Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies (Bilingual Education & Bilingualism) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1853596361 ISBN 13: 9781853596360

Publisher: Multilingual Matters, 2003

Synopsis

Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies is a multidisciplinary, multinational collection of essays that explore language socialization from very early childhood through adulthood, not only in oftenstudied communities in Canada and the United States, but also in Australia, Bolivia, Egypt, India and Slovakia. The global perspective gained by the inclusion of studies of communities representing every inhabited continent provides readers with an indication of the richness of the field as well as a guide for future work. The book includes chapters focusing on language socialization at different stages of the lifespan – at home and in schools, communities and workplaces. Authors focus on well-known communities, such as Mexican-Americans in the United States and Francophones in Canada, as well as on communities that are less familiar to many readers, such as the Aymara in Bolivia, the Inuit in northern Québec and minority Hungarians in Slovakia. The breadth and theoretical sophistication of this volume make it a suitable text for upper-division and graduate courses in bilingualism, language education and sociolinguistics.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Bayley is Professor of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he specializes in sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. He is co-author of Sociolinguistic Variation in American Sign Language (Gallaudet UP, 2001) and Language as Cultural Practice (Erlbaum, 2002).

Sandra R. Schecter is Associate Professor of Education and Women’s Studies at York University in Toronto, where she teaches courses in language pedagogy, communication and research methods. An ethnolinguist, she is co-author of Language as Cultural Practice (Erlbaum, 2002) and co-editor of On Becoming a Language Educator (Erlbaum, 1997).

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies

By Robert Bayley, Sandra R. Schecter

Multilingual Matters

Copyright © 2003 Robert Bayley, Sandra R. Schecter and the authors of individual chapters
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-85359-636-0

Contents

Contributors, vii, 
Preface and Acknowledgments, xi, 
Introduction: Toward a Dynamic Model of Language Socialization Robert Bayley and Sandra R. Schecter, 1, 
Part 1: Language Socialization at Home, 
1 Transforming Perspectives on Bilingual Language Socialization Lucinda Pease-Alvarez, 9, 
2 Weaving Languages Together: Family Language Policy and Gender Socialization in Bilingual Aymara Households Aurolyn Luykx, 25, 
3 Collaborative Literacy in a Mexican Immigrant Household: The Role of Sibling Mediators in the Socialization of Pre-School Learners María de la Piedra and Harriett D. Romo, 44, 
4 Growing up Trilingual in Montreal: Perceptions of College Students Patricia Lamarre, in collaboration with Josefina Rossell Paredes, 62, 
Part 2: Language Socialization at School, 
5 Representational Practices and Multi-modal Communication in US High Schools: Implications for Adolescent Immigrants Linda Harklau, 83, 
6 Engaging in an Authentic Science Project: Appropriating, Resisting, and Denying "Scientific" Identities Kim Marie Cole and Jane Zuengler, 98, 
7 Interrupted by Silences: The Contemporary Education of Hong Kong-born Chinese Canadians Gordon Pon, Tara Goldstein and Sandra R. Schecter, 114, 
8 Novices and Their Speech Roles in Chinese Heritage Language Classes Agnes Weiyun He, 128, 
9 Language Socialization and Dys-socialization in a South Indian College Dwight Atkinson, 147, 
Part 3: Language Socialization in Communities & Peer Groups, 
10 Language Socialization and Second Language Acquisition in a Multilingual Arctic Quebec Community Donna Patrick, 165, 
11 Growing a Bdnyavirdg (Rock Crystal) on Barren Soil: Forming a Hungarian Identity in Eastern Slovakia through Joint (Inter)action Juliet Langman, 182, 
12 Multiliteracies in Springvale: Negotiating Language, Culture and Identity in Suburban Melbourne Heather Lotherington, 200, 
13 Terms of Desire: Are There Lesbians in Egypt? Didi Khayatt, 218, 
Part 4: Language Socialization in the Workplace, 
14 Language Dynamics in the Bi- and Multilingual Workplace Christopher McAll, 235, 
15 Back to School: Learning Practices in a Job Retraining Community Jill Sinclair Bell, 251, 
16 Bilingualism and Standardization in a Canadian Call Center: Challenges for a Linguistic Minority Community Sylvie Roy, 269, 
References, 286, 
Index, 306, 

