A pesar de que los Estados Unidos de América (EEUU) han sido tradicionalmente un país de acogida para otras lenguas diferentes al inglés, en la actualidad las actitudes de la población al respecto oscilan entre periodos de mayor o menor respaldo al bi/multilingüismo social. En consecuencia, mientras en un tiempo hubo un florecimiento de iniciativas provenientes de las propias escuelas alentando el bilingüismo (tanto dirigidas a los nuevos inmigrantes como a los anglófonos establecidos ya desde antaño), a día de hoy muchas de estas propuestas se orientan a ciudadanos de origen inmigrante con cierto estatus socioeconómico y alto nivel de integración lingüística.
El presente trabajo se centra en la enseñanza del y en español en las escuelas públicas de los EEUU como una forma de comprender las oportunidades, pero también las injusticias, que caracterizan los diversos abordajes de la enseñanza de las lenguas en el país. El artículo describe tres vías diferentes en la enseñanza del español, a la vez que analiza cómo dichas opciones están condicionadas por políticas federales y estatales. Por otra parte, profundizamos en el hecho de cómo las prácticas de financiación, de privatización, y el movimiento por la libre elección de escuela (school choice) facilitan o dificultan el acceso de los escolares a estas líneas educativas.
Como se verá, aunque las opciones perpetúan el dominio del inglés y los privilegios concedidos a algunos bilingües en determinados contextos escolares, existen ciertas posibilidades que invitan al optimismo en lo que atañe al aprendizaje del español en las escuelas públicas americanas.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArteagaD.LlorenteL. (2006). Spanish as an international language: Implications for teachers and learners.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
2.
BakerC. (2006). Foundations of bilingual education and bilingualism (4a ed.). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
3.
BartlettL.GarcíaO. (2011). Additive schooling in subtractive times: Bilingual education and Dominican immigrant youth in the Heights.Knoxville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press.
4.
CortinaR. (2009). Immigrant youth in high school: Understandig educational outcomes for students of Mexican origin. En T. G. Wiley, J. Sook-Lee & R. W. Rumberger, The education of language minority immigrants in the United States (pp. 113–135). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
5.
CoryellJ.ClarkM.PomerantzA. (2010). Cultural fantasy narratives and heritage language learning: A case study of adult, heritage learners of Spanish.Modern Language Journal, 94 (3), 453–469.
6.
CrawfordJ. (Ed.) (1992). Language loyalties: A sourcebook on the official English controversy.Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
7.
CrawfordJ. (Ed.) (2005). La educación bilingüe en los Estados Unidos. Política versus pedagogía. En UrrutiaH.FernándezT. (Eds.), La educación bilingüe en España y América (pp. 71–96). Madrid: Dykinson
8.
CumminsJ. (1981). The role of primary language development in promoting educational success for language minority students. En California State Department of Education (Ed.), Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework (pp. 3–49). Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University.
9.
CumminsJ. (1996). Negotiating identities: education for empowerment in a diverse society.Los Angeles, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.
10.
CumminsJ. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy. Bilingual children in the crossfire.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
11.
CumminsJ. (2008). Introduction to volume 5: Bilingual education. En CumminsJ.HornbergerN. H. (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 5—Bilingual Education (pp. XIII-XXIII). Nueva York, NY: Springer
12.
DickerS. J. (1996). Languages in America. A pluralistic view.Clevedo, UK: Multilingual Matters.
13.
DonatoR.TuckerG. R. (2010). A Tale of Two Schools: Developing Sustainable Early Foreign Language Programs.Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.
14.
EscamillaK.HopewellS. (2010). Transition to biliteracy: Creating positive academic trajectories for emerging bilinguals in the United States. En PetrovicJ. E. (Ed.), International perspectives on bilingual education: Policy, practice and controversy (69–93). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
15.
FreemanR. (2004). Building on community bilingualism.Philadelphia, PA: Caslon Publishing.
16.
