Humanizing Education for the Chicano
by Armando Ayala, Project Director

AREA III Valley Intercultural Program
Placer County Office of Education
Auburn, California

MAP/Materiales en Marcha/May-June 1973

Public education in the United States has been in the hands of the people who have attempted to fulfill the needs of the majority of their student population.  equal education has been one of the ultimate goals of district personnel and community.  the goal itself is an ideal goal; unfortunately this has been interpreted to mean that every student should receive instruction in English.  States such as California and Texas passed laws prohibiting the instruction in a language other than English.  Unfortunately this practice did not take into consideration the fact that every year thousands of students begin their education not understanding the language of instruction or the culture of the classroom environment.

The result of such an ethnocentric approach to education has been a dehumanization of many  Mexican-Americans in the United States.  Chicanos in most instances are in a low synergy society.  They have been alienated by the educational system, have been made us to feel inferior, underachievers, and confused.  In order to survive Chicano students have been forced to conform to the monolingual (English only) instruction.   Low educational achievement has placed a large percent of Chicanos in a poverty cycle which has been difficult to break.  Efforts to translate the language and the culture of the white middle-class environment of the schools has led to frustration, irritation, and unhappiness for million of Chicano students.  

Federal funds under ESEA Title VII have been made available to school districts that can identify need for bilingual-bi-cultural education.  Bilingual education has come of age in the United States in an attempt to help citizens who are not English dominant to lead a productive bicultural life in this society.  It is also believed that students from minority groups who are now not succeeding in school will benefit from a bilingual approach to education and therefore become bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural.

Chester C. Christian (1965) points out that at a conference held in November 1963 which was called by the then Vice-President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson, as Chairman of the President's committee on Equal Employment Opportunity, it was concluded that the schools should capitalize on the bicultural situation in the Southwest rather than ignore it or even attempt to repress it.  Also, it was felt desirable to erase the reigning Anglo stereotype to recognize the value of the Mexican-American cultural heritage and to show the Mexican-American why he should be proud of his cultural background and recognize himself  as capable of offering something of value to the culture at large.

At this same conference Anthony J. Celebrezze, Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, was moderator of a discussion group in which it was decided that schools should provide acculturation for Mexican-American children through bilingual instruction in Spanish and English, make use of the curriculum to reflect Spanish as well as American traditions, and should hire teachers trained in both cultures.  It was expressed that only through such a modified educational program could the Mexican-American be given the sense of personal identification which is necessary to his educational maturation.

There is, however, some opposition to bilingual education, as was reported in the HEW-OZ of 1968:

    There is plentiful evidence linking native bilingualism with retardation and underachievement in schools. Investigators have claimed that early childhood bilingualism is a "handicap," has detrimental effects on intelligence, contributes to mental confusion and language deficiency, that it leads to retardation ins choo, etc.  Recent studies, however, show that the "handicap" results from the WAY schools and communities have dealt with children who speak another language and NOT from the children's bilingualism.

Dr. Jack Forbes during his address to the Southwest Intergroup Relations Council held in Austin, Texas, in 1970 stated that since the 1870s schools in the Southwest had not been mutual, culturally speaking.  These schools, he said, had been controlled by the Anglo-American population, and the curricula throughout have been Anglo in character.  Dr. Forbes further pointed out that these schools had not been good for Mexican-American children because they tended to lead to a great deal of alienation and a great deal of hostility, also the confusion which is caused in the mind of the Mexican-American children because they tended to lead to a great deal of alienation and a great deal of hostility,  also the confusion in the mind of the Mexican-American child by not knowing what he should be proud of, not knowing what language he should speak, now knowing whether to completely accept what Anglo people had been telling him and forget his Mexican identity, or where he should listen to what his parents and perhaps other people have said and be proud of his Mexican identity (Edvia Stanfield,1970).

Mexican-American children have been retained in the primary grades until they learn English.  Dr. George I. Sanchez, School of Edudcation of the University of Texas at Austin, made a plea for bilingual education to the Southwest Intergroup Relations Council (Stanfield) 1

    It is normal practice to retain Spanish-speaking children in the first grade for two or even three years because of deficiency in English, while instruction goes on entirely in English.

