Richard Rodriguez'sBilingual Education Outdated And Unrealistic

In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.

He argues that the Latinos and other bilingual people need to stand up for themselves and their culture and not allow the more dominant languages to overtake them. With the forced assimilation of Spanish speakers into the English culture, the Spanish language is slowly dissolving. Many non bilingual people want to eliminate all other languages beside the dominant language of English. Espada writes, “There are too many in this country who would amputate the Spanish tongue.” (4). By eradicating the Spanish language many bilingual speakers will lose both their sense of identity and their voice in the world. Espada claims that bilingual people want to learn English, but they also want to preserve their cultural identity. He explains how non-English speakers want to learn English, but continue to speak their native language; “I have never met a single person who didn 't want to learn English. What they want to do is also retain their own language, culture, and identity.” (9-10). By retaining their own culture and learning English they are able to participate in both cultures.

Rodriguez builds a formidable case against bilingual education with his bilingual childhood experiences. Rodriguez grew up speaking Spanish, but then learned how to speak English later in life so he knows what effects bilingual education has on bilingual kids who grew up speaking a private language at homes. When Rodriguez first came to the United States in Sacramento, California he understood “about fifty stray English words” (Richard Rodriguez “Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood”). He was a Mexican immigrant whose family only knew how to speak Spanish. The neighbors of Rodriguez’s family didn’t like them, so when they were out walking they would tell Rodriguez’s parents “Keep your brats away from my sidewalk!” (Rodriguez 571). Rodriguez loses the “special feeling of closeness at home” when he learned English (Rodriguez 577). Personal experiences are what makes him a credible author. Rodriguez used strong ethos and pathos appeals, but he didn’t use strong logos appeals. He didn’t use facts or reasoning in his memoir to prove his points against bilingual education.

Bilingual education offers a completely different world for students of different ethnic background and thus creates a comfort zone limiting the risk-taking factor necessary for the maturation of a child to an adult. Rodriguez argues supporters of bilingualism fail to realize "while one suffers a

Learning a new language seems to have only positive effects. However, for a Mexican American, accomplishing this goal brought him drawbacks in the interaction with his family. In his essay, ‘’Public and Private language,’’ Richard Rodriguez describes the difficulty in learning a new language and the sacrifice he makes to accomplish his goal. Richard Rodriguez shares the difficulty for older people, as they learn a new language; however, for younger generations is easier to learn a new language. Also, the new language creates a lack of communication for Richard Rodriguez.

The increase of immigration in the United States and the influence the Hispanic population on language and traditions are immense. There has been debate for and against English-only language or bilingualism. The issue with language goes beyond immigration issue. The reality is that language discrimination in the work place or even in society have affected the dominant and minority group. In addition, the influence on the cultural traditions and celebrations have impacted both groups in several ways. The issue of language and cultural traditions have created controversy for the usage of English only language or the usage of bilingual language in the United States. The argument of the pro side of bilingualism (English-Spanish) is that society can expand their knowledge and develop better communication skills with other groups that reside in this country. Moreover, living in a globalized world, will help our society to develop relations and create contacts thorough the world. The benefits of speaking two languages also benefit the individual’s economy. Speaking two languages makes an individual a better qualified candidate for a job position and the economy also increase by a significant amount in comparison to English-only speaking individuals. According to the author “They argued that the research of the impact of English-only initiatives showed that the result in negative consequences for psychological development, intergroup relations, academic achievement, and health

The rhetorical situation of Gloria Anzaldua’s, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” from her book Borderlands/La Frontera, is the most important piece to her argument. A writer’s rhetorical situation is the use of the elements of the rhetor, audience, text, medium, context and exigence. Through the correct use of these pieces, a writer is able to greatly strengthen their argument and persuasive abilities. In her passage, Gloria Anzaldua is speaking to the unfair and unjust treatment of Spanish speaking children growing up in the United States educational system. These are not just kids who have moved here from a Spanish speaking country, but even those born in the United States that grew up speaking Spanish because of their family’s culture. Through her writing she wants to bring this into light to induce change and help children of the future be able to learn in an environment where they are also able to comfortable speak their own language. She is not looking for them to be able to speak their own language in an American school just because she wants to be difficult. In her eyes, your language is part of your identity of self. And without your language, you are also losing part of yourself. Again, she expresses and increases the persuasiveness of these ideas through the use of her rhetorical situation, which includes the rhetor, audience, text, medium, context and exigence.

Scholar, Gloria Anzaldúa, in her narrative essay, “How To Tame A Wild Tongue’, speaks her many experiences on being pressured on what language to use. She then expresses how the discrimination made her to realize the ugly truth--that people reject languages that aren’t their own. She adopts logos, ethos and pathos in order to appeal toward her audience who is anyone who is not bilingual. One of the perspectives she takes on in her piece clearly expresses the relationship between language and identity and how it creates a conflict between her and the world.

