Transcript Whither Official English? Implications of Census Data

Whither Official English?
Implications of Census Data for
US Educational and Language
Policy
Sandra Gollin-Kies
Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois, USA
Daniel Kies
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA
Summary
 We analyze US Census and other
survey data from 1980 to 2012.
 We critically analyze “Official
English” and “English only”
discourse in the popular media.
 We refute claims made by English
protectionists that bilingualism leads
to a fractured society, wastes
taxpayers’ money, and encourages
hordes of “others” who cannot or will
not communicate with the wider
populations.
Media Discourse: English Only
Lou Dobbs, CNN
Discusses “English Only” in US schools with the
superintendent of Arizona’s public schools
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ii0n4aewuE
Issues framed by politics of fear and
ignorance (1/3): Poli-economic stress
 Confounding illegal immigration and language issues
Fear of the “other”
 “Border security outrage”; Fear of “Illegals” bringing crime
and disease, taking Americans’ jobs, wasting taxpayers’
money on education.
 Federal vs state control vs control by “the people”
 Fear of a federal “aristocracy”; federal judges;
 Support for states rights; smaller government
 Ignorance of what bilingual education means
 Voters misinformed: “I eliminated it”; children learning
English “faster” through immersion;
 Economic issues
 English is “the language of success”; “parents want their
children to speak English.”

Issues framed by politics of fear and
ignorance (2/3): pic = 1000 words
 Confounding illegal immigration and language issues
Fear of the “other”
 “Border security outrage”; Fear of “Illegals” bringing crime
and disease, taking Americans’ jobs, wasting taxpayers’
money on education.
 Federal vs state control vs control by “the people”
 Fear of a federal “aristocracy”; federal judges;
 Support for states rights; smaller government
 Ignorance of what bilingual education means
 Voters misinformed: “I eliminated it”; children learning
English “faster” through immersion;
 Economic issues
 English is “the language of success”; “parents want their
children to speak English.”

