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Defense
of America
Hispanics 20-25 % of
Vietnam casulties,
while only 5 % of
the population at
home at that time
Books regarding the
Treaty of Guadalupe,
Legacy of Conflict
Medal
of Honor
Recipients,
Hispanics have received more Medals than any others comparable to their
numbers at home..
Hero
Street
Laws
targeting Hispanics
from
1800s to present: Hispanics first to defend the U.S.,
but continue to suffer the most discrimination at home.
”English-Only”
constitutional? No!
Racist? You be the Judge
Thomas
Jefferson who spoke five languages said, "Bestow great care
on the study of Spanish and endeavor to
learn it, for in that language is written the history of this
hemisphere."
Constitution
Mandates Spanish in Schools
NM
Constitution Defined
Guadalupe-Hidalgo
Unabridged
Grants
Claims
Culture
of the Southwest
Culture
of California
Most
Important Document for Hispanics
Bi-lingual Education
Hispanics
lost 75% Property Rights
U.S-Mexico
Border
Tribes
Canada/Mexico
Indigenous
People
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Bilingual Arizona:
Josué M. González
The phenomenal
growth in the number of Spanish speakers and their purchasing power has not
gone unnoticed. In fact, the private and public sectors' efforts to adapt to
more Spanish-speaking customers and clients are shifting communication from
just English only to people's language of choice.
Approximately
three quarters of Arizonans speak English only, according to Census 2000.
Without question, English is the language of the world's only superpower and
the global economy and imperative for all Arizonans to learn and use.
However, Thomas Jefferson, a master of five languages, offered a piece of
advice to eighteenth-century Americans that still rings true today. He said, "Bestow
great care on the study of Spanish and endeavor to learn it, for in that
language is written the history of this hemisphere." Two centuries
later, Spanish is the language of everyday life and business for millions of
people. Except for English, more Americans use Spanish daily than any other
language. (Note 1) Among the U.S.'s
western hemisphere neighbors, only Mexico,
Argentina and Columbia have more Spanish speakers than the United States.
(Note 2)
In Arizona, the number of
those who speak only English declined from 79 percent in 1990 to 74 percent
in 2000. (Note 3) Now, approximately 20 percent of residents (or more than 1
million of Arizona's 5+ million people)
speak Spanish at home and about half of these (more than the combined
populations of Mesa, Kingman, Show Low, Marana
and Flagstaff
combined) say they speak English less than "very well."
Recent
developments in the media industry are only one of the many changes that
highlight the growing influence of Spanish. NBC's recent acquisition of Telemundo, a Spanish- language television network
with viewers in the U.S.
and more than a dozen other countries, underscores the firm's recognition of
a Spanish market and their desire to stake a claim to the dollars of the
Spanish-speaking audience. In a similar move, Univision
Communications—already the biggest Spanish-language TV conglomerate in
the United States—announced it would buy Hispanic Broadcasting
Corporation (HBC) to create the nation's largest television, radio and music
company for the Spanish-language population. The expanded Univision
will own 50 TV stations, 2 TV networks and 55 radio stations, including 5
radio outlets and 1 TV station in the Phoenix
area. (Note 4)
President
George W. Bush has, at times, presented his weekly radio address in Spanish.
In May 2002 Jimmy Carter became the first former president to deliver a
speech—entirely in Spanish—in Cuba. Another aspect of Spanish
in public life is the fact that Spanish-language ads for candidates and
issues have become so common as to be an unremarkable feature of the
political landscape.
The recent
growth in the number of Spanish speakers and their purchasing power (pegged
at $581 billion) has not gone unnoticed. In fact, the private and public
sectors' efforts to adapt to more Spanish-speaking customers and clients are
shining the spotlight on communication in people's language of choice. The
now-ubiquitous ATM (automated teller machine) provides a good example if how
the desire to serve people better—thereby being more competitive or responsive—changed
the habits and expectations of many. In the early 1900s, ATMs began to ask
customers to select the language for their transaction. A taken-for-granted
feature today, ATM language choices always include Spanish. With little
fanfare, ATMs became multilingual tellers for financial institutions
regardless of whether they had a multinational reach or just local interests.
