Spanish Speakers in the USA MM Textbooks Advisory Board: Professor Colin Baker, University of Wales, Bangor, UK Professor Viv Edwards, University of Reading, Reading, UK Professor Ofelia García, Columbia University, New York, USA Dr Aneta Pavlenko, Temple University, Philadelphia, USA Professor David Singleton, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland Professor Terrence G. Wiley, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA MM Textbooks bring the subjects covered in our successful range of academic mono- graphs to a student audience. The books in this series explore education and all aspects of language learning and use, as well as other topics of interest to students of these subjects. Written by experts in the field, the books are supervised by a team of world-leading scholars and evaluated by instructors before publication. Each text is student-focused, with suggestions for further reading and study questions leading to a deeper understanding of the subject. Full details of all the books in this series and of all our other publications can be found on http://www.multilingual-matters.com, or by writing to Multilingual Matters, St Nicho- las House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. MM Textbooks Spanish Speakers in the USA Janet M. Fuller MULTILINGUAL MATTERS Bristol • Buffalo • Toronto Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Fuller, Janet M. Spanish Speakers in the USA/Janet M. Fuller. MM Textbooks: 9 Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Spanish language--United States. 2. Bilingualism--United States. 3. Languages in contact--United States. 4. Spanish language--Acquistion. 5. English language--Acquisition. 6. Hispanic Americans-- Languages. PC4826.S68 2013 305.7’61073–dc232012036461 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue entry for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-878-0 (hbk) ISBN-13: 978-1-84769-877-3 (pbk) Multilingual Matters UK: St Nicholas House, 31-34 High Street, Bristol BS1 2AW, UK. USA: UTP, 2250 Military Road, Tonawanda, NY 14150, USA. Canada: UTP, 5201 Dufferin Street, North York, Ontario M3H 5T8, Canada. Copyright © 2013 Janet M. Fuller. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. The policy of Multilingual Matters/Channel View Publications is to use papers that are natural, renewable and recyclable products, made from wood grown in sustainable forests. In the manufac- turing process of our books, and to further support our policy, preference is given to printers that have FSC and PEFC Chain of Custody certification. The FSC and/or PEFC logos will appear on those books where full certification has been granted to the printer concerned. Typeset by The Charlesworth Group. Printed and bound in Great Britain by the MPG Books Group. Contents Acknowledgements viii Introduction ix Part 1: Ideologies and Identities 1 1: Language Ideologies and Language Policies 3 Language ideology defined 4 A framework for studying language ideologies 7 Normative monolingualism 10 English only 10 Monoglossic language ideologies 12 Ideologies about the value of Spanish 13 Mock Spanish 18 The status of English 22 Language policies, planning and practices 23 Language policy in the US 24 Bilingual education 26 Workplace practices and policies 27 Services in languages other than English 28 Discussion questions and activities 30 Recommended reading 30 2: Language and Identity 31 Social constructionist approaches to identity 32 Social identities are on many levels 33 Social identities are multiple 33 Social identities are continually shifting 34 Towards a non-essentialist perspective on identity 35 Identity construction through language use 37 Identities in bilingual discourse: Translanguaging 39 Language choice and identity among Latin@s in the US 41 Discussion questions and activities 45 Recommended reading 46 3: ‘Race’, Ethnicity and Spanish Speakers in the US 47 ‘Race’ as a social construct 48 Race in Latin@ studies 52 Ethnicity 54 Race, ethnicity and the linguistic construction of identity 58 v Spanish Speakers in the USA Race, ethnicity and national identity 59 Language ideologies and Latin@ identities 60 Discussion questions and activities 61 Recommended reading 61 4: Media Representations of Spanish and Spanish Speakers in US English 63 Language TV and Film: Production and Reproduction of Ideologies An unrepresentative representation of Latin@s 64 Stereotypical portrayals of Latin@s 65 Cultural stereotypes in the new millennium 67 Language use: Monolingual norms and deviant behavior 71 TV representations of Latin@s for children: Spanish as a resource 74 Disconnect 77 Discussion questions and activities 78 Recommended reading/viewing 79 Part 2: Language Practices 81 5: Spanish Language Maintenance and Shift in the US 83 Introduction: Minority languages 84 Options in language contact: Factors and attitudes 85 Keeping the L1 and ‘refusing’ to learn English 85 Learning English and maintaining Spanish 89 Language shift: Losing