GarcíaO.BakerC. (Eds.) (1995). Policy and practice in bilingual education.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
17.
GarcíaO.MasonL. (2009). Where in the world is U.S. Spanish? Creating a space of opportunity for U.S. Latinos. En HarbertW. (Ed.), Language and poverty (pp. 78–101). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
18.
GeneseeF.Lindholm-ReadyK.SaundersW.ChristianD. (2005). English language learners in U.S. schools: An overview of research findings.Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 10 (4), 363–385.
19.
GeneseeF.Lindholm-ReadyK.SaundersW.ChristianD. (Eds.) (2006). Educating English language learners.Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press.
20.
HakutaK. (1986). Mirror of language: The debate on bilingualism.Nueva York, NY: Basic Books.
21.
HarklauL. (2009). Heritage speakers' experiences in new Latino diaspora Spanish classrooms.Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 6 (4), 211–242.
22.
HillJ. H. (2008). The everyday language of white racism.Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
23.
HornbergerN. H. (1991). Extending enrichment bilingual education: Revisiting typologies and redirecting policy. En GarcíaO. (Ed.) Bilingual education: Focusschrift in honor of Joshua A. Fishman on the occasion of his 65th birthday (Vol. 1, pp. 215–234). Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.
24.
HornbergerN. H. (2005a). Nichols to NCLB: Local and global perspectives on U.S. language education policy.Working Papers in Educational Linguistics, 20 (2), 1–17.
25.
HornbergerN. H. (2005b). Opening and filling up implementational and ideological spaces in heritage language education.Modern Language Journal, 89 (4), 605–609.
26.
HouserN. M. (2011). Moving beyond “second” and “foreign”: An examination of the discursive construction of teaching English and Spanish. Indiana University of Pennsylvania. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses [en línea] http://search.proquest.com/docview/867369698?accountid=14707 [Consulta: 23 de mayo de 2012]
27.
HuguetÁ. (2006). Attitudes and motivation versus language achievement in cross-linguistic settings. What is cause and what effect?Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, 27 (5), 413–429.
28.
HuguetÁ. (2007). Minority languages and curriculum. The case of Spain.Language, Culture & Curriculum, 20 (1), 70–86.
29.
HuguetÁ. (2009). La Hipótesis de Interdependencia Lingüística. Algunas consideraciones para la práctica educativa en aulas multilingües.Revista Española de Pedagogía, 244, 495–510.
30.
HuguetÁ.LasagabasterD.VilaI. (2008). Bilingual education in Spain: present realities and future challenges. En CumminsJ.HornbergerN. H. (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Language and Education, Vol. 5—Bilingual Education (pp. 225–235). Nueva York, NY: Springer
31.
JohnsonD. C. (2010). Implementational and ideological spaces in bilingual education language policy.International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 13 (1), 61–79.
32.
KingK. A. (2009). Language education policy for U.S. Spanish Speakers: Paradoxes, pitfalls, and promises. En LeemanJ.LacorteM. (Eds.), Español en Estados Unidos y en otros contextos (pp. 303–3). Nueva York, NY: Verlag Press.
33.
KrashenS. D. (1981). Bilingual education and second language acquisition theory. En California State Department of Education (Ed.), Schooling and language minority students: A theoretical framework (pp. 51–79). Los Angeles, CA: Evaluation, Dissemination and Assessment Center, California State University.
34.
LeemanJ. (2005). Engaging in critical pedagogy: Spanish for native speakers.Foreign Language Annals, 38, 35–45.
35.
LeemanJ. (2006). The value of Spanish: Shifting ideologies in United States language teaching.ADFL Bulletin, 38 (1/2), 32–39.
36.
LeemanJ.MartinezG. (2007). From identity to commodity: Ideologies of Spanish in heritage language textbooks.Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 4 (1), 35–65.
37.
Lindholm-LearyK. (2006). Resultats de l'alumnat que participa en programes de llengua dual als Estats Units,. En Generalitat de Catalunya (Ed.), El coneixement de les llengües a Catalunya (pp. 78–94). Barcelona: Departament d'Educació i Universitats
38.