He added that this policy is psychologically ruinous and using English as the only language of instruction has caused the Mexican-American social and psychological problems.   Manuel Ramirez (1969) points out that fear of envy, as well as fear of being accused of discarding the values of the folk culture for those of Anglo society, also discourages the Mexican- American child's motivation to excel in school.  Even the practice of using English outside the classroom is ridiculed by peers as an attempt to become anglicized. 

The result of such criticism is an apsect of what Wallace Lambert (1963) has termed anomie, a feeling of not comfortably belonging in one social group or the other.  Ramirez is quoted by Stanfield where he says:

    . . .  students that have identified with the anglo culture and rejected the Mexican-American culture experience a lot of conflicts with their parents.  They become alienated from their parents.  They experience a lot of health problems and guilt and anxiety.

Using Spanish in the classroom would enhance the Mexican-American's new respect, enlightenment, effectiveness, and integrity.  Manuel Guerra (1967) explain it thus:

    When Spanish and English are used without restraint in the classroom, without stigma, without apologies, classroom atmosphere will lead to better Spanish and English learning.  By implication the DIGNITY OF CHILDREN  who come from Spanish-speaking homes will be ENHANCED, and their psychological desire to  learn English greatly strengthened.

Elizabeth Ott (1967)found that many of the youngsters from a non-English background are victims of economic poverty and products of illiteracy.  Some to not succeed because of poor attendance, a condition very ofrten caused by family migration.  However, by far the largest single cause of academic failure to achieve, she found, is the language barrier:

    Typically, Mexican-American children have been given the same dosage of instruction, including reading in English, as the native english-speaking child, ignoring the fact the the children from Spanish-speaking background had little of no facility in oral English.  The results have been disastrous in terms of HUMAN LOSS.

Early childhood bilingual education would help the Mexican-American in his transculturation to the dominant society.  McGill University carried out a series of studies concerned with language learning.  A social-psychological theory of language learning was one of the most important outcomes of these studies reported by Lambert and cited by Marie E. Taylor (1970) as follows:

    This theory, in belief holds that an individual successfully acquiring a second language (English in the case of the Mexican-American) gradually adopts various aspects of behavior which characterize members of another linguistic-cultural group.  the learner's ethnocentric tendencies and his attitude toward the other group are believe to determine his success in learning the new language.  His motivation to learn is thought to be determined by his attitudes and by his orientation toward learning a second language.

In studying the effects of bilingualism on the intellectual and social development of the child, J.P. Sofiati found most of the difficulties and retardations due to the bicultural aspect of the situation.  R.E. Davis (Miles V. Zintz, 1969) states that the basic problem in the Southwest is biculturalism, not bilingualism, because language expresses the values of a culture; culture, by determining behavioral practices and goals, limits the connotations and denotations of the language.

These findings support the cultural component which is called for in the guidelines for bilingual programs to be funded under ESEA Title VII.  If ou are to talk to a child, you must speak a language that he understands (Stanfield), and equally important is a bilingual and bicultural area is the acceptance, the respect, the appreciation, the wholesome self-image, imparted non-verbally, to Anglo and Mexican-American alike.

Some attempts have been made to remedy the language problem of the Mexican-American, but in most parts these attempts have been program in teaching English as a second language, which serve to bridge the student from Spanish dominancy to English dominancy.  Where these programs have been implement, they have given Spanish a NEGATIVE STIGMA in the eyes of the Mexican-American.

Stanfield points to the observations of Dr. Mildred Dickason, chairman of the Department of Anthropology at Sonoma State College.

    There is a big difference between two-way bilingual education and second language programs.  You can use any language as an inferior idiom to assist students to learn the superior majority language without conveying respect for the student of his language . . . But you cannot agree to teach the language . . . to these well-off upper-middle-class Anglo students without giving it respect.  You have redefined the Mexican-American student by teaching his language to Anglos.  You have also redefined teacher attitudes, which is the crux of the matter.  It is teacher attitudes more than any other factor which determine student outcome, for more.

