or increase slightly. However, younger Hispanics—those under 45—will be less likely than their elders to speak Spanish. A similar trend is expected for speakers of European and Asian languages: many elders will continue to speak a second language, while the younger generation will tend to favor English. This trend toward linguistic diversity is expected to continue into the foreseeable future. Even as the children and grandchildren of immigrants adopt English as their first language, a significant proportion of the U.S. population will continue to speak a language other than English (Ortman and Shin 2011). Do bilingual programs help MAPPING LIFE NATIONWIDE FIGURE 3-4 PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO SPEAK A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH MT WY ID WA OR CA CO AK AT HOME, BY STATE ND SD NE KS UT AZ NM OK HI TX NV MN IA the children of these families to learn English? It is difficult to reach firm conclusions, because bilingual programs in general vary so widely in their quality and approach. They differ in the length of the transition to English and in how long they allow students to remain in bilingual classrooms. Moreover, results have been mixed. In the years since California effectively dismantled its bilingual education program, reading and math scores of students with limited English proficiency rose dramatically, especially in the lower grades. Yet a major overview of 17 studies, done at Johns Hopkins University, found that students who are offered lessons in both English and their home languages make better progress than similar students who are taught only in English (R. Slavin and Cheung 2003). WI IL MI IN OH MO KY VT ME NY PA TN NC AR MS AL LA Percentage of People Note: Data drawn from the 2011 American Community Survey of people five years and over. National average was 20.8 percent. Source: C. Ryan 2013. Applying Sociology to Bilingualism For a long time, people in the United States demanded conformity to a single language. This demand coincided with the functionalist view that language serves to unify members of a society. Little respect was granted to immigrants’ cultural traditions; a young person would often be teased about his or her “funny” name, accent, or style of dress. Recent decades have seen challenges to this pattern of forced obedience to the dominant ideology. Beginning in the 1960s, active movements for Black pride and ethnic pride insisted that people regard the traditions of all racial and ethnic subcultures as legitimate and important. Conflict theorists explain this development as a case of subordinated language minorities seeking opportunities for self-expression. Partly as a result of these challenges, people began to view bilingualism as an asset. It seemed to provide a sensitive way of assisting millions of non-English-speaking people in the United States to learn English in order to function more effectively within the society. The perspective of conflict theory also helps us to understand some of the attacks on bilingual programs. Many of them stem from an ethnocentric point of view, which holds 22.7– 43.8 14.9–22.0 9.1–13.6 6.6–8.7 2.3–6.4 WV VA SC FL GA NJ DE MD DC NH MA RI CT MODULE TEN Cultural Variation 81
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