Language Issues During The Franco And Franco's The Catalan Language And The Castilian ( Spanish ) Language

As the previous discussion has shown, the notions bilingualism and bilingual education are pretty complex. Summing up, bilingualism exists in different levels, which are defined as termed individual bilingualism and societal bilingualism. These forms are typical either for the whole language minorities (communities) or for an individual. This should be taken into account for bilingual education, which can be described as language possession at the individual level. From the research that has been carried out, it is possible to conclude that this issue is very complex and can be described by various dimensions, such as language ability, achievement, competences, performance, proficiency and skills, as well as the age of language acquisition, the balance of two languages, context of language usage.

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.

Bilinguals in America experience unfair treatment and are looked at differently if English is not their native language. The subject of bilingualism is not a topic many are educated on. Uneducated English speakers use their dominance and popularity of their language to treat Spanish speakers like their language and culture does not belong in our country. Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez speak of bilingualism in their well published essays, and they write about the struggles that American citizens face when they are bilingual in Spanish and English. This essay will clearly show each writer’s definition and arguments on bilingualism and my argument on the topic.

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.

As mentioned earlier, during Franco’s dictatorship, Catalan was banned with very strict penalties if used for both public and private use. However, once democracy was established again in the country, Catalan went back to be the co-official language along with Spanish. Nowadays, there is approximately 9.5 million Catalan speakers, and about 4.2 million are native speakers, which makes Catalan be the second most commonly spoken native language in Spain, after Spanish.

To become bilingual, must you lose a piece of your identity? Or can the cultures of language coexist in a person? In the essays by Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, the ability to maintain identity as a bilingual speaker is challenged. According to Espada, Spanish should be permitted everywhere to prevent losing a piece of one’s identity. However, Rodriguez believes that a piece of your identity must be sacrificed in order to be accepted into a new culture. For others, such as myself, there is a happy compromise; bilingualism should be encouraged and supported in public to communicate and spread understanding.

3). In each of these orientations, bilingual education is considered as the outline or the umbrella that the three orientations come under. Richard Ruiz (1988), elaborate these orientations and explains the limitations and strengths of the views “language as a problem” and “language as a right”. Although he mentions that the orientation of “language as a resources” has its limitations too, Ruiz argues that developing such orientation and supporting it will result in more realistic attitudes towards languages and language minorities (Ruiz, 1988, p.

Bilingual Education In this essay, “Bilingual Education is a Hindrance” by Jorge Amselle, on Oct 1996 in Chicago Tribune, the author was success full in making me feel and realize. Amselle reminds us that Hispanic parents who have an intention towards globalization want their children to read and write in English in public schools which have started bilingual education programs which provide a lot of opportunities with new languages as well as by learning their native language to their children. The author explains that(most of the parents like to place their children in bilingual education programs and more likely to be placed in English as a second language program which develops their skills than other languages.) Amselle had used a methodology to demonstrate his views on Bilingual education, he revealed that Bilingual education nourish child’s academic and career opportunity by having proficient knowledge in English.

According to Maria Sanchez Diez, a reporter for the website Quartz, by the year 2050 the US will be the largest Spanish speaking country in the world, if the rate at which Latinos are coming in and staying stays consistent. As the U.S grows with spanish speakers and latinos, American english speakers become more defensive against the spanish speakers. English speakers try to stop people speaking their own language in school settings, and threaten to harm non natives. The idea of bilingualism goes beyond just speaking two languages, it ties to a person’s identity and their culture. Both english speakers and spanish speakers want to keep who they are, they both fear each other, anxiety rests between both, both have troubles but American

With regards to Chapter 8, I learnt that the United States (US) and its stand on bilingualism is deeply influenced by its history. Over time, English grew to become the predominant language, which was the result of the US having sheltered views about bilingualism, especially following the events after World War I and II. It is difficult to compare this with the content in Chapter 9 since the European Union (EU) consists of multiple countries and so, the history of bilingualism in the EU was only addressed in a very general sense by the author.

Businesses look for people who are bilingal in eniglish and spanish. Most jobs will pay a greater amount for those who speak two languages. They pay more to those people because if someone is bilingal, then that gives them an advantage in being able to reach more people. Communicating in more than one language can allow businesses to expand their companies outside the state and can make more business overseas asell as spanish speaking countries.

In “Negotiating Spain and Catalonia: Competing Narratives of National Identity,” author Fernando Leon Solis examines the various motivational factors for Catalonia’s push for autonomy within Spain. The author makes a compelling case as to how and why Catalonia is attempting to gain autonomy. Solis believes that the main motivation for Catalonian autonomy is the conflict over the definition of Catalan identity, which, Catalans believe, can only fully be established under regional autonomy. Solis argues that if the Catalan National political party, Convergencia I Unio, can come to an agreement with the majority party in parliament, Partido Popular, then Catalonia may receive regional autonomy. Additionally, Solis believes that the Catalans are not seeking national independence, but rather they wish for a high level of autonomy within Spain. It is important to

Indeed, linguistic diversity is frequently perceived as a threat to national unity (Windisch, 2004). Languages may be invoked and used to signal group membership especially if groups feel that their identities are threatened; in these situations, use of a given language may constitute an act of defiance. This is observable in the histories of Catalonia and Quebec, for instance. Thus, it is unsurprising that specific programmers of language planning may be aimed at homogenizing the national group. During this process, minority languages may bestigmatised or even banned, as was the case in Franco’s Spain, where the Catalan language was formally prohibited for almost four decades (Pujol, 1996).” Also language being a marker of a nationhood, it helps marking people who claims the language. It helps with groups being threatened. “his method of attempting to establish a cohesive national identity may be detrimental for minority group identity, since an important self-aspect, namely language, is often at stake. A language may be important to a group at a symbolic level. For instance, individuals may collectively lay claim to a language, which they themselves do not speak natively, in order to assert a symbolic identity which will differentiate them from others. Welsh nationalism exemplifies this notion of symbolic identity. Although just a fifth of the population actually speaks Welsh,

European societies have strong sentiments towards using language and its history as the means of shaping regional identity against national identity. This essay thus discusses the languages of Spain and the United Kingdom. Spain’s 17 autonomous regions are grounded in historical tensions of peripheral, or regional, and nationalist movements, and the struggles to demarcate ethnic values from the civic. It amounted with the Castilian language as the assimilating tool of Franco’s nationalistic regime. Such history has remained an impetus in modern Spain’s example of pursuing language plurality for regional and cultural identification. The UK presents a different policy, contrasting Spain’s regionalism with a monolingual framework. One reason of the pervasive English monolingualism is the Anglican Church’s historical repression of Cornish. It fostered the stigmatism, eradication and abandonment of this Cornwall tongue, and forced superiority and common usage of English instead. Alike to Spain, history is a lesson to modern UK’s example of growing acceptance, particularly in the exponential revival of its regional languages. Hence, this essay explores historical tensions between national-official and regional languages, language education, and fears concerning language preservation. These themes clearly shape both Spanish and British culture towards distinctive pursuits of regional identity.