The Spanish Language in America
A Case of Social Stratification
Edited by:
Richard R. Verdugo, UAB - Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona, Spain
A volume in the series: The Hispanic Population in the United States. Editor(s): Richard R. Verdugo, UAB - Centre for Demographic Studies, Barcelona, Spain.
Call for Papers
The Hispanic Population in the United States series is seeking papers on the use of the Spanish language in America and contrasting its use with that of English.Spanish has been the center of much controversy in the U.S., and Spanish is also part of an important body of sociological and economic research, suggesting that economic status is directly related to speaking English, though there are a number of flaws with this research, e.g. confounding Hispanics who are U.S. citizens with those who are not citizens, and it is unclear what it means to speak English “well.” There are many other issues that suggest a bias in viewing the use and practice of Spanish among Hispanics. For example, the movement calling for making English the official language of the US. Also, historically, children who spoke Spanish at school were punished, and educators pushed Hispanic parents to speak English at home. The rationale was that the ability to speak English would help their children perform well in school; ignoring the fact that many highly successful Hispanics are bilingual. There has been a clear racial bias in how the U.S. and its agents have attempted to push English on the Hispanic population. The push has been so great that I consider Spanish a major stratifying factor in the US.
Submission Topics:
This series is seeking papers using various methodologies including a) historical case studies, b) qualitative research and c) quantitative analyses that touch upon a number of topics regarding Spanish as a stratifying variable in the US. Because there are many topics to consider, all sound research methods and topics will be consider.
The following topics are of particular interest to this series:
The History of Bilingual Education in the US
Spanish, English, and the US Educational System: Achievement and Attainment
Analyses of Language Policies in the US: Critical Analyses
The English Only Movement
Spanish, English, and the US Labor Market
Analyses of various language programs aimed at Latino students and their successes or failures
Socio-demographic studies of the US Spanish speaking population
Spanish, English and the Assimilation of the Hispanic Population
Spanish, English and Social Status
Send Inquiries to: Richard R. Verdugo swamis59@yahoo.com