Lippi-GreenR. (1997). English with an accent.Londres, UK: Routledge.
39.
LotheringtonH. (2004). Bilingual education. En DaviesA.ElderC. (eds) The handbook of applied linguistics (pp. 695–718). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
40.
MacsawnJ.RolstadK. (2010). The role of language in theories of academic failure for linguistic minorities. En PetrovicJ. E. (Ed.), International perspectives on bilingual education. Policy, practice and controversy (pp. 173–193). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
41.
MartínezG. A. (2006). Mexican Americans and language: Del dicho al hecho.Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press.
42.
MenkenK. (2009). English learners left behind: Standardized testing as language policy.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
43.
MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION (2007). Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world [en línea] http://www.mla.org/flreport [Consulta: 23 de mayo de 2012]
44.
MollL. C. (1995). Bilingual classroom studies and community analysis: Some recent trends. En GarcíaO.BakerC. (Eds.), Policy and practice in bilingual education (pp. 273–280). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
45.
PavlenkoA. (2002). “We have room for but one language here”: Language and national identity in the US at the turn of the 20th century.Multilingua, 21 (2/3), 163–196.
46.
PavlenkoA. (2011). Thinking in two languages.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
47.
PetrovicJ. E. (Ed.) (2010). International perspectives on bilingual education. Policy, practice and controversy.Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
48.
PomerantzA. (2002). Language ideologies and the production of identities: Spanish as a resource for participation in a multilingual marketplace.Multilingua, 21 (2/3), 275–302.
49.
PomerantzA.SchwartzA. (2011). Border talk: Narratives of Spanish language learning in the U.S.Journal of Language and Intercultural Communication, 11 (3), 176–195.
50.
PotowskiK. (2002). Experiences of Spanish heritage speakers in university foreign language courses and implications for teacher training.ADFL Bulletin, 33 (3), 35–42.
51.
RavitchD. (2010). The death and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education (2aed.). Nueva York, NY: Bantum Books.
52.
RocaA.ColombiM. C. (2003). Mi lengua: Spanish as a heritage language in the United States.Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
53.
RuizR. (1984). Orientation in language planning.NABE Journal, 8 (2), 15–34.
54.
SchmidtR. (2002). Racialization and language policy. The case of the U.S.A.Multilingua, 21 (2/3), 141–162.
55.
Sook-LeeJ.SuárezD. (2009). A synthesis of the roles of heritage languages in the lives of children of immigrants: What educators need to know. En T. G. Wiley, J. Sook-Lee & R. W. Rumberger, The education of language minority immigrants in the United States (pp. 136–171). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
56.
TrainR. W. (2007). “Real Spanish”: Historical perspectives on the ideological construction of a foreign language.Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 4 (2–3), 207–235.
ValdésG.FishmanJ.ChávezR.PérezW. (2006). Developing minority language resources: The case of Spanish in California.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
59.
VillaD. (2002). The sanitizing of U.S. Spanish in academia.Foreign Language Annals, 35, 191–200.
60.
WileyT. G. (2012). A brief history and assessment of language rights in the United States. En J. W. Tollefson, Language policies in education: Critical issues (2a ed.) (pp. 61–90). Nueva York, NY: Routledge.
61.
WileyT. G.WrightW. (2004). Against the undertow: Language-minority education policy and politics in the ‘age of accountability’.Educational Policy, 18 (1), 142–168.
62.
WileyT. G.Sook-LeeJ.RumbergerR. W. (2009). The education of language minority immigrants in the United States.Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.
63.
Wong-FillmoreL. (1991). When learning a second language means losing the first.Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6 (3), 323–346.
64.
WrightW. E. (2007). Heritage language programs in the era of English-only and No Child Left Behind.Heritage Language Journal, 5 (1), 1–25.
65.
ZentellaA. C. (1997). Growing up bilingual.Malden, MA: Blackwell.
