Raising Bilingual Children

Hegemony of English

Parents raising bilingual children face significant linguistic pressure to acquire English at the expense of a heritage language. English is the language of the outside environment within the United States and of popular culture throughout much of the world. As such, its usefulness cannot be denied. Often, however, the cost of learning English is the eradication of the family language. Evidence of the pressure to assimilate linguistically is found in data that testify to the rapid language loss among immigrant and indigenous groups within the United States. Researchers Lily Wong Fillmore and Stephen Caldas discuss how English is in no danger of losing its preeminence. Rather, languages other than English are most threatened, and parents desiring to raise bilingual children must maximize exposure to the minority language.

A first step in resisting the pressure to become a monolingual English speaker is to understand the consequences of language loss on family relationships. Caldas and Wong Fillmore show that often language loss has occurred before parents have attended consciously to how they will combat it. Children's education and socialization concerning language and related subjects begins in the home where families impart knowledge about their beliefs, values, attitudes, and knowledge base. Wong Fillmore has referred to these lessons as the curriculum of the home. She identifies [Page 714]particular elements of this curriculum as including a sense of belonging; knowledge of who one is, where one comes from, and how one is connected to the important people and events in life; the ability to handle adversity; and knowledge of one's responsibility to self, family, and community.

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