Research Report: Language Barrier

Language Barrier

Ricky R. Mata

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1302

Professor Saul Hernandez

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Abstract

El Paso, Texas is a borderland city rich with culture due to its relationship with the

Mexico Border and many of the citizens being frequenters of both areas. El Paso follows

the education guidelines by Texas state standards, therefore the conducted research will

contain material pertinent to the findings between English and English Language Learner

students within Texas public schools. It has been found that many students struggle to

adapt to the English language and have not been able to establish economic security

within the United States as quickly as English fluent individuals especially within the

work place. The following question were used to develop how it is that students are

unable to use English and Spanish efficiently hand in hand without miscommunications

or inability to comprehend the other.

Literature Review

In the borderlands of El Paso it is very common to hear Spanish and English being

thrown around every corner. As one would come to notice, many of the citizens in the

borderland are only fluent in one language; being a part of such a culture as rich as El

Paso it is no surprise that many of its residents grow up engulfed in their native tongue.

Many notice that the literacy in both languages becomes a blurred line; people begin to

blend the languages together or speak in broken Spanish and/or English which leads to

the miscommunication of fellow border landers. With that in mind, how do we lessen the
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challenges of taking in language? Is the idea that learning a new language too difficult

pushed onto individuals too strongly? Are monolingual students not given the proper

resources or assistance to achieve the higher standard of becoming multilingual? It could

very well lie within the stigma of language and how the education system conducts its

language requirements.

 Why are English-Spanish speakers not dominant in El Paso?

One would believe that being in a place where both languages are used frequently

there would be a high number of those that would be able to incorporate both languages

effectively. English Second Language (ESL) individuals will still mostly incorporate

their first languages which is not abnormal at all but within a work place or education

system this may prove to be an issue. More commonly than not, English is considered

almost a required language when pursuing higher education or seeking employment

within the United States, even individuals who seek to gain residency with this country

must be able to pass The Naturalization Test, which includes two portions: an English and

Civic requirement. Furthermore, in El Paso there are those who frequent this area due to

Mexico border entrances built in this city and vice versa, frequent travels are mainly due

to family ties or pursuit of education in either El Paso or Ciudad Juarez. In common

experiences, many individuals frequently cross the border to attend school in El Paso and

will often cross the border back to their homes and families in Ciudad Juarez. Even so
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there are many who struggle to maintain literacy in both languages fully although they

frequent the crossing of the border.

 Should English literacy courses be updated into pushing

fluencies in English? Or should the same standard be made for

all language courses being taken?

In the public education system of Texas there are requirements to graduate from a

Texas high school, the following pertinent to language include four credits in English

courses and two credits in Foreign Language courses, both have remained consistent

within the former and revised requirements for graduation requirements within the past

few years. About 18% of English Language Learners (ELLs) students and ELL grads

only make up 71.5% out of 88.3% of total grads in the state of Texas according to data

collected by the project “5 Million Voices,” a special series being hosted on National

Public Radio to address the almost nearing five million ELL individuals struggling

although constant efforts are being made to help them. There is both a shortage in

qualified educators for ELLs and the academic program segregation to accommodate

these individuals is not proficiently producing well-educated ELL students. As such, it

can be concluded that these individuals are not necessarily acquiring credit through their

fluency in the language but by other means such as participation or summation of final
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test grades of minimum performance. So, the question arises again, should literacy

programs and test follow more strict guidelines and requirements?

 Are Spanish dominant speakers at an economic disadvantage

due to their low level of fluencies in English? Or vice versa?

According to research done by the Philadelphia Education Research Consortium,

students whose home language was Spanish presented findings that revealed major

discrepancies with groups of children that mastered any other language, primarily in this

study English Second Language students studied within a four-year span of entering

kindergarten. A 2009 analysis found that adult immigrants from Mexico and Central

America were considered amongst the few who will not achieve a high school education,

alongside this analysis similar findings were found comparing that children of Mexican

immigrants went further in education then their relatives, but children of Chinese

immigrants went further ahead. It is believed that educators and administrators have

lowered the standard for Hispanic students due to stereotypes that cause them to believe

that theses students do not want to learn the English language (Wolfman-Arent, 2017).

Based on this research it has shown that many Spanish dominant speakers have faced

some sort of economic disadvantage due to their difficulty or willingness to work at

grade-level English. English speakers may face the disadvantage of working with those

who are not fluent in English but have shown exceptional sets of skills in certain fields

such as engineering or medicine here in the United States.

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 Does the border and their separate education system not give

properly efficient resources to learn the language or could it be

due to economic background?

In the early nineteenth century, Mexico education policies mainly focused on

students becoming a part of the manual labor work force and not giving little to

none or any assistance to those who desired to pursue more educationally fueled

professions such as law, medicine and education. Common studies during this era

give an immense amount of attention to the Secretaria de Instruccion Publica y

Bella Artes, Justo Sierra, who mainly focused on creating a skilled labor force that

suited Mexico aristocracies and industries. Although Sierra was the largest

legitimizer of primary education in the nineteenth century, the allocated funds for

education were simply not enough to keep students away from being influenced

that to abandon their poverty stricken lives they must work (Vaughan, 1975).

