Premise: The main themes or concepts in this article are language, difference, barriers, schooling, bilingual students, comfort zones, awkwardness,americaness, silence caused by language barriers, ignorance.
Author's Argument:Rodriguez argues that because there is demand for bilingual children to speak English it takes away some of their sense of self and their family roots.
Evidence
- Rodriguez himself was singled out and humiliated by his teachers in grade school because he did not speak clear and fluent English, and in turn he felt out of place and humiliated.
- His family began speaking English at home instead of Spanish which made it awkward for his family because it seperated them. The kids could speak better English then the parents and it caused a gap between them.
- Rodriguez could not distinguish peoples accents after he learned Englsih, he could only understand how broken and bad his fathers English was, causing him to look at his father differently.
Comments
I really enjoyed reading this article and it was not too hard to read. I believe that everyone in America should speak English but that should not affect their home life. I understand that it does take some of your idenity and unique qualities away if you are forced to make English your primary language but if I were to travel to Spain I would be encouraged to learn Spanish. I think that children should be forced to learn english at an early age and their parents should support them at home with the English but you can't force anyone to do anything.
3 comments:
I totally agree with you on the "all Americans should speak English" bit. Unfortunately we do not have a nationally declared single language. Fortunately, all of the presidential nominees agree that all immigrants that want to be U.S. Citizens should have to learn English as a part of their application for citizenship, so hopefully that will be fixed soon. Excellent point on "If I went to Spain" Absolutely agree.
DO you hear Rodrigues suggesting that kids shuldn't learn English? I think that both Delpit and Rodrigues are very clear that all students need to have access to the public language in order to be successful. Howver, both also show that there is a cost that teachers need to be aware of. I wonder about your "If I went to Spain..." point. The truth is, we all should learn the dominant language of the country in which we live. But if you went to Spain, you could EASILY get by in English because we have privilege as English speakers... even when we are not in the US!
LB :)
DO you hear Rodrigues suggesting that kids shuldn't learn English? I think that both Delpit and Rodrigues are very clear that all students need to have anpfwkhccess to the public language in order to be successful. Howver, both also show that there is a cost that teachers need to be aware of. I wonder about your "If I went to Spain..." point. The truth is, we all should learn the dominant language of the country in which we live. But if you went to Spain, you could EASILY get by in English because we have privilege as English speakers... even when we are not in the US!
LB :)
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