CHAPTER 1

Transforming Perspectives on Bilingual Language Socialization

LUCINDA PEASE-ALVAREZ

Recent accounts of immigrant parents' perspectives on their bilingual children's language education and socialization have been the subject of much discussion among those engaged in debates about the role that minority languages should play in schools and classrooms in the United States. By focusing on a restricted range of topics related to parental perspectives on language and schooling, recent research and media portrayals of parents' views about bilingual education provide us with a very narrow view of the way parents conceptualize language, bilingualism, and learning (Krashen, 1999). Moreover, these accounts, which tend to portray parental perspectives on bilingualism and bilingual education as monolithic and unvarying, contribute few insights into the processes implicated in the way these perspectives develop and change. Instead they are simply described as supporting or countering one side or another in national and state debates about bilingual education.

In contrast, researchers adopting a sociocultural approach to the study of language development have expanded our understanding of how the constitutive relationships among language, learning, and culture play out in the language socialization process. Building on traditions of scholarship that embed learning in the practical activities of communities (Heath, 1983, 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991; Ochs, 1988; Rogoff, 1990;), scholars have shown how the different ways parents conceive of and participate in their children's language development both construct and reveal cultural practices and values. For example, Ochs (1988) and Heath (1989) have described how parental roles, dispositions, and identities are constructed and revealed through the everyday engagements that involve their children.

When considering the case of Mexican-descent families residing in the United States, researchers who rely on sociocultural frameworks have contributed to our understanding of how parental perspectives on bilingual language socialization develop within the context of a complex and dynamic sociocultural ecology that comprises shifting cultural, institutional, and structural practices and circumstances. Perhaps not surprisingly, research has demonstrated that the language socialization practices of this group are varied, even in the case of those families committed to pursuing similar goals (Schecter & Bayley, 2002; Vasquez et al., 1994). For example, Schecter and Bayley (2002) describe how historical and ecological variations in the experiences of Mexican-descent parents living in California and Texas help to explain the different ways in which they pursue their common goal of making sure that their children maintain Spanish.

Building on the lines of scholarship referred to above, the research reported here also contributes insights into ways that the thinking of Mexican-descent parents about languages, bilingualism, and learning relates to different aspects of their experience, including their histories, cultural practices, and social positioning. What distinguishes this account from others is the attention paid to the way parents' views change over time. The chapter, then, provides a perspective on bilingual language socialization that is often missing from other accounts.

Studying Parental Attitudes and Perspectives Over Time

This chapter is based on a seven-year study conducted from 1991 to 1998. The study investigated native language maintenance and shift toward English in a group of 63 Mexican-descent youngsters and their family members residing in Eastside (a pseudonym), California. To capture the way that generation and time spent in the United States affect bilingualism, parents were grouped according to increasing strength of family ties in this country. Based on a survey of all of the parents of third graders in the four Eastside schools, three groupings were identified:

(1) Parents born in Mexico; immigrated at age 15 or older.

(2) Parents born in Mexico; immigrated at age 10 or younger.

(3) Parents born in the United States.

To assess the related phenomena of language maintenance and shift at a variety of levels, parents and their children from these different groups participated in interviews and activities designed to investigate their language proficiency, attitudes, and choices. The interviews included a variety of question formats to elicit information about parents' attitudes toward English, Spanish, bilingualism, and native language maintenance. Parents were also asked about their views concerning appropriate and inappropriate bilingual language practices and socialization strategies, their opinions regarding the role parents and schools should play in Latino youngsters' language socialization, and their expectations regarding what constituted appropriate or correct language practices and ability. Sixty-three parents, mostly mothers, participated in the first cycle of interviews in 1991 and 1992. Thirty-nine of the original group of 63 parents participated in the second cycle of interviews, which took place from 1996 to 1998. Table 1.1 shows the distribution of parents across the three immigration groups during the initial and later interviews.

