|
| |
"LANGUAGE, CULTURE & POWER" (LOURDES DIAZ SOTO).
Term Paper ID:24528
|
|
|
Essay Subject:
Critical review of work on bilingual (Spanish-English) families & education in small industrial Pennsylvania town.... More...
|
6 Pages / 1350 Words
1 sources, 13 Citations,
APA Format
$24.00
Return to List of Papers
|
Paper Abstract:
Critical review of work on bilingual (Spanish-English) families & education in small industrial Pennsylvania town.
Paper Introduction:
Lourdes Diaz Soto's 1997 book, Language, Culture, and Power: Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education, focuses on the Puerto Rican, Spanish/English bilingual community in Steel Town, a small industrial town in Pennsylvania. In particular, the book explores the language dynamics within and outside of the Spanish-speaking community, and it provides a detailed examination of the dismantling of the town's award-winning, twenty-year-old public school bilingual program and the effect of the program's termination on the Puerto Rican families, particularly the children. Soto's goal in writing the book was "to afford voice to the families regarding their perspectives on bilingual education in their community" (1997, p. xix). This research will review Soto's work, paying particular attention to its contribution to the study of bilingualism and bilingual
Text of the Paper:
The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper.
One of the major points which emerges from Soto's book, therefore, isthat a thorough case study of bilingualism and bilingual educationabsolutely must take into account the political situation of the communitybeing studied. Her subjects' accounts of theirexperiences as Spanish-speaking Puerto Rican immigrants in an Anglo-centricindustrial town are always eloquent and frequently disturbing, and her owntestimony regarding her personal experiences with racism in the community,as well as those of her son, effectively illustrate the frustrations of theLatino/a community in Steel Town with the community as a whole and theeducational system in particular. 85). Soto'sbook does not merely serve as a reminder that politics plays a role inbilingual education, it hammers home the fact that politics is THE majorplayer in issues relating to bilingual education. . In particular, the book explores thelanguage dynamics within and outside of the Spanish-speaking community, andit provides a detailed examination of the dismantling of the town's award-winning, twenty-year-old public school bilingual program and the effect ofthe program's termination on the Puerto Rican families, particularly thechildren. 51-82). 83).Soto does not accuse Steel Town's school superintendent outright of racism,but despite the overwhelming number of studies which indicate thatbilingualism has "positive effects . This research will review Soto's work, payingparticular attention to its contribution to the study of bilingualism andbilingual education programs. xix). Soto's goal in writing the book was "to afford voice to thefamilies regarding their perspectives on bilingual education in theircommunity" (1997, p. She therefore takes great pains to examine the politicalcontroversy surrounding the bilingual program in Steel Town and itsultimate dismantling (Soto, 1997, pp. . The statements from herinterview group demonstrate time and again how important it is for theLatino/a community to maintain their linguistic heritage, since it allowsthem to affirm their ties with their cultural and ethnic background. Furthermore, Soto's extensive documentation of the political eventsleading up to and beyond the decision to abolish the community's bilingualprogram are also very instructive, since it is often all too easy to forgethow closely the issue of bilingual education is tied to politics. Despite this rather serious shortcoming, however, Soto's work is notwithout merit. 25). Soto discovered that most of those interviewed were adamant aboutraising their children as bilinguals; they felt it was important for theirchildren to know Spanish because it helped them maintain their culturalidentities; furthermore, and more practically, it allowed the children tocommunicate effectively with all members of the family, such as elderlygrandparents, who may not be fluent in English. xviii) and a professional inbilingual education, she has a very strong personal and professionalinterest in the issues involved in the Steel Town controversy. It is statements such as that quoted above, however, which weaken theoverall potency of Soto's book. 59). D. . Certainly no one can deny Soto's passion;as both a Latina who has experienced the pain and horror of racialprejudice in Steel Town (Soto, 1997, p. Severalof the participants--who as adults hold graduate degrees and are competentand productive members of the community--were either denied the opportunityto enter gifted programs or were sent to special education classes becauseof prejudices against Spanish-speakers (Soto, 1997, pp. 57). Lourdes Diaz Soto's 1997 book, Language, Culture, and Power:Bilingual Families and the Struggle for Quality Education, focuses on thePuerto Rican, Spanish/English bilingual community in Steel Town, a smallindustrial town in Pennsylvania. Most of themexpressed a "recurrent theme of indignation" (Soto, 1997, p. 3 -34). 