As debates about the teaching English raged outside their doors, many
companies, in addition to banks, acknowledged that Spanish is the language of
choice for millions of Americans and adopted it for services. A sizable
number of Arizona firms and agencies are
adapting to a multilingual society in many ways, including: Phoenix firefighters studying Spanish, the
Maricopa County Medical Interpreter Program graduating its first class in May
2002 and voting and motor vehicle processes in Spanish. The Medical
Interpreter program, with 48 graduates in 2002, is a joint effort between the
University of Arizona Health Sciences Center and Phoenix Children's Hospital.
This potentially life-saving program was developed in response to
reality—the growing need to communicate with
more and more Spanish-speaking patients. (Note 5)
The Presence of Spanish Raises
Good Questions
Many
indicators highlight the importance of Spanish in business and society and
raise two questions: (1) If Spanish is so widespread and important, why are
we collectively so nearsighted about its value? (2) Why has the study and
teaching of languages relevant to specific places (such as Spanish in Arizona) not been
embraced? To begin to answer these questions, it is instructive to review the
historical record with respect to languages in the United States.
As reflected
in the history of public policy, the United States from its earliest
years seems to have been ambivalent about the role of other-than-English
languages in society generally and in education specifically. (Note 6) With
few exceptions, political and educational leaders have shown little interest
in managing the country's language resources, or in maximizing our language
competencies by encouraging residents to teach, learn and maintain languages
other than English. With the exception of recent state and national moves to
make English the official language, languages have never been center stage in
national conversations about education policy or almost any other kind of
policy for that matter. (Note 7)
On the rare
occasions when languages have been an issue, discussions have tended to start
from a negative perspective that seems to parallel a fear of immigrants.
Perhaps because of our status as the world's economic and political leader
and our location between two oceans, citizens of the United States have not felt a
great need to study other languages, assuming that the world will adopt our
language along with other ideas. This outlook, though, can minimize the
importance of native language and culture to human beings. Every group
ascribes beauty, value and merit to its own brand of "peoplehood," including their language.
Numerous Approaches to
Languages
Considering
the mobility of people and goods (and money), the global nature of
communications and the responses of business and institutions to demographic
shifts, the time seems right to take language into consideration for the
state's future.
Arizona is no stranger to the
long-term debates about English, although other aspects of language have
received scant notice. In 1988, Arizona
voters approved a ballot measure that made English the state's official
language, although it was later found unconstitutional. In 1992, a federal
lawsuit was filed to redress Arizona's
lack of funding for and "alleged failure to provide limited
English-speaking children with a program of instruction designed to make them
proficient in English and enable them to master the standard academic
curriculum." In response over the years, the Arizona Legislature studied
and made some changes in bilingual education policies, programs and funding,
but the federal judge still found the dollars appropriated to serving limited
English proficient students wanting. The ruling in Flores v. Arizona
is being implemented.
Then in 2000, Arizona's voters again made a decision about language
by passing Proposition 203, a measure modeled after a successful California initiative
that largely eliminated transitional bilingual education programs from the
state's public schools and replaced them with English-immersion programs. On
the other hand, Arizona
is one of the few states to encourage the teaching of a foreign language in
elementary grades officially. Even so, resources for language teaching remain
scant. It is a common criticism that high school graduates who took language
classes often cannot use it as a communication tool outside of school. Few
districts require demonstrated competence or fluency even in this age of
high-stakes testing. In Arizona and the United States,
languages seem to be something students take, not something they master.
States have
played a role in the teaching and learning of languages for decades. Schools
in New Mexico and Louisiana, once officially bilingual
states, at one time taught languages in addition to English. As the
English-speaking population grew in both places, however, and sentiment
increased nationally for the use of one language, these states discontinued
this policy. In several other states where German was once an important
language such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois
and Wisconsin-schools practiced dual language education well into the
twentieth century until anti-German sentiment caused the schools to change.
