1/8/2015
If you can't speak the language... GTFO!!!
DENVER – Rapid changes in the use of the Spanish language in the Southwest may lead to the language’s extinction in coming decades in the region unless bilingualism is accepted and promoted, a University of Colorado expert said.
Devin Jenkins has found that in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, areas with a large population of Spanish and Mexican descent, the use of Spanish is no longer growing.
In other areas of the United States, however, Spanish is flourishing with the arrival of new immigrants, said Jenkins, who speaks Spanish fluently and has gathered information about the subject for the past 35 years.
“The change of language by the third generation is, simply, the process in which immigrants’ grandchildren tend to speak only one language, the one prevalent in their communities, and not the language of their immigrant ancestors,” he said.
In some parts of Texas, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, less than one in three grandchildren of immigrants speak Spanish, compared to major cities in California and South Texas where two out of three young people preserve their grandparents’ language.
“Language extinction happens all the time everywhere in the world,” said Jenkins, a Spanish teacher and director of the modern languages department at UCD.
“Those languages are the cultural link with the past,” Jenkins said. “Losing them is losing a piece of our own culture. That’s why all efforts to preserve a language are commendable.”
In the Southwest, the efforts include studying why someone speaks in Spanish or ceases to do it, who uses the language and what benefits the children and grandchildren of immigrants derive from being bilingual or from speaking only in English.
Changes in language usage affect family relationships since grandparents may not be able to communicate with their grandchildren, Jenkins said.
“There is little gain here,” Jenkins said.
“Those who promote English-only policies say that people who speak only English have better chances to succeed,” Jenkins said. “But that’s not the case. Knowing only one language reduces a person’s abilities, while being bilingual doesn’t mean that the person is less proficient in English.”
source
If you can't speak the language... GTFO!!!
DENVER – Rapid changes in the use of the Spanish language in the Southwest may lead to the language’s extinction in coming decades in the region unless bilingualism is accepted and promoted, a University of Colorado expert said.Devin Jenkins has found that in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, areas with a large population of Spanish and Mexican descent, the use of Spanish is no longer growing.
In other areas of the United States, however, Spanish is flourishing with the arrival of new immigrants, said Jenkins, who speaks Spanish fluently and has gathered information about the subject for the past 35 years.
“The change of language by the third generation is, simply, the process in which immigrants’ grandchildren tend to speak only one language, the one prevalent in their communities, and not the language of their immigrant ancestors,” he said.
In some parts of Texas, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico, less than one in three grandchildren of immigrants speak Spanish, compared to major cities in California and South Texas where two out of three young people preserve their grandparents’ language.
“Language extinction happens all the time everywhere in the world,” said Jenkins, a Spanish teacher and director of the modern languages department at UCD.
“Those languages are the cultural link with the past,” Jenkins said. “Losing them is losing a piece of our own culture. That’s why all efforts to preserve a language are commendable.”
In the Southwest, the efforts include studying why someone speaks in Spanish or ceases to do it, who uses the language and what benefits the children and grandchildren of immigrants derive from being bilingual or from speaking only in English.
Changes in language usage affect family relationships since grandparents may not be able to communicate with their grandchildren, Jenkins said.
“There is little gain here,” Jenkins said.
“Those who promote English-only policies say that people who speak only English have better chances to succeed,” Jenkins said. “But that’s not the case. Knowing only one language reduces a person’s abilities, while being bilingual doesn’t mean that the person is less proficient in English.”
source
No comments:
Post a Comment