a girl told me that if I was in Australia I had to speak English…  (Participant G4 F1 lines 111–114)

The lack of English created a real social barrier not just between the migrant children and other English speaking children, or even within the classroom, but also reduced their ability to access adult support for problems in the playground. In the interviews, the participants commented on the sources of support that they had helping them integrate in their Australian schools. Thirteen participants stated that teachers helped them integrate in the school and to overcome their initial language barrier. Six of the participants, three in primary and three in secondary school, mentioned that these teachers were specialist English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teachers. In addition, seven participants mentioned support from their main subject teachers, with that support coming through introductions to other migrant students from an earlier migrant cohort, or simply measures such as talking slowly in English to them, as Victor* who was eight at the time explained: I also remember that it was difficult because I didn’t understand what the teacher was saying, but she spoke slowly to help me to understand, and the others kids helped me to understand what she was saying.  (Participant G2 M3 lines 105–108)

Pedro*, who was sixteen at the time and with a better level of English than many, also reported that some teachers went out of their way to help him by staying after hours. This had a very positive impact in his cultural identity construction that now identifies himself as Australian: They knew that we didn’t understand, that we did not have good English, and they tried to explain things to us and to others. Sometimes we used to stay after classes for the teachers to help us to improve. Well, the truth is that I had a good school experience because I never had a experience in which I felt that they were rejecting me, I did not feel excluded by them, as a result I always wanted to be like



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them, most of all we used to play football together and other sports…. And well, what I most wanted was to practice English with them.  (Participant G2 M2 lines 123–131)

Interestingly enough, only two participants, Felipe* and Jose*, mentioned having access to a bilingual (Spanish-English) teacher in their schools, a facility they found very reassuring. The majority of the schools did not have bilingual teachers who could assist the Spanish speaking migrant students in their transition to the Australian schools. However, where a bilingual teacher was on site, this multicultural resource was tapped by the school hierarchy The majority of the participants lacked significant English skills at the onset, thus the support of other Spanish-speaking children who were already in the school was crucial to their survival in their initial school transition. For those who lacked such support, in some cases, the sole support came from family members attending school. As Veronica*, a 16-year-old at the time, notes: Well I had no support… well in the school I only had the support of my cousin who always used to translate for me what the teacher was saying and what the other students were saying, but from the school I received no support.  (Participant G4 F1 lines 133–136)

As these retrospective accounts show, language played a very important role in the initial process of social categorization, identification and comparison (Tajfel and Turner 1986) of these young Spanish speaking migrants. Not surprisingly, many participants mentioned that they did not like their Australian schools. In the schools where there were no other Spanish speakers, school days seemed long and the young migrants yearned to return home and speak Spanish with their families. Spanish language was nourished and maintained in their homes. The English language barrier that these young migrants experienced had a major impact on the development of their social in-group and out-group in the school, as Ana*, who was nine when she migrated in 1990, explained: At the beginning, I remember that they were good people but I didn’t understand anything, nothing… nothing…. Ah, there were a lot of kids from El Salvador and also Chileans… I became friends with them because they helped me a lot by telling me what was going on, that is by translating everything that the other kids (Participant G2 F1 lines 73–75) were saying. 

Naturally, the majority of the participants revealed that it was initially easier for them to express themselves in Spanish. However, they also said that once they learned the host language, they began to communicate in English with the other children in their school and this opened up the possibility of gaining membership into the dominant cultural group.

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At the beginning I spoke in Spanish because I didn’t understand anything (in English) but then I remember that I learnt English quickly and I spoke in English with the other kids and it became much easier for me.  (Participant G2 M3 lines 110–112)

The interview included a section on the use of heritage language maintenance and cultural identity. In the interviews, the participants were directly asked if they considered themselves Australians. From the ten participants who were between the ages of eight and twelve when they migrated to Australia, six did not considered themselves Australians, while four of them considered themselves half Australian and half Salvadorian or Hispanic. Amongst the older group, the nine participants who were between the ages of thirteen and almost eighteen when they migrated to Australia, two of them considered themselves as Australian, four as half Australian and half Salvadorian or Hispanic, and three of them considered themselves Salvadorians. Overall, it was found that the place of birth played a pivotal role in the ethnolinguistic identification choice of most participants. When the participants were asked what it meant for them to be Australians, almost all of them replied that being Australian meant to be born in Australia. As Ema* who was twelve when she migrated in 1987 explained: …The truth is that I do not consider myself Australian because hahah…yes, I do feel Australian in the sense that I have grown up here and I am an Australian citizen as are some other people, but at the end I believe that I am not Australian and I feel more Salvadorian than Australian… you see… For me an Australian is a person who has been born here, who has grown up here, and who has been here (Participant G1 F3 lines 155–161) since he or she was born. 

For the seven participants who described themselves as half Australian and half Salvadorian or Hispanic, the place of birth also played an important role in their ethnolinguistic label choice, as can be seen in the comments made by Toni*, who was ten when he migrated to Australia: Yes, (I consider myself Australian) because I have grown up here and Australia has brought me many opportunities, therefore I feel Australian, however, I also feel Salvadorian because I cannot deny my cultural roots.  (Participant G3 M1 lines 161–165)

In contrast, two participants described themselves as Australians. Both were in the second set of data, consisting of immigrant children who were in their teens when they migrated to Australia. One of them, Pedro*, was sixteen when he migrated with his family to Australia in 1990 because her mother had been



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threaten with death in El Salvador. Pedro* explained that he considered himself Australian because he is an Australian citizen and because he has lived half of his life in Australia: Half of my life has been lived here. This is why I feel Australian for the simple reason that this country has given me culture, studies, and it has also given me freedom, the freedom that I feel to be free.  (Participant G2 M2 lines 174–179)

When considering their cultural identity, the participants identified the use of heritage language as an important marker. All the participants displayed positive attitudes towards the use and maintenance of Spanish language. This was seen as an important element that contributed to the Salvadorian or Hispanic part of their cultural identity, as Victor*, who was eight when he migrated, mentioned: I would like to maintain my (Spanish) language because I am Salvadorian and in some way this gives me my identity.  (Participant G2 M3 lines 182–186).

As part of their reflecting on their school experiences in Australia, the participants were asked to comment on what school-related factors they felt could help a Salvadorian child to integrate effectively into the Australian society. In this way they all addressed the question: “based on your school experience in Australia, what could help a Salvadorian child integrate better into Australian society?” The following table gives an overview of the responses. Note that some participants suggested more than one strategy, with a total of thirty-one strategies suggested by the nineteen participants. The results have been clustered into seven categories: Table 1.╇ School Transition strategies to support new migrants in Australian schools Strategies 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Bilingual teachers English as a Second Language (ESL) programs and teachers A Spanish speaking buddy After school teacher support ESL / bilingual books New migrant student weekly status report Support from the Salvadorian community

(n = 19) 8 7 6 4 3 2 1

Bilingual teachers were identified in this study a real support for the new migrant students and for the schools. As Poyatos Matas and Bridges (2008) have argued, they are a very important part of the multicultural capital of a school.

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5.

Conclusions

This chapter reports a case of Spanish-English contact in Australia and its sociolinguistic outcomes. The participants in this study are a subset of the total immigrant population: a group who was, in a real sense, forcibly removed to their new host countries, due to their parents’ decision to migrate, with their parents, in turn, unwilling migrants in that they were refugees of war. As minors from 8 to 17, the children involved were legally obliged to conform to their parents’ decision, but the psychological and social impact of forced migration may nevertheless be qualitatively different to the more usual process of voluntary migration. Overall this study adds weight to the view that minors, who also happen to be immigrants, deserve to be considered as a special subset of migrants. While further, more extensive studies are clearly indicated, from the perspective of the education systems into which they are thrust, it is clear that the special needs of these children have not been fully addressed, even in a relatively advanced educational context such as Australia’s. As a result, this study has implications for migration and educational policy development. It shows the need to develop better transition processes for young migrants who lack English. In this way, schools could initially fully focus on helping young migrants to acquire English before making the full transition into schools with rich multicultural capital. This early intervention could, as this study indicates, have long-term effects in terms of young migrants’ identification with the host culture without stripping them of their heritage language. This study found that young migrants use language as the primary marker to select their initial social in-groups in the primary and secondary school. The study indicated that social in-group discrimination can take place in young migrants as early as at the age of eight, which supports the findings of American studies. It also confirms work within ethnolinguistic theory that suggests language is an important marker that can influence the processes of social group categorization, identification and comparison in young Spanish speaking migrants in Australia. Significantly, of the entire subject population studied, only two students later came to identify themselves primarily as “Australian.” These two students indicated that they arrived in Australia with good levels of English skills, and thus, from a language perspective at least, experienced a relatively smooth transition into the Australian school environment. With English taught at a secondary level in El Salvador, the trauma related to English language use was particularly pronounced amongst the primary-school aged subset. The children were in many cases forced to rely on ad hoc methods of knowledge and language learning, in particular, leaning on fellow Hispanic children who were more proficient in English than themselves. In addition, the



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children where possible, in both at home and school, continued to lean on the Spanish language to make sense of their daily reality primarily at school with family members or with peer immigrants. Naturally enough, the integration process in to the host country involved a degree of shame and humiliation as the children adapted to the dominant language and culture. Compounding this concern, the data also indicates how vulnerable these new migrants were in their first years of school to harassment and bullying, as their lack of English reduced their connection with sources of support within the school. It is important to note that the experience of these young migrants was not universally negative in their primary and secondary school settings. One of the key positives reported by participants about their schooling experiences in Australia was that other bilingual (Spanish-English) students aided their integration into the class and school. These Spanish-speaking peers were an important part of the multicultural capital of the school as they helped the new migrant children to transit into their new English speaking schools, nevertheless students thus assisted tended to experience increased identification with their Hispanic origins. The Spanish speaking in-groups became one of the main sources of emotional support for the participants in their challenging transition from a Spanish speaking country to an English speaking country. As social identity theory argues individuals are inclined to achieve a positive social identity as a means of increasing self-esteem (Tajfel and Turner 1979). The Hispanic diaspora in Australia, in contrast with the US, is very much in the minority. The Linguistic Minority Children in this study managed to maintain their Spanish language into adulthood living in Australia. All the participants demonstrated a positive affiliation with Spanish language and were able, and indeed preferred, to conduct their interviews in the Spanish language. Their maintenance of Spanish was achieved despite lack of formal educational support for the language from the Australian school system – again, unlike in the US, where Spanish is the most common language taught in schools after English. Their maintenance of Spanish did not stop these young migrants from developing high proficiency in English and using it in the public domain (educational and work environments), as well as maintaining, to a certain degree, their Spanish in the private domain (at home with their families and school with their closed friends). As a result, these participants are cases of “circumstantial bilingualism” rather than “substractive bilingualism” which seem to be more common amongst Spanish heritage migrants living in the USA. This research indicates that the social group of these young migrants identified that the heritage language was a positive entity that should be nourished and maintained in Australia. This may possibly be due to parental support, as some

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Australian studies with LMCs from Italian, Hungarian and Hispanic parents have claimed: when parents attached a strong cultural value to their native language, this language is more likely to be maintained by their young children (Clyne 1991; Finocchiaro 1995; Jones Diaz 2003; Smolicz 1999). In addition, the language maintenance of this LMC in the Australian context could be partly explained because Spanish, while a minority language in Australia, carries the prestige of being one of the most important languages in the business world, linked to Europe and America (Martínez Expósito and López 2008). There is no cultural pressure to lose it. However, this is a hypothesis that bears further investigation through comparative international studies of nations where Spanish and English are in contact. This study found that the age of arrival of the participants, which was posited as a possible factor of integration, did not significantly affect integration. Even though there have been changes in Australian education policies since 1980 towards more inclusive multicultural approaches, these changes were not reflected in the school transition experiences reported by the participants. Instead, it was found that the educational experience of each participant was linked to the particular multicultural resources or capital found in the host school. This could indicate, to a certain degree, that the multicultural capital of each school could influence the integration of the participants into the school system. This study does represent a step forward in that regard. However, this initial finding needs to be weighed against the small sample of this study and, clearly, more research in this area is needed to corroborate these initial observations. In addition, further exploration of transition issues effecting migrant children is required. The subjects of the current study suggested seven strategies to support the transition of young Spanish speaking migrants into primary and secondary Australian schools. All involve greater support from the school infrastructure and the broader community. Poyatos Matas and Bridges (2008) argue that schools can be distinguished by the degree to which they provide subtle and institutional support to multilingualism. In the absence of a better understanding of the needs and appropriate support systems for migrant children without language skills in their new host country, these children remain a particularly vulnerable subset of the immigrant population. If, as this study suggests, migrant students with better host language skills are more likely to end up identifying more positively with the host country, then the implications for reform of pedagogical support are significant. Overall, this study identified that early Australian schooling experiences had a significant impact on the ethnolinguistic social identity development of young Salvadorians in Australia. It was found that those young migrants who experienced positive early schooling experiences, in particular with the support of teachers and other students, were more likely to have developed a positive cultural identification with being full or part Australian. Conversely, those participants



12.╇ Reluctant migrants 327

who lacked transitional support and/or had traumatic early socialization experiences due to their lack of English were more likely to have developed a sense of identity that was Salvadorian or Hispanic focused. However, it is acknowledged that the validity of these observations is constrained by the small sample used in this qualitative exploratory study and need to be tested by further studies using larger samples of participants.

Acknowledgements We would like to thank all our participants because without them this study would not have been possible. We would also like to thank Dr. Olav Muurlink, Dr. James Rotherman and a blind reviewer for their constructive editorial work on two early versions of this publication, which helped us to improve its quality.

