U.S. Spanish and Education: Global and Local Intersections

• Published in: Review of research in education Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 58 - 80
• Main Author: García, Ofelia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2014
• Subjects: Bilingual Education; Bilingual Education Act 1994; Bilingual students; Bilingualism; Code Switching (Language); Education policy; Educational History; Educational Policy; English; English (Second Language); English Only Movement; Federal Legislation; Foreign Countries; High school students; Hispanic American Students; Hispanics; Language; Language Attitudes; Language Minorities; Latin America; Monolingualism; Multilingualism; Native Speakers; Nonnative languages; Official Languages; Role; Second Language Instruction; Second Language Learning; Social Justice; Spain; Spanish; Teaching Methods; United States; United States Context; World language instruction; United States; Spain
• ISSN: 0091-732X; 1935-1038
• DOI: 10.3102/0091732X13506542

The author of this chapter argues that the failure of Spanish language education policies in the United States to educate both Latinos and non-Latinos has to do with the clash between three positions--(a) the English language, characterized by U.S. educational authorities as the unique and powerful lingua franca; (b) the Spanish language, as defined by the language authorities in Spain and Latin America as a global language of influence; and (c) language as lived and practiced by bilingual Latino speakers. Because language education policy is the purview of nation-states as they organize educational programs and curricula, this chapter starts by offering a historical perspective of how Spanish was linguistically constituted. It does so to help people understand the role that teaching Spanish, and in Spanish, has had in promoting the standardization and spread of Spanish from its origins in Castile to its global position today, especially in the United States. The chapter then focuses on the teaching of Spanish in the United States and the relationship of ideologies and practices on Spanish language education policy, as carried out internally by federal, state, and local U.S. educational agencies, as well as by external agencies controlled by Spain. Finally, the chapter describes how "translanguaging" in education can be used to create a U.S. bilingual trans-subject, able to appropriate Spanish language practices into their entire linguistic repertoire.