Based on previous educational policies within the last one hundred years,

education amongst Mexican immigrants has not necessarily been pushed upon

them until now to pursue higher education. Many relatives were forced into

working a manual labor job due to their lack of assistance or reassurance that they

were able to obtain other skills by continuing their education and stuck to what

they knew what to do to maintain financial stability.

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 In a borderland such as El Paso, why is it not required to be

fluent in both languages since many of the citizens are either

English or Spanish dominant?

Across the United States there has been a declined interest in learning a second

language amongst those in pursuit of higher education, where research has shown that

about seven percent of college students are enrolled in a foreign languages course at their

university (Friedman, 2015). In the borderlands there are few institutions of higher

education, most notably El Paso Community College and The University of Texas at El

Paso, where classes are offered in both English and Spanish. With this option students

pursuing higher education can remain speaking their dominant language and avoid any

complications on their journeys to become successful in life. There only comes the issue

when interacting with each other, not is it necessarily a hostile encounter but rather that

of misunderstanding or difficulty in social situations or more importantly the work place

at any profession with both coworkers and clients. In El Paso, it is not required to be

fluent in both languages, but one would assume a individual living here would know

Spanish or those crossing the border would know some English; it’s a never ending “well

you should have learned yourself.”

 Interview
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Based on the interview conducted, there were two main questions asked to the

interviewee which were based on personal experience and opinion of Mexican-American

students going through the education system here in El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez,

Mexico. Should Mexican-American individuals feel required to know the Spanish

language? Growing up in the borderlands of El Paso, many people immediately enter the

public-school system and have been separated into two categories: English or Spanish.

They’re placed into classrooms introducing English and have begun to learn the sounds

that the letters of the alphabet make or filling in the dashed lines with simple sentences.

Going back home Spanish is thrown around, but English dominates the household

because that’s how students will make it through school, by knowing English. In the final

years of basic education, foreign language is a required credit for a high school diploma

so many students take Spanish. Many already know the language because they were

taught by their parents and some know below the bare minimum, following this some

people would say, “How could you not know Spanish? Didn’t your family ever teach

you?” The answer was always no, they didn’t learn at home because it had already been

too much time that they could learn the language with ease since the dominant language

was English. Yes, it felt as though sometimes these individuals were made to feel they

“had” to know Spanish because of the feeling of not being apart of the community due to

the difficulty of understanding another language. Following this, was it ever a thought
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that English or Spanish speakers were left some leeway in their academics? There were

times that this didn’t just prove to be thought, teachers would continue to use Spanish in

English courses and English speakers were left to slip through the cracks of simple “class

participation” to achieve a foreign language credit. It wasn’t that there was not anything

wrong for an educator wanting their student to succeed but inevitably students were set

up for failure if they weren’t given opportunity to adjust to the English spoken/written

courses. This most definitely hit hard with those trying to learn the Spanish language in

their foreign language class but weren’t exactly given the proper educative assistance

required to become fluent and could pass the class based on their level of Spanish

language acquisition.

 Conclusion

Finally, it has become apparent of the struggles that students of both basic and

higher education face a dilemma of language. Some grew up only speaking that one

language, and others were fortunate enough to become engulfed in both by family who

were able to provide that. The utilization of language within the borderland is one of the

most important tools that an individual can utilize in their everyday life: work, school,

and just simple socialization between two voices. It would not matter if the languages

blended or if it suddenly switched mid-conversation, they would be able to understand

each other to reach greater achievements or even experiences. By incorporating more

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than one language within everyday classes it may very well be possible for students to

adapt and overcome language barriers to become multilingual. Let it be that students can

be evaluated for their own skill set rather than passing the buck to another educator and

setting the student up for failure.

Graph
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Resources

 Craig, S. (2015, May 12). Texas High School Graduation Requirements,

Explained. Retrieved April 02, 2018, from

http://www.thesismag.com/2015/05/12/texas-high-school-graduation-

requirements-explained/

 Sanchez, C. (2017, February 23). English Language Learners: How Your State Is

Doing. Retrieved April 02, 2018, from

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/02/23/512451228/5-million-english-

language-learners-a-vast-pool-of-talent-at-risk

 Wolfman-Arent, A. (2017, September 15). Research Shows Spanish Speakers

Take Longer to Learn English. Why? Retrieved April 15, 2018, from

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/09/15/545629043/research-shows-spanish-

speakers-take-longer-to-learn-english-why

 Friedman, A. (2015, May 10). America's Lacking Language Skills. Retrieved

April 16, 2018, from

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/05/filling-americas-

language-education-potholes/392876/
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 Cesar Gonzalez, personal communication, April 10th, 2018

 Vaughan, M. K. (1975). Education and Class in the Mexican Revolution. Latin

American Perspectives, 2(2), pg 17-33.