References Adler, R. 1988. Salvadorans. In The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins, J. Jupp (ed.), Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Anderson, K. 1993. Otherness, culture and capital. In Multiculturalism, Difference and Postmodernism, D. Clark, D. Forbes & R. Francis (eds), 68–89. Melbourne: Longman Cheshire. Barth, F. 1969. Ethnic Groups and Boundaries: The Social Organization of Culture Difference. Boston MA: Little: Brown and Co. Benitez, J. L. 2006. Transnational dimensions of the digital divide among Salvadoran immigrants in the Washington DC metropolitan area. Global Networks 6(2): 181–199. Compilation Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Global Networks Partnership. Blaikie, N. 2000. Designing Social Research: The Logic of Anticipation. Cambridge: Polity Press. Brändle, M. 2001. Multicultural Queensland: An introductory perspective. In Multicultural Queensland 2001, M. Brändle (ed.). Brisbane: Department of the Premier Cabinet. Bridges, S. & Poyatos Matas, C. 2006. Investigating multiculturalism as policy and practice in the middle years of schooling. The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, Communities and Nations 6(2): 88–98. Broström, S. 2000. Communication and continuity in the transition from kindergarten to school in Denmark. Paper related to poster symposium at EECERA 10th European Conference on Quality in Early Childhood Education: University of London, 29 August€– 1€September 2000. Cheung, Y. W. 1993. Approaches to ethnicity: Clearing roadblocks in the study of ethnicity and substance abuse. International Journal of Addictions 28(12): 1209–1226. Clyne, M. 1991. Community Languages. The Australian Experience. Sydney: CUP. Clyne, M. & Kipp, S. 1995. The extent of community language maintenance in Australia. People and Place 3: 4–8.

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Cummins, J. 1981. The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. In Schooling and Language Minority Students: A Theoretical Framework, California State of Education (ed.). Los Angeles CA: National Dissemination and Assessment Center. Feagin, J., Orum, A. & Sjoberg, G. (eds). 1991. A Case for Case Study. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press. Fillmore, L. 1991. When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly 6: 323–346. Finocchiaro, C. 1995. International language maintenance of minority groups in Australia in the 1990s; An Italian case study. Australian Journal of Language and Literacy 18(3): 181–189. Freebody, P. 2003. Qualitative Research in Education: Interaction and Practice. London: Sage. Garcia, E. 1994. Understanding and Meeting the Challenge of Student Cultural Diversity. Boston MA: Houghton Mifflin. Gil, J. A. 2000. Language Maintenance and Language Shift in the Salvadoran Community in Brisbane: The Role of English Language Proficiency. PhD dissertation, Griffith University. Giles, H., Bourhis, R. & Taylor, D. M. 1977. Towards a theory of language in ethnic group relations. In Language, Ethnicity and Intergroup Relations, European Monographs in Social Psychology, H. Giles (ed.), (13)307–348. London: Academic Press. Giles, H. & Johnson, P. 1987. Ethnolinguistic theory: A social psychological approach to language maintenance. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 68: 69–99. Gorkin, M., Pineda, M. & Leal, G. 2000. From Grandmother to Granddaughter. Salvadoran Women’s Stories. Berkeley CA: University of California Press. Haebich, A. 2008. Spinning the Dream: Assimilation in Australia 1950–1970. Freemantle WA: Freemantle Press. Holcomb-McCoy, C. 2005. Ethnic identity development in early adolescence: Implications and recommendations for middle school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 1 Dec, 2005, , (20 January 2008). Jones Díaz, C. 2003. Latino/Voices in Australia: Negotiating bilingual identity. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood 4(3): 314–336. Jupp, J. 2001. The Australian People. An Encyclopaedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins. Sydney: Angus and Robertson. Ladd, J. & Price, J. 1987. Predicting children’s social and school adjustment following the transition from preschool to kindergarten. Child Development 58(5): 1168–1189. LeoGrande, W. 1998. Our Own Backyard: The United States in Central America, 1977–1993. Chapel Hill NC: University of North Carolina Press. Liffman, P. 1988. Multicultural policy. In The Australian People: An Encyclopaedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins, J. Jupp (ed.). Cambridge: CUP. Margetts, K. 2006. Teachers should explain what they mean: What new children need to know about starting school. Summary of paper presented at the EECERA 16th Annual Conference: Reykjavik, Iceland, 30 August – 2 September 2006. Margetts, K. 2002. Do personal characteristics influence children starting school? Paper presented at the AARE Conference 2002. Martin, D. 1998. Social and linguistic consequences of the use of language other than English and Spanish in the Spanish-speaking community in Australia. In La migración ilegal, una vida vigente, C. Mejia & M. Silva (eds), 2000. La Prensa Grafica, enfoques.



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Martínez Expósito, A. & López, A. 2008. Ten Reasons to Learn and Teach Spanish. Canberra: Consejería de Educación en Australia y Nueva Zelanda, Embajada de España. McDermott, R. 2004. Psychological approaches to identity: Definitions, measurement and experimentation. Ms, UC-Santa Barbara. Mejia, C. & Silva, M. 2000. La migración ilegal, una vida vigente. La Prensa Grafica, enfoques. Miles, M. & Huberman, A. 1994. Qualitative Data Analysis, 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. Nieto, S. 2000. Puerto Rican students in US schools: A brief history. In Puerto Rican Students in US Schools, S. Nieto (ed), 5–37. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Noels, K., Pon, G. & Clement, R. 1996. Language, identity and adjustment: The role of linguistics self-confidence in the acculturation process. Journal of Language and Social Psychology€15: 246–264. Park, H. 2007. Family support and maintenance of ethno-linguistic identity: A case study of Korean linguistic minority children. The International Journal of Language Society and Culture 23: 53–65. Peters, S. 2000. Multiple perspectives on continuity in early learning and the transition to school. Paper presented at Complexity, Diversity and Multiple Perspectives in Early Childhood, Tenth European Early Childhood Education Research Association Conference: University of London: London, 29 August – 1 September 2000. Phinney, J. S. 1989. Stages of ethnic identity in minority group adolescents. Journal of Early Adolescence 9: 34–49. Phinney, J. S. 2003. Ethnic Identity and acculturation. In Acculturation: Advances in Theory, Measurement, and Applied Research, K. Chun, P. B. Organista & G. Marin (eds), 63–81. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Poyatos Matas, C. & Bridges, S. 2005. Federal and state policies on multiculturalism and the teaching of culture: A focus on primary education. Paper presented at the Teacher Education: Local and Global, Annual Conference of the Australian Teacher Education Association. Gold Coast, Australia. Poyatos Matas, C. & Bridges, S. 2008. Multicultural capital in Australian middle schools. The International Journal of Diversity in Organisations, communities and Nations 8(2): 1–17. Punch, K. 1998. Introduction to Social Research: Quantitative and Qualitative Approaches. London: Sage. Punch, K. 2005. Introduction to Social Sciences: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. London: Sage. Rajah-Carrim, A. 2005. Language Use and Attitudes in Mauritius on the Basis of the 2000 Population Census. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh. Rice, M. & O’Brien M. 1990. Transition: Times of change and accommodation. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education 9(4): 1–14. Rogers, G. & Bouey, E. 1996. Collecting your data. In Qualitative Research for Social Workers: Phases, Steps, and Tasks, 4th edn, L. M. Tutty, M. Rothery & R. M. Grinnell Jr. (eds), 50–87. Boston MA: Ally and Bacon. Rumbaut, R. 2005. Sites of belonging: Acculturation, discrimination, and ethnic identity among children of immigrants. In Discovering Successful Pathways in Children’s Development: Mixed Methods in the Study of Childhood and Family Life, T. Weisner (ed.), 111–164. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.

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Saharso, S. 1989. Ethnic identity and the paradox of equality. In Ethnic Minorities: Social Psychological Perspectives, J. P. van Oudenhoven & T. M. Willemsen (eds), 97–114. Berwyn PA: Swets North America. Schwartz, W. 1997. Immigrants and Their Educational Attainment: Some Facts and Findings. ERIC Digest. Silva, T. 2005. On the philosophical bases of inquiry in second language writing: Methaphysics, inquiry paradigms, and the intellectual zeitgeist. In Second Language Writing Research: Perspectives on the Process Knowledge Construction, P. Matsuda & T. Silva (eds), 3–16. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Smith, J. & Thomas, D. 2003. Remembrances of things past: Test-retest reliability of retrospective migration histories. Journal Research Statistics Soc A 166(1): 23–49. Smolicz, J. J. 1999. Who is an Australian? Identity, core values and resilience of culture. In Education and Culture, M. Secombe & J. Zajda (eds), 11–49. Australia: James Nickolas. Tajfel, H. 1974. Social identity and intergroup behaviour. Social Science Information 13: 65–93. Tajfel, H. (ed.). 1978. Differentiation Between Social Groups: Studies in the Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations. London: Academic Press. Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. 1979. An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, W/ Monterey, W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (eds).€Pacific Grove CA: Brooks-Cole.€ Tajfel, H. & Turner, J. C. 1986. The social identity theory of inter-group behavior. In Psychology of Intergroup Relations, S. Worchel & L. W. Austin (eds). Chicago IL: Nelson-Hall. Teicher, J., Shah, C. & Griffin, G. 2002. Australian immigration: The triumph of economics over prejudice? International Journal of Manpower 23(3): 209–236. Tellis, W. 1997. Application of a case study methodology. The Qualitative Report, Vol. 3, , (12 May 2005). Thieberger, N. 1990. Language maintenance: Why bother? Multilingual Journal of CrossCulturalÂ� and Interlinguage Communication 9(4): 333–358. Trimble, J. E. & Dickson, R. 2006. Ethnic Identity. Bellingham WA: Western Washington University, , (15 May 2006). Tsakiri, E. 2005. Transnational communities and identity. Integration specialist, migration management services department, international organization for migration. Refugee Survey Quarterly 24(4). Tseng, V. & Fuligni, A. 2000. Parent-adolescence language use and relationships among immigrant families with East Asian, Filipino, and Latin American backgrounds. Journal of Marriage and the Family 62: 465–476. Valdés, G. 2005. Bilingualism, heritage language learners, and SLA research: Opportunities lost or seized? The Modern Language Journal 89(3): 410–426. Valdés, G. &€Figueroá, R. 1994. Bilingualism and Testing: A Special Case of Bias. Norwood NJ: Ablex. Yin, R. 1994. Case Study Research [Applied Social Research Methods Series 5], 2nd edn. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage. York, B. 2003. The myth of our humanitarian tradition. Age. Melbourne: 27 June 2003.

chapter 13

The role of community in€preserving€Spanish€in New Zealand A Latin American parent perspective Ute Walker Massey University

Over the last two decades, immigration to New Zealand has resulted in increasing cultural and linguistic diversity. Despite New Zealand’s diverse ethnolinguistic makeup, the country remains a predominantly English-speaking society, where 74% of the population speak English only (Statistics New Zealand 2007b). Spanish is one of the lesser spoken minority languages in New Zealand, and among its 4.2 million people fewer than 6000 were born in Latin America (Statistics New Zealand 2007a). The small size of the local hispanophone speech community and the lack of an overall language policy or consistent support for ethnic languages present difficult conditions for maintaining Spanish intergenerationally. This chapter introduces a case study of three Latin American families’ efforts to respond to this challenge and to carve out a space for Spanish in an English-dominant context. The study suggests a key role for the Latin American community in providing opportunities for shared linguistic practices and affording a sense of continuity, belonging and identity. €  

1.

I am Maria Márquez from Chile, but I’ve lived here in New Zealand since I was two, so I’m a Chiwi.

Introduction

New Zealand is a multilingual country with more than 150 languages. English is the de facto official language of the country, spoken by 95.5% of the population (Statistics New Zealand 2007a). 4.1% speak the indigenous language te reo Māori, . Source: Office of Ethnic Affairs (n.d.). “Chiwi” is a contraction of Chilean-Kiwi. “Kiwi” refers to a native New Zealand bird and is a popular self-identification label for New Zealanders. . English has never been formally declared an official language in legislation but assumes official status by virtue of its dominant position and widespread use.

332 Ute Walker

which was made an official language in 1987, followed by New Zealand Sign Language in 2007. Despite this official recognition of the nation’s bi/multicultural and linguistically diverse nature, New Zealand is a society where monolingual practices prevail, with three quarters of the population speaking English as their only language. However, with ongoing immigration, levels in the ability to speak two or more languages are also on the increase (Table 1), a trend that can be largely attributed to the country’s immigrant population. In 2006, nearly half of overseasborn adults (48.5%) and over a third (35%) of children up to the age of 14 were multilingual, compared to 10% and 11.5% respectively among the New Zealandborn population (Statistics New Zealand 2007a). Table 1.╇ Percentage speaking one, two or more languages Number of languages spoken

1996 Census

2001 Census

2006 Census

One Two or more

83.8 13.6

82.1 15.8

80.5 17.5

Statistics New Zealand (2007a)

New Zealand has no comprehensive national language policy to manage its increasing ethnolinguistic diversity, although there are government strategies to promote a coordinated approach to English literacy, Māori language revitalisation and Adult ESOL. The Strategy for Adult ESOL aims to assist migrants and refugees to more actively participate in society, the economy and their communities (Ministry of Education 2003:11) through improved English language outcomes. Despite its clear focus on English, the strategy also recognises diversity as a source of enrichment to New Zealand’s multicultural society. Although the document falls short of explicitly mentioning multilingual skills in its vision, it does state that: while ESOL is an effective tool for encouraging participation in New Zealand society, it is recognised in the Strategy that this should not happen at the expense of learners’ inheritance, culture and language. Rather, these aspects of cultural heritage should be used as a valuable basis for building new skills.  (Ministry of Education 2003:â•›6)

Such explicit acknowledgment of the need for immigrants to maintain their languages reflects an awareness of their linguistic repertoires as a knowledge base and as a catalyst for cultural continuity through “a strong sense of individual and community identity for mother tongue speakers” (Office of Ethnic Affairs n.d.), while at the same time contributing to the growth of “richness” in New Zealand society (Statistics New Zealand n.d.).



