Bilingualism: contrary to language learning?

By Rebecca Fox-Bivona

For my intro to anthropology class, I am working at Sacred Heart Community Center with the Homework Club. The Homework Club serves a predominantly Hispanic community of children ranging from second-grade to high school students.

I spoke with some third-graders the other day and listened to them speak beautiful Spanish and English. As they conversed with each other, their Spanish flowed natively; they did not even pause to think what they were going to say next. The next minute, they would look at me and ask me a question in perfect English.

One of the girls told me that her parents only spoke Spanish at home. She learned English at school and elsewhere. I remember her saying, "I can read and speak, and write in English and Spanish, and I am very proud." For only a third-grader, she does have something to be very proud of.

But upon reflecting on this experience, I noticed the constant shift from English to Spanish. When there were words unknown in English, the children would use a word in Spanish, and vice versa.

So is this really a mastery of two languages? Are these kids really learning English and Spanish completely? Or are they learning segments of the two languages?

Many people in today's communicatively advanced world feel that language is evolving, and the more languages you know, the better. Speaking multiple languages increases opportunities in the business world. Spanish is becoming a necessity for a lot of jobs because of the increased number of Spanish-speaking residents in the United States, especially in California.

So are the children at Sacred Heart among the privileged that grow up bilingual?

I was speaking with my roommate, and she told me that her mom, being a teacher in a high school with a large Hispanic population, notices that her students constantly switch from English to Spanish and that this may be keeping them from really learning and developing one language fully.

As a volunteer at Sacred Heart, I hope to be able to help the children with their English because I know that they are speaking a lot, if not solely, Spanish at home. One of the reasons I am there as volunteer, as pointed out by the volunteer coordinator, was to provide assistance and help in English. I notice that their homework instructions are written in Spanish, and a lot of the children even do their homework in Spanish.

I think that there needs to be more of an emphasis in the schools to ensure that English is being both taught and used. For many of the children, school is the only place they are able to communicate and practice their English. School is a great opportunity for these children to enhance their English.

The children of bilingual families have a great advantage in the world today because they are potentially growing up with a communicative advantage. It is up to the school systems to ensure that they are nurturing that diversity of language.

Rebecca Fox-Bivona is a sophomore political science and sociology major.