Essay on "Bilingual/Bilingue Research Paper Bilingual/Bilingue by Rhina Espaillat"

Essay 6 pages (2231 words) Sources: 6 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

BILINGUAL/BILINGUE Research Paper

Bilingual/Bilingue by Rhina Espaillat is a depiction of a girl

growing up in a Spanish speaking household in the United States. Through

excellent language choices and the successful use of literary devices,

Espaillat captures the difficulties of living in an English speaking

country but coming from a Spanish speaking home. The story, which relates

to the author's own personal experience as a girl from the Dominican

Republic growing up in the United States, relates many of the difficulties

she face linguistically in a new country. The primary difficulty

articulated is her father's resistance to her intentions to learn English

and making her speak Spanish at home. The reasons are highly personal, but

do not hinder her development as an English speaker nor her love for her

father. Research on the issue of bilingual children and their experience

learning a second language is very consistent with Bilingual/Bilingue, as

it should be Espaillat knows from personal experience the difficulties

languages can cause. Ultimately Bilingual/Bilingue is a personal account

of the realities of bilingualism, and how it is possible to overcome

language and cultural barriers to learn a second language.

Bilingual/Bilingue reflects the possible difficulties encountered by

learning a second language. In the poem, the girl is restricted from

speaking English in her own home as her father only speaks Spanish.

"English outside this door, Spanish inside," he tells her reflecting his

desire for her to speak Spanish in the home and his fear that his

daughter's learning of English will drive him apart from her. It is out of

this fear that he resists English in the household, but his daughter, who

studies English extensively in and outside of the house on her own, comes

to become more than proficient in English. She realizes what her father

does not, that language is not a divisive force, and that she can express

herself fully in English, her second language. Thus Espaillat is writing

on the success people can achieve in learning and living in the United

States as a bilingual individual. Language will not divide her from her

father, and she can become a successful English poet growing up in a

Spanish household. The cultural and linguistic challenges she faced she

was able to overcome.

Espaillat's perspective on the issue of bilingualism individually and

as a society is backed up by both empirical and qualitative research. In

fact, although Espaillat's childhood experience was many years ago in the

1930s, issues she faced and issues she overcame are relevant to this day.

For instance, a 2007 study on bilingual Latino and Latina adolescents

evaluated the role of the Spanish language and bilingualism for both gifted

and non-gifted students (Shaunessy et all 2007). This study found that for

these bilingual students, regardless of level of academic achievement, that

Spanish was their native language. This is consistent with Espaillat's

poem in which Spanish in his her native language as a little girl. Also,

the students in the study "shared that they spoke Spanish at home and in

the community," which suggests that even today Spanish is spoken in the

home of native Spanish speakers living in the United States (Shaunessy et.

all 2007). Furthermore, this study found that bilingual students in the

United States took "pride in being bilingual," and in a similar way

Espaillait does not want to give up her Spanish roots while embracing

English (Shaunessy et. all 2007). In considering the real world realities

of bilingual students in today's society, those expressed in

Bilingual/Bilingue are accurate.

Furthermore, in Bilingual/Bilingue the chance to learn a second

language and learn it well is not only accepted, but the girl grabs hold

and maximizes her opportunity. She studied "stubborn" and "late in bed"

until her English ability "learned to run," which is all a reflection on

her dedication, desire, and ability to learn English as a second language

despite living in a Spanish speaking household (Espaillat). This holds

true to the experiences of Latinos in the United States. One such study on

Dominican Americans illustrates this concept. According to the study,

Latinos have "empowering stances toward becoming multilingual and

multicultural," which means that there is an inherent desire to become part

of the native culture, which in this case is American and the language is

English (Pacheco et. all 2006). Other research also indicates the

eagerness of students from a Spanish speaking home to learn English.

However, there is a conflicting argument to the views expressed in

Bilingual/Bilingue and that is that Latino families which adapt English in

the household will offer the child a better opportunity to learn English.

For instance, there is a detriment that equates to "potentially negative

effects of Latino families' (linguistic) practices on their children's

futures" (Pacheco et. all 2006). In more recent years this means the

insistence to learn in Spanish while in school, which was not a real threat

to Espaillat when she was growing up. However, this does reflect that a

restrictive attitude towards the learning of English within a Latino family

does restrict a child's ability to learn English and subsequently have a

good future in the English speaking country. While Espaillat is able to

successfully overcome the hindrance of her family on her learning English,

this may not always be the case and her instance in which she becomes a

proficient writer of the English language is certainly an exception.

Therefore Espaillat's poem should be taken as personal instance and as a

personal case, and not as the norm or preferred attitude towards English

speaking that Latino families should assume.

Furthermore, recent developments have led towards acceptance of

bilingualism, and perhaps to foster not only English learning but Spanish

learning as well. In the case of psychological help, for example,

"cultural considerations for Latina/o children" must be considered and this

includes bilingual abilities (Villalba 2007). This certainly differs from

the notion presented in Bilingual/Bilingue in which it is noted that

English is the primary language outside the house. However, now Spanish

much more accepted and not only is treatment given in a person's native

language, but even classes are taught to Spanish children in their native

language. While it cannot be fully argued whether this is a good or a bad

thing without a strong evaluation of data, surely Espaillat would disagree

with this notion. While speaking Spanish inside the house did not limit

her, surely her English would have been curtailed if she was able to speak

Spanish outside the home as well.

This is an important point that must be taken into consideration as

it seems that those who are in support of bilingual education ignore

aspects taken into consideration by Espaillat. The argument that supports

such views that not allowing for bilingual education is a "one size fits

all model" is as follows: "As literacy educators in a multicultural and

multilingual society, our pedagogies must continually strive toward the

goals of freedom and democracy, and encourage the study of the worldviews,

discourse practices, and histories of all groups and their contributions to

our society for the common good of humanity" (Language Arts 2006). While

it is of course beneficial to teach multiculturalism, the application of

one culture to language, as suggested by Espaillat is a tricky subject, but

one in which a student should be encourage to speak the native language.

For example, Espaillat cherished the opportunity to speak English, but if

she was put into a bilingual classroom and given instruction in Spanish,

not only would she be limited in her linguistic expression at home, but in

education as well. As a result, it should be noted that Espaillat would be

opposed to this primary issue that is a subject to much scrutiny in today's

multicultural world as she yearned for the opportunity to learn English and

became more successful because of it.

That is not to say that the native language, in this case Spanish, is

thrown out and not important to the student's identity. Espaillat shows

her relationship to Spanish and how it is still part of her identity

through her work in which selected Spanish words help to illustrate her

point. She includes Spanish as it is still part of her culture, and she is

not alone in this acceptance of a Spanish language identity even though she

has learned English. For example, another bilingual poet, Gustavo P?rez

Firmat's speaks directly on the issue of bilingualism through his work

"Bilingual Blues" (Cox 2007). In his work, Spanish language is still part

of his identity and he uses "not only languages but also imagery and

intertextual reference" to make his points on the important issue of

bilingualism (Cox 2007). Thus Espaillat is not alone; her views are not

shared from a vacuumed, but rather are reflective of the Spanish culture in

America and bilingualism as a whole. This adds extra value to her personal

work, and means that Bilingual/Bilingue is not only the story of one girl,

but the story of an identity, a culture, and a… READ MORE

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