13.╇ The role of community in€preserving€Spanish€in New Zealand 333

While these statements indicate an important shift towards increased recognition of languages other than English, they are not by themselves a Â�sufficient force to counteract social and structural conditions that favour English. A linguisticÂ� ecology which has few niches available for languages other than the dominant host language does not afford the conditions needed to accommodate multilingual behaviour. In the absence of a wider policy or strategy aimed to promote bilingualism, except for English-Māori bilingual education, the virtually exclusive reliance on fostering English in support of settlement and integration in effect perpetuates transitional bilingualism and monolingual English outcomes. As in other English-dominant societies, minority language speakers in New Zealand face a reality of language shift and eventually language loss after two or three generations. Minority language research (Holmes 1993; Roberts 1999) shows an overall pattern of encroaching use of English, particularly in the home domain. Language-related research on Spanish and its speakers in New Zealand to date is fledgling at best. One study to touch on the linguistic dimension associated with the process of resettlement was carried out by Rivera (1997), who investigated the experience of Latin American women in New Zealand within a social work paradigm. Rivera illustrated the dual pressures faced by women through the demand placed on them by their own experience of transformation and adaptation as well as supporting that of their children. The women in Rivera’s study developed or reinvented their Latin American identity while preserving a strong national identity. Similarly, Barnard (1996) examined the impact of Chilean refugee women’s ethnic identity. A small-scale family biliteracy project (VaccarinoÂ� and Walker 2008), which included two Latin American families, shows that despite very different family trajectories and immigration histories, parents shared a passionate desire to ensure the intergenerational transmission of Spanish as their heritage language, including the written form. Walker (2004) examined notions of proficiency and selfconcept among immigrants to New Zealand from a wide range of ethnolinguistic backgrounds, including Spanish speakers. The Latin American respondents from Walker’s (2004) empirical study constitute the sample in this chapter. The growth of linguistic diversity in New Zealand has implications for identity, both at societal and individual levels. The 2006 Census revealed that 10.4% of people reported more than one ethnic affiliation (up from 7.9% in 2001), with multiple identities even more likely among those aged 15 or younger (19.7%; cf. 3.5% for 65 years and over) (Statistics New Zealand 2007b). Children of the 1.5 and second generation in particular face the competing demands of mastering English while maintaining their first or heritage language. Studies of acculturation, identity and settlement among young, predominantly Asian-background migrants or refugees

334 Ute Walker

(Bartley 2003; Ho 1995; Watts et al. 2002) show that migrant youth regard English as important for successful acculturation and integration. But they may also prefer their heritage language as the ‘origin language’ as well as identity labels linked with the origin culture (Bartley 2003:â•›230). Thus, language plays an important role in how immigrant children “experience themselves in two worlds: their home and outside of their home, as well as in-between these worlds” (Kirova 2006). Yet, while children negotiate the path of identity (re)construction in their own way, parents have a stake in the process because their values, attitudes, expectations and practices have a bearing on the process of passing Spanish on to the next generation, as found in the work of Rivera (1997) and Vaccarino and Walker (2008) noted above.

2.

The Latin American community in New Zealand

People from Latin American backgrounds are not numerous in New Zealand, but they have contributed to the country’s changing ethnic composition in a significant way. According to Wilson (2007) there were fewer than 200 Spanish speakers in New Zealand up to World War I, and it took until 1971 for that number to double. In the 1970s and 1980s many arrived as political refugees, from Chile and Argentina in particular, followed by people from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Colombia and Peru. Unlike the earlier waves, more recent Latin American arrivals have come to work as professionals, to study or as partners of New Zealanders. In 2001 three quarters of New Zealand’s Central and South American population were born overseas and almost half had lived in New Zealand for fewer than 10 years (Office of Ethnic Affairs 2005). This group tends to be highly educated; 20% have tertiary qualifications, at twice the rate of the general New Zealand population. This community also represents a younger population, with Central and South American people making up 22% of 15–24 year-olds, which is twice the number of the same age group for the total New Zealand population. Figure 1 shows an age comparison of Spanish speakers with two other minority language groups. The German group has a longer migration history in New Zealand, while the Koreans have been more recent arrivals, with significant increases in arrivals over the last 10 years. Unlike these two groups, the Spanish-speaking group reveals an earlier, albeit slight rise in the adult population around 30–34 years compared to the peak occurring around 40–44 years in the two other groups (Figure€1).

. This category includes non-Spanish speakers such as Brazilians.



13.╇ The role of community in€preserving€Spanish€in New Zealand 335

10,000 9,000 8,000 7,000 6,000 5,000 4,000 3,000 2,000 1,000 0

German Korean Spanish

80–84 Years

70–74 Years

60–64 Years

50–54 Years

40–44 Years

30–34 Years

20–24 Years

10–14 Years

0–4 Years

Figure 1.╇ Three groups of minority language speakers by age Graph based on figures from the 2006 Census (Statistics New Zealand 2007a)

New Zealand tends to attract younger people, students and professionals, particularly from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay, as part of its Latin America Strategy. This strategy aims to foster “foreign policy and political links, trade and economic links and people-to-people links” (Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade 2007) between New Zealand and Latin America. People of Latin Amercian origins have settled around the main cities, primarily Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch (Statistics New Zealand 2007b). Since the 1990s, a distinct Latin scene has developed in and around Wellington’s Cuba Street, a central city street named after a 19th century immigrant ship. Here Latin and local culture combine, as illustrated in the name of the dance venue Sociedad el Tango de Barrio ‘Te Aro’, which incorporates the Maori name of the Te Aro Valley neighbourhood. The popularity of Latin culture is reflected in a thriving music, dance and restaurant scene, and an annual street carnival. Bill Vela (Radio Luna n.d.) describes Wellington’s ‘Latin Quarter’ as a …disparate mix of enthusiastic individuals and groupings brought together by a shared interest and enthusiasm for all things Latin American in our South Pacific paradise… I guess the ‘Latin Quarter’ here in Wellington is not so much a place, location or Barrio. It’s a state of mind.

There appears to be little or no conflict or competition between groups of Latin American origin. Expressions of cultural or linguistic identity, including the use of Spanish, are not seen in terms of racialising practice as they might be elsewhere (Rúa 2001). One reason for this could be that smaller communities engen-

336 Ute Walker

der a stronger sense of mutual reliance and construction of cultural continuity together. For example, in case of personal emergencies or tragedies, individuals can find themselves greeted by offers of support from Colombians, Chileans or other groups who, through this assistance, appeal to a shared identity as Latin American, a term that resonates positively in New Zealand. The fact that there are no clearly defined Hispanic neighbourhoods is also likely to encourage the intermingling of groups or individuals from different Latin American backgrounds, thereby promoting a sense of Latinidad. In the 2006 Census 5,877 people reported birthplaces in Latin America (Statistics New Zealand 2007a). When the category “Middle Eastern, Latin American and African” was introduced for the first time in the 2006 Census, of the 34,743 people in this category only 2,253 identified as Latin American ‘not further defined’, 1,473 as Brazilian and 1,053 as Chilean; another 1,857 identified as Spanish in the general “European” category (Statistics New Zealand 2007c). The number of people who reported to be speakers of Spanish was higher than the birthplace and ethnicity data would suggest, and at 21,642 in 2006 the figure was twice as high as 10 years earlier (Figure 2). Spanish

25,000 20,000 15,000 10,000 5,000 0

1996

2001

2006

Figure 2.╇ Total number of Spanish speakers between 1996–2006 Graph based on figures from the 2006 Census (Statistics New Zealand 2007a)

. New Zealanders have a positive image of Latinos, which may be further enhanced by New Zealand’s emerging trade, cultural and tourism ties with Spain, Latin America, and the Â�Spanishspeaking populations of the Pacific Rim (Ministry of Education 1995). . This group is made up of the categories “Chile” and “Other Americas”, after excluding The United States, Canada and Brazil, all of which were aggregated under the “Americas” category. The separate category for Chile reflects its history of more significant immigration from the mid-1970s.



13.╇ The role of community in€preserving€Spanish€in New Zealand 337

However, Latin Americans account for only a small proportion of this figure. As shown in Table 2, the majority of people reporting to speak Spanish come from European backgrounds. It is also possible that heritage speakers of Spanish who primarily identify with the “New Zealander” category were not counted in the “Middle Eastern/Latin American/African” group. Others included in this statistic may have acquired Spanish as a second or foreign language, a distinction which cannot be gleaned from the Census data. Table 2.╇ Spanish speakers by ethnic group Ethnic category

Number of Spanish speakers

European Middle Eastern/Latin American/African New Zealander Maori Asian Pacific Peoples Other

14,466 4,158 2,202 1,419 891 372 279

Based on 2006 Census data (Statistics New Zealand 2007c)

People from Central or South America represent a highly bi/multilingual population. In the 2001 census more than half (51%) reported to be bilingual and 14% said they could speak three or more languages, compared to 13% and 3% respectively of the total New Zealand population (Office Ethnic Affairs 2005). However, the intrusion of English typically experienced in English-dominant contexts is also felt in this group, where Spanish tends to be relegated to the home domain or Spanish-speaking communities of practice. In this situation Latin American clubs or associations play an important role in the continued use of Spanish, together with other cultural practices. The ability to fall back on Spanish-speaking networks is critical for members of small groups who would otherwise have to shoulder the responsibility for cultural and linguistic maintenance by themselves. Small communities or individuals may respond to this challenge with grass roots initiatives such as the Ibero-American Women’s Group (n.d.), recently formed by

. The language question in the New Zealand Census asks about the ability to converse in everyday situations, irrespective of how a language was acquired. . People who reported more than one language, either as their only or one of several languages, were counted in each applicable group. Hence, the individual figures in the table do not add up to the overall total of 21,642. ‘New Zealander’ was introduced as a new response option within the ‘Other’ category in the 2006 Census, separate from the ‘New Zealand European’ option used in previous censuses.

338 Ute Walker

a group of Wellington women. ‘Centro Integracion Latino’ is the name of a group aimed at bringing different Hispanic communities together as well as providing Spanish-speaking networks for their children outside the home. Arcoiris, a Spanish-language playgroup, was inspired by the notion of a language nest. It aims to promote the children’s development of Spanish by providing children with a “collective space” for Spanish within an overall monolingual English environment (Hurtado-Roberts 2002:â•›2): Children who possess two cultures represent continuity. They will grow up happier and healthier because one of their languages is taken into account instead of being left to whither. They don’t need to be ashamed or embarrassed because the majority group doesn’t understand that language, they know that there is a small community where they can express their sense of fiesta, traditions and values.  (Hurtado-Roberts 2002:â•›3–4)

The parent quoted here gives voice to what is at stake for families like hers in English-dominant contexts; their endeavours speak to the importance they attach to Spanish proficiency for their children. They believe that the use of Spanish affords the next generation a sense of linguistic and cultural continuity that promotes wellbeing through inclusion of their ethnic and linguistic identity.

3.

Language and identity

The complex relationship between language and identity construction in different families cannot be seen in isolation from their social context. Families are situated “within a web of macro and micro practices and ecologies that constitute the materials that they use to construct, transform, and express their beliefs and understandings” (Pease-Alvarez 2003:â•›21). In environments where families face limited support for bilingual education (Baez 2002) or a lack of Spanishspeaking networks outside the home (Guardado 2002), the quality and quantity of interaction in Spanish within the family represent a significant factor for the retention of Spanish (Gibbons and Ramirez 2004; Guardado 2002). Literature on these issues is predominantly found in the North American context, with a focus on language and identity in community settings to examine interrelationships in Latino neighbourhoods (de Genova and Ramos-Zayas 2003; Padilla 1985; Potowski 2008) or bilingual language use among specific groups such as Mexican Americans (Valdés 2000) or Puerto Ricans (Zentella 1997). Studies with a . Modeled on kohanga reo, literally ‘language nest’, a parent/community-led initiative started in the 1980s to help maintain New Zealand’s indigenous language.



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specific focus on Â�Hispanic families and children have shown how Spanish proficiency helps facilitate a greater sense of Latino identity in children with Mexican background (Schecter and Bayley 1997) or predict ethnic identity in adolescents (Phinney et al. 2001). Jaeschke (1999) highlights the multi-dimensional nature of identity and relates the construct to the notion of Hispanidad, which ranges from occasional expressions of individual identity to a sense of continuity among Spanish speech communities. From a social constructivist perspective, identity formation and self-construction are understood as social processes and therefore dynamic and contingent on interaction facilitated through language. Thus, when people interact through language, “they are constantly organizing and reorganizing a sense of who they are and how they relate to the social world” (Norton 2001:â•›166). With more than one linguistic code at their disposal, bilinguals are able to construct different kinds of self whereby “different ways of speaking in each language point to contrasting experiences and positional identities of bilinguals” (Koven 1998:â•›410). Spanish may thus facilitate the verbal enactment of a sense of identity associated with being Latino and continued proficiency in Spanish may provide bilinguals with a source of affective enrichment through the construction of dual or multiple identities. In English-dominant contexts, however, a prevailing monolingual mindset has led to a “widespread failure to recognise new and mixed identities” (Rampton 1995:â•›338). Families provide a micro context for linguistic practices and sometimes they are the only community where Spanish is spoken in minority language contexts. They face the difficult task of balancing the parallel needs to integrate into the host society while providing opportunities for cultural and linguistic continuity for themselves and their children. Maintaining Spanish may be perceived as lack of integration and generate fears of separation in wider society. However, deriving a continued sense of identity via the heritage language does not necessarily come at the expense of identification with the host society. In fact, a positive orientation towards both ethnic identity and identification with the host society predict a preference for integration, rather than separation or marginalisation as acculturation strategies (Phinney et al. 2006). Lambert and Taylor’s (1996) study of CubanAmericanÂ� families showed that additive bilingual outcomes are possible, depending on whether the mothers in the study primarily emphasised Spanish or English as the language of the family. The ability to utilize bilingual proficiency acts as a stabilizing factor, which may contribute to, rather than detract from acculturation. Children’s proficiency in Spanish can also help sustain a cultural connection between parents and children, without which parents may find it harder to pass on a Latino sense of identity. But parents’ aspirations as to what role Spanish might play for their offspring may not be shared by their children. The pattern

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of intergenerational discrepancy found by Phinney et al. (2006) suggests that a sense of obligation towards the family tends to weaken with length of stay in the new country in adolescents, but not among the parents. And where young people face peer pressure, resistance to the use of Spanish and the denial of their cultural roots may result. The desire not to ‘be different’ may thus override their or their parents’ need for a sense of connection through Spanish. And with discourse of the economically dominant culture all around them, speakers of minority languages come to believe that their futures depend on switching to the dominant code, reinforcing resistance to Spanish and making the parents’ task even harder. A parent’s own Spanish proficiency may in itself be a key motivator to pass on the minority language to the children (Walker 2004), at the same time as it provides a source of self-enhancement for parents. Lambert and Taylor (1996) showed that mothers’ pride and self-respect “was enhanced as a function of their offspring’s competence in Spanish” (497). Parental dispositions towards their children’s Spanish proficiency might thus also be a reflection of their own sense of self-esteem, derived from maintaining the use of Spanish in the familial context and possibly projected onto their children. The personal-social-affective dimension of a heritage language engenders an emotional resonance which is reminiscent of a deeper sense of self that weaves together complex strands of an individual’s feelings, memories and experiences, past and present. Thus, limiting the role of Spanish to a marker of ethnic or cultural identity would minimize its affective dimension, particularly through being associated with feelings such as cariño, warmth and tenderness, with values such as personalismo and respeto or with practices such as song, dance, and touch. A participant in Korzenny (1999) describes the affective power of Spanish as follows: Spanish is my mother tongue, and it is the tongue of my mother. Spanish is still the tongue which I feel most clearly speaks from my heart. It calls out from my childhood. What I mean is that it encompasses my sense of identity by its sound and rhythm, and the fact that it is the language which I speak to my family with. It speaks not of the identity which I project in public now, but rather of my personality and sense of self since birth. When I speak in Spanish, I feel I speak from (Korzenny 1999:â•›4) my soul. 