The Community Context

Although Eastside is home to individuals from many ethnic backgrounds, people of Mexican descent are the majority. Most parent members of Mexican-descent Eastside families are from working class backgrounds with no more than a few years of grade school education, usually acquired in Mexico. While most parents in the sample worked in service-related jobs (e.g. gardeners, tree pruners, housekeepers), a handful of parents who had finished secondary school and, in some cases, at least a few years of college, had middle-income jobs (e.g. teachers, paralegals, computer technicians). Three families owned their own businesses – a marble works, a car repair shop, and a bakery.

Spanish is used throughout Eastside. It is widely used in the commercial sector by employees and patrons of stores and restaurants. Social service agencies, clinics, and some private businesses employ Spanish speakers as office and clerical workers who have the added responsibility of communicating with monolingual Spanish-speaking clients. In addition, the Catholic churches that most families attend conduct services in Spanish. During the course of the study (prior to the passage of Proposition 227), Spanish was also widely used by teachers and children in the four Eastside elementary schools, particularly in the early grades. As is the case among many bilingual educators in the United States, the directors of bilingual education in the Eastside Elementary School District reasoned that their program enabled young children to establish the linguistic and academic foundation in their native language that would ultimately facilitate their acquisition of English and academic content in that language. Hence, most limited-English-proficient children enrolled in Eastside schools who were native Spanish speakers had access to native language instruction in at least kindergarten through second grade. By third grade, however, English had become the main language of the classroom.

Over the past 20 years, the use of Spanish by Eastsiders has been the subject of a great deal of criticism. Many European Americans who live in surrounding communities view Eastside as an enclave of monolingual Spanish speakers who are not interested in learning English or assimilating into the American mainstream. The press has repeatedly portrayed the linguistic circumstances of Eastsiders as a liability. Indeed, authors of several newspaper columns and articles attributed the low academic achievement of Eastside youngsters to their inability to speak English.

The Benefits of Bilingualism

The interviews revealed that parents held extremely positive opinions about English, Spanish, bilingualism, and native-language maintenance, and these views remained constant from 1991 to 1998. Thus, in the closed-response sections of both the earlier and later interviews, most parents' said that they regarded it as "important" or "very important" that their children's teachers and school principal know Spanish. Parents gave even stronger responses when asked how important it is that their children know Spanish, that they know English, and that they be bilingual. In both interview cycles, all the parents except two answered that they thought it "very important" for their children to know both languages and to be bilingual. In addition, when responding to open-ended questions, parents said that Spanish/English bilinguals should continue to use and develop their Spanish as they learn English. In elaborating upon these views, they commented that Spanish/English bilinguals enjoy economic and social benefits that are not available to monolinguals, including the greater likelihood of obtaining high-paying jobs in the United States and Mexico, communicating and interacting with a wide variety of people, and having access to knowledge sources both inside and outside their communities. Hence, similar to the findings reported by Lambert and Taylor (1987), the concept of bilingualism that seems to be most commonly upheld is one that emphasizes the importance of Spanish as well as English. Nevertheless, while parents appeared to endorse an additive view of bilingualism, they also revealed transformations in their thinking about children's bilingual language socialization. The following sections focus on the nature of these transformations.

Language Socialization and Identity: Oppositional Tensions and Orientations

The link between Spanish language and Mexicano/Chicano identity was a theme that characterized the majority of conversations with Eastside parents during both the earlier and the later interviews. Parents expressed this connection in a variety of ways. For most parents, regardless of immigration group, Spanish is a valued feature of their heritage that comes with being born in Mexico or having Mexican kin. Viewpoints that reflect strong relationships between Spanish language and Mexican identity are conveyed in the following excerpts from the interviews with both Mexican and US-born parents. When describing what it meant for Mexican-descent parents to have children who have lost their ability or desire to speak Spanish, parents from both groups told us that such a loss would imply a loss of the children's Mexican identity. For example, Ms Guarin, born in Mexico, commented:

Es una pena si pierden el español porque ya traes tus raíces en español o sea es tu idioma y perderlo, no aprovecharlo, no seguirlo, yo creo que no. Después yo creo que se van a lamentar. Es importante para ellos que sigan nuestras raíces, la cultura y que se sientan orgullosos de nosotros y de ellos porque ellos son mexicanos. No son nacidos aquí.

