Steven Newell
Anthropology 103
April 12, 2011
Professor Hardy
Language & Policy Paper
Many people get the impression that all Mexicans living in the U.S. are dirty, lawbreakers, and that they all worsen the economy. This belief is very prevalent especially in the state of Arizona where many illegal and legal Mexicans make their living. It is the belief by many that English is the primary language in the U.S. and that any other language spoken, and the people that speak it, should be looked down upon and treated different. That is the basis of language subordination. Language ideology is the nature or living habits of a certain culture that is maintained over several years. So basically it is the culture someone if forced to live in based on the language they speak. Certain ideologies about language is what makes young Mexicans who they are, and the kind of people they will grow into in the future. Many young Hispanics don’t get a fair opportunity that they deserve based on the culture and way they are “supposed” to live in.
One controversial topic in Arizona was proposition 203 that was passed in November of 2000. The main purpose behind the proposition is to eliminate bilingual education programs from grades K-12 and to implement an immersion class to help students learn the English language quicker to help them be more successful in society. This is a much greater problem in the state of Arizona because there are so many more minorities, especially Mexicans and Latinos. The proposition plays a huge part in communication and language in Arizona. There are so many young Mexicans who know very little to no English before being put into school. This proposition shows statistics of how unsuccessful bilingual education programs such as ESL and LEP have been and proposed a way to make learning for those students more efficient. The hope is that students learning in an immersion classroom will be ready to join all of the regular core classes and get caught up with the rest of the students their age hopefully within a year. One negative aspect that occurs when talking about teaching people the English language is that most of the students will talk to the people in their inner circle the way they are used to talking.
The second policy that’s being analyzed is SB 1070, which focuses on illegal immigration and law enforcement. The Bill states “The provisions of the law are intended to work together to discourage and deter “the unlawful entry and presence of illegal aliens and economic activity by illegal aliens in the United States.”” So basically, officers and law enforcement have the right to know a persons immigration status that they reasonably suspect to be illegal aliens. They may only do that if they lawfully stop them or if the person or persons has been arrested. This brings up the issue of racial profiling. The bill is basically giving officers the right to legally question or interrogate anyone that they believe might be an illegal alien. For instance, a Mexicans failure to communicate with an officer because of his or her lack of ability to speak English could lead to suspicion in some officer’s minds that they are not legal residents of the United States. Power is automatically given to people based on the language they speak or the color of their skin.
The two policies tie together based on the fact that in both cases, the main group of people making the changes are the Mexicans and Hispanics. Both of these policies imply that people who speak a language different then English are inferior and not equal to people who do speak English. It gives the impression that if you don’t learn how to speak the English language fluently, then you will not be taken seriously, or not look as intelligent, which will hurt someone when looking at a job or career. After analyzing these two policies, it made it clear to me that sometimes in order to be successful of taken seriously in this society, you have to fit in and go along with the norms of society no matter how unfair it might sound. One difficult aspect that occurs when students try to learn a new language is when they talk different in their inner and outer circles. It makes it much more challenging when you can’t speak the language trying to be learned, such as English, because no one in your inner circle speaks the language. People get judged from the first time they open their mouth, whether it’s a good impression or not, we still get judged. A lot that goes into determining what kind of impression you get of someone depends on the way they speak.