Children who have spent their formative years in a Spanish-speaking environment before coming to New Zealand may share these associations, but this may not be the case for children who were socialised primarily in New Zealand. For them, Spanish may be no more than a language that one or both parents speak, with little or no lived experience of their own. This presents parents with a �challenge,



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and one that is often faced by women in particular, because passing on heritage language and culture to the next generation tends to fall to the mothers (Holmes 1993; Pease-Alvarez 2003; Potowski 2008; Rivera 1997), who may face resistance from their children while at the same time lacking external support for their efforts. They take on the role of a link between homeland and host society, as this respondent in Rivera’s (1997:106) study illustrates: When you are away from your homeland, who passes on the values of your culture of your family, of your ancestors, of the old people? If you don’t pass on your traditions, they [the children] would not know them, because they are not there [in your country] to live them. So I am the transmitter of all the values. Perhaps now they would only keep them in their heads, but when I die they would use what I’ve given them in some way.

The challenges faced by hispanophone families in New Zealand are, by and large, similar to those in other English-dominant contexts because similar forces of linguistic dominance are at play. But Hispanic communities in New Zealand are small as Census data [Statistics New Zealand 2007a] indicate. As research in similarly small communities in North America (Guardado 2002) or Australia (Clyne and Kipp 1999) has shown, they are at an even greater risk of rapid language shift. The implications for parents are immense as access to Spanish speakers outside the home is limited and the weight of language retention rests on their shoulders. In view of the enormity of their task, they may respond to linguistic discontinuity in different ways. For example, they might become more pragmatic about linguistic and cultural mixing and come to understand blending or change in their practices and proficiency as potentially enriching rather than threatening (Walker 2004). The following example of a Chilean refugee family who arrived to New Zealand in 1977 illustrates this: We kept our Spanish pretty strong until we got outnumbered by our kids, who preferred to speak English. … Now … more often it is Spanglish! Gradually we learned to cook the New Zealand way and now just please ourselves – from pastel de choclo one day, to fish and chips the next … So with the language and with our (Wilson 2007) food, it is a mixture of both cultures now. Que rico! 

However, mixing cultural traditions and practices is not exclusively linked to the influence of the dominant culture and language but also involves cultural crossings between Hispanic groups, especially where Latin American communities are small. The coming together of Latino communities may foster a sense of cultural continuity, if not further enrichment, without which there may be implications a family’s emotional wellbeing, as Rivera’s (1997) Peruvian respondent states:

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Here in New Zealand in our Christmas celebrations [with other Latinos], besides singing carols and having presents, we dance like in Puerto Rico, we break piñata like in Mexico and the menu is varied because everybody puts a piece of his or her tradition on the table. … If you insist on doing exactly what you did in your own country, you remain isolated and depressed, and this would affect not only yourself but also your family.

Considering the key role of parents in the intergenerational transmission of Spanish, especially where its use is limited to the home domain, it is important to gain a better understanding of what parents do to support their children’s use and retention of Spanish. Against this background this research seeks to establish what importance parents attach to their children’s Spanish proficiency and its role for their identity construction. Three case studies will be presented to illustrate how parents’ aspirations for Spanish translate into practices which help create conditions favourable for Spanish and how the micro-context of each family might benefit from the support of their community.

4.

Methodology

The data in this chapter come from a study of adult multilingual immigrants in New Zealand (Walker 2004). The main data collection tool was a postal survey. 1000 questionnaires were sent to potential participants with the assistance of the New Zealand Federation of Ethnic Councils. 370 were returned from respondents representing 68 different languages. 10 of these were from Latin American Spanish-speakers, whose responses are reported in this chapter and whose origins are shown in Table 3. The questionnaire was used to establish the participants’ orientations to their language in relation to functions and uses in the New Zealand context. It also explored the role of these languages in the process of self-construction, based on four critical self-concept dimensions: confidence, spontaneity, feelings, being oneself (see questionnaire item ‘c’ in the Appendix). These dimensions were identified in five pre-survey focus groups, with the objective to gain an emic perspective of the concepts under study. No Latin-American participants were involved at the pre-survey stage. Post-survey interviews were conducted with a convenient sample of four Latin American respondents who are identified by an asterisk in Table 3. Descriptive survey and interview data are woven throughout the analysis to background the three case studies to be profiled in this chapter. . Other Spanish-speaking respondents, predominantly from the Philippines or from European countries were not included here.



13.╇ The role of community in€preserving€Spanish€in New Zealand 343

Table 3.╇ Participants’ countries of origin Country of origin

Number

Argentina Chile Columbia Peru Puerto Rico Venezuela

2 3 1 1* 1* 2*

All survey participants were born overseas and arrived in New Zealand between the ages of 26 and 59. Four have been in New Zealand for up to 10 years, while five had a length of stay between 20 and 27 years.

5.

Findings

Perceived benefits and challenges of Spanish proficiency Perhaps not surprisingly, all of the parents indicated on the questionnaire that they regard Spanish as important for their children. Not only do they see Spanish proficiency as beneficial for their cultural maintenance and identity but they perceive their children to be better equipped for a linguistically diverse world, ready “to meet the challenges in this highly competitive world” as one parent put it. The respondents hold a generally positive view of Spanish as an international and widely spoken language in the world, although some bemoan the fact that this may be of little or no importance in an English-dominant society such as New Zealand. English is viewed as the pre-requisite for social and economic participation, leaving little space for Spanish. The minority language may therefore only be of secondary importance in a child’s linguistic repertoire, as one parent concluded: They better know English first. Then know their own language. Without command of English they will certainly be on the fringes of New Zealand society.

Parents were torn between ideal aspirations and realistic outcomes and did not want to put undue pressure on their children in the pursuit of their own expectations for the children. Despite the parents’ insistence on the importance of Spanish, most of them seemed to be very aware of the lack of cultural capital of minority languages in the New Zealand context. Their experience of limited favourable macro conditions in a society where monolingualism prevails, underlies the frustrations associated with passing Spanish on to their children:

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We’re surviving in a place that’s in a way quite hostile to other languages. We’re doing the best we can. It’s a matter of how much you try to bash your head against a wall.”

The apparent contradiction between commitment to Spanish and difficulties with achieving intergenerational transmission serves to highlight the importance of contextual conditions which afford bilingual outcomes. Without these, positive attitudes may be difficult to translate into action. Spanish was seen as an important mechanism for the children to connect with family and relations in the source country, particularly those who do not speak English. Without at least basic proficiency in Spanish, some parents feared their children would lose the ability to move between cultures and stay in touch with their heritage. There was also a belief that giving the next generation a sense of “identity and belonging” was not necessarily tied to a sense of geographic place, but that language did have a crucial role in constructing a Hispanic identity. Apart from one exception, parents were uniformly concerned about the possibility of losing Spanish altogether, citing feelings of disappointment, unhappiness, sadness, regret or the prospect of “no real identity”. One respondent expressed her connection with Spanish like this: It is part of me. It is part of my cultural identity. It is my link with other Latin Americans in New Zealand.

This statement highlights the role of Spanish as a marker of personal and group identity. The language acts as the glue that connects this person with the Latino community. And it is this community which appears to play a crucial role for the families, not only by affording individuals a sense of community and belonging but also by providing a resource for shared practices, for networks of speakers and for modelling the use of Spanish. The case studies which follow illustrate how parents respond to the challenges they face trying to uphold Spanish, and the ways in which Latin American communities support them in their efforts.

Case 1.╇ Gina and Tino Gina arrived in New Zealand from Peru in 1993, together with her then husband. Their 16-year old son Tino was born in New Zealand, and uses Spanish regularly to communicate with his parents and other Latin American members of the community. Gina thinks that Tino finds it more natural to speak Spanish to people of Hispanic background, even in English-dominant situations. She tries to accommodate him by not compromising for monolingual English speakers, including her monolingual English partner. Instead, she continues to speak Spanish with



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Tino in her partner’s presence and translates when necessary. When non-Spanish speakers are at her house, she switches into bilingual mode – Spanish first with Tino, then repeating things in English. Tino also keeps to this routine and finds it unusual when his mother speaks English to him. Her consistent use of Spanish with Tino also extends to reading and writing, which Gina started to teach him when he reached school age. As a consequence of this regular exposure to Spanish he has mastered all four skills and, according to his mother, now even thinks in Spanish. She describes his written fluency as weaker, though, due to lesser use, but he is confident and can use the language spontaneously and in culturally appropriate ways, including ‘bad’ language. Tino’s mother believes that being a teacher has helped her develop and apply routines, which have enabled her not to give up using Spanish. This was particularly important when Tino began school and increasingly used English, as she observed in other families. Gina pronounces Tino’s name the Spanish way when speaking English, believing it might encourage him to continue speaking Spanish with her. According to Gina, Tino sees himself as a Kiwi, who enjoys the New Zealand way of life and the level of freedom it can offer him, compared to Peru. He is reluctant to leave New Zealand for Peru, where his mother has taken him on regular family visits. Once there however, he does not want to return to New Zealand. Gina believes that Tino feels part of the family in Peru, where he is popular with his cousins and likes to socialise with his peers. One aspect that has provided additional Spanish language input is Latin American music. Tino’s mother believes playing and performing together with other members of the Latin American community in a music group has helped connect him to his roots, and this experience has provided a powerful incentive for Tino to use Spanish creatively, while at the same time confirming and validating his Latinness. Tino’s case illustrates a person who is able to function in two cultures and whose linguistic proficiency in Spanish has afforded him continued access to and participation in Peru’s culture and society. Though primarily thinking of himself as a Kiwi, he has the ability to construct and enact a Latin American identity associated with and expressed through Spanish, particularly when in Peru. Tino has the linguistic and cultural repertoire to cross between cultures and position himself through his dual identities. His bilingual and bicultural competence is remarkable, considering that he developed and continues to sustain it mainly through his mother and a small set of speakers, surrounded by English. Tino’s example confirms that persistent exposure to quality input through a ‘one parent, one language’ approach (Döpke 1992) can achieve the desired outcomes. It also highlights the crucial role of the mother as transmitter of culture as evidenced in other research (Pease-Alvarez 2003; Rivera 1997).

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Case 2.╇ Miranda and Dennis Miranda came to New Zealand from Puerto Rico in the 1970s, together with her Australian husband. They have three grown children who are not completely fluent in Spanish, according to Miranda, although all know it to some degree. Miranda was the only Puerto Rican in the area and says that belonging to a Latin American culture and music group played a significant part in imparting a Latin American identity to her children, and helped her maintain her own. Miranda tried to use only Spanish with her children during the pre-school years, but English became the main language of the family when the children started attending school. Even though Miranda’s husband has made an effort to learn some Spanish, being in a mixed language family was a factor in the shift to English at home. Today all three children have some Spanish at different levels. One daughter became fluent in Spanish by spending one year in Paraguay as an exchange student, but her language went “downhill” again after spending five years teaching English in Asia. All three children continue to enjoy Latin American dance and music. Miranda believes it was the music, contact with other Latin American families and trips to Puerto Rico which supported her children’s sense of having Puerto Rican/ Latin roots. All three participated in a Latin American band and still attach special importance to the music. For example, at a recent family Christmas get-together they sang Spanish Christmas carols at the children’s request. One daughter is a musician in a Latin American Band and introduces herself as Puerto Rican when performing. Yet, when people approach her speaking Spanish she is not really able to respond fluently, which Miranda thinks bothers her. The second daughter told Miranda that she should have tried harder to teach them Spanish. Miranda feels that she has been unable to explain very well to her children how much she tried to make Spanish a positive experience, without forcing the language on them. Miranda is pragmatic about what is achievable in terms of Spanish proficiency in a contact situation where English is so dominant. She has no problem, for example, with code switching. Yet, at the same time Miranda regrets that her children have not achieved higher levels of fluency in Spanish. These sentiments are amplified when other people comment that she had not taught her children Spanish well. Immediately there’s a sense of failure attached to it, it’s dealing with those feelings that yeah ok I’ve done the best I can. That’s the sense of frustration and disappointment in my case.

Nevertheless, Miranda knows that she did her best to encourage her children to learn Spanish in their own ways and that they feel proud of their Latino/Puerto Rican heritage.



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This case exemplifies the challenges parents face in intermarriage contexts where the role of the Latin community and cultural/linguistic practices it affords becomes very important. The children’s proficiency levels do not appear to affect their connection to Latin American culture as they seem to be able to identify with it through music and Latin family traditions. Miranda’s ambivalent sentiments about her children’s Spanish proficiency are rooted in the discrepancy between her expectations and the actual outcomes. They reflect the potential emotional impact of not meeting one’s own and others’ expectations in passing Spanish on to the next generation. Miranda’s perceived “failure” notwithstanding, the children in this family appear to have found ways to construct and project a Latin identity, albeit through limited Spanish proficiency or nonlinguistic means.

