Bilingualism among descendants of immigrants in the USA – a blessing or a curse?

Bilingualism among descendants of immigrants in the USA –

 a blessing or a curse?

            The United States of America has always been a cultural melting pot. People from all over the world have been immigrating to the US since its foundation. Despite the rich cultural diversity of its inhabitants, the language spoken in the US is predominantly English. Obviously, immigrants are rarely able to quickly acquire English; in fact, this process often takes a generation to occur. As a result, the descendants of immigrants are often bilingual, as they learn their parents’ language at home and learn English in schools or pre-schools. However, it is not absolutely clear if this process is beneficial or potentially harmful for the newcomers. In this essay, I am going to present studies conducted among children of immigrants and also show personal stories which might give more insight to the situation.

            Bilingualism is a linguistic term meaning that the speaker is able to use two languages. This does not necessarily mean proficiency in both languages, but a bilingual is usually able to use both languages in conversations or in everyday situations. Although there had been academic debates over the topic, nowadays it is accepted that bilingualism is beneficial to the speaker. “Balanced bilinguals”, speakers who are able to speak both languages quite well and roughly on an equivalent level, have been shown to have cognitive, metacognitive, metalinguistic and sociolinguistic advantages compared to monolinguals. This means, among others, increased control over language, improved reasoning, and greater understanding of language. (Adam Winsler et al. 1999).

            These benefits are, though, only linguistic ones. By picking up English and getting accustomed to the American culture, children of immigrants gradually tend to lose their national identities. Although this is a natural process, its speed has changed in the recent years. In earlier times, the loss of an immigrant’s original language most often happened between the second and third generations. The second generation was usually bilingual, but rarely used the original language at home thus their children did not learn it and rarely felt inclined to do so. (Fishman & Hofman, 1966; Portes & Rumbault, 1990). However, a large number of present-day second-generation immigrants are not bilingual – often they only speak English. This is the process of subtractive bilingualism, which means that the newly acquired language quickly replaces the original one. Subtractive bilingualism is extremely common among immigrants whose original language is very different from English, e.g. Far Eastern languages. Fillmore presented the situation of a Chinese family, in which subtractive bilingualism caused major problems. (Theory into Practice, 2000). Out of the family’s four children, only the oldest speaks Cantonese, and even she is far from perfect. The children attended English schools in the US and had to learn to language as quickly as possible in order to be able to communicate with the classmates. In the beginning, the children were teased for not being able to speak English and for tem being foreign. Naturally, they felt that English is the key to acceptance. They quickly stopped using Cantonese, as there was no need for it anywhere except for home. As the parent had no time and need to learn English (they were working in a Chinese restaurant), striking up a conversation with their own children became problematic.

            This tendency is, however, not true for all immigrants. If the pressure to lose the original language is not so high, an immigrant group can actually retain their L1 and also learn English proficiently. According to the US Census Bureau, there were 52,961,017 Latino or Hispanic people in the US, which made up 16.88% of the total population. In states close to Middle America, such as California, Texas, or Florida, the Latinos make up an even higher proportion of the population. In fact, it is so high that the “critical mass effect” is likely to be triggered – the Spanish-speaking community is often so big that using Spanish in everyday life becomes a tendency. Also, as there are Latinos from diverse cultural backgrounds in the US (e.g. Mexicans, Haitians, Cubans, Puerto Ricans, etc.) who speak English at various degrees, Spanish is the best and easiest way to successfully communicate in such communities. (Van C. Tran, 2010).

            There have been numerous studies about bilingualism with various outcomes but the two studies I would like to mention both concluded that bilingualism was beneficial to the users. The first study, conducted by Adam Winsler, Rafael M. Díaz, Linda Espinosa and James L. Rodríguez, studied the Spanish and English proficiency of Spanish-speaking, 3-4 years old children, whose families had low income. Two groups were monitored: children enrolling bilingual pre-schools and children staying at home. Not surprisingly, children of the first group showed at least equal and often greater advancement in both Spanish and English proficiency then those of the second group. This shows that during pre-school, bilingual education causes no L1 loss. (A. Winsler et al. 1999)

            It is well known that children learn languages up to the age of seven at an amazing ease. What about adolescents then? A study conducted by Van C. Tran showed that among young Latino adults, bilingualism is more frequent than any other minority group in the US. It also showed that English and Spanish proficiency increase simultaneously over time among second-generation Latinos. They learn English from a very young age, but due to the acceptance and frequent use of their L1, Spanish, they do not feel inclined to lose it. Tran’s study also indicates that English acquisition does not necessarily mean the abandonment of Spanish. The learning is able to occur simultaneously and is not particularly difficult for the second-generation learners as the two languages share many characteristics. (Van C. Tran, 2010)

            To conclude, it can be stated that bilingualism is a phenomenon which means something different for people of various cultural backgrounds. While some immigrants have to face serious problems when learning English, other groups are more successful in retaining the most basic part of their identities, their L1.

References

L. W. Fillmore (2000). Loss of Family Languages: Should Educators Be Concerned? Theory into Practice             Vol. 39, No. 4, Children and Languages at School, pp. 203-210

A. Winsler, R. M. Díaz, L. Espinosa & J. L. Rodríguez (1999). When Learning a Second Language Does Not Mean Losing the First: Bilingual Language Development in Low-Income, Spanish-Speaking Children Attending Bilingual Preschool. Child Development , Vol. 70, No. 2, pp. 349-362

V. C. Tran (2010). English Gain vs. Spanish Loss? Language Assimilation among Second-Generation Latinos in Young Adulthood. Social Forces , Vol. 89, No. 1, pp. 257-284