Issues framed by politics of fear and
ignorance (3/3): “Language decay”
 Some argue in the pop media/cultural arena that contact with foreign
languages will lead to the decay, decline, corruption, or death of
English.
 First point of evidence – population. Are the numbers of English
speakers in decline? English is still growing as a first language and as
the most demanded second language in the US & the world.
 Second point of evidence – restricted use. One could rightly argue that
a language is in decline if its uses are restricted. For example, if a
language's uses were
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to be restricted to just one mode of discourse (speech or writing), or
to be restricted to informal uses (or formal uses) only, or
to be deemed unacceptable in educational or governmental settings,
etc., or
to lack special vocabularies needed for certain functions (medicine, for
example),
then one could argue that a language is in decline, moving perhaps
toward language death.
Media Discourse: Official English
WLWT: States that have Official English
policies, discussion of assimilation and
language adoption between generations
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHVRDay8UEk
Demolishing assumptions
 Most immigrants want children to learn English, but
given an informed choice, also want bilingual
education (Wiley and Wright, 2004).
 Most immigrants receive education in English only,
or at best, “weak” bilingual programs (Menken and
Kleyn, 2010)
 Majority of immigrants lose native language and
exclusively use English by 3rd generation
(Fishman,1991).
 Overwhelming evidence that bilingualism is
beneficial, linguistically, academically, socially, and
possibly cognitively (e.g., Cummins 2000).
Issues of politics, race, economics
2001 Patriot Act - heightened xenophobia
2007 onwards: economic insecurity fuels
community fears of immigrants taking jobs.
Opposition to Obama’s Dream Act - children of
illegal immigrants’ path to citizenship
Media beat-up of illegals crossing border
(57,000 children since Oct 2013)
Bilingual education is electoral poison for both
major parties.
A brief recent history of restrictive
language policies
English Only, English as an official language; anti-bilingual education.
 1960s- late 90s. Bilingual education increasingly accepted.
 1981 Cal. Sen Hayakawa’s constitutional amendment proposal for
English as an official language.
 1998. Calif Prop. 227 mandated English only instruction with waivers
for bilingual education only if requested by parents; shortage of
bilingual teachers and ESL certified teachers. Similar legislation passed
in Arizona, Massachusetts, Colorado.
Moves to make English the official language
 2006 amendments to Immigration Bill 2611 (Tardy, 2009).
Sen. Inhofe (R): Amendment 4064 - make English the national
language (emphasized entitlement)
 Sen. Salazar (D): Amendment 4073 - English as the “common unifying
language” (emphasized civil rights)
(Both amendments passed Senate, but not enacted into law.)
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 by 2011, 27 states had English Only laws, 9 more in progress.
US Census Data 1980-2010
US Census taken every decade
 For further information on foreign-born population,
see:
www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/foreign/index.html
American Community Survey (ACS)
 Nationwide survey samples 3.5 mill addresses and
includes housing units and group quarters (e.g.
prisons and nursing facilities).
 For details on sampling accuracy see:
www.census.gov/acs/www/Downloads/data_documentation/
Accuracy/ACS_Accuracy_of_Data_2012.pdf>
Lang. spoken at home and selfreported English speaking ability
Home Lang.
1980
%
2011
%
All speakers age 210,247,455 100%
5+
291,524,091 100%
English only
187,187,415 89%
230,947,071 79%
Lang. other than
English (LOE)
23,060,040
11%
60,577,020
Speaks Eng.
“Very well”
12,879,004
55.85% 35,255,826
of LOE
58.2%
of LOE
Speaks Eng.
“with some
difficulty”*
10,181,036
44.15% 25,321,194
of LOE
41.8%
of LOE
81 mill.+ Increase
21%
*Includes all who report speaking English less than very well.
Figures calculated from US Census Bureau Data: 1980, 2013, 2014.
Self-reported proficiency of foreignborn who speak English*
Speaks Eng.
1980
2011
“Very well”
56%
58%
“well”
26%
19.4%
“not well”
13%
15.4%
“not at all”
5%
7.0%
“with some
difficulty”*
44%
42%
* Aggregate numbers rounded
Figure reproduced from Gambino, Acosta and Grieco, 2014
Figure reproduced from Gambino, Acosta and Grieco, 2014
Figure reproduced from Ryan, 2013
Figure reproduced from Gambino, Acosta and Grieco, 2014
Figure reproduced from Gambino, Acosta and Grieco, 2014
NCLB encourages English-only “immersion”
No Child Left Behind*
 2001- G.W.Bush reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act. Title VII (Bilingual Education Act) replaced by
Lang instruction for LEP and immigrant students. NCLB
allocates funds for indigenous lang maintenance, but not for
bilingual education.
 Emphasizes transition to English; dual immersion only if enough
native English speakers want to learn the other language.
 Accountability: NCLB mandates that all children meet grade
level expectations. Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) aims for 100%
proficiency, without exceptions for ELLs except that they do not
have to take the test in their first year of instruction.
 But schools under pressure to demonstrate participation, so
many schools test all the children using high stakes tests in
English regardless of background.
*Wiley and Wright, 2004
Educational implications of Englishonly policies
 Cambodians in California
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Cambodian students in English-only schools with teachers
not certified to teach ELLs had weaker primary language
skills and lacked mastery of English. Reported
communication difficulties at home, work and college, and
self-identity issues.
 Hispanics in New York
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(Wright, 2004)
(Menken & Kleyn, 2010).
1/3 of all ELLS in New York secondary schools are long-term
(LTELLS). Prior schooling (7+ yrs) has been bilingually
subtractive. Students enter high school with limited
academic literacy in English (in spite of oral bilingualism).
Negative effects on studies in all subject areas.
Effects of bilingual education
 Lopez and McEneaney (2012)
 ELL students in Arizona (with weakest bilingual
emphasis) on av. scored 13,5 points lower (more than
1 yr below) reading comp. expected for fourth grade,
compared with states with stronger bilingual programs
(e.g., TX, NM).
 Stronger emphasis on bilingual education had a
positive effect on both ELL and non-ELL Hispanic
fourth graders’ reading ability.
 No evidence that recent (English only) reforms in
California or Arizona have positively affected reading
achievement in Hispanic students.
Conclusions
 US public opinion and language policy
Conflates bilingualism with language “ghettos”
 Driven by xenophobia in public arena
 Driven by expediency in the political arena
 Bilingual programs lack funding
 Cultural loss
 Educational loss
 Economic loss
 What’s needed
 Restore funding for bilingual education
 More accessible public information/education on benefits of
bilingual education and bilingual citizenry
 More teacher training (beyond mere prof. devt. for cultural
diversity) for bilingual education
 Use bilinguals as a resource for teaching in a globalized
world
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References
 Cummins, J. (2000). Language power and pedagogy: Bilingual
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children in the crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
Fishman, J. (1991) Reversing language shift. Clevedon, UK.
Multilingual Matters.
Gambino, C.P., Costa, Y.D., & Grieco, C.M. (2014). Englishspeaking ability of the foreign-born population of the United
States: 2012. American Community Survey Reports ACS-26.
US Census Bureau, Washington DC.
Lopez, F. & McEneaney, E. (2012). State implementation of
language acquisition policies and reading achievement among
Hispanic students. Educational Policy. 16 (3) 418-464.
Menken, K. & Kleyn, T. (2010). The long-term impact of
subtractive schooling in the educational experiences of
secondary English language learners. International Journal of
Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 13 (4) 399-417.
References contd.
 Quentin-Dixon, L., Zhao, J., Shin, J.Y., Wu, S., Su, J.H.,
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Burgess-Brigham, R., Gezar, M.U., & Snow, C. (2012). What we
know about second language acquisition: A synthesis of four
perceptions. Review of Educational Research. 82 (1) 5-60.
Ryan C. (2013).Language use in the United States: 2011.
American Community Survey Reports ACS-22. US Census
Bureau, Washington DC.
Tardy, C. (2009). “Press 1 for English”: textual and ideological
networks in a newspaper debate on US language policy.
Discourse and Society. (20). 265-286.
Wiley, T.G. & Wright, W.E. (2004). Against the undertow:
Language- minority education policy and politics in the “age of
accountability.” Educational Policy. 18 (1)142-168.
Wright, W. (2004). What English-only really means: A study of
the implementation of California language policy with
Cambodian American students. International Journal of Bilingual
Education and Bilingualism. 7 (1) 1-23.
Thank You!
Sandra Gollin-Kies, PhD
Associate Professor, Dept. of Languages and Literature
Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois, USA
[email protected]
Daniel Kies, PhD
Professor, Dept. of English
College of DuPage, Glen Ellyn, Illinois, USA
[email protected]
Website: www.rhetory.com
Appendix: additional material
 Next two videos represent politicians’ and the
public’s views of English nationally and
globally.
Media Discourse: English Only
Political Comments
 Rick Santorum
 Newt Gingrich
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Santorum discusses Puerto Rican statehood
and the necessity for all states to use English
as requirement for statehood.
Gingrich discusses Spanish, “the language of
the ghetto.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B0yKIL7moo
Media Discourse: Official English
popular opinion
 Homeland - Your Voice - Should English Be
the Official Language?
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An informal survey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJDHjB2VI78