Case 3.╇ Susanna and Juan Susanna and her husband Juan are Spanish/English bilinguals who were born in Venezuela. Juan was brought up in Spanish as well as some English through all of primary and secondary school, but with a focus on grammar and writing. Susanna, in contrast, has grandparents who do not speak Spanish and experienced a strong English influence during early adulthood. Both Susanna and Juan spent about 10 years in the US, followed by 2 years in Europe and they have now been in New Zealand for one year. They have two children, Shona (12) and Leon (3). The family represents an interesting trilingual scenario because their daughter Shona grew up with English and later acquired German at school in Switzerland. Her parents and grandparents speak English with Shona. Susanna and Juan want their son to grow up with Spanish and plan to reverse the English-dominant trend with Leon by only speaking Spanish to him. In addition to English-medium Kindergarten, he also attends a Spanish language playgroup. Shona understands some Spanish but, according to her father, cannot estimate her proficiency level and does not like to discuss the topic. However, she is now beginning to pick up more Spanish through using it with her younger brother. There is some pressure and the desire from her grandparents on the father’s side for Shona to learn Spanish, because they speak little English. Shona’s parents describe her as happy to be different; this manifests itself through her American English accent, knowing German, and even by dressing slightly differently from Kiwi children. Juan observed that she does not tend to describe people such as her classmates by their ethnicity, for example as Korean or Asian. He believes that perhaps for Shona being “different” is normal, which means she perceives diversity as a normal part of who people are, so there is no need to describe or label their difference. Both

348 Ute Walker

parents would like Shona to have at least oral skills in Spanish. They also envisage that Leon will learn to write in Spanish later. To this end, the family attend a family biliteracy group, which aims to support the maintenance and development of writing in the heritage language. In the absence of other initiatives which might expose Leon to written Spanish and the mechanics of writing, even at a preschool age, the family have drawn on the biliteracy group as an important community resource. Apart from literacy skills, they also believe that familiarity with Venezuelan humour and having confidence in the language is important. Susanna and Juan regard English as a ‘must’ for their children, but ideally they want them to be bilingual, which is why they are also keen for Shona to retain her German. They hope that Shona’s bilingualism will encourage Leon to do the same, based on the assumption that the influence from siblings on each other will be stronger than that of the parents. Susanna and Juan mix with a small group of Latino people with whom they feel more attuned compared to their U.S.-based Latin community, which Susanna feels “wasn’t us”. She explained that this was because of the way Latinos are perceived and portrayed in America, that is as “trouble” and stereotyped through the media, particularly in “shallow, superficial programmes”. In contrast, they regard the Latin American community in New Zealand as additional “support” for Â�Leon’s Spanish development. Additional networking opportunities exist through a bilingual family website which helps them keep in touch with family and friends. Â�Susanna and Juan have not felt criticised for speaking Spanish in the local community, although Susanna did get a comment from a colleague while using Spanish to Juan on the phone. The couple’s aspiration for the future is to be able to return to Europe which they give priority to over the US because of the level of linguistic and cultural diversity found in the European context. They hope that this will provide Leon with the same experiences and opportunities as Shona had. Susanna and Juan represent a trilingual family with multiple language contact developed during their international experience as well as their own internal language contact scenario (Spanish-English; English-German; English-SpanishGerman). These complexities appear to be seen as a source of opportunity rather than a challenge. The parents clearly value bilingual repertoires and wish to instil this in their children through the practices they model, with the expectation that their children will benefit both in terms of family links and the ability to understand and function in diverse contexts.



6.

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Discussion and conclusion

The research presented here is small-scale and limited in its focus, but it addresses an existing gap in research on Spanish and the Latin American community in New Zealand. It gives some insight into the importance Latin American parents attach to their children maintaining Spanish, its significance for constructing linguistic identity and the parental strategies aimed at achieving these outcomes. The challenges parents encounter in the New Zealand context are common to other English-dominant societies around the world, particularly so where speakers of Spanish as a minority language constitute only a small percentage of the language majority population (Guardado 2002; Gibbons and Ramirez 2004). Although the parents have a strong commitment to Spanish and are willing to invest in it, they are often overwhelmed by the dominance of English and absence of opportunities or support for Spanish in the community. Their linguistic practices are defined by the social context they live in, where monolingual values and practices continue to prevail and English is associated with power and socio-economic advantage. However, what seems to set New Zealand apart from other English-dominant contexts where Spanish is spoken as a minority language is a generally positive view of Hispanic culture. Positive societal attitudes may encourage individuals, families and communities to engage in cultural practices, which promote the use of Spanish. This research shows that parents’ strategies for encouraging Spanish use were guided by their own positive orientations to bilingualism, reinforcing the importance of an additive bilingual environment. In the absence of structural or policy support from the mainstream society in New Zealand, Spanish-speaking communities play a key role in supporting parents’ efforts to maintain a role for Spanish within and outside the family. In the face of limited linguistic and cultural resources, parents create their own environments to foster Latino culture, often in mixed form and by bringing together people from different Hispanic backgrounds. These communities represent a crucial speaker network and provide a discursive space for the language. They offer a platform for shared practices which promote continuity and a consistent context for promoting togetherness, a cultural and linguistic bond and sense of being Latin American. Music played a very important role in this, both as a vehicle to express cultural identity (Rúa 2001) and a practice which promotes the use of the Spanish language. Spanish was shown to fill a deeply emotional need in that it helped afford a sense of identity and continuity in the face of cultural and linguistic discontinuities (Fishman 2001; Walker 2004), both in terms of individual and community identity (Jaeschke 1999). Two factors come to the fore in the New Zealand context, which encourage the retention of Spanish. With as few as around 6000

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Â� people of Latin American origin, measured by either birthplace or ethnic affiliation (Statistics New Zealand 2007a), Spanish represents a crucial link to Latin origins and heritage. And in a country as geographically isolated as New Zealand, which is a long way from Latin America, the continued use of Spanish helps minimise a sense of distance, reducing the significance of place by becoming the site of identity construction itself. Communities provide children with crucial exposure to Spanish and extend Spanish-speaking social networks beyond the family context. But families and their linguistic practices have a crucial role to play. As the findings showed, in line with other research (García 2003; Vaccarino and Walker 2008), it is at the micro level of families where intergenerational bilingual practices are modelled and transfer of Spanish to the next generation is facilitated. However, much depends on the parents’ own proficiency (Walker 2004) if a shift to English beyond the 2nd generation is to be avoided (Potowski 2004). The role mothers play in this respect (Pease-Alvarez 2003; Rivera 1997) was also borne out in this research. Having partners who speak little or no Spanish (as in Case 1 and 2) meant that upholding the language in the family was the mothers’ responsibility. Balancing children’s exposure to cultural and linguistic practices and repertoires through both Spanish and English is a struggle and may result in a sense of failure, as Miranda’s experience shows in Case 2. The research revealed that parents clearly perceive a need for passing Spanish to the next generation, despite the challenges they face. These may be similar to the challenges found in other predominantly English-monolingual societies, albeit alleviated by an overall positive image of Latin American culture and language in New Zealand. But the complex task of maintaining Spanish and a Latino identity has to be achieved in an English-dominant ecology, with a very limited pool of Spanish speakers and in a context of geographical isolation from larger Latin American communities overseas. Creating conditions which assist families in their efforts to retain a niche for Spanish would reduce the heavy demand placed on them and help promote English-Spanish bilingualism as a medium for dual identity. It would also be an investment in New Zealand society as a whole, consistent with the country’s aspirations for cultural and linguistic diversity.

Acknowledgements I wish to sincerely thank the families who contributed their thoughts and experiences to this study and Craig Nicholson from the Office of Ethnic Affairs for his insights and support.



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Appendix Three selected questionnaire items a. Asking about the respondents’ attitudes towards their children’s Spanish Think about your children's knowledge of your language. If you have no children, tick what you think is best for other families. It is important to me that my children know our language. I disagree I agree If you agree, do you think they should have the same knowledge as children in the home country? Yes No Can you tell me why you think so?

b. Prompting respondents to speculate on not having/using Spanish anymore

Sometimes people forget their native language or stop using it. If this happened to you, how would you feel?

c. Prompting associations of language and self-concept dimensions.

Please tick one or both: □ I can be more spontaneous in my language. □ I can be more spontaneous in English. □ I can express my feelings better in English. □ I can express my feelings better in my native language. □ ML gives me confidence. □ English gives me confidence. □ I can be myself when I use my language. □ I can be myself when I use English.

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References Baez, B. 2002. Learning to forget: Reflections on identity and language. Journal of Latinos and Education 1(2): 123–132. Barnard, L. F. 1996. To make a house of a tree: Community and identity among New Zealand Chilenas. MA thesis. Auckland: Auckland University. Bartley, A. 2003. ‘New’ New Zealanders, or Harbingers of a New Transnationalism? 1.5 generation Asian migrant adolescents in New Zealand. PhD dissertation, Massey University, Albany, New Zealand. Clyne, M. & Kipp, S. 1999. Pluricentric Languages in an Immigrant Context: Spanish, Arabic, and Chinese. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. De Genova, N. & Ramos-Zayas, A. 2003. Latino Crossings: Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, and the Politics of Race and Citizenship. London: Routledge. Döpke, S. 1992. One Parent – One Language. An Interactional Approach [Studies in Bilingualism 3]. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Fishman, J. A. 2001. Why is it so hard to save threatened languages? In Can Threatened Languages be Saved?, J. A. Fishman (ed.), 1–22. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. García, M. 2003. Recent research on language maintenance. Annual Review of Applied Linguistics 23: 22–43 Gibbons, J. & Ramirez, E. G. 2004. Maintaining a Minority Language. A Case Study of Hispanic Teenagers. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Guardado, M. 2002. Loss and maintenance of first language skills: Case studies of hispanic families in Vancouver. Canadian Modern Language Review/ La Revue canadienne des langues vivantes 58(3): 341–363. Ho, E. 1995. Chinese or New Zealander? Different paths of adaptation of Hong Kong Chinese adolescent immigrants in New Zealand. New Zealand Population Review 21(1–2): 27–49. Holmes, J. 1993. Language maintenance and shift in three New Zealand speech communities. Applied Linguistics 4(1): 1–24. Hurtado-Roberts, L. 2002. Some reflections on the integration of Latin American communities into New Zealand society, through the example of ‘Arcoiris’. <www.devnet.org.nz/ conf2002/papers/Hurtado-Roberts_Laura.pdf-> Ibero-American Women’s Group. n.d. Bienvenidas. Jaeschke, S. 1999. Identität und Sprache. Das Beispiel Spanisch. In Sprache und Fremdverstehen, H. Decke-Cornill & M. Reichart-Wallrabenstein (eds), 37–57. Frankfurt: Peter Lang. Kirova, A. 2006. Moving childhoods: Children’s lived experiences of being between languages and cultures. In Global Migration and Education. Schools, Children and Families, L.€D.€AdamsÂ� & A. Kirova (eds), 185–198. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Korzenny, F. 1999. Acculturation vs. Assimilation among US Hispanics:€E-mail Self-Reports. Belmont CA: Hispanic & Asian Marketing Communication Research. (28 July 2002). Koven, M. E. J. 1998. Two languages in the self – the self in two languages: French-Portuguese bilinguals’ verbal enactments and experiences of self in narrative discourse. Ethos 26(4): 410–442. Lambert, W. & Taylor, D. M. 1996. Language in the lives of ethnic minorities: Cuban American families in Miami. Applied Linguistics 17(4): 477–500.



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Ministry of Education. 1995. Spanish in the New Zealand Curriculum. Wellington, New Zealand: Learning Media. Accessed 11/29/10 at http://www.minedu.govt.nz/~/media/MinEdu/Files/ EducationSectors/Schools/SpanishInTheNewZealandCurriculum.pdf (29 November 2009). Ministry of Education. 2003. The Adult ESOL Strategy. Wellington, New Zealand. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 2007. Latin America Strategy. (14 June 2008). Norton, B. 2001. Non-participation, imagined communities and the language classroom. In Learner Contributions to Language Learning, M. Breen (ed.), 159–171. Harlow: Pearson Education. Office of Ethnic Affairs. 2005. Profile of Central and South American people in New Zealand. (20 November 2007). Office of Ethnic Affairs. n.d. Portraits 2: Dialogue. Wellington, New Zealand. Padilla, F. M.€1985.€Latino Ethnic Consciousness: The Case of Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans in Chicago. Notre Dame IN: University of Notre Dame Press. Pease-Alvarez, L. 2003. Transforming perspectives on bilingual language socialisation. In Language Socialisation in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies, R. Bayley & S. R. Schecter (eds), 9–24. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. Phinney, J. S., Romero, I., Nava, M. & Huang, D. 2001. The role of language, parents, and peers in ethnic identity among adolescents in immigrant families. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 30(2): 135–153. Phinney, J. S., Berry, J. W., Sam, S. L. & Vedder, P. 2006. Understanding immigrant youth: Conclusions and implications. In Immigrant Youth in Cultural Transition. Acculturation, Identity, and Adaptation across National Contexts, J. W. Berry et al. (eds), 211–234. Mahwah Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Potowski, K. 2004. Student Spanish use and investment in a dual immersion classroom: implications for second language acquisition and heritage language maintenance. The Modern Language Journal 88(1): 75–101. Potowski, K. 2008. ‘I was raised talking like my mom’: The influence of mothers in the development of MexiRicans’ phonological and lexical features. In Linguistic Identity and Bilingualism in Different Hispanic Contexts [Studies in Bilingualism 37], M. Niño-Murcia & J.€Rothman (eds), 201–220. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Radio Luna. n.d. The Wellington Latin Quarter. (15 December, 2007). Rampton, B. 1995. Crossing. Language and Ethnicity among Adolescents. London: Longman. Rivera, M. 1997. Contra viento y marea (Against the wind and the tide). Latin American Women in New Zealand: Resettlement Experience and Issues. MA thesis, Palmerston North, Massey University. Roberts, M. L. 1999. Immigrant Language Maintenance and Shift in the Gujarati, Dutch and Samoan Communities of Wellington. PhD dissertation, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Rúa, M. 2001. Colao subjectivities: PortoMex and MexiRican perspectives on language and identity. Centro Journal 13(2): 117–133. Schecter, S. R. & Bayley, R. 1997. Language socialisation practices and cultural identity: Case studies of Mexican-descent families in California and Texas. TESOL Quarterly 31: 513–541.

