| March
27, 2004
Learning English
Takes More Than a Year
By Domenico Maceri/HispanicVista.com
"At my age learning Spanish is
difficult," stated my community
college student to explain her difficulty
in my class. In her mind, children learn
languages faster than adults.
Ron Unz agreed with
my students. Proposition 227, which the
California software entrepreneur
sponsored, stated that immigrant children
would learn English in one year of
immersion. Eight years after California
voters approved the initiative which
virtually banned bilingual education, the
vast majority of California immigrant
children are not learning the new
language in one year.
A recent report by
the California Legislative Analyst, a
nonpartisan fiscal and policy advisor
office, found that it takes at least 3.6
years and as many as 7.4 for immigrant
children in the state to become
classified as fluent in English and be
placed in a regular classroom without the
assistance of additional tutoring.
According to the
report, the groups which managed to reach
fluency fastest were kids who spoke
Mandarin (3.6 years) and Korean (4
years). Those who took the longest were
Hmong (7.4 years), Spanish (6.7 years),
and Cambodian (6.4 years).
In essence, all the
ethnic groups took far more than the
one-year Unz thought was necessary.
Although
Mandarin-speaking kids achieved fluency
fastest and the Hmong were on the other
side of the spectrum, researchers
explained the difference by pointing to
socio-economics.
In all likelihood,
that is the major reason. Yet, it's
inevitable that there are other forces at
work.
As is usually the
case, economics plays a vital role not
just in the education of immigrant kids
but also in that of US-born ones. It's no
surprise that students in rich school
districts always do better on
standardized tests than those in poorer
ones.
Money translates
into higher quality education because of
a number of reasons. Money means parents
are able to find the time to help their
kids at home with their education. It
means that parental involvement will be
strong in their kids' schools and if
extra funding is desirable or necessary,
parents in rich schools will find ways to
raise it.
Parents' education is typically another
significant factor in rich districts. The
more schooling parents have, the more
books you'll find around the house and
kids are exposed to a verbal-rich home
which inevitably affects what happens in
school.
These same factors influence the
education of immigrant kids.
Spanish-speaking kids tend to have poor
parents and in some cases they may not be
in the country legally. They tend not to
participate actively in their kids'
schools in part because of language
problems but also because of fear of
having to deal with officialdom if legal
residence papers are missing.
What also affects immigrant kids in
reaching fluency in English has to do
with the availability of their native
language. Spanish is of course easily
available. Television, radio, and other
resources are available in Spanish
because of the high Spanish-speaking
population in California. In addition,
Mexico is much closer to California than
China is. Many Mexican residents in
California see themselves more as
migrants and probably want their kids to
retain their native language. Frequent
trips to Mexico reinforce Spanish and
reduce the exposure to English.
Of course, the literacy kids bring to
school in their own language also affects
how fast kids learn English. It's no
surprise that the group that needs the
most time to learn English is the
Hmong. Until recently, the written
form of the Hmong language did not exist.
That means that Hmong parents are quite
likely not literate in their own
language, which inevitably influences
their kids' development in any language.
More research is necessary to find out
precisely why kids in one ethnic group
achieve fluency in English twice as fast
as another group. What we do know
suggests more compensatory education
needs to be provided to level the playing
field. Unfortunately, taxpayers are
reluctant to provide this extra funding.
Regardless of how long it takes for
immigrants’ kids to become fluent in
English, the fact is that by twelfth
grade only 10% of immigrant kids are
classified as English learners. And these
are youngsters who did not come to this
country at a very young age. That's the
good news, for without English, kids will
not succeed in school and eventually
could become a drain instead of becoming
productive members of society. And when
kids fail, we as a society will suffer
the consequences.
===================================================
Domenico Maceri (dmaceri@hotmail.com),
PhD, UC Santa Barbara, a contributing
columnist to HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),
teaches foreign languages at Allan
Hancock College in Santa Maria, CA.
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