Validating and promoting Spanish in the United States: Lessons from linguistic science

Bilingual Research Journal, Fall 2000 by Carreira, Maria

Abstract

With U.S. Hispanics constituting a culturally, racially, and economically diverse group, the Spanish language represents a key identity factor for this community. Regrettably, the derisive attitudes about Spanish in the United States, as well as abroad, present a serious obstacle to the preservation of Spanish in this country. This paper argues that the Spanish for native speakers (SNS) curriculum represents the single most important forum where such attitudes can be exposed as groundless, and where the dual task of validating the regional variants represented in the classroom while teaching the standard language can be accomplished. Well-chosen linguistic examples hold the key to demonstrating four issues that are vital to the education of bilingual Hispanics and the preservation of Spanish in the United States. These are: (a) the arbitrary nature of linguistic prejudice, (b) the linguistic validity of all dialects of a language including nonstandard variants, (c) the overwhelming linguistic overlap between nonstandard and standard dialects of Spanish, and (d) the instrumental value of learning the standard language.

Introduction

It is widely accepted that U.S. Hispanics constitute a culturally, economically, racially, and even politically diverse group. In the midst of this diversity, the Spanish language represents a key identity factor to members of this community, as well as to outsiders. To U.S. Hispanics, the Spanish language provides a link to their country of origin and serves as an essential tool for communicating with countless other Hispanics in this country, as well as abroad. To American corporations and institutions with an interest in U.S. Hispanics, the Spanish language represents the most comprehensible indicator underlying labels such as Hispanic or Latino.

Much has been made in the popular press of the growing political, economic, and social influence exerted by the totality of individuals classified under these labels. Newly released data from the U.S. Census (2000) reveal that Latinos have a buying power that exceeds $300 billion a year, and that the United States is the fourth largest Spanish-speaking country in the world. These facts have served to identify U.S. Hispanics as one of this country's most promising communities for commercial, political, and social ventures.

It is arguable that this community's ability to preserve this enviable status hinges on its ability to maintain the Spanish language as one of its markers of group membership. In fact, without a common language, there is little beyond a few scattered cultural notions that serve to unite the various groups that currently fall under the umbrella of U.S. Hispanics or Latinos. The balkanization of U.S. Hispanics that would result from the loss of Spanish in this country would undoubtedly bring about a concomitant loss in the collective power exerted by the various subgroups that currently fall under the umbrella of Hispanic, leaving only the largest (i.e., the Mexicans), or the most affluent (i.e., the Cubans), any influence to speak of. Beyond the United States, the loss of Spanish would render Latinos unable to enjoy, support, and contribute to the music, literature, entertainment, and political activities of the Spanish-speaking world. In light of this, the preservation of Spanish in the United States is more than just a linguistic issue. It is in fact a topic that strikes at the heart of all discussions pertaining to the future of U.S. Hispanics.

Preserving Spanish in the United States presents a number of challenges ranging from the socio-economic to the pedagogical. One particularly serious challenge stems from the low social status afforded the variants of Spanish represented in this country (Bills, 1997; Rodriguez Pino, 1997; Silva-Corvalan, 1997; Zentella, 1990). In particular, the prevalence of negative attitudes about U.S. Spanish in the general media, in educational settings, and even in the home, represents a serious obstacle to the promotion of Spanish among young Hispanics. For this population, standard Spanish represents an unattainable goal, while U.S. Spanish remains an undesirable reality. Therefore, efforts to teach Spanish as a heritage language to this population of students must be accompanied by an educational campaign to demonstrate the linguistic validity of the gamut of linguistic phenomena found in the Spanish of Latinos. Only when they recognize the linguistic legitimacy of their home language will such students (and Latinos in general) galvanize to protect U.S. Spanish as a crucial marker of group identity.

General Contributions of Linguistic Science

Linguistic science has long recognized that all dialects of a language are linguistically complex and rule governed. Despite this, in the eyes of society all dialects and languages are not created equal. Sociolinguistic studies reveal that most speakers of a language hold strong opinions regarding the prestige value of the variants of language that they come in contact with. By and large, these opinions are not grounded in purely linguistic criteria, but rather on considerations such as the economic, political, and social status of the speakers of such dialects (Silva Corvalan, 1994).