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Statistics New Zealand. 2007a. QuikStats about Culture and Identity. Languages spoken. (14 May 2007). Statistics New Zealand. 2007b. QuikStats about Culture and Identity. Census 2006. (18 July 2007). Statistics New Zealand. 2007c. QuikStats about Culture and Identity. Tables. (18 July 2007). Statistics New Zealand. n.d. Facets of wealth in New Zealand. Cultural and National Identity. (9 February 2003). Vaccarino, F. & Walker, U. 2008. Fostering multiple literacies in a linguistically diverse Aotearoa New Zealand: A family biliteracy perspective. The International Journal of Learning€15(11): 89–96. Valdés, D. 2000. Bilingualism and language use among Mexican Americans. In New Immigrants in the United States, S. L. McKay & S-L. C. Wong (eds), 99–136. Cambridge: CUP. Walker, U. 2004. Language, Migration and Continuity of Being: Notions of Migrant Language Proficiency and Self-concept among Multilingual Migrants in Aotearoa/New Zealand. PhD dissertation. Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand. Watts, N., White, C. & Trlin, A. 2002. Young Migrant Settlement Experiences and Issues in New Zealand: Two Perspectives [New Settlers Programme Occasional Publication 6]. Palmerston North: New Settlers Programme, Massey University. Wilson, J. 2007. ‘Latin Americans’. Te Ara – The Encyclopedia of New Zealand. (10 December, 2007). Zentella, A. C. 1997. Growing Up Bilingual. Puerto Rican Children in New York. Oxford: Blackwell.

afterword

Migration, ethnic identity and heritage language maintenance of Spanish-speaking youth in English-speaking societies A reexamination Carol A. Klee

1.

    

“We have come to appreciate that cultures do not need to be rooted in a given place, that fragments of culture can survive in multiple places, and that cultural meanings may leap across generations and transform themselves across gaps of time.”



(Papastergiadis 2000:â•›123)

Introduction

Global migration, the movement of people across borders as a result of economic or political forces, has increased significantly over the past three decades. The United Nations (2009) reports that “[i]n 2005, the number of international migrants in the world reached almost 191 million, which was 3 per cent of the world population.” At present more people live outside their country of birth than at any other time in history. Given current demographic, economic, and political factors, migration will likely continue to increase: growing inequalities in wealth between the North and South are likely to impel increasing numbers of people to move in search of better living standards; political, environmental and demographic pressures may force many people to seek refuge outside their own countries; political or ethnic conflict in a number of regions could lead to future mass flights; and the creation of new free trade areas (Castles and Miller 2009:â•›5) will cause movements of labour […]” 

Current theories of migration (Faist 2000; Castles and Miller 2009) conceptualize it as a series of overlapping systems at three different levels: macro, micro and meso. Macro level factors include global forces, such as those mentioned

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above, and comprise political-economic-cultural structures on the level of the nation states, including immigration policy and national language policy. The micro level encompasses individual decision-making based on individual values and Â�expectancies, such as the desire to improve one’s standard of living, while the meso level refers to collectives and social networks of migrants and includes social ties (e.g, to kin), symbolic ties (e.g., membership in a particular ethnic, national, political or religious group), and transactional ties (i.e., obligations, reciprocity, and solidarity as well as information, control, and access to resources of others). Transactional ties comprise the social capital (Bourdieu 1991) used by migrants to attain their goals. While not discounting the importance of the macro and micro levels, Faist (2000) argues that an analysis of the meso level, focusing on the social and symbolic ties of migrants, will not only lead to a more complete understanding of one of the main resources of migrants – their social capital –, but can also result in better explanations as to the causes and flow of international migration. Faist points out that the flow of international migration tends to follow already established social, symbolic, and transactional ties, which would explain€– in part€– the higher percentage of Latino immigrants to the U.S., where such ties have been fortified over several generations of migrants, versus Canada, the United Kingdom (U.K.), Australia and New Zealand, where such ties are fewer in number for Latino migrants. Stronger social, symbolic, and transactional ties can ease the incorporation of transnational migrants into the host society and can result in increased possibilities of intergenerational heritage language maintenance. Portes and Rumbaut (2001:â•›46), whose studies focus on immigrants to the United States, emphasize the diversity that characterizes transnational migrants. The dimensions they examine coincide to some degree with those outlined by Faist, but rather than focusing on the causes, nature and extent of international migration, their studies focus on the experience and incorporation of immigrants and their children into U.S. society. They note that the experience of immigrants varies greatly as a result of differences along three fundamental dimensions: “(1) their individual features, including their age, education, occupational skills, wealth, and knowledge of English; (2) the social environment that receives them, including the policies of the host government, the attitudes of the general population, and the presence and size of a co-ethnic community; and (3) their family structure.” These elements shape the migrants’ experience and ultimately condition the mode of incorporation into the new society and the degree to which they and their children are able to successfully adapt. . Although Portes and Rumbaut (2001) refer strictly to the U.S. context, their categories are generalizable to other transnational contexts.



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Both Faist (2000) and Portes and Rumbaut (2001) refer to the importance of government policies towards immigrants and the languages they use. For example, the U.S. continues to be characterized by an unofficial language policy of “one language-one nation” at the national level and this has resulted in pressure toward the linguistic assimilation of immigrant groups that dates back to the end of the 19th century. In the last two decades – in large part in reaction to the growing Latino population – this unofficial language policy has been institutionalized in an increasing number of states that have passed English Only laws (28 states as of this writing) or have outlawed bilingual education programs (three states to date). Such policies can be considered a proxy for deeper political concerns, such as opposition to immigration. As stated by Salomene (2010:â•›77), “language serves as an acceptable rationale for the political majority to discriminate against or subordinate minority groups for whom language is a defining feature and marker.” As Valdés (this volume) notes, the current context in the United States is one of hostility toward Latinos, which results in increasing challenges in the intergenerational transmission of Spanish. This situation contrasts with that of some of the other receiving countries highlighted in this volume, especially eastern Canada, the U.K. and New Zealand. While New Zealand has no comprehensive language policy, official documents from the Ministry of Education recognize linguistic and cultural diversity as a source of enrichment to New Zealand’s multicultural society (Walker, this volume). Walker also notes that given the small Latin American population and its relatively high level of education, overall Latin American culture and language are viewed positively in New Zealand, unlike in the U.S. In the U.K. as well, minority languages have a social status at the community level similar to that of English (Guijarro-Fuentes and Marinis, this volume). Similarily, in the Greater Toronto Area there are generally positive attitudes toward bilingualism, and minority language services are readily provided in government, education and commercial establishments (Pérez-Leroux, Cuza and Thomas, this volume). Such positive attitudes on the part of the receiving population lessen the obstacles faced by Spanish-speaking migrants although, as will be discussed below, they€– like migrants to less welcoming societies – face challenges in transmitting Spanish to future generations. In Australia, while multiculturalism has been endorsed by the government since the late 1970s, institutional practices diverge from this rhetoric (Martín, this volume). In an overview of Australian immigration policy from 1945 to the present, Martín documents how official policy has evolved, while the low status . Guardado (this volume) reports very strong pressures to assimilate to English felt by a Guatemalan family in Vancouver; the pressure came from the schools as well as the broader society.

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of Languages Other Than English (LOTEs) and assimilationist pressure on immigrant families have remained the same, particularly in the context of the schools. In the 1990s and early years of the 21st century the government retreated from an official commitment to pluralism, which was followed by open displays of intolerance within the society at large. Martín observes that while Australian teachers no longer advise parents to speak only English to their children, the overall social climate clearly has an effect on immigrants’ language choices. The lack of societal support for the maintenance of heritage languages intensifies the considerable challenges faced by Spanish-speaking migrants who seek to transmit Spanish to their children in a society in which they represent less than 1% of the population (Gibbons and Ramírez 2004:â•›72).

2.

The role of schools in Spanish language maintenance and shift

As Martín points out, language policies – whether official or not – and language ideologies are commonly reinforced in schools. Salomone (2010:â•›82) describes the importance of language issues in the schools in the following terms: “[l]anguage is the most visible and palpable personal attribute over which schools have significant authority and control, and over which there remains unending controversy precisely for its cultural value and its political force.” Many of the contributions to this volume provide detailed analyses of the ways in which schools have reinforced assimilationist policies or, even when attitudes toward bilingualism are positive, have not supported heritage language maintenance. In the context of the United States, where one-fifth of all 5 to 17 year-old students are Latinos (García, this volume), monolingual English-in-education policies currently predominate in public schools. An example of the enforcement of English-in-education policy is presented by Reyes (this volume). She contrasts the strategies used by Latino parents in Tucson, Arizona, who were eager to promote their children’s bilingualism, with their children’s preschool teacher’s classroom language use. Although the teacher was bilingual and voiced support for parents’ efforts to develop their children’s bilingualism, she used English as the primary language of instruction and did not encourage the development of the children’s literacy in Spanish in her classroom. Although many classroom contexts in U.S. schools reinforce assimilationist policies that lead to loss of the heritage language, such as the one examined by Reyes, García (this volume) describes a type of education program – “dual language” or “two-way immersion” programs – that has opened spaces of resistance to the dominant monolingual policy. In these programs the continuing development of Spanish and English are valued in both heritage speakers of Spanish and



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in native speakers of English, and such programs promote, what García terms, “translanguaging” or the construction of hybrid language practices and dynamic bilingual identities. These programs, which have been increasing in number throughout the U.S., primarily at the elementary level, provide support for heritage language development, although by themselves they are not sufficient, as will be discussed below. In her chapter Valdés traces the bilingual trajectory of her two granddaughters, Marisa and Adriana, who are third generation Latinas, and problematizes the role of the American educational system in the cross-generational maintenance and development of minority languages. Because third-generation immigrants have less exposure to the minority language both at home and within the community than first or second generation immigrants, the direct involvement of educational institutions is essential if they are to have the opportunity to develop their competence in Spanish for personal as well as professional purposes. Although Marisa and Adriana participated in a two-way immersion program at the elementary level, Valdés notes that Marisa, who was considered to be an Anglo by the Latino girls in the program, was addressed primarily in English by her classmates and thus did not receive the full benefits of the dual-immersion program. In the private middle school the two girls attended they were able to enroll in Spanish for heritage speaker classes and maintain their reading and writing skills in Spanish. Valdés observes that while their Spanish is adequate for participation in whole-class interactions controlled by the teacher, they may be less successful in extended one-on-one or small group interactions with first generation speakers of Spanish. At the high school level the options for continuing study of Spanish are limited to courses for foreign language learners, rather than for heritage speakers, and Valdés worries that the focus on accuracy and conscious knowledge of grammar rules may discourage her granddaughters, rather than support their continuing development of Spanish. The lack of appropriate options following dual language instruction at the elementary (as well as middle) school level is quite common and limits the continued development of the heritage language. Clearly more sustained sequences of language instruction are needed; dual immersion should not stop at the end of the fifth grade if heritage language maintenance and L2 acquisition in non-Spanish speaking children are to be supported. Valdés stresses the important role that the American educational system has to play in the maintenance of heritage languages, but advocates starting not with national policies, but rather with support for local activities that lead to a strengthening of efforts to maintain heritage languages both within the communities and at all levels within the schools. The concerns and difficulties in maintaining a heritage language detailed by Valdés are reiterated by contributors to this volume who conduct research outside

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the U.S. Guardado (this volume) describes the marginalization felt by a family from Guatemala that had migrated to Western Canada. The parents expressed a very strong commitment to the transmission of Spanish and used it exclusively in all family communication. In addition, they emphasized and promoted the development of their daughter’s literacy skills in Spanish. However, they found little support for their efforts in the schools their daughters attended. Although the Vancouver School Board website encourages parents to read to their children in their native language, multicultural workers and teachers in their daughter’s school advised parents not to speak to their children in Spanish, stressing the fact that English was the official language and the children were being educated in Canadian culture. The parents’ attention to issues of heritage language literacy and the development of a positive L1 identity in their daughters received no support from the school, nor the community. In the Australian context Martín (this volume) provides evidence through interviews of migrants that on multiple occasions teachers or school authorities advised parents to speak to their children in English at home so as not to slow their progress at school, even when official language policy promoted the use of minority languages. Such pressure from teachers is not unique to the Australian or Canadian contexts. Richard Rodríguez (1982) in Hunger of Memory provides a poignant description of the effects of such advice on interactions in his family following their immigration to the U.S. from Mexico in the mid-twentieth century. In other contexts where there is some official support for multilingualism, such as within the Ministry of Education in New Zealand, heritage language retention can be quite difficult given the predominance and ubiquitous presence of English in the schools and in the society at large, together with the general lack of cultural capital of minority languages.

3.

