Essay On Bilingualism

The growth of English language has increased tremendously over the years and has become the most widely spoken languages in the United States. This observation aims to explore why when moving to the United States, many non-English speakers feel the social pressure to learn English and what difficulties they encounter. After my observation, I found that many feel the need to learn English in order to assimilate into a community, and though straddling two languages is difficult, it opens more opportunities, and language privilege.

First off, it’s important to understand the difference between learning and education. Learning is the ability of an individual’s brain to acquire and retain information for a lifetime, whereas education is an aide to further strengthen a student’s learning capacity with the use of resources: teachers, libraries, classroom environment, etc. All students are essentially equal when they enter the educational environment, however students who don’t speak English have an unfair disadvantage in the american educational system.

On the one hand, English was the language used to communicate with outsiders. It was a tool for survival and held no personal meaning. It was crucial for public success. On the other hand, in Richard Rodriguez’s own words: “Spanish was associated with closeness”. By reading the previous passage, we can clearly infer that Spanish was the key to Richard’s confort. Hearing Spanish brought Rodriguez feelings of love, acceptance, family, and security. Spanish was a reminder of home and seemed to him a private language. In other words, he was surrounded by a web built by the family love and security which is conveyed by using the Spanish language, as the following passage shows: “...Spanish seemed to me the language of home...It became the language of joyful return...”. Moreover, if we consider the following passage:”You belong here. We are family members. Related. Special to one another” it is possible to say that Spanish language made Rodriguez felt as part of his family, creating a feeling of belonging and reinforcing family ties and ethnic heritage.

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

With all the negative thoughts and feelings about his family, Rodriguez never took the time to repair his relationship with him and his family, because books were very important to him than his family. As Rodriguez begin to separate from his family and culture, his Spanish accent also begin to disappear, which he felt very excited. In the beginning of his article he talked about the first day, he enters the class and could “barely able to speak English” (239). Rodriguez felt that he did not fit in with the rest

Movements for bilingual education rose in 1974 with the Equal Education Opportunity Act and Bingual Education Act, which ordered federally funded schools to meet special educational needs for students not proficient in English. Unfortunately, dropout rates and lack of English-language proficiency alarmed the states that these bilingual programs were not efficent. Because of this, arguments between English-only advocates and supporters of bilingual educations emerged. Articles such as the New York Times have proclaimed the failures of bilingual education. One cause could be the resistance of immigrants from English language acquisition, who hold tight onto their first language and culture. Despite this, studies show that generations

Rodriguez lost all connection with his family. He was unable to converse with them he had grown so far apart. Rodriguez felt “embarrassed” to embrace his personal background. He spoke of when his parents came to school and could not not speak English fluently and how it made him embarrassed because he did not want to profess his ethical background.

The particular focus of Rodriguez’s story is that in order to feel like he belonged to the “public society” he had to restrict his individuality. Throughout his story, Rodriguez discussed such topics as assimilation and heritage. He goes into depth about the pros and the cons of being forced to assimilate to the American culture. Growing up Hispanic in America was a struggle for Rodriguez. This was due to the fact that he was a Spanish-speaking boy living in an English-speaking society, and he felt like he was different than the other children. Rodriguez writes, “I was fated to be the ‘problem student’ in class” (Rodriguez 62). This is referring to Rodriguez’s improper knowledge of English. It made him stand out as the kid that was behind. He wanted to find the balance between the public and private face. He believed both were important to develop. As I read this story it changed the way I looked at people who speak different languages, and how it must be hard to fit in with society if you are not all fluent in English.

Rodriguez describes his youth as a child of Mexican immigrant studying in America, where he had difficulty communicating at school because he did not understand the public language, English. In the beginning, he was shy and afraid at school because he was feeling uneasy with the English language, but with his parents and teacher’s help he “raised his hand to volunteer an answer”, from that day he” moved very far from the disadvantage child…” (987).

Rodriguez was torn apart his “private” life and his “public” life. Private as in referring to the language spoken and home and the Spanish heritage at home. Public as in referring to his quite life at school where Rodriguez was intimidated by “high syllables” and the way people talked fast English. This quote illustrated how the need of

To begin with, Rodriguez’s first step to finding his identity began when his parents decided to move to the states to start a new life. At first, he was completely lost because he couldn’t understand the language. However, as time went by his English began to improve with the help of his parents helping him practice English at home. As he becomes more educated, he felt that a distance grew between him and his parents. “Here is a child who cannot forget that his academic success distances him from a life he loved, even from his own memory of himself” (Rodriguez 51). Rodriguez was connected with his family through his private identity. However, his distance with his parents began to appear as he advanced in English. As he starts to become fluent in English, he would talk to his parents less and less. His Spanish skills also started to deteriorate. Spanish is the language that gave him a sense of closeness to his family and is what separated him from the public. However, once he started to develop his public identity, he started losing his private identity. Rodriguez’s parents provided him with his own private identity and help him and supported him in developing his public identity to success.

Bilingualism- is the ability of a person to use two or more languages aside from his/her mother tongue.

From a young age I could remember my grandmother scolding my mother for not teaching me to speak Spanish fluently. I always questioned the importance of being bilingual, like how would this every help me in a world where English is becoming the native tongue. Before I stumbled across the research done on bilingualism I had very little to none background knowledge on bilingualism. I thought the only outcome of being bilingual or multilingual is you get to socialize with other people from other backgrounds and maybe have more opportunities to a more variety of jobs. Needs less to say I greatly underestimated the importance bilingualism has on the mind, in school and in life itself. After reading tremendous amount of research, I have a better insight, on how bilingualism can change one’s life and more importantly the change it has on the structure of the mind. I have discovered how the mind of someone who is bilingual works, also the impacts bilingualism has on the mind and most importantly how bilingualism can essentially pave a way to success in education and learning.

During the past couple of years the bilingual population has increased significantly. Different countries require students to speak more than one language in order to graduate from different programs of study. The world is becoming more and more connected. Advances in technology increases the need for people to be able to communicate with folks from different nations. According to a survey from the American Community Survey in 2007, the results showed that approximately 20% of the population spoke a different language at home. This number had an increase of 140% since 1980 (Shin & Kominski, 2010). Crystal (1197) predicts that two-thirds of the children in the world are growing up learning at least two languages.

This past school year, my family hosted an exchange student from Israel. He lived and interacted with us 24/7 - all while speaking English, his second language. I was amazed that he was able to speak so fluently, but also felt guilty at times that I couldn’t interact with him in his native Arabic tongue to make him feel more comfortable. I realized over time that my exchange student came to America fully aware and accepting that he wouldn’t be able to interact with many people in his own language, but he was comfortable in the discomfort of that. Over the last few months my opinion of bilingualism has evolved. I believe native languages are vital to maintaining global diversity, but people coming to the United States need to know English in order to survive amongst the majority population. Authors Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez have very different opinions and first-hand experiences when it comes to bilingualism despite their cultural similarities. Espada stands more protective of his cultural tongue while Rodriguez exhibits a more open idea of English as a public, interactive tool. Nevertheless, bilingualism is a powerful resource that should not be stripped from people. Their history, culture and identity are all tied to language.