Spanish 89 Diglossia versus sustainable languaging 91 Ethnolinguistic vitality 93 Language maintenance and social networks 97 Spanish language maintenance and shift in the US 98 Case studies of language maintenance and shift in different communities: 98 Variables and consequences Spanish in the southwest 99 Cuban Americans in Miami 101 Puerto Ricans in New York City 102 Spanish in Chicago 103 Conclusion 104 Discussion questions and activities 105 Recommended reading/viewing 106 6: Linguistic Consequences of Spanish-English Bilingualism in the US: 107 ‘Spanglish’ and Chican@ English Introduction 108 Language contact phenomena defined 112 Structural borrowing 113 Concluding remarks about structural aspects of US Spanish 116 Chican@ English 116 vi Contents Discussion questions and activities 121 Recommended reading 122 Key to abbreviations for grammatical glosses 122 7: Latin@ Education in the US 123 Introduction 124 Education of Latin@s in the US: History and program types 125 A short history of educational policies in the US regarding the language(s) 126 of education Educating English language learners: Program types 127 Submersion 127 Transitional bilingual education programs: Early exit 128 Transitional bilingualism programs: Late exit 128 Immersion and other maintenance programs 128 Effectiveness of bilingual education programs 130 Ideologies in language education 134 The role of identity in Latino education 139 Conclusion 143 Discussion questions and activities 143 Recommended reading 144 References 145 Glossary 165 Index 173 vii Spanish Speakers in the USA Acknowledgements To begin at the beginning of this project, I first taught a course titled ‘Spanish in the USA’ in the spring of 2008, and taught it again in the spring of 2010. The students in those courses have been a lasting inspiration for me. I am in touch with some of the members of these classes, others I have not seen since, but they remain part of what was for me a transforming experience. At the time I first taught this course, I had long struggled to learn Spanish well enough that I would feel comfortable claiming to speak the language. I had spent two years doing research with Mexican American children in a bilingual program, and my son had entered a Spanish-English dual language program the previous fall. My interest in and commitment to Spanish, both personally and professionally, was in many ways already firmly in place. But what I did not expect was that it would explode in the way it did, and that I owe to my students. I owe special thanks to the following students who read and offered comments and corrections on this manuscript in earlier stages: Genaro Escarzaga, Carlee Coplea and Aimee Hosemann. I am additionally grateful to Aimee for her excellent work on the glossary, and to Roberto Barrios for helpful discussions about the title. I am further in debt to Mike Hall, who helped me in many ways, including but not limited to editing services. I could also not have begun to write this book without the experiences in the various bilingual classrooms in southern Illinois where I visited, volunteered and did research. I have much gratitude for the teachers, the students, and their families. My children, Arlette and Nicholas, have also provided me with a multitude of insights about Spanish in the US and its relationship to ‘race’, ethnicity and identity. Spanish as a language remains for me at once intimately familiar and painfully distant. Through writing this book I have come to understand that my involvement with Spanish and its speakers has made me more wholly part of the US than I ever thought I would want to be. Many thanks to all of the speakers of Spanish, and scholars of Spanish in the US, who have contributed to my education. viii Introduction The topic of Spanish speakers in the US is inevitably an interdisciplinary one and covers a broad range of issues in language and society. This text is designed to offer an introduction to a different topic in each chapter, while also providing readers with an opportunity to delve more deeply into particular issues or disciplines. But more importantly, the aim of this text is to introduce readers to a variety of ways of looking at Spanish, its speakers, the communities in which it is spoken, the attitudes that surround it, and the ways in which it shapes and is shaped by US society. It is only through this prism of perspectives that we can appreciate the many themes which surround Spanish speakers in the US. First, some matters of terminology and presentation: Although this book does not focus on issues of gender, this is an aspect of social organization and language use which cannot be ignored. In the interest of modeling gender inclusive language, I therefore am adopting the use of ‘Latin@’, ‘Chican@’ and ‘Mestiz@’ instead of the usual use of the male form to supposedly include all speakers. Although I use the term Latin@ with some frequency in this text, I also recognize that it is inherently problematic. I