WHOSE HOME LANGUAGE MATTERS?

Recently in South Africa, | was with Sônia Nieto, a distinguished American scholar. A South African-Israeli, whom we had only just met socially, engaged her in conversation about language issues in the US. Taking her for a white, native speaker of English, he expressed the view that Spanish migrants in the US should not speak Spanish but English. If they live in the US, he told us, they should 'melt', no doubt referring to the metaphor of 'America' as the great 'melting pot' where anyone is supposed to be able to achieve the 'American dream' and become successful.

What he did not know is that Dr Nieto identifies herself as a Puerto Rican-American, her husband comes from Spain and members of her family are Spanish-English bilinguals. She is a qualified bilingual educator, who is known internationally for her work in bilingual and multicultural education. It was interesting to see this man come face to face with someone who both challenged: his taken-for-granted view of language as wellas his stereotype of Latinas.

Source: Adapted from 'Doing Critical Literacy: Texts and Actívíties for Students and Teachers, by Hilary Janks, Routledge, 2014.