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Article Excerpt
ABSTRACT. U.S. Census data indicate that the majority of those of Spanish-speaking descent in this country continue to speak Spanish. At the same time, many researchers have documented the shift from Spanish to English in this group, and have suggested that the apparent vitality of Spanish in the U.S. may be due more to migration than to intergenerational language maintenance. Many of such studies utilize an approach that documents the transmission of Spanish from one generation to the next. The present study proposes to examine this phenomenon from a different perspective, investigating what Gal (1979) defines as 'intervening processes'. In particular, the instrumental value of Spanish in a border region of the Southwest is studied. This research, then, seeks to contribute to an understanding of how economic factors, such as wages and their relation to bilingual job skills, may have an impact on the shift from Spanish to English in one region of the U.S./Mexico border. *
INTRODUCTION. U.S. Census data indicate that those of Spanish-speaking descent (often labeled 'Hispanics' by the U.S. Census Bureau) (1) are the fastest growing ethnic segment of the United States population, and now form the largest minority group in the nation (http://www.census.gov). The majority of this group speaks Spanish; indeed, after English, Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in this country, with the U.S. being the fifth largest Spanish-speaking nation in the world (Villa 2000).
At the same time, many researchers have documented the shift from Spanish to English among U.S. Hispanics, e.g. Lopez (1978), Veltman (1988), Bills (1989), Sole (1990), Pease-Alvarez (1993), Bills, Hernandez Chavez, and Hudson (1995), and Rivera-Mills (2001), among others. In spite of the apparent vitality of Spanish, research inevitably points to an inexorable intergenerational loss of the language among those of Spanish-speaking origin. Thus, a major motivation of this study is to work toward a better understanding of what might contribute to that loss, in particular if economic factors might have an impact on the choice of one language over another.
It would seem credible that sharing a 2,000 mile border with the largest Spanish speaking country in the world would have a positive impact on the maintenance of Spanish in this nation, especially in U.S.-Mexico border regions. For example, Grosjean (1982:101), discussing one segment of the U.S. Hispanic population, states that 'Mexican Americans are extremely attached to their language and culture and have NO PROBLEM MAINTAINING THEM' (emphasis added).
However, despite the appealing notion that proximity to a Spanish speaking country promotes Spanish retention, language loss has been and continues to be documented in the population Grosjean describes above. The apparent vitality of U.S. Spanish seems to be due principally to migration; the language is in a state of flux between two extremes, one favoring the abandonment of the mother tongue, and the other a constant renewal due to the arrival of hispanophones. This study proposes to contribute to an understanding of the language loss side of this dynamic, why it is that research on this topic consistently shows a loss of Spanish among U.S. Hispanics.
The principal focus here is on economic factors and how they might impact language loss. Bills' (1989) and Bills' et al. (1995) research in part motivates this approach; these authors, using demographic information from the U.S. Census, have demonstrated strong correlations between the self-reported use of Spanish and income and educational level. Bills (1989:23), for example, states that '[The] association with Spanish retention with the poor and uneducated agrees with what virtually all researchers have found regarding language maintenance in the US ...' . However, Hamel, citing Gal (1979), points out that such correlations do not necessarily provide insights into the CAUSE of the shift. He states that
... more and more scholars agree that causality could not simply be derived from correlations and that research should focus instead on the 'intervening processes' (Gal 1979:3) that make people redefine and redistribute their value system across their linguistic repertoire, and in certain cases abandon their native language (1996:65).
It is for this reason that economic factors, often mentioned but not focused on in language shift studies, are examined here as 'intervening processes' in language attrition.
Regarding the relationship between economics and language use, Edwards (1985) proposes a cost-benefit explanation for the shift from a heritage language to English; he observes that 'the essence of group identity is individual identity and the essence of individual identity, ultimately, is survival, personal security and well being. To the extent that a language hinders these things, it will be deemed a negotiable commodity' (98). He later states that criticism of his original discussion as overly simplistic is well taken, noting 'I ... would not wish to be seen as endorsing some simple economic reductionism as an explanation for language shift and cultural adaptation' (12). At the same time, he does not abandon economic factors as explanators in understanding language choice. Similarly, Grin is mindful of the danger of simplistic generalizations regarding such relationships. He notes, '... [as] just about any aspect of human behavior could be appreciated from an economic perspective, it must be clear that no aspect of human behavior can be adequately understood using economics alone. The combined contribution of several disciplines remains the best way to take stock of its complexity' (1999:11). Bearing these caveats in mind, the present study focuses on the relationship between the economic instrumentality and the loss of Spanish in the U.S.
1. THE CONCEPT OF INSTRUMENTALITY. The term INSTRUMENTALITY is employed here in a fairly restricted sense, reflecting a definition used in the field of sociology. For that discipline, Gordon and Barthel state:
The study of orientation to work has developed only recently and is especially associated with research carried out in the late 1960s and 1970s.... [It is] concerned with the values, purposes, expectations, and sentiments that workers bring to the work situation. Employees with an instrumental orientation see work as a means to an end (the need to acquire income); have a primarily calculating attitude to the employing organization; and do not carry their work experiences and relationships over into other areas of their lives (1994:568-69).
It is necessary to carefully separate the use of Spanish in the workplace as...
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