(It's a shame if they forget Spanish, because you carry your roots in Spanish and it's your language and to lose it, to not take advantage of it as you grow, I think not. Later I think they will regret it. It's important for them to continue their roots, the culture and that they feel proud of us and of themselves because they are Mexican. They aren't born here.)

Another mother, US-born Ms Duran, associated language loss with cultural loss. She commented: "In my experience when I've seen people who have lost their Spanish maybe their deep rooted values are still you know kind of Latino or whatever but their culture, like a lot of it is lost."

Yet, while much of parents' thinking about identity focuses on their heritage or family history, they also define themselves and others in ways that take into account the various structural forces and conditions affecting their lives in the United States. This was most apparent in the second cycle of interviews, during which the majority of respondents interpreted the passage of recent initiatives, including California's Proposition 187 and 209, as forms of discrimination directed against Latinos. During these interviews, parents across immigration backgrounds described ways in which discrimination and related differential perspectives on language status are implicated in the Spanish language socialization of children of Mexican-descent. For example, when asked about a recent court case involving a judge who prohibited a Latina mother from using Spanish with her five-year-old daughter (a much-publicized and widely-discussed event in the Eastside community during the time of our second set of interviews), parents across immigration groups told us that the judge's decision emanated from racist views toward Latinos.

During both interview sessions, immigrant parents were highly critical of the decisions of parents of Mexican-descent to abandon the use of Spanish with their children, which they cited as the leading cause of language loss in their community, claiming that these decisions emanated from parents' desires to adopt English monolingual norms and Anglo values in an effort to improve their social status in this country. Ms Marti expanded upon this viewpoint when she told us that parents who no longer speak Spanish with their children are to blame for their children's loss of Spanish. She attributed their decision to what she described as the misguided belief that "Ya son muy altos y no quieren hablar español porque ya son de aquí" ("Now they are very high class and they don't want to speak Spanish because they are from here"). Similarly, Mrs Ramos argued that language loss occurs "por causa de los papas" ("because of parents") who no longer use the language with their children. She chastises these parents, saying, "Que no se te olvide que uno viene de raices, que uno es latino" ("Don't forget that you have roots, that you are Latino"). Ms Cornelio conveyed similar sentiments, further arguing that all Spanish-speaking parents, even those who are married to non-Spanish speakers, are responsible for making sure that Spanish is used and learned in their homes:

Ahorita hay niños que sus papás son hispanos y no hablan nada de español. Es una verguenza porque si son hispanos por que no les hablan. ... Yo conozco a muchos hombres en el trabajo y les digo, "Oiga señor su niña es española. Bárbaro. Enséñale. Algn da te lo va a agradecer." "No, pero su mamá no habla español." "Eso que importa."

(Now there are children whose parents are Hispanic and who don't speak any Spanish. It's a shame because if they are Hispanic why don't they speak to them (in Spanish). I know many men at work and I tell them, "Listen, mister, your daughter is Spanish. How shocking. Teach her. Some day she will thank you." "But her mother doesn't speak Spanish." "That doesn't matter.")

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Language Socialization in Bilingual and Multilingual Societies by Robert Bayley, Sandra R. Schecter. Copyright © 2003 Robert Bayley, Sandra R. Schecter and the authors of individual chapters. Excerpted by permission of Multilingual Matters.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Multilingual Matters
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1853596361
• ISBN 13: 9781853596360
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 328
• Editor: Bayley Robert, Schecter Sandra