83), a reference to the disastrousattempt to force Native American children to assimilate to white Americanculture by the Carlisle school in Pennsylvania (Soto, 1997, p. However,she seems too ready to assume every defeat is due to deep-seated, maliciousanti-Latin feelings on behalf of those in power, and so one is often leftwondering about her objectivity in reporting the events surrounding thecontroversy. and legislativebudgetary mandates punishing the most vulnerable in our nation (Soto,1997, p. Soto's presentation of the events is at times so biased thatreaders are left with the feeling that Language, Culture, and Power is notso much the case study Soto claims as an editorial--readers are neitherinvited nor allowed to draw their own conclusions about the situation inSteel Town leading up to the dismantling of the bilingual program; instead,they are told that the decision was motivated by racism and xenophobia.She could have made her point much more effectively by simply reporting thefacts of the controversy alongside the compelling and heartfelt testimonyof her interview group and allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. The "hostile educational climate" in Steel Town--the problem aroundwhich Soto's book revolves--is that in spite of the town's large Latino/apopulation, the community at large is extremely prejudiced against Spanish-speakers, to the extent that they voted to abolish the bilingual program intheir public schools, even though the program had been in existence fortwenty years and had won national acclaim. Shegoes on to say that Steel Town's neo-conservative, xenophobic, oppressive relationssilenced bilingual voices, created language domination, promoted culturalinvasion, and resulted in disrespect for bilingualism and biculturalism(Soto, 1997, p. All of them were highly educated, upwardly-mobile, andactive in their community; Soto chose them for her study specificallybecause they had succeeded "in spite of hostile educational climates"(Soto, 1997, p. 4), the superintendent decided to eliminate theSpanish/English bilingual program because "he did not agree with thebilingual education curriculum of his own district" (Soto, 1997, p. Language, culture, and power: bilingualfamilies and the struggle for quality education. The book is the result of nine years' worth of data collecting,mostly in the form of interviews with twelve Latino/a members of the SteelTown community. On the whole, then, Soto's book is a valuable contribution tobilingualism/bilingual education studies because it provides extensiveinformation on and testimony from a bilingual community showing theimportance of maintaining both languages; in addition, the thoroughpresentation of the political situation surrounding the bilingualcontroversy in Steel Town provides ample data for an analysis of the rolepolitics plays in bilingual education. Her presentation of the interviews alone is veryinformative and at times quite moving. Albany: State Universityof New York Press.----------------------- 8 Soto's extensive study of the importance of language to the PuertoRican community in Steel Town, even outside the controversy surrounding thebilingual education program, is also very useful. References Soto, L. (1997). Thusthe move to eradicate the bilingual program in Steel Town was perceived notmerely as an attempt by the superintendent to place Spanish-speakingchildren at an educational disadvantage; more insidiously, it was seen asan attempt to deny the Latino/a community its most direct link with itsheritage. 59).She does, however, make it clear that the superintendent's decision wasmade against the advice of a number of faculty members as well as thewishes of many parents and children who were directly affected by the lossof the bilingual program (Soto, 1997, p. Thus most of theinterviewees spoke Spanish at home (or at least one parent spoke Spanish tothe children) so that their children would acquire it, although they alsoappreciated and acknowledged the fact that their children needed to befluent in English in order to flourish in the United States. There were other similarities among those interviewed. on a variety of cognitiveperformance measures, metalinguistic attributes, divergent thinking, andcreativity" (Soto, 1997, p. Thus, in Steel Town, attitudes toward bilingualism and bilingualeducation are deeply intertwined with the relations between the Latino/aand white communities; it becomes not merely a linguistic issue but aracial one as well: Contemporary examples of how bilingual families are beingimpacted by an oppressive and blatantly racist agenda include theproliferation of the English-only movement . Therefore anyoneconsidering a career in bilingual education or concerned with the issuesinvolved will necessarily have to become involved in the politicalsituation of the community at hand. Soto chronicles thepersistent protests of the Latino/a community to the superintendent'sdecision; she attributes the protestors' ultimate defeat to a "Carlisleschool mentality" (Soto, 1997, p. 35) toward theeducational system as they had experienced it; all of them had beensubjected to blatant discrimination during their own school days. . 25); they were interviewedregarding their personal educational experiences as well as those of theirchildren, their attitudes toward bilingual education, and their in-homelanguage practices. Readers must be aware of Soto'spersonal prejudices when evaluating her conclusions, but the data shecollected and her report of the political events is useful regardless. Soto's participants were all "nominated by members of thebilingual community for their leadership skills and were described as 'wellrespected in the community'" (Soto, 1997, p. Thus, a major difficulty facingLatino/a families in Steel Town is finding a way to establish and maintaintheir cultural and linguistic identity and participate gainfully in thecommunity in the face of so much anti-Latin sentiment.
If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again:
or
Click here to request an essay written just for you.
|
|
|
