Language Rights and Heritage Language Tutoring

1. Language Rights and Heritage Language Tutoring Kate O’Donnell CAPS Fall, 2011

2. A Context What is today The United States • 350 or more indigenous languages, originally • ~175 indigenous languages spoken today • ~20 are still being learned by children Increase of languages brought by immigrants • Nearly complete language shift by the 3rd generation

3. So What is Happening? “We have room for but one language in this country, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of an American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boarding-house”

4. “Those who come hither are generally of the most ignorant Stupid Sort of their own Nation…” “Why should [they] be suffered to swarm into our Settlements, and by herding together, establish their Language and Manners, to the Exclusion of ours? Why should Pennsylvania, founded by the English, become a Colony of Aliens…”

5. “Through sameness of language is produced sameness of sentiment, and thought…” “Teaching an Indian youth in his own barbarous dialect is a positive detriment to him. The first step to be taken toward civilization, toward teaching the Indians the mischief and folly of continuing in their barbarous practices, is to teach them the English language…”

6. “God has not been preparing the English-speaking…peoples for a thousand years for nothing but vain and idle self-contemplation. No! He has made us the master organizers of the world to establish system where chaos reigns…that we may administer government among savages and senile peoples” “I want America to stand strong and not cave in to the Hispanics who shouldn’t be here” “Everyone should speak a ‘foreign language’”

7. Everyone Should Speak a ‘Foreign Language’ • Individual Bilingualism vs. Societal Bilingualism • Numerous studies from around the world • Continuum of research – Linguistic, Sociolinguistic, Anthropologic, Medical • Language and Identity What is “Being American”?

8. Everyone Should Speak a ‘Foreign Language’ • Identity = “Different” • “Different” questions Established Social Order Upheaval in Established Social Order = Power is Threatened

9. Why should I Care? • Violence in Southwest Public Schools • Lack of Linguistic Access in Medicine = Misdiagnosis, Wrong Procedures, Increased Emotional Stress • Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1966 • Executive Order 13166 • Guidance to Federal Financial Assistance Recipients Regarding TitleVI, Prohibition Against National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons

10. Linguistic Human Rights “Linguistic rights are one type of human rights, part of a set of inalienable, universal norms for just one enjoyment of one’s civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights” ~ Christina Bratt Paulson

11. Why Should I Care as a CAPS Employee? • We serve second language learners on a daily basis • Speakers of different languages have different ways of communicating in speech and writing • These differences must be respected, appreciated, and validated • As CAPS employees, we are part of an organization that not only recognizes but focuses on language rights

12. The CAPS Writing and Language Center Writing IS LANGUAGE! • CAPS Heritage Language Learning: • Navajo Drop-in Lab and Conversation Group (AISS) • Spanish and English Bilingual Writing Drop-in Lab (El Centro de la Raza) • Spanish as a Heritage Language Conversation Group for students of The Sabine UlibarríSpanish as a Heritage Language Program at UNM

13. The CAPS Writing and Language Center • What is different about our Heritage Language Tutoring • The Atmosphere • The Students • The Tutors • The reasons students come are more diverse than at the main location • Solidarity

14. The CAPS Writing and Language Center We are recognizing and validating our linguistic history We are empowering our students by encouraging them in their journey to Biliteracy This isn't something that Writing Centers do anywhere else

15. References Clinton, William J. 2000. Executive Order 13166: Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency. Office of the Press Secretary, United States Department of Justice. Crawford, James. 2000. Anatomy of the English-Only Movement. In At War with Diversity: U.S. language policy in an age of anxiety, edJ Crawford, 4-40. Clevedon, England: Multilingual Matters. Citrin, Jack. 1990. Language Politics and American Identity. Public Interest. http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ40977 6. Federal Register. 2004. Guidance to Federal Financial Assistance Recipients Regarding Title VI, Prohibition Against National Origin Discrimination Affecting Limited English Proficient Persons. National Archives and Records Administration 69. 1763-1768. Flores, Glenn. 2006. Language barriers to health care in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine 355.229-231. Martínez, Glenn. 2006. Language Maintenance and Shift. Mexican Americans and Language: ¡Del dicho al hecho! 41-60. Mcgregor-Mendoza, Patricia. 2000. Aquí no se hablaespañol: stories of Linguistic Repression in Southwest Schools. Bilingual Research Journal. 24. 355-67. Paulston, Christina Bratt. 1997. Language Policies and Language Rights. Annual Review of Anthropology 26.73-85.