Used But Not Taught
Today, aside
from English, Spanish is the language most commonly taught in the United States and it is deeply rooted in Arizona. Spanish was
spoken in the Southwest before the first English speakers arrived and the
language was enormously important in the development of the western economy,
especially the cattle industry. J. Frank Dobie, a
prominent regional historian and folklorist, has noted that the cattle
industry would not have been possible without the skills, experience and
knowledge of Mexican ranchers and their ranch hands. The English-speaking
cowboys learned the cattle trade and its lingo from the vaqueros, their
Spanish-speaking mentors. In addition, many other early English-speaking migrants
to the region learned Spanish and used it routinely in daily life. Although
communicating in Spanish was common, local schools essentially ignored
Spanish instruction because of the desire to emulate the curriculum of
Eastern schools.
As the Southwest
became more urban and the density of English speakers increased, the
descendants of the first English speakers began to move away from the
bilingual tradition. This process intensified after Mexico's defeat in the
Mexican-American War (1846-1848). President Polk's and other politicians'
intense anti-Mexican campaign contributed to an enduring anti- Mexican
sentiment in some parts of the United States. Only local leaders
who knew the value of Spanish in community politics continued to use the
language. It is interesting to see the practice being revived now as
Republican and Democratic candidates for offices from city council to
president vie for the increasingly organized and influential Hispanic vote.
Colleges and
universities in the Southwest traditionally have tended to brush Spanish
aside as well. Early curriculum planners may have thought that Spanish was
the language of the past rather than the future. Another policy change was
occurring nationwide that supported that idea. American colleges and universities
once required students to study one or more foreign languages to graduate at
the baccalaureate level. Even the land grant institutions developing in the
unique Southwest tended to imitate the colleges of the East and gradually
abandoned foreign language requirements in many fields of study. As a society
too, Americans had other things on their minds. With the United States transitioning from
an agricultural society to industrial powerhouse to world leader, the nation
became increasingly monolingual and interest in recognizing the importance of
other languages and cultures narrowed. During the last half of the twentieth
century, schools and colleges gave up foreign language requirements at a
rapid pace and with little fanfare. Today, even the doctorate can be earned
in most fields without knowledge of another language or culture. Departments
of "foreign languages" have survived in most universities, but they
play minor parts in student requirements. In addition, many schools cling to
the study of languages from a grammar-translation approach, instead of
focusing on the practical importance of language in the life of the region.
Churches are
one of the major entities to retain the Spanish language throughout the
Southwest. Institutions that expect to serve recent immigrants remain
bilingual or offer Spanish-language services. In recent years, there has been
a tendency toward differentiation of religious participation according to
recentness of immigration and language dominance. Middle-class Hispanics often
attend English language services where they mingle with persons of similar
socioeconomic status. The result has been the stratification of churches
along language lines. Recent immigrants frequently worship in Spanish, while
the children and grandchildren of the last wave of newcomers often worship in
English in the company of other English speakers.
The Nation Emulates the States
States,
regions and local communities are not alone in the randomness with which they
have approached non-English languages. The federal government has responded
with the same lassitude to the nation's language needs, even when some of its
own agencies pointed out problems. After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in
1957, a flurry of activity took place in federal agencies to determine why
the Soviet Union beat us to space.
Government officials concluded that the emphasis in Soviet schools on math,
science and foreign languages was the principal reason for their leap forward
in space technology. The U.S. Congress moved rapidly to enact a program that
provided funding to schools and universities to overcome the Soviet Union in these areas. But the ardor behind the
legislation—the National Defense Education Act of 1958
(NDEA)—cooled quickly once the American space program was perceived to
have caught up with that of our rival.
After NDEA,
there was a prolonged policy lull until President Jimmy Carter's Commission
on Foreign Languages and International Studies issued its report in the final
months of his administration. The commission's report attempted to raise
public concern for the conclusion that the nation had allowed itself to
become inadequate in communicating with anyone in any language other than
English. It also criticized the lack of emphasis on area studies, a situation
that diminishes our capacity to understand cultures other than our own. (Note
8)
In the heat of
the 1980 political campaign, though, the report was largely ignored. Neither
the U.S. Congress nor the federal Department of Education ever took up its
recommendations. These were ignored as well by state boards of education, the
White House and national education organizations. In the years since the
issuance of the report, no president or Congressional committee has broached
the subject again. Several Spanish-speaking leaders have expressed hope that
President Bush's excellent relations with his Mexican counterpart will
produce demonstrable support for adopting some of the recommendations of
President Carter's commission.
