Definition Of Lingual Bilingualism

“Our culture, our traditions, our languages are the foundations upon which we build our identity.” - Unknown. Bilingualism has many different interpretations and definitions and can cause problems in the community or unite it. The concept of bilingualism represents several different ideas, two writers, Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez share in their essays their personal stories about being immersed into the English culture and learning the language. They share their views of what bilingualism means to them personally and make arguments about the importance of the concept. The two essayists bring awareness to the major role bilingualism plays in the communities today and highlight the effects of disagreements between cultural groups.

Bilingual education, as Rodriguez states, "romanticizes public separateness and trivializes the dilemma of the socially disadvantaged."

What is the meaning of bilingualism? Even with a dictionary definition, can it be trusted to give an answer that everyone agrees with? The dictionary definition is controversial, which results in people discussing the actual definition that fits everyone’s perception. But of course, with discussions, comes arguments. Who discusses such topics, and what do they talk about? Two prominent figures who discuss this topic are Martín Espada and Richard Rodriguez. Both have contrasting views on bilingualism, and their views are shown in their essays, which are The New Bathroom Policy at English High School by Espada and Hunger of Memory by Rodriguez. Espada’s definition of bilingualism is the ability to learn a new language and the right to

In America today, we are faced with several different minority groups arriving to the United States. The most common of all minority groups are the Hispanics. America is known for their language being English, but as the year's approach, that language has faded and a new face in English language has taken over, it's called Spanish. We as the people of America have become controversial over this major change, and due to that major bilingualism and political movements that have occurred from the government to the education departments. In this paper, I am going to talk about the four most common Hispanic groups in our country today and the political, social, linguistic, economic, religious, and familial conventions and/or statuses that they

Scholar, Gloria Anzaldúa, in her narrative essay, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue’, speaks her many experiences on being pressured on what language to use. She then expresses how the discrimination made her to realize the ugly truth--that people reject languages that aren’t their own. She adopts logos, ethos and pathos in order to appeal toward her audience who is anyone who is not bilingual. One of the perspectives she takes on in her piece clearly expresses the relationship between language and identity and how it creates a conflict between her and the world.

Juan Gonzalez uses Chapter 12: “Speak Spanish, You’re in America!: El Huracán over Language and Culture” of his novel Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America to introduce a truly polarizing argument that has plagued the Latino community in the United States of America. Gonzalez is quick to point out that English is the common language in this country, though he is quicker to note that it should not necessarily be so. This author is so incredibly biased in this chapter that it is nearly impossible to disagree with his opinion without feeling like one is completely shutting out the entire Latino community. However, speaking as a member of this community, perhaps it is this unique insight that allows for not only a contending opinion, but also the framework to make the opinion relevant. Gonzalez makes brash claims with little supporting evidence and relies heavily on argumenta ad passiones to manipulate the reader’s emotions instead of focusing on rationalism and sound judgment. Quite possibly, it was the abundance of this logical fallacy that made it difficult to sympathize with his argument; though, it lays the basis for this chapter analysis.

As a child, I was simultaneously immersed in three completely different cultures. My mother was Chinese, yet spoke Vietnamese, my father was white, and I lived in a predominantly Spanish community. These contrasting lifestyles and cultures truly showed me the difference between a public and a private identity, and the importance behind bilingualism in the world today. However, before I can recount what I’ve learned, we must first discuss two contrasting concepts about bilingualism from two very accomplished and controversial writers: Martín Espada and Richard Rodriguez.

In Richard Rodriguez's essay , “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood ” he writes about how he struggled as a child who only spoke Spanish language but lives in a society where the “public” language is English . He believes that speaking proper English will somehow help him fit into society and find his “true” identity. Throughout the essay he contrast the Spanish language identity and English language identity. As a young boy, Rodriguez finds consolation and safety in his home where they only speak Spanish. He feels that he only has a true identity when he is at home surrounded by those who speak the same language as him . On the contrary , he becomes trapped and disoriented when not being able to speak / understand the English language . He feels as if he is not part of “their world” and has no identity in society. By comparing and contrasting Spanish language identity and English language identity . Rodriguez's essay is an example that speaking different languages should not make anyone choose an identity . In fact being able to speak and understand multiple languages in his case Spanish and English makes the language a part of his identity, but with two different sides .