The role of the community in Spanish language maintenance and shift

Portes and Rumbaut claim that “selective acculturation,” which is associated with a relative lack of intergenerational conflict and the attainment of full bilingualism in the second generation, leads to the most beneficial outcomes for immigrants and their children. However, in spite of the benefits of selective acculturation, Portes and Rumbaut (2001) note that in their sample of second-generation immigrant youth in the United States, heritage language maintenance is exceptional; among non-Latino students in their study 85% are English monolinguals or have limited fluency in their heritage language. Although the percentage of heritage language maintenance is higher among Latino youth, only 40% of the Latinos in their sample speak Spanish fluently, along with English. Â� Rumbaut,



Afterword 361

Massey and Bean (2006) in their study of immigrant language retention in southern California find that Mexicans retain their heritage language longer than other immigrant groups, including Chinese, Filipino, Korean, Vietnamese, and White Europeans, which is not surprising given the density and long history of Spanish speakers in the region. However, even among the Mexican population in southern California, only 17% of third generation immigrants speak fluent Spanish; by the 4th generation the percentage drops to 5%. The authors conclude that the U.S. maintains its reputation as a “graveyard” for languages and that by the third generation the pattern for Mexicans converges with that of White Europeans with almost complete language shift to English. Based on their research, heritage language maintenance is clearly the exception rather than the rule in the U.S. context. This was recently illustrated for the top 12 non-English languages spoken in the U.S. in Potowski (2010). Given the lack of support for intergenerational language transmission in most schools in English-speaking societies, generally it is the immigrant families and communities alone that are responsible for heritage Spanish maintenance, a fact reinforced by many of the studies in this volume. For example, the Guatemalan family in Western Canada described by Guardado was successful in transmitting Spanish language and literacy skills to their daughters. Their persistence in the face of the challenges and resistance they encountered enabled their daughters to acquire the Spanish language and a bicultural identity. Jones-Díaz (this volume) documents the important role of the family, cultural community events, Latino popular culture and an after-school Spanish Community Language School, La Escuelita, all key sources of social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1991), which helped to legitimize Spanish and Spanish language learning. La Escuelita, in particular, was pivotal in generating cultural and linguistic capital that assisted Latino children in the retention and extension of Spanish in Sydney, Australia. In New Zealand as well, the existence of Latin American clubs or associations and Spanish-speaking networks plays an important role in the continued use of Spanish by Latin American immigrants and their children (Walker, this volume). The positive societal attitudes toward Spanish and Hispanic culture provide support for families and community organizations to engage in cultural practices, which promote the use of Spanish and also allow second generation immigrants to construct a Latino identity, including those who have little proficiency in Spanish. Although there are immense challenges in maintaining Spanish in Englishspeaking contexts without the support of the schools, meso level factors (Faist 2000) – i.e., the social, symbolic and transactional ties of immigrants – are important resources to support language maintenance and cultural identity.

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4. Challenges in Spanish language maintenance: Spanish language attrition and incomplete acquisition Sustained and intimate contact with English on a daily basis brings about changes in Spanish, including that of first generation immigrants. Several studies in this volume document such changes, both in the language of adults and in that of Spanish-speaking youth. For example, Cazzoli-Goeta and Young-Scholten find differences in the Spanish of immigrants to the U.K. who have high vs. low English contact. Through an examination of sentence-initial non-nominative noun phrases in Spanish, they find that high English contact speakers’ preference for nominative subjects increases with U.K. residence and there is a categorical difference in acceptance of ungrammatical options with increased English contact. Their study makes clear that attrition occurs even among first-generation speakers within the first five years of residence in an English-speaking country. The effects are particularly salient in the Spanish of immigrants who are employed in low-skilled occupations and lack continued contact with Spanish through reading. Because of the relatively small number of Spanish-speakers in the U.K. and the inherent difficulties of transmitting Spanish intergenerationally without the support of Spanish-speaking communities, the authors do not expect that these changes will be transmitted to the next generation. Variation from monolingual norms is common in the Spanish of bilingual children. Guijarro-Fuentes and Marinis (this volume) find that bilingual children in the U.K. were less accurate than monolingual Spanish children in Spain in regards to their use of the personal preposition a. However, there was no relationship between their linguistic performance and the degree of bilingualism and external factors, such as the amount of Spanish input in the home. Pérez-Leroux, Cuza and Thomas (this volume) also note that bilinguals in minority language communities tend not to develop full competence in both languages due in large part to insufficient exposure to the home language. They find that simultaneous bilingual children tend to be less dominant in Spanish than sequential bilinguals, who are usually first exposed to English when they begin school, although there are no differences between the two groups in terms of measures of productivity and complexity in English. Thus, less input and opportunity for interactions in Spanish in a wide range of registers result in changes in the L1 Spanish of adult immigrants and lead to incomplete acquisition in the Spanish of children. For both Spanish-speaking adults and children in English-speaking societies, language and identity both evolve and change in the new context.



Afterword 363

5. The role of the family: Challenges of intergenerational language€transmission The difficulties faced by Spanish-speaking parents in English-speaking contexts, who hope to transmit their heritage language to their children, seem to be similar regardless of the country to which they migrate. There is evidence, however, that parental choices and attitudes can make a significant difference in the creation of conditions that support Spanish language maintenance in their children as documented by Pérez-Leroux, Cuza and Thomas (this volume). These authors conclude that the language practices engaged in at home are the crucial determinants of successful transmission of Spanish. One caveat is necessary: the children participants in their study were quite young, ages 3 to 8:4 and their language use preferences and identities will continue to evolve as they mature. As Pérez-Leroux et al. point out, the children have begun to develop a language orientation that is unrelated to parental attitudes toward bilingualism and toward Spanish; children’s responses already indicate a language orientation toward English. In regards to Spanish language transmission beyond the first and second generations, Valdés (this volume) details the extraordinary challenges of maintaining and developing the minority language in third generation youth given the pervasive presence of English in the children’s daily lives – both at home and in the community – and the lesser prestige and currency attributed to Spanish. She also describes the difficulties in supporting the development of Latino identity in third generation youth. Spanish-speaking youth confront the difficult task of defining their identity in English-speaking societies, in which dual cultural and ethnic membership may not be viewed favorably.

6.

Ethnolinguistic identity

Global migration has resulted in a renewed exploration of established notions of identity and belonging by social scientists and humanists in the late 20th–early 21st centuries. Current conceptualizations of identity acknowledge that it is fluid, negotiated, performed, socially constructed and hybrid (Block 2007, Butler 1999, Papastergiadis 2000). Block (2007:â•›27) summarizes the poststructuralist approach to identity as follows: Identities are about negotiating new subject positions at the crossroads of the past, present and future. Individuals are shaped by their sociohistories but they also shape their sociohistories as life goes on. The entire process is conflictive

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as opposed to harmonious and individuals often feel ambivalent. There are unequal power relations to deal with, around the different capitals – economic, cultural and social – that both facilitate and constrain interactions with others in the different communities of practice with which individuals engage in their lifetimes. Finally identities are related to different traditionally demographic categories such as ethnicity, race, nationality, migration, gender, social class and language.

Language is a central component in the articulation and construction of identity, as noted by Romaine. However, the connection between language and identity can be complex within Latino populations in English-speaking societies. On the one hand, it can result in the creation of new ways of speaking, such as Spanglish, that become markers of in-group identity and solidarity (Poplack 1982; Zentella 1997; Lipski 2008 among others). On the other hand, Spanish language maintenance is not always considered a fundamental part of Latino identity within the Latino community itself (Attinasi 1985; Zentella 1997; Pease-Alvarez 2002; Potowski and Matts 2008; Rivera-Mills 2000). Third- and fourth-generation Latinos who have not acquired Spanish continue to be regarded as community members. The opposite can be true as well. As Valdés points out, knowledge of Spanish alone does not necessarily result in the development a bicultural ethnolinguistic identity in third generation Latinos. Latino youth, in particular, face complex issues as they construct an ethnolinguistic identity within an English-speaking society. One way to conceptualize the language issues that heritage speakers confront is to formulate them in terms of the following notions proposed by Leung, Harris and Rampton (1997:â•›555): language expertise, i.e. proficiency in a given language; language affiliation, i.e. the attachment or identification felt for a language regardless of ethnic ties to the social group generally associated with it; and language inheritance, i.e. family ties to a language, whether or not an individual claims expertise in or affiliation to that language. Latino youth clearly have Spanish language inheritance but may, or may not, have language expertise in Spanish (and if they do, their levels of expertise vary greatly) and they may have a high or weak degree of affiliation toward their heritage language. Needless to say, language identities, like other types of identity, can change over the course of a lifetime. Guardado observes that a strong L1 identity (i.e. language affiliation) can be a critical factor in L1 maintenance and describes in detail one family’s attempt to cultivate, after migrating to western Canada, not only strong Spanish language skills, but also a strong ethnic identity in their children. The parents saw Spanish maintenance as a pivotal factor in the development of their children’s identities and, in spite of the lack of support they received from the schools and the society as a whole, were successful in transmitting the heritage language, as well as their



Afterword 365

cultural roots and values, to their daughters. Guardado acknowledges that as the children grow older, they will likely not claim an English or a Spanish identity, but rather a hybrid one. Poyatos Matas and Cuatro Nochez (this volume) document the difficulties young Salvadorian immigrants to Australia experience in the schools. Those who do not speak English experience social isolation, as well as feelings of fear and anxiety, which leads in many cases to a sense of cultural and social disconnection from the host country. Their experiences as newly arrived immigrants in Australian schools played an important role in the definition of their ethnolinguistic social identity. Those who had positive experiences at school and received support from teachers and other students “were more likely to have developed a positive cultural identification with being Australian or Australian-Hispanic. Conversely, those participants who lacked transitional resources or had traumatic early socialization experiences due to their lack of English were more likely to have developed a sense of identity that was Salvadorian or Hispanic focused.” For the creation of a bicultural ethnolinguistic identity, which requires language affiliation with both the heritage language and the L2, support and positive socialization experiences following immigration can be pivotal. In New Zealand, Spanish serves as marker of personal and group identity and reinforces a connection with the Latino community, which provides a resource for shared practices and social networks in which Spanish is used (Walker, this volume). In addition, Spanish language input and the cultural connection provided through Latin American music seems to be an important factor in promoting Spanish language maintenance and, especially in imparting a Latin American identity to second generation immigrants. Even when the Spanish proficiency level of second generation children is low, music as well as Latino family traditions provide a connection to Latin American culture and help them construct a Latino identity. Clearly, the maintenance of Latin American cultural traditions, including music, in English-speaking societies can provide support for the development of Latino identity. The evolution of one such tradition, the quinceañera, in the U.S. context is described by Potowski and Gorman (this volume). The cultural hybridity of this tradition in the U.S. allows young first and second generation Latinas to hold on to their roots, while at the same time performing new identities. Most of the quinceañera celebrations combined traditional elements (e.g. mass, dress, corte, padrinos, food, music) with newer (videography, limos) and U.S.-based elements (food, music, color of the dress). In terms of Spanish language use, Potowksi and Gorman found that quinceañeras seem to both bolster and reflect Spanish language use. There were also signs that third and fourth generation Latinas may either forego quinceañeras or substantially modify them, for example, through the exclusive use of English.

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The studies in this volume provide evidence that while cultural traditions change and adapt in the new context, they also provide continuity and can function as “an anchor between two cultures” (Davalos 1996:â•›123), strengthening connections with family and the Latino community and helping Latino youth develop language affiliation, even in cases where their language expertise is minimal.

7.

Final thoughts

It is clear from the studies in this volume that many first- and second-generation Latino parents are eager for their children not only to maintain a sense of heritage cultural identity, but also to become fluent speakers of their heritage language. What is also clear are the extraordinary challenges inherent in attaining these goals in English-speaking societies, even in countries where multilingualism is viewed favorably. Given the pervasive presence of English in everyday life, especially once children begin school, and the English-in-education policies that predominate in schools, intergenerational transmission of Spanish is quite difficult beyond the second generation in all five of the societies that were examined in this volume. There is some room for optimism, however. Middle-class immigrant communities generally support intergenerational bilingualism with private resources to fund community language schools and cultural events, and such community efforts can be important sources of support for heritage language maintenance (e.g. Jones-Díaz; Walker). Such efforts should be encouraged by the host communities. As described by García, dual immersion programs can provide space for “translanguaging” and for the development of children’s bilingual and bicultural identities. As the number of dual immersion programs continues to grow in the U.S., more attention is needed to the development of programs at the middle and high school levels to allow students to continue their language development. In addition, Romaine (this volume) observes that the possibilities for maintaining heritage languages have increased due to more abundant opportunities for travel to the countries of origin than in previous generations of migrants, new access to on-line media in the heritage language, and computer-mediated communication with friends and relatives in the countries of origin. She asserts that by reformulating traditional identities as transnational, perhaps the traditional assimilative policies of nation-states can be resisted and heritage languages can be maintained. Her perspective is similar to that of Papastergiadis (2000:â•›123), cited at the beginning of this chapter: “fragments of culture can survive in multiple places, and […] cultural meanings may leap across generations and transform themselves across gaps of time.” The intergenerational maintenance of Spanish in



Afterword 367

English-speaking societies, if it extends beyond the third generation, will likely involve not only “translanguaging,” but also hybrid forms of cultural identity, as Spanish-speaking youth negotiate, perform and transform their identities within an increasingly global context.

