Intergenerational Spanish transmission in El Paso, Texas

Abstract

This study examines the beliefs held by a group of adult Spanish-English bilinguals from El Paso, Texas regarding the vitality of Spanish in their community and the ways in which their own experience of being bilingual on the US-Mexico border has influenced their perceptions of the benefits and costs of fostering Spanish development in their children. Results show that parents’ positive attitudes toward Spanish did not translate into the investment of time and resources to foster Spanish development in their children nor, ultimately, into the use of Spanish by their children. Households where the mother perceived herself as having an active role in her children’s linguistic development and where she perceived both Spanish and a bilingual/biethnic identity as desirable for her children’s future were also households where children were expected to speak Spanish at home and where more opportunities for linguistic development were present. The author argues that these beliefs must be understood as a consequence of the underlying tensions present in the community, where intense linguistic and interethnic contact takes place every day.

Bilingual call centers at the US-Mexico border: Location and linguistic markers of exploitability

“…These large corporations have opted to manage Spanish as an authentic social attribute and, with some exceptions, not worthy of special compensation or development. This managerial conceptualization is consistent, on the one hand, with local ideologies (Achugar & Pessoa 2009; Velázquez 2009) and, on the other, with neotaylorist management practices typical of mass market call centers, that consist of: (i) standardization (Milroy & Milroy 1998; Cameron 2000:324), especially through routines and scripts that permit control (Leidner 1993; Poster 2007), rotation of personnel, and low need for investing in training (Del Bono 2000); (ii) permissiveness with local accents, as an “authentic” way of relating to the client (Heller 2003, 2010; Duchêne 2009) that in turn permits access to an abundant, low wage workforce, especially in the case of languages with lower social prestige. The combination of these factors converts the cost of Spanish to these organizations to near zero.…”

“…The novelty that is diversity is accepted in organizational management, but fundamentally as a “heritage,” enculturated and informal. This coincides with and reinforces Mexican-American community tendencies to consider it unnecessary to formally educate their children in Spanish (Velázquez 2009). As such, this type of linguistic management in the new economy brings us to question the role of the market in the revaluation of Spanish in the United States.…”

Heritage Language Education and Identity in the United States

“…Rather than valuing the knowledge that heritage speakers of Spanish bring to the classroom, Spanish instructors and materials have often portrayed the contact varieties and practices typical of many U.S.-born Spanish speakers as deficient and substandard (Hornberger & Wang, 2008; Leeman, 2005; Valdés, 1981; Villa, 2002). Ideologies regarding the superiority of so-called standard and pure varieties in comparison to local varieties of Spanish circulate outside of the academic setting as well (Velázquez, 2009).…”

Is There Really a Labor Market Advantage to Being Bilingual in the U.S.?

“…Up to now, the research has suggested that there may be a modest economic advantage in the labor market for English speakers who gain a second language, as well as for some other language groups that acquire strong English skills, but for the most common bilingual in the United States-the individual who retains his or her native Spanish and becomes bilingual through the acquisition of English-the labor market outcomes are not so clear. Certainly, if evidence is lacking that retaining the home language will be of significant value in the labor market, then speakers of other languages may not be as likely to encourage the development of those language skills in their children (cf., Velásquez, 2009). Maybe it is better to just focus on English.…”