The neglect of
languages other than English has not been absolute across the decades. In
fits and starts, government agencies and the military have responded to their
needs for language competency in various ways. The armed services have
approached the foreign language needs of their personnel most systematically
and creatively. In 1946 in Monterrey, California's eighteenth-century Spanish presidio, U.S.
military leaders created the Defense Language Institute, an institution that
became the most comprehensive military language school in the world. Later
renamed the Army
Language School,
the institution developed effective methods for teaching languages to
motivated adults. However, since the training often was done in secret, it
took more than a decade for the school's methods and practices to appear in
civilian classrooms.
These
practices aided the development and diffusion of the "audio lingual
method," an approach to language teaching that emphasizes active use of
the language being studied compared to the more traditional
"grammar-translation" method. By the mid-1960s, many schools and
universities were experimenting with the audio-lingual method. By the end of
the century, though, the pendulum had swung back to a combination of audio
lingual and traditional forms of teaching languages. After several decades of
successful teaching of languages and cultures, the Defense Department
"downsized" the Army
Language School.
In 1993, however, the Base Realignment and Closure Commission rejected
suggestions that the Army
Language School
be moved or closed altogether. (Note 9) It recommended instead that the
school's mission be continued in a different form. Monterey
Peninsula College
made an agreement with the Army
Language School
that students could earn a maximum of 27 credit hours in any of the college's
language programs. These credits count toward an Associate of Arts degree.
Spanish and Economic Strategy
Until
recently, American marketers concentrated on selling goods and services in
English. Most assumed that buyers could be motivated by factors other than
language to purchase everything from candy bars to cars. Beginning in the
1980s, though, marketing acquired a Spanish accent. Radio and TV began to
include numerous advertisements in Spanish. Today, every large metropolitan
area includes marketing organizations devoted to selling goods and services
in Spanish only. These firms are just one reflection of the potential
connections between the Spanish language and economic growth and
revitalization.
For a time
little attention was paid to the revitalization of Miami and to economic
development in southern Florida spurred by money from Cuban American and
Latin American investors. Today the picture is different. The Miami
"miracle" is well known. Observers posit that it occurred largely
because the area's bilingual business leaders focused on the Latin American
market. The ability to connect to business and commerce in Latin America has
made Miami
the unofficial financial "Capital of Latin America." El Paso and San Antonio
are the two Southwestern cities where steps have been taken to link U.S., Mexican and Latin American business
interests, but neither is as strong as Miami.
The language
of business, it turns out, can be almost any language spoken in the
community. Technology has played an important part in providing the tools for
services in multiple languages and for tracking transactions. Services such
as airlines, hotels and credit card companies now routinely answer their
telephones with a recorded menu. Commonly, these answering systems begin by
asking the caller to "press l to continue in English," or "oprima el dos para continuar en espanol."
(Press 2 to continue in Spanish.)
To a modest
degree higher education in Arizona,
especially private institutions, has begun to echo the steps taken by large
corporations in responding to Spanish speakers. The University of Phoenix,
one of the nation's most successful nontraditional institutions, offers
courses in Spanish and English to a clientele that is both domestic and
international. As a result the University
of Phoenix has a
student body that is distributed throughout the hemisphere.
Ideas for Arizona
Demographic
shifts and economic issues are clearly at the core of a statewide-even
nationwide- need to reassess our relationship with the Spanish language. Arizona's Hispanic
population is growing dramatically, their spending power commands attention.