In Richard Rodriguez's essay , “ Aria: A Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood ” he writes about how he struggled as a child who only spoke Spanish language but lives in a society where the “public” language is English . He believes that speaking proper English will somehow help him fit into society and find his “true” identity. Throughout the essay he contrast the Spanish language identity and English language identity. As a young boy, Rodriguez finds consolation and safety in his home where they only speak Spanish. He feels that he only has a true identity when he is at home surrounded by those who speak the same language as him . On the contrary , he becomes trapped and disoriented when not being able to speak / understand the English language . He feels as if he is not part of “their world” and has no identity in society. By comparing and contrasting Spanish language identity and English language identity . Rodriguez's essay is an example that speaking different languages should not make anyone choose an identity . In fact being able to speak and understand multiple languages in his case Spanish and English makes the language a part of his identity, but with two different sides .

How does childhood language development affect opinions on language as adults? Notable changes can be identified between Espada and Rodriguez’s essays, one coming from a Hispanic man who was forced to learn English as a child, and the other from a latino who learned Spanish as his second language. Martín Espada wrote an essay focused on defending the rights of other languages and their cultures, focusing on Spanish, his second language. Richard Rodriguez wrote an essay telling his experience with having to learn English as a child, and how bilingualism can change a person. They both write about the pros and cons of learning a second language, but the reasons and specifications vary dramatically. Bilingualism, even just language in general,

On this Earth, we speak many languages. People are able to communicate, learn, and express themselves through language. Bilinguals earn an even bigger opportunity to communicate and learn through others; however, in the United States, there are many differing opinions about bilingualism and the treatment of bilinguals. Two writers, Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, show a couple of the many opinions at hand. Martin Espada is an English professor at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and his essay illustrates his experience being a bilingual rights activist in the United States. Richard Rodriguez is an award-winning author who retells the difficulties he had as a child forced to speak English. Both writers show the struggles of being bilingual, but have different stand points on how it should be handled.

Every person has a different bond with bilingualism. For Martín Espada, a Latino Poet and activist, bilingualism means speaking two languages but also letting the two languages become a part of him. When a part of someone’s identity is threatened, they don’t just sit back and let it happen, they fight back. This is the same for Espada. He’s been fighting back for the right to speak Spanish because for him he finds that “the best way

In order to have knowledge on language and learning language it is important to clarify the meaning behind bilingualism. According to Espada bilingualism is far more than the ability to speak more than one language. As he understands it bilingualism represents the ability and freedom to speak multiple languages while also maintaining one's original language, culture and identity. Espada says that choosing to speak spanish and fighting for spanish rights “must reflect the experience of that community” if he has hope to communicate (13). The connection between language and community is essential, one is able to obtain culture, history, and personal identity. Rodriguez further interprets the idea of bilingualism by explaining how there are two separate languages, private and public. Rodriguez argues that while the public language (english) pries at cultural ties it is more practical (than a private language (spanish)) for everyday use and is essential to having a public identity. His definition of bilingualism also means that the private life and sense of “closeness” and familiarity was going to be “diminished” (24).

It is estimated that there are more second language speakers of English than native speakers (Genesee, 2009), and there are as many bilingual children as there are monolingual children (Paradis, Genesee, & Crago, 2011). It means that many children are being raised as bilinguals. Sometimes bilingualism is required for them, because the children’s parents may not speak a dominant language fluently. The dominant language is the language that is the someone’s strongest language, and people feel more comfortable when they are speaking, reading, and writing in that language. Therefore, the child may learn one language at home and he/she can learn another at school. But sometimes bilingualism is a preference. Because parents may want to expose their children to another language, even if they do not know and speak a second language.

Nelson Mandela, as cited in U.S Department of Education (2010), once said, if you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart (para. 14). Linguistic diversity has become an important factor in society and more and more people are growing up with the ability to speak more than one language. The Linguistic Society of America (n.d) states that most of the world’s population is bilingual or multilingual in the world, where an estimated 5,000 distinct languages are being spoken, and only minorities of citizens are monolingual (para. 1). Being bilingual means that a person is able to speak two languages fluently, while multilingualism means that a person can speak two or more languages with high proficiencies. In the United States and especially in the Washington Metropolitan area, a variety of bilingual people from all different backgrounds and ethnicities live together in one community, so hearing languages from all parts of the world is a phenomenon that can be witnessed on a daily basis. Their abilities have a positive effect on the human brain while also impacting different aspects of life, such as cognitive capabilities, business opportunities and social communication skills.