prefer it to ‘Hispanic’, which is a term which was coined by the government to refer to a group they felt was distinct from the mainstream. Latin@ is at least a word used within Latin America to refer to the people of these countries, and transplanted to the US it has been adapted to mean US residents with origins from these countries. However, like ‘Hispanic’, it throws together people of very different backgrounds and origins and legitimizes this kind of homogenization. Many of the speakers I will refer to here would probably not use the term Latin@ to refer to themselves. Nonetheless, there are contexts in which I wish to make comments about a heterogeneous group of people, and will use this term. In some cases I will also use ‘Spanish speakers in the US’, but since not all Latin@s speak Spanish, and not all Spanish speakers are Latin@, these terms are not interchangeable but focus on linguistic or (pan-) ethnic groups. On a more practical note, key terms are in bold the first time they are used, and are defined in the glossary at the end of the book. Each chapter also ends with questions for discussion or research, and further readings or resources relevant for that topic of study. Part 1 of this text deals with issues in the study of language ideologies and identities; it is comprised of four chapters. Chapter 1 is ‘Language Ideologies and Language Policies’. Ideologies about Spanish and its speakers in the US are relevant for the material covered in all of the following chapters. The main ideology dealt with here is normative monolingualism, which has two parts. The first part is the idea that monolingualism is the natural state of a nation and speakers of other languages should assimilate to the ix Spanish Speakers in the USA dominant language and corresponding culture. Second, if speakers do speak two languages, they should keep their languages strictly separate. This means, above all, no bilingual discourse. This ideology is apparent in political agendas such as the English Only movement (also called English First or US English), which seek legislation to declare English the official language of the US, or of an individual state or city (Baron, 1990). Normative monolingualism can also be seen in the choices made by schools about how to serve their English learner populations, and in signs, t-shirts and other facets of popular culture which espouse the value of English as the sole language of the United States. The ideology of normative English monolingualism in the US has important implications for Spanish. Although Spanish is an important world language for business and education, it is not valued as such within the US. Instead, it is often seen as the language of (illegal) immigrants, and there is an iconic relationship between the perception of the speakers and the language: the people are seen as simple, uneducated rural folk, and their language is ‘easy’ and unsophisticated. Chapter 2, ‘Language and Identity’, addresses the social identities of Spanish speakers and how they are constructed through language use. How choices to speak Spanish, English or a mixture of the two are made and interpreted is influenced by our ideologies about English and Spanish and speakers of those languages. I discuss identity as a process, not a trait of an individual. Everyone has multiple identities, and these identities are not fixed but are constructed through ongoing social behavior. The focus in this text is linguistic behavior, especially (but not only) language choice. What does the choice to speak Spanish say about the social identity of the speaker? As we will see, there are many answers to this question, and they are dependent on the social context of the speech event. Speaking Spanish does not always mean the speaker is claiming a particular ethnic identity, and speaking English is not necessarily a rejection of Latin@ identity. Instead, language choice may construct a number of different aspects of social identity, or be a means of negotiating a relationship or striking a pose within an interaction. In this context, we will discuss bilingual discourse, often called ‘Spanglish’. What is Spanglish? How is it different from Spanish? Who speaks it, and what does it mean when they do? There is no one answer to this last question; this will be discussed in terms of its meaning within Latin@ communities and by outsiders. The concept of translanguaging will be introduced, which focuses on discourse as an activity, not an entity. Chapter 3, ‘“Race”, Ethnicity and Spanish Speakers in the US’, begins with a focus on how racial and ethnic aspects of identity intertwine with linguistic proficiency and membership in heritage Spanish language communities. I begin with a general introduction to how the concepts of ‘race’ and ethnicity are dealt with in the social sciences – beginning with why ‘race’ is written in quotation marks in this text. Empirical evidence of physical differences does not support the idea that human beings can be x