One in every six Arizona
workers is Hispanic and as many as 150,000 may be Spanish speakers. Vital
today, these workers also comprise a critical part of tomorrow's workforce
since much of the predominantly White labor force is approaching retirement
age and the Hispanic population is young. Mexico
is Arizona's number one export customer and
Mexican visitors spent an estimated $963 million in the state in 2001,
according to a study by the Economic and Business Research Program at the University of Arizona. Arizona's location links it to a broader
"borderlands" region. No one is suggesting de-emphasizing English
in Arizona,
and the passions for one way or another of teaching English will probably run
high for some time to come. But, some observers are now introducing a
"third way" that encourages teaching for a bilingual, even
multilingual, society. The following examples of "dual language"
programs are provided to supply readers with background on educational
options that have not been discussed widely.
Arizona High School for Hemispheric Studies
A High School
for Hemispheric Studies (HSHS) could serve the business and cultural needs of
the region. Modeled possibly as a magnet school, a board of educators and
business and cultural leaders would set school policy, provide input on the
curriculum, secure community resources and help recruit teachers and
administrators. To enrich the experience, the school could employ a
residential model in which students would spend part of the year living on
campus for the purpose of intensive language practice. Following the lead of
the Illinois Science and Mathematics
Academy, the school
could provide residential scholarships to Spanish-speaking students who would
assist other students in mastering Spanish. Dormitories and classrooms would
employ advanced technologies for language teaching and for studying the
cultures of other lands.
Travel and
study opportunities in Spanish-speaking nations could enhance the experience
further. Such opportunities for students and faculty could ensure that the
school's programs remain fresh and timely. This aspect of the program would
be linked to the state's university system and, abroad, would be advised by
an international cadre of teachers, university professors, area experts and
civic leaders.
Heritage Language Program for
Elementary Schools
In conjunction
with a High School for Hemispheric Studies, school districts might establish
dual-language schools in which students would prepare to attend the HSHS or
simply master more than one language. New research in foreign language
education highlights the great promise of heritage" language education,
school-based language programs that are closely linked to community language
resources. (Note 10)
Such programs,
because they connect schools to communities in creative ways, reduce the
isolation of the language instruction as if it were just another school
subject. Partnerships with ethnic and heritage clubs and organizations are a
typical component of heritage language education. These organizations
facilitate the entry of artists, actors, storytellers, authors and others
into the school, and the participation of students in such functions outside
the school.
Arizona Language Competency Scholarship Fund
A scholarship
program could be aimed at promoting the study of Spanish, Spanish-American
history and culture and international affairs at the postsecondary level.
Corporations and businesses with an interest in Mexico
and Latin America could be asked to create a fund to support Arizona high school
graduates who pursue these areas of study. Mexico
would be emphasized and Mexican corporations with markets in the United States
would be given the opportunity to participate in the fund. An especially
strong component of this program would be to design study programs that are binational in nature, enabling students and teachers (at
all levels P-1 6) to develop the two languages in both countries.
Riding the Coronado Trail ...
Again
Spanish was
the first European language to be spoken in what is now Arizona. In full armor Coronado's men clanged along the trail to the
state's northern limits. Events of the last four centuries have reinforced
the connections among the borderlands. Today, with renewed immigration, binational marketing and a global economy, there is a
need to revisit Arizona's
other language and learn to relate to customers,
neighbors and friends who increasingly will use that language. Some
strategies have been introduced here, but others could make a difference
also. One thing is clear: a prosperous multilingual society demands and
deserves new ideas. Press 2 to continue in Spanish....
Notes
Discussions of
languages are incomplete without a reference to Native American languages.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, hundreds of Indian languages
and dialects disappeared from the American landscape as schools prohibited
the learning and use of indigenous languages or the human and financial
resources needed to teach them disappeared. Today only the largest Native
American groups retain any grasp of language resources and, even then, their
continued existence is in question since teachers and mentors are becoming
scarcer. Despite the barriers to mounting new initiatives for Native American
languages, education policy makers in Arizona
would serve the state well to find ways to strengthen the study of Native
American language and cultures in the state's universities. A census of the
remaining language resources among Native American communities in Arizona is necessary
to determine how best to protect and promote these cultural resources.