Dr. Vera John expressed her views toward teaching English as a second language.  This report was made during the Early Childhood Bilingual Education Conference held at Yeshiva University in 1968:

    In dealing with non-English-speaking children American education has stressed the need to teach the dominant language more effectively to non-English-speakers.  Such techniques as teaching English as a second language are not designed to improve the child's cognitive development of his general language ability.  They are designed only to improve his English.  Bilingual education, on the other hand, is not merely a teaching technique to improve a child's English.  Through instruction in the child's native language and English it aims to correct the semi-fluency and ineffective communication which too often result from a child's limited function in both languages. 

Zintz suggest to classroom teachers of bilingual programs:

    A student should feel that his language is a good one, that it expresses his ideas and wishes adequately, and that he may be justly proud to use it.  All of the people in his extended family used the language which he has learned as his first language, and he derives his ego strength and sense of personal worth as a member of that particular ethnic group.

Our society has placed a premium on the acquisition of a second language only after the learner has completed his early education.  For example, most colleges require two years of foreign language to be taken during the high school years before admitting the student; most doctoral degrees require mastery of a second language, etc.  Traditionally a person who can speak more than one language is considered more cultured.  However, many would-be students give up trying to fulfill this requirement because it is difficult to develop an "ear" for foreign languages once a monolingual has passed the early education years. 

Many authorities agree on the early start of second language acquisition, among them Theodore Anderson, who says:

    These years (3 to 5) are valuable for language learning, for we know that children of this age can, under ideal conditions, absorb as many languages as are spoken in a given environment.

Taylor quotes from Psycholinguistics:

    There is a general opinion throughout the literature that this is a favorable period, because the second language will not compete directly with the first and the learner has not yet lost his mental plasticity . . .  The greater readiness f children than of older persons to learn the language of their environment is associated with the craving for membership in the group.

Most students who are starting school have not developed the fear of making oral mistakes which most adults have.  Being young seems to give them the literary license to make mistakes and still keep trying to perfect a language; however, once we get beyond the third or fourth grade, it becomes embarrassing to mispronounce a word.  In many adult foreign language classes the students feel very uncomfortable when they have to recite individually.  Children, however, possess a great desire to mimic and learn a foreign language.

The beginning of early childhood bilingual education is a step toward the realization that a citizen no longer needs to wait until he is a graduate student to speak a foreign language.  Eventually bilingualism will be desired y the English dominate parents and students and become an asset for people living in bilingual communities  When the Anglo majority begins to value bilingualism and seeks its development through bilingual programs, then the stigma will be removed from bilingualism  With this goal comes the promise that "culturally deprived" and "disadvantaged" will be discarded labels.  there is great hope for people at all socio-economic levels to have increased understanding and respect by changing a monocultural, monolingual way of life into a free society that develops human potential wherever it exits.  the overriding objective of bilingual school is to develop fully functioning balanced bilingual citizen in every community where there are non-English-speaking people and thereby enrich the lives of all concerned.

A student whose dominant language is not English must translate to the vernacular, creating a double track in order to arrive at the desired English response.  This mental process is in reality a shifting of tracks which is noticeable in the early stages by the deep concentration of the student while he translates the stimulus word-for-word and at times responds in English incorrectly.  some of these nonsense answers can be explained in case where one word in the question may have multiple meanings in English, but only one meaning in Spanish.  for example, let us say that the teacher is developing a concept of direct object.  The sentence to be used in this exercise is "the man scaled the mountain."  In word-for-word translation used in double tracking the Spanish-speaking student has only one image for the word "scale."  At this point the student is more concerned with how a man could lift a mountain to weigh it than he is about the direct object concept of  English grammar.

The sadness of this example is that the student HAS been able to translate every word in the sentence, but the message conveyed by the sentence puzzles him.  He does not realize the multiple use of the word "scale." In cases such as this the compound bilingual has a TIME and CONCEPT retarding factor which is created by his double-track thought process.  This example of interference illustrates the difficulty of multiple meanings, which is troublesome even to a monolingual; however, one can see where this would ge3 multiplied in the case of a non-English-speaker who has the additional interference of finding relationships within a new syntactic framework.  This mental process is described by Charles E., Osgood (1965) as compound bilingualism.

In cases where the student cannot translate the stimulus into the vernacular the concept being developed the the teacher may have a delayed response for an indefinite period of time.  continuous double tracking may frustrate the student to the point of exhaustion, which in turn may prevent further attempt to learn.  Prolonged exposure to failure may create a permanent block.

