This article takes the position that teaching writing effectively to diverse students of non-English background will require an examination of existing views about the nature of writing and a critical evaluation of the profession's ability to work with bilingual individuals of different types. In order to explain this view, the article is divided into three parts. Part 1 describes the nature of bilingualism, identifies the population of students who can be classified as American bilingual minorities, and suggests that existing compartmentalization within the composition profession cannot address the needs of this particular population. Part 2 of the article reviews trends in current scholarship in second-language writing and points out that most of this research has focused on ESL students rather than on fluent/functional bilinguals. Finally, Part 3 lists and discusses a number of research directions in which the involvement and participation of mainstream scholars would be most valuable. In presenting an...

Bilingual Minorities and Language Issues in Writing Toward Professionwide Responses to a New Challenge

This study attempted to answer the question: What is the significance of language and cultural orientation on academic achievement? This study examined the relationship between the students’ level of interest in maintaining their heritage language and culture and their achievement in school. The subjects for this study were 105 U.S.-born, Chinese-American and Korean-American students attending public high schools in Southern California. The study found that those who valued the acculturation process, adapting to the mainstream culture while preserving their language and culture, had superior academic achievement levels to those who were most interested in the assimilation process and who adopted the values and lifestyles of the dominant culture. In light of the implementation of the “English Only” policy in California’s public schools, this study has important implications in public education—that curriculum and instruction should focus on helping language and cultural minority students to develo...

The Significance of Language and Cultural Education on Secondary Achievement: A Survey of Chinese-American and Korean-American Students

The multicultural or cultural diversity movement is gaining momentum in the United States. Reports on the nation's racial and cultural diversity abound (American Council on Education and Education Commission of the States, 1988; \"Today's Numbers,\" 1986). An oft-cited statistic is that, by the year 2000, one third of the U.S. population will consist of visible racial/ethnic group members (a term used to replace minorities that refers to Hispanic or Latino, Asian, Indian or Native, and Black American; see Cook & Helms, 1988). Time magazine (H. Williams, 1990) reported that one in four Americans defines himor herself as non-White and that Whites are becoming a minority in some regions of the country. There is renewed attention to the varied implications of an increasingly multiracial American society. The multiracial complexion of our society is very apparent in the nation's schools at all grade levels (American Council on Education and Education Commission of the States, 1988; Gonzalez, 1990). For example, it is estimated that, by the year 2020, 40% of schoolchildren will be non-White (Pallas, Natriello, & McDill, 1989). Currently, 30% of all public school students are children of color (Banks, 1991c), and they constitute more than 70% of total school enrollments in 20 of the country's largest school districts (Center for Education Statistics, 1987). Yet, the population of teachers, teacher educators, and administrators continues to be predominantly White (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1990; Dilworth, 1990; Fuller, 1992; Goodwin, 1991; Research About Teacher Education Project, 1990). Consequently, Whites are teaching nonWhites in increasing numbers (Dilworth, 1990; Goodwin, 1990; Grant & Secada, 1990), and cross-racial interactions are a matter-of-fact occurrence. These demographic shifts, coupled with numerous racially biased events within the last decade (Wilkerson, 1992), strongly suggest that one of the continuing issues that absorbs and divides Americans is that of race. Race has and continues to operate as a barrier to educational and social mobility and change (Hacker,

Chapter 7: Racial Identity and Education:

This paper attempts to survey language-in-education planning in the 1980s drawing on both formal publications and the more “ephemeral” but often more directky influential documents of government education departments and other authorities Two problems are immediately evident: first, the influential ephemeral documents are hard to obtain The second problem in surveying language-in-education planning is symptomatic of language policy-making in general; it is necessary to differentiate between, on the one hand, policy which is little more than uncoordinated good or bad ideas, limited in the range of needs that it seeks to answer, or incidental to policy serving other purposee (eg, immigration policy) and, on the other hand, systematic, formalized language-in-education planning (cf, Rist 1982) This paper also focuses on only that part of language-in-education policy concerned with second or foreign language teaching and learning; other papers in this volume deal with the areas of literacy and bilingual education

Language-In-Education Planning

In this article, I examine the English-only movement in the United States and other countries in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Elaborating on research on the hegemony of English, this examination demonstrates English-only ideology, both linguistic and visual, as a primary means of restricting language and ethnic minorities’ access not only in the US, but also globally. First, I will present English as a social construction of the Anglo-Saxon elites in the process of the subordination of other language groups throughout American history up to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Second, I will briefly introduce the legislation of the Civil Rights Movement to show that language access increased the political presence of language minorities. Third, I will discuss the reemergence of the English-only movement appealing to nationalist sentiments in order to diminish language and ethnic minorities’ rising political presence in the US in the twenty-first century. Fourth, I will examine the spread of English-only ideology within the context of global capitalism, led by the US, in order to show forced compliance to the superiority of English by various diverse social groups on the global level.

The English-Only Movement in the US and the World in the Twenty-First Century

When Minority Becomes Majority: The Changing Face of English Classrooms.

The English Language Amendment: Examining Myths.

After giving, participating in, and attending innumerable meetings dedicated to motivating Mexican American students to write, I believe it is a fallacy to think these students are not motivated. If we understand them, we ought to say that they are locked in to a particular written fluency level because of inexperience and because of second language interference. What we should address is ways of unlocking their potential by reducing fear of or unfamiliarity with the writing process. To do this, we must change our attitudes and perspectives by emphasizing the composing process and by helping students understand themselves through writing. That means tapping the cultural world these students bring with them to the classroom. That dictates that we discover our students'

Roseann Duenas Gonzalez

Papers

When Minority Becomes Majority: The Changing Face of English Classrooms.

The English Language Amendment: Examining Myths.

Teaching Mexican American Students to Write: Capitalizing on the Culture.