1. U.S.
Census Bureau. Supplementary Survey and Profile of Selected Social
Characteristics, 2000.
2. Nation by
Nation, www.nationbynation.com.
3. U.S. Census Bureau, Profile of Selected Social
Characteristics for Arizona,
1990 and 2000.
4.
"Hispanic TV-radio firms merge in $3 billion deal," The Arizona
Republic, 13 June 2002.
5.
"Interpreter program holds 1st graduation," The Arizona Republic,
June 10, 2002.
6. James
Crawford, Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English
Controversy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992).
7. James
Crawford, Hold Your Tongue (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,
1992).
8. President's
Commission on Foreign Language and International Studies (Washington, DC:
U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, 1979).
9. Of course,
after the events of September 11, 2001, government agencies once again took
notice of the lack of language skills. In recent months, news reports noted
that radio traffic among potential terrorists had been monitored by
intelligence agencies. While the eavesdropping technology was adequate to the
job, too few personnel could understand the languages used by terrorist
organizations in planning their attacks.
10. Center for Applied
Linguistics, 2002.
This brief was
originally published in: Eighty-First Arizona Town Hall Meeting (2002). Arizona Hispanics: The
Evolution of Influence. Tempe, AZ: Arizona
State University.
Reprinted with permission.
Appendix A
Different Methods of Language
Teaching
Debate about language
teaching has been going on for decades, but the various types of programs are
often misunderstood. The following brief definitions are intended to shed
light on a complex topic.
English
immersion: Instruction is entirely in English. Teachers strive to deliver
lessons in simplified English so that students learn English and academic
subjects.
English as
a second language: This may be the same as immersion but also may include some
support to individuals in their native language. Classes may include speakers
of a variety of languages who may attend for only a short time per day to
work only on English or for a full day to study academic subjects as well as
English.
Transitional
bilingual education: Instruction for some subjects is in students' native language
but a part of each day is spent on developing English skills. Students in
these classes share the same native language. Some critics of this approach
see it as subtractive in nature because it eliminates language resources with
marketplace value that appear naturally as the population changes. Other
critics say that learners often fail to master either language.
Two-way
bilingual or dual language education: Often also called dual-immersion, instruction
is given in two languages to students who may be dominant in one language or
another with the goal of students becoming proficient in both languages.
Often two teachers work together with each one teaching in one of the
languages. Dual language differs from transitional bilingual education by
teaching in both home and new languages and urging students to maintain
native language skills. For example, English-speaking students learn Spanish
and Spanish-speaking students learn English. Proponents offer dual language
education as a way of meeting the needs of Arizona's residents and maintaining the
state's competitiveness in the world economy. Called an additive approach, it
is especially prominent in binational regions. Dual
language sees language skills as resources rather than obstacles and offers
effective, efficient strategies for teaching both the home and the new
languages. Dual language provides a way to promote policies and programs that
enhance valuable communication resources and create opportunities to link a
place to growing markets and partners around the world.
Heritage
language education: This approach features school-based language programs that are
closely linked to community language resources. Sometimes called
"community language" such programs connect schools to communities
in creative ways and may feature partnerships with ethnic and heritage clubs
and organizations to facilitate the entry of authors, actors, storytellers
and others into the school, and the participation of students in such
functions outside the school.
Source:
Education Week on the Web and Southwest
Center for Education
Equity and Language Diversity
Appendix B
Arizona Already Has Some Two-Way Bilingual Immersion Programs
The Center for
Applied Linguistics, a national nonprofit organization that has worked in
language education for more than 25 years, reports that 9 Arizona school districts and 14 schools
have two-way bilingual immersion programs. These are defined as having:
- Integration of
language-minority and language- majority students for at least half of
the instructional time at all grade levels
- Instruction in both languages
for all students
- Balance of language-minority
and language, majority students
Source:
Center for Applied Linguistics
http://www.asu.edu/educ/epsl/LPRU/features/brief7.htm
2003
Language Policy
Research Unit
Education Policy
Studies Laboratory
Arizona State
University
Tempe, AZ
www.language-policy.org
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