Jose Santos
Professor McGuire
English 111 26 July 2014
Bilingual, Bilingualism, and a Forgotten Language In the essays “Aria: a Memoir of a Bilingual Childhood” written by Richard Rodriguez and “Loss of Family Languages: Should Educators Be Concerned” written by Lily Wong Fillmore, the authors are concerned about immigrants forgetting their native languages as they get Americanized. Both authors are targeting a mature audience of immigrants, which have come to America to become citizens. Both authors use concerned tone with hopes that their audience will want to contribute to change. Furthermore, Fillmore draws her evidence from stories of other writers’ essays. Rodriguez, on the other hand illustrates his evidence from personal experiences and memories of his life while growing up. This essay exemplifies the differences and similarity of the evidence used, tones, styles, and the intended audiences. Fillmore’s and Rodriguez’s evidence are similar and different, in their support of the idea of bilingual education in schools. Fillmore’s evidence differs from Rodriguez’s as she uses statics, research, and other writer’s quotes as her support. She uses this Supreme Court’s ruling to show that the court believes immigrants require assistance staying bilingual, “… Lau v. Nichols held that these children must be provided instructional help to overcome the linguistic barrier…” (Fillmore 260). She also cites the story of a Chinese immigrant family that falls apart as the kids became Americanized. Rodriguez supports his evidence by comparing the difference in his life. At the beginning of the essay he appears more fluent in Spanish. He states, “When I was first learning to speak, my mother and father addressed me only in Spanish; in Spanish I learned to reply” (Rodriguez 213). By the end of his essay Rodriguez sees that his life has changed and he no longer heard