A diverse minority group of Latino and Spanish-speaking peoples has played an important part of what it means to be American and what it means to be a citizen in the United States today. Moving into the future, in order to analyze the trajectory that this group is in, we must first understand the group’s history in the United States and in territories that would become the United States. In addition, we must look at the origins of the most recent wave of Latino immigration in order to understand their current effect on American society and the intersection between both minority and majority groups. Finally, we get to the apex of this investigation: what lies in the future for Latino Americans in the United States? Although Latino

Speaking two or more languages is like a country having an atomic bomb during a war. The first situation is advantageous to a person and the second situation is advantageous to a country. “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” is a memoir of Richard Rodriguez’s bilingual childhood and it was originally published in Hunger of Memory in 1981. In Rodriguez’s memoir, he discusses why he disagrees with bilingual education. His audience is bilingual or anyone that has an opinion towards bilingual education. The purpose in Rodriguez’s memoir is to inform people of the effects of bilingual education and persuade bilingual educators why bilingual education shouldn’t exist.

Thesis - According to both Rodriguez and Espada, bilingualism is the separation of public and private language in society. to protect the rights of Spanish speakers.

Breaking the Barriers Why are people treated differently, solely based on the language that they speak? Why should governmental parties go out of their way to ban a language just because they don’t understand it? Why do we as the people of this world have the right to be able to speak in the language we choose, if we’re going to constantly attempt to prevent Bilingualism? Martin Espada, a poet and former Latino rights activist, responds to these questions in favor of bilingualism, constantly being attacked by people against bilingualism. while Richard Rodriguez in his book, Hunger of Memory, responds as if to support the prevention of bilingualism.

The United States of America is considered a melting pot of heritages and nationalities from all around the world. There is no official language, and no one culture all citizens abide by. Despite the fact that everyone in this country is different from one another, there is still a constant uniform citizen that has a more favorable position. This citizen is white, English-speaking, and somehow always in the front of the public sphere. In the recent years, there has been an increasingly dominant Latino presence in America. Their strength in numbers challenges there being a poster American citizen, and that that citizen will remain white. When working to assimilate to America’s “culture,” Lations seem to believe that there is one America, within which people speak a singular language and experience one culture. The pressure to assimilate stems from the white citizens of the country feeling threatened when there is a new culture and language, which they do not understand. As a result they feel personally threatened by the people who can speak both Spanish and English, and their response response involves marginalization and the obvious exclusion of Latino groups in the United States. There is a phenomenon, cultural citizenship, where Latinos perform their cultural practices to stretch their identity into the states, and practice their right to be authentic members of their community.

In time, bilingualism had become researchers debate topic especially from the linguistic field and therefore occurred a lot of specialized papers.In a topic debate it's important to know the definition of the subject , and into this, I want to start by adding the definitions of bilingual and bilingualism from the Bilinguality and Bilingualism, Second edition by Josiane F. Hamers and Michel H. A.,

According to Martin Espada the idea of bilingualism is way deeper than just speaking two languages. Being bilingual to Espada means that both the languages spoken are intertwined with identity. This claim is constructed in his essay The New Bathroom Policy at English High School. He informs us of what he has learned about bilingual people in America: “I have never met a single person who didn’t want to learn English. What they want to do is retain their language, culture and identity” (Espada 164-167). English is a powerful language in America, the Latinos that reside there feel that learning English could jeopardize their ability to speak Spanish. Moreover, Espada also uses an experience he had at META, in which the goal was to stop English from becoming the official language in