Another delaying factor in the learning of English as a second language has been cited by Zintz:

    . . . in cases where the teacher is impatient and/or misunderstanding the student develops insecurity instead of security, worry instead of competence, and makes the English language an enemy instead of a friend.

By creating such an emotional block the student may refuse to participate in the oral exercises necessary to acquire proficiency in the second language.

To reduce double tracking and hostile feelings toward second language acquisition bilingual programs use the mother tongue as a vehicle of instruction.  At different times of the school day and using the second language the same concepts are presented in a review lesson.  Since the concepts have been presented earlier (in the vernacular), it is believed that the student will be able to follow the instructions with greater ease, even though the concepts are reviewed in his second language.  In this manner the program attempts to inculcate in the student what Ott describes as two AUTOMATIC, INDEPENDENT, and SELF-RESPECTING systems, which define him a coordinate bilingual. 

Coordinate bilingualism enables the individual to function efficiently, independently, and with dignity in either linguistic environment.  He is condition to respond directly to any stimulus, much in the same way that one responds to the traffic signal lights.  The response is instantaneous without going through the process of matching the colors with the muscle reaction or rationalizing the reaction accordance with the color of light.

Ott explains it further in the following manner:

    When language teachers urge their student to try to think in a foreign language, they mean to say that the students should code their intensive behavior as directly as possible into the foreign language responses, without there being an intervening role for native language responses.

Achievement testing of a bilingual education program is difficult for the lack of reliable instruments; not enough testing has been done yet.  However, the measurements that have been taken indicate that bilingual education does not interfere with achievement in the basic curriculum.  A study of mathematics achievement in the Laredo, Texas, bilingual program showed that those who learn math in two languages do better than those instructed in only one language.  Studies of the Miami program indicate that students in a bilingual program at least do as well as others in the standard subjects, means-while attaining the advantages of a second language (Stanfield).  if non-English-speakers are achieving as well as English-speakers, as these studies indicate, then one of the objectives of bilingual education is being met.

More important is the enhancement of humanization which bilingual-bicultural education programs offer for the Chicano.  It is envisioned that the scope effect will result in developing with in the Chicano community a high synergy society.

Bibliography:

Carroll, Herbert A. Mental Hygiene: the Dynamics of Adjustment.  Englewood Cliffs, Jn.J.: Prentice  Hall, Inc. 1959.

Christian, Cuester C.  "The Acculturation of the Bilingual Child,: The Modern Language Journal,   69 (March  1965): 160-165.

Fishman, Joshua A. Bilinugal Education in Sociolinguistic Perspective.  Address at the Fourth Annual Convention of 
      Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Language, San Francisco, California, March 20, 1970.

Gaarder, Bruce A.  "Organization of the Bilingual School," Journal of Social Issues, Vol. XXXIII, No. 2, 1967.

Guerra, Manuel H.  Language Instruction and Intergroup Relations.  Sacramento: Bureau of Intergroup Relations, California 
        Department of Education, 1967.

Lambert, Wallace E. "Psychological Approaches to the Study of Language: Part II: on Second Language Learning and Bilingualism,"
        Modern Language Journal, 47 (March 1963): 112-121.

Osgood, Charles E. (ed.)  Psycholinguistics, a Survey of Theory and Research Problems., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965.

Ott, Elizabeth H.   A Study of Levels of Fluency and Proficiency in Oral English of Spanish-Speaking School Beginners.  
        Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas, Austin, Texas, 1967.

Ramirez, Manuel.  Potential Contributions by the Behavioral Sciences to Effective Preparation Prgrams for Teacher of Mexican-American
     Children. Las Cruces: New mexico State University, 1969.

Ruckar, W. Ray, Arnspiger, Clyde, and Bodbeck, A.M. Human Values  in Education. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall-Hunt Publishing Co.,1969.

Stanfield, Edwin.  A Bilingual Approach: Education for Understanding.  Austin: Southwest Intergroup Relations council, Inc., 1970.

Taylor, Marie E.  An Overview of Research on Bilingualism. Sacramento: California Department of Education, 1970.

Zintz, Miles V.  What Classroom Teachers Should Know About Bilingual Education.  Albuquerque: University of New Mexico, 1969.