As written by San Antonio KSAT news reporter, Sarah Acosta, nearly 70% of second-generation Latinos in U.S. are bilingual and fewer than a quarter of third-generation Hispanics speak Spanish. In an interview with KSAT, an Our Lady of the Lake professor was quoted as saying, “The loss of Spanish between generations was generally a way of parents protecting their children from punishment or ridicule that they themselves had experienced.”
(Grosjean, 2010) writes about the myth of bilingualism having a negative effect on the development of children. She explains rationale supporting this negative view when she references linguist, Otto Jesperson, “The brain effort required to master two languages instead of one certainly diminishes the child’s power of learning other things which might and ought to be learnt.” Unfortunately, this view is still present today in certain circles and countries (p. 219).
Many third generation Latinos due not fluently speak Spanish due to the fact that their parents were punished in school for speaking anything but English. “It really is just a generation of people who had a language literally beaten out of them in our school system,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro said. “And it’s so tragic and unfortunate because it was not only the loss of a language, but also partly the loss of a culture.”
As mentioned in the Patrick Proctor video, “First generation immigrants tend to be monolingual speakers in their native tongue, second generation children tend to be the most bilingual, and third generation children tend to be monolingual English speakers. The reasons seem clear, “When someone criticizes the way you speak or the way you say certain things,” Dr. Maribel Larraga, Professor of Humanities & Social Sciences at OLLU said. “They are criticizing you as a person.” When a child or adolescent feels criticized or shamed for speaking the language of their family’s culture, they are made to feel lesser. As educators, “We must encourage linguistic diversity while respecting the mother tongue, and foster the learning of several languages from the earliest age” (UNESCO, 2002). We must ensure that all school environments celebrate the cultural diversity and languages of their students.
References:
Acosta, S. (2021) Many third generation parents don’t speak Spanish but their parents do. Why. ksat.com. https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021/10/16/many-third-generation-hispanics-dont-speak-spanish-but-their-parents-do-why/#commentDiv
Grosjean, F. (2010) Bilingual: Life and reality.Harvard University Press.
Proctor. (n.d.). Linguistic interdependence in bilingual education. Retrieved from Boston college.