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368 Carol A. Klee

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Index

A Assimilationist  16, 286–287, 289, 291, 299–301, 303–304, 358 Attitudes  4, 10, 14, 18, 21, 89–90, 92, 94, 96, 137, 152–156, 158, 161–163, 165–171, 177, 179–180, 182, 188, 191–193, 229, 244, 252, 254, 257, 260–261, 284, 286–287, 290–293, 299, 301–304, 323, 334, 344, 349, 351, 356–358, 361, 363 Attrition  153, 172–173, 201–204, 220, 222–223, 225–226, 228, 242–243, 245–247, 362 Aural preference task  215, 217 Australia  3, 9, 12, 17–19, 152, 256, 258–259, 261, 267, 269–270, 272, 274, 277–278, 283–305, 309–311, 313–316, 320, 322– 330, 341, 356–357, 361, 365 B Belonging  17–18, 24–25, 29, 38, 66, 114, 136, 139, 198, 272, 293, 315, 329, 331, 344, 346, 363 Bilingual education  29, 33–34, 37–39, 41, 44, 54–55, 101, 109–111, 119–121, 144–145, 224, 254, 280, 333, 338, 357 Bilingualism, dynamic  3–5,   20–21, 33, 35–38, 40–44, 47–49, 53–54, 66, 89–92, 94, 96, 98, 102–107, 113–115, 120, 123–124, 128, 130, 132–133, 142, 149–152, 154–158, 162–163, 166–168, 191, 194–195, 227– 230, 234–235, 242–243, 251– 254, 285, 313, 325, 333, 348–350, 357–358, 360, 362–363, 366 Biliteracy  34, 89–91, 96, 98, 102–107, 109–111, 193, 196, 333, 348, 354

Bridging classes  300, 302–303 British English  227, 231, 245 C Case studies  315, 342, 344 case study  61, 195, 258–260, 285, 315 Catholic  27, 59, 61, 64, 77, 311 Citizenship  15–18, 24–25, 189, 192, 311, 352 Community  10–11, 14, 19, 21, 36, 39, 61–64, 67, 76, 89–90, 92–94, 96–97, 99–103, 105–106, 117–120, 122, 129, 133, 136, 142–143, 149–150, 155–157, 162–163, 166, 168, 170–171, 179, 183, 189, 192, 201–202, 212, 234, 243–244, 251, 256, 258–259, 261, 263, 266, 268, 278, 285, 287–288, 297, 303, 315, 323, 326–328, 331–332, 334, 338–339, 342, 344–345, 347–349, 356–357, 359–361, 363–366 Community resources  118, 122 Continuity  14, 20, 86, 164, 196, 331–332, 336, 338–339, 341, 349, 366 Critical family literacy  192 Cultural capital  254–255, 258, 268–272, 277–278, 343, 360–361 Culture  4, 9–13, 15–20, 22–26, 38, 58, 63–64, 73–74, 78–79, 81, 84–85, 89, 95, 97, 115, 137, 153, 157, 178, 181–190, 192, 229, 244, 254, 257, 261, 264, 266, 268, 270–271, 274, 277–278, 301, 312–313, 323–325, 332, 334–335, 340–341, 345–347, 349–350, 355, 357, 360–361, 365–366

D Dispositions  152, 192, 194, 251–252, 255–257, 261, 263– 265, 277–278, 340 E Educational setting  283 Embodied capital  271, 277–278 English as a second language (ESL)  37, 50, 103, 254, 287– 288, 291, 298, 300, 320, 323 Ethnic identity performance    57, 85 Ethnography  94 Ethnolinguistic identity theory 312 F First-generation immigrants    85, 90, 105-106, 117 G Gender  7, 14, 26, 61, 65, 70, 84–86, 131, 139, 151, 285, 364 Globalization  7–8, 18, 24–25, 27–28, 43, 271, 309 H Hegemony  14, 22, 177, 184, 302 Heritage language  91–92, 102, 106, 114, 119–120, 128, 143, 151, 171, 189, 195, 201–202, 228, 231, 271, 313–314, 322–325, 333–334, 339–341, 348,   355–356, 358–361, 363–366 Heritage language maintenance  201, 322, 356, 358–361, 366 Heteroglossia  33, 40-44 Home language practices  50, 149, 157, 164, 171, 175, 196, 253 Hybridized  21, 83

370 Bilingual Youth

I Identity  7–28, 34, 37, 42, 57, 63–67, 71–73, 81–85, 113–115, 122, 135–136, 139–140, 150, 152–155, 177–179, 182, 185–194, 228–229, 244–245, 251–254, 259–260, 264–265, 270, 272, 274, 277–278, 283, 291, 293–294, 297, 301, 304–305, 312–313, 316–317, 320, 322–323, 338–340, 342–347, 349–350, 360–367 Immersion programs (also dual or two-way immersion)   6, 34, 38, 121, 124–127, 135–138, 140–141, 359, 366 Immigration policy    294, 356–357 Incomplete acquisition    151–152, 202, 243, 362 Input  92, 149–151, 154, 170, 201, 204, 223, 230–231, 236, 240, 243–244, 345, 362, 365 Intergenerational  4, 113, 117, 154, 333, 340, 342, 344, 350, 356–357, 360–361, 363, 366 Intergenerational language transmission  361, 363 Italian-Americans  22–23 J John Howard  294, 299–300 Julia Álvarez  57, 61 Alvarez  21, 30, 57–58, 60–65, 67, 73, 75, 80–81, 85, 178, 193, 338, 341, 345, 350, 364 K Kindergarten  33–35, 39, 41–42, 44–46, 51–52, 54, 97, 99, 104, 108, 116, 124–125, 186, 347 L Language choice  69, 95,   97, 157–158, 163, 227, 229,   243 Language dominance  40, 150, 154, 158–160, 165, 167, 169, 229, 231, 244 Language ideologies 91, 94–95, 105, 358

Language ideology  94–95, 102, 198 Language ideologies, socialization and maintenance 91, 94–95, 105, 358 Language maintenance  7, 9,   21, 79, 86, 89, 102–104, 113, 115, 117, 144, 149–150, 152–153, 155, 171, 177–178, 188, 190–191, 193–194, 201, 229, 253, 283, 285, 288, 298, 303–304, 314, 322, 330, 355–356, 358–366 Language policy  169, 297–298, 300, 331–332, 356–357, 360 Language shift  5, 10–11, 21, 36–37, 65–66, 107, 115, 142, 202–203, 252, 333, 341, 361 Language socialization   92, 95, 107, 122, 178–180, 185, 187–188, 247 Language transmission    150, 152, 154–155, 169, 189, 361, 363 Language-in-education policy 36–38, 142 Languages other than English 278, 286, 294, 315, 333, 358 LOTEs  286–287, 295, 301, 303, 358 Latinidad  38, 336 Linguistic habitus  251, 256–258, 261, 266–268, 277–278 Linguistic markets  257–258, 261, 266–268, 271, 278 Linguistic market  20, 258, 267, 269, 277–278 Linguistic minority children   121, 195, 313, 325 LMC  313, 326 M Mayan  177, 181, 189, 194 Mexican  48, 53, 58–61, 64, 66–68, 70, 74, 77, 81–82, 84, 89–91, 94–97, 105–108, 115, 123, 129, 153, 178, 253, 301, 338–339, 361 Migration  7–8, 14, 17–18, 20, 22, 25, 68, 136, 203, 259, 287, 291, 309–311, 316–317, 324, 334, 356, 363–364

Multiculturalism  283, 290, 293–294, 296–297, 299–301, 304–305, 357 Multilingualism  3, 7–8, 13, 20, 22, 24, 28, 155, 166, 188, 313, 326, 360, 366 N New York  10, 14, 33–34, 39, 65–67, 93, 105, 153, 300 Non-nominative subjects  211 P Padrinos  60, 71, 74, 76, 365 Picture description task    215, 217–218, 222 Preschool children  98, 104, 107–108 Psych verbs  207 Q Quinceañera  57–85, 365, 367 Quirky subjects  211, 222 R Resistance  4, 23, 38, 187, 289, 292–293, 302, 340–341, 358, 361 Retrospective migration histories  316 S Salvadorian(s)  298, 301–303, 309, 311, 316–317, 322–323, 326–327, 365 Schools  14, 35, 38, 44–45, 57, 69, 99, 109, 113–115, 118, 120, 122, 127, 142–143, 155, 185–186, 191– 192, 230, 235–236, 254, 259, 261, 271–272, 278, 284, 286, 288, 291–296, 298, 300–301, 303, 309, 315, 318–321, 323– 326, 357–361, 364–366 Social capital  95, 251, 256, 261, 268–269, 356 Social field  254, 257–259, 261, 264–266, 268, 271 T Third generation  22, 64–65, 114, 117, 119–120, 122, 137, 142–143, 359, 361, 363–364, 367



Toronto  150, 155–156, 162, 166, 168–169, 171, 357 Traditions  7, 20, 26, 58, 60, 62–63, 73, 85, 90, 182, 338, 341, 347, 365–366 Transfer  105, 149, 151, 254, 293, 296, 350

Index 371

Translanguaging  33–35, 42, 44–54, 359, 366–367 Transnational communities  310 Two-way bilingual education   34, 38–39, 41, 121

U Ungrammaticality  208, 217, 221 V Vulnerability  239, 242

In the series Studies in Bilingualism (SiBil) the following titles have been published thus far or are scheduled for publication: 43 SCHMID, Monika S. and Wander LOWIE (eds.): Modeling Bilingualism. From Structure to Chaos. In Honor of Kees de Bot. 2011. vii, 304 pp. + index. 42 POTOWSKI, Kim and Jason ROTHMAN (eds.): Bilingual Youth. Spanish in English-speaking societies. vi, 371 pp. 41 ISURIN, Ludmila, Donald WINFORD and Kees de BOT (eds.): Multidisciplinary Approaches to Code Switching. 2009. xviii, 364 pp. 40 PARADIS, Michel: Declarative and Procedural Determinants of Second Languages. 2009. xii, 219 pp. 39 MONTRUL, Silvina A.: Incomplete Acquisition in Bilingualism. Re-examining the Age Factor. 2008. x, 312 pp. 38 PLAZA-PUST, Carolina and Esperanza MORALES-LÓPEZ (eds.): Sign Bilingualism. Language development, interaction, and maintenance in sign language contact situations. 2008. xvi, 389 pp. 37 NIÑO-MURCIA, Mercedes and Jason ROTHMAN (eds.): Bilingualism and Identity. Spanish at the crossroads with other languages. 2008. vii, 365 pp. 36 HANSEN EDWARDS, Jette G. and Mary L. ZAMPINI (eds.): Phonology and Second Language Acquisition. 2008. vi, 380 pp. 35 ROCCA, Sonia: Child Second Language Acquisition. A bi-directional study of English and Italian tenseaspect morphology. 2007. xvi, 240 pp. 34 KOVEN, Michèle: Selves in Two Languages. Bilinguals’ verbal enactments of identity in French and Portuguese. 2007. xi, 327 pp. 33 KÖPKE, Barbara, Monika S. SCHMID, Merel KEIJZER and Susan DOSTERT (eds.): Language Attrition. Theoretical perspectives. 2007. viii, 258 pp. 32 KONDO-BROWN, Kimi (ed.): Heritage Language Development. Focus on East Asian Immigrants. 2006. x, 282 pp. 31 BAPTISTA, Barbara O. and Michael Alan WATKINS (eds.): English with a Latin Beat. Studies in Portuguese/Spanish – English Interphonology. 2006. vi, 214 pp. 30 PIENEMANN, Manfred (ed.): Cross-Linguistic Aspects of Processability Theory. 2005. xiv, 303 pp. 29 AYOUN, Dalila and M. Rafael SALABERRY (eds.): Tense and Aspect in Romance Languages. Theoretical and applied perspectives. 2005. x, 318 pp. 28 SCHMID, Monika S., Barbara KÖPKE, Merel KEIJZER and Lina WEILEMAR (eds.): First Language Attrition. Interdisciplinary perspectives on methodological issues. 2004. x, 378 pp. 27 CALLAHAN, Laura: Spanish/English Codeswitching in a Written Corpus. 2004. viii, 183 pp. 26 DIMROTH, Christine and Marianne STARREN (eds.): Information Structure and the Dynamics of Language Acquisition. 2003. vi, 361 pp. 25 PILLER, Ingrid: Bilingual Couples Talk. The discursive construction of hybridity. 2002. xii, 315 pp. 24 SCHMID, Monika S.: First Language Attrition, Use and Maintenance. The case of German Jews in anglophone countries. 2002. xiv, 259 pp. (incl. CD-rom). 23 VERHOEVEN, Ludo and Sven STRÖMQVIST (eds.): Narrative Development in a Multilingual Context. 2001. viii, 431 pp. 22 SALABERRY, M. Rafael: The Development of Past Tense Morphology in L2 Spanish. 2001. xii, 211 pp. 21 DÖPKE, Susanne (ed.): Cross-Linguistic Structures in Simultaneous Bilingualism. 2001. x, 258 pp. 20 POULISSE, Nanda: Slips of the Tongue. Speech errors in first and second language production. 1999. xvi, 257 pp. 19 AMARA, Muhammad Hasan: Politics and Sociolinguistic Reflexes. Palestinian border villages. 1999. xx, 261 pp. 18 PARADIS, Michel: A Neurolinguistic Theory of Bilingualism. 2004. viii, 299 pp. 17 ELLIS, Rod: Learning a Second Language through Interaction. 1999. x, 285 pp. 16 HUEBNER, Thom and Kathryn A. DAVIS (eds.): Sociopolitical Perspectives on Language Policy and Planning in the USA. With the assistance of Joseph Lo Bianco. 1999. xvi, 365 pp. 15 PIENEMANN, Manfred: Language Processing and Second Language Development. Processability theory. 1998. xviii, 367 pp. 14 YOUNG, Richard and Agnes Weiyun HE (eds.): Talking and Testing. Discourse approaches to the assessment of oral proficiency. 1998. x, 395 pp.

13 HOLLOWAY, Charles E.: Dialect Death. The case of Brule Spanish. 1997. x, 220 pp. 12 HALMARI, Helena: Government and Codeswitching. Explaining American Finnish. 1997. xvi, 276 pp. 11 BECKER, Angelika and Mary CARROLL: The Acquisition of Spatial Relations in a Second Language. In cooperation with Jorge Giacobbe, Clive Perdue and Rémi Porquiez. 1997. xii, 212 pp. 10 BAYLEY, Robert and Dennis R. PRESTON (eds.): Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Variation. 1996. xix, 317 pp. 9 FREED, Barbara F. (ed.): Second Language Acquisition in a Study Abroad Context. 1995. xiv, 345 pp. 8 DAVIS, Kathryn A.: Language Planning in Multilingual Contexts. Policies, communities, and schools in Luxembourg. 1994. xix, 220 pp. 7 DIETRICH, Rainer, Wolfgang KLEIN and Colette NOYAU: The Acquisition of Temporality in a Second Language. In cooperation with Josée Coenen, Beatriz Dorriots, Korrie van Helvert, Henriette Hendriks, Et-Tayeb Houdaïfa, Clive Perdue, Sören Sjöström, Marie-Thérèse Vasseur and Kaarlo Voionmaa. 1995. xii, 288 pp. 6 SCHREUDER, Robert and Bert WELTENS (eds.): The Bilingual Lexicon. 1993. viii, 307 pp. 5 KLEIN, Wolfgang and Clive PERDUE: Utterance Structure. Developing grammars again. In cooperation with Mary Carroll, Josée Coenen, José Deulofeu, Thom Huebner and Anne Trévise. 1992. xvi, 354 pp. 4 PAULSTON, Christina Bratt: Linguistic Minorities in Multilingual Settings. Implications for language policies. 1994. xi, 136 pp. 3 DÖPKE, Susanne: One Parent – One Language. An interactional approach. 1992. xviii, 213 pp. 2 BOT, Kees de, Ralph B. GINSBERG and Claire KRAMSCH (eds.): Foreign Language Research in CrossCultural Perspective. 1991. xii, 275 pp. 1 FASE, Willem, Koen JASPAERT and Sjaak KROON (eds.): Maintenance and Loss of Minority Languages. 1992. xii, 403 pp.