Struggling to Preserve Home Language: The Experiences of Latino Students and Families in the Canadian School System

Veronica Pacini-Ketchabaw and Judith K. Bernhard
Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada

Marlinda Freire
University of Toronto, Canada

Abstract

Latinos in Canada are receiving attention because of frequent poor performance in school. This phenomenon turns out to be connected to a number of basic problems that can only be understood through investigation of institutional processes with routine operations that may disadvantage certain minorities. This paper presents and discusses part of the data collected in a larger research project on Latino families and Canadian schools. Bilingual Latina researchers used participant observation and action research techniques to report on the home language practices of 45 Latino families and how the school's routine processes influenced those practices. Findings include the following: (a) parents saw Spanish maintenance as a way to foster family unity, Latino identity, and professional advancement; (b) the strong assimilative pressures experienced by parents often resulted in their doubting the desirability of openly speaking Spanish at home; (c) because the children were losing their home language rapidly, the parents used a number of strategies; and (d) there are several things that parents would like to see happen that would enable them to maintain Spanish. Our findings indicate the necessity for schools to proactively recognize and build on the family's cultural capital, including their home language.

Sections of the Article

Introduction

Mrs. De Santos, a Guatemalan mother of two, like many other Latina mothers is receiving a clear message about the lack of value placed on maintaining a home language other than English or French. In spite of official multiculturalism policies in Canada, Mrs. De Santos will have a difficult time raising bilingual children. The loss of the home language is likely to have profound effects not only on the children's academic achievement but also on the family's ability to nurture their children and on familial relations.

Background

Latin Americans, as part of one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in Canada, are receiving attention because of frequent poor performance in school. The vast majority of the newer migrants are from Central and South America. Approximately 50,000 people in Toronto, Canada's largest city, have been identified as having Spanish as their first language (Statistics Canada, 1999). Tables 1 and 2 show the number of Latin American children and adolescents living in Canada and in Ontario by ethnic origin and age. The number of Latin Americans in Canada is close to 400,000; about 51% simply identify themselves as Spanish, and the remaining ones identify themselves according to country of origin.

In Canada, the children of Latin American migrants often show low academic achievement; only 65% obtain a high school diploma, and university graduates account for barely 10% of this group (Ornstein, 1997). Two studies reported poor outcomes for the Latino public school population in the Toronto area (Brown, 1994; Drever, 1996). Brown's (1994) study found low academic achievement as a general characteristic for both Latin Americans and African Canadian students. Spanish-speaking students in the high schools who make up the Toronto District Board of Education were found to be under-represented in the advanced classes and achieving at a lower level compared to the overall student population and most other ethnic groups. In addition, Drever's (1996) study of the population of one Toronto high school showed how rapidly Latin American students become disengaged from school.

Table 1
Number of Latin American Children and Adolescents in Canada by Ethnic Origin and Age

Note: Special Tabulations from the 1996 Census of Canada prepared by Statistics Canada for the Department of Canadian Heritage. The authors would like to thank Fernando Mata, Research Officer of the Multiculturalism Program, Department of Canadian Heritage for making these tables available for the study.

Table 2
Number of Latin American Children and Adolescents in Ontario by Ethnic Origin and Age

Note. Special Tabulations from the 1996 Census of Canada prepared by Statistics Canada for the Department of Canadian Heritage. The authors would like to thank Fernando Mata, Research Officer of the Multiculturalism Program, Department of Canadian Heritage for making these tables available for the study.

Many consider the academic difficulties of Latin American immigrants in general to be linked to a number of basic problems the communities face. Prominent among them are unemployment, housing, and relative poverty (Borjas & Tienda, 1985; Kazemipur & Halli, 1998). The effect of de-skilling and underemployment on parental morale should also be considered; such difficulties have a strong linguistic component besides the class component. The assimilative pressures toward abolishing Spanish as a language of the home must be taken into account. In short, the functionality and integrity of the families is threatened in a number of ways.

To shed light on the phenomenon described, several studies have been conducted in Canada among Latin Americans. The experiences of immigrant and refugee Latin American women living in Canada have been examined in several situations (Damaris, Carrasco, & Charbonneau, 1998; Israelite & Herman, 1999; Rockhill & Tomic, 1992; Rublee & Shaw, 1991). Research has also focused on the range of problems that Salvadoran refugees face as they migrate to Canada (Durst & Lange, 1999; Jacob, 1994). Taking a different perspective, Carrillos and Simmons (1999) investigated the identity politics of Latin American youth in Toronto.

The present study grows out of our earlier work with the Latino population. One of our earlier studies (Bernhard, Lefebvre, Chud, & Lange, 1996; Bernhard, Lefebvre, Murphy Kilbride, Chud, & Lange, 1998) incorporating various immigrant communities, viewed the language socialization of children and highlighted how the early childhood educational system operates under an assimilative approach, contributing to the eventual loss of children's home language. A second study, conducted with Latin American parents, indicated that elementary school-age children tended to lose their mother tongue during the "normal processes" of institutional functioning of the Canadian schools (Bernhard, Freire, Torres, & Nirdosh, 1998). The issue of additive bilingualism has been researched for a number of years in Canada (Cummins, 1993; Genessee, 1983, 1987; Harley, Hart, & Lapkin, 1986; Ianco-Worrall, 1972; Lambert & Tucker, 1972; Swain & Lapkin, 1982). Cummins (1991, 1993, 1995) and others have pointed out the rarity of additive as opposed to subtractive outcomes. In simple terms, a number of minority language communities are likely, within a generation, to have no young adult speakers of the language. In order to better understand this phenomenon, this study focused on the lived experiences of Latin American parents raising their school-age children in their mother tongue. Here, we report on the home language practices of 45 families and how the schools' institutional processes influenced these practices.

We recognize that Latin Americans in Canada, not unlike Latin Americans in other parts of the world, are a diverse demographic and sociocultural population (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 1993). Therefore, the views of the parents participating in this study are not to be generalized, and claims about Latin American parents as a homogeneous group cannot be made. Further, the situation of the parents participating in this study should not be viewed as though culture alone can adequately explain the circumstances and lived experiences of participants. Interactions of race, class, and gender affected the situations of the mothers, who came from various educational, socio- economic, political, and professional backgrounds that influenced how they engaged their role as immigrants and newcomers to this society.

Theoretical Framework

Power relations shape language practices between families and schools and the roles that families, groups, and institutions play in the process of first and second language acquisition. Following Michel Foucault (1972), power is not "held" in the hands of an elite; our analysis focuses on the micro-organization of daily practices and on the assumptions of dominant discourses including social and educational theory (Foucault, 1972; Gramsci, 1998; Smith, 1990; Walkerdine, 1990). Parents' practices, often seen as ineffective or characterized as passive, are the common result of present institutional practices. As has been pointed out by several investigators, these practices illustrate the connections between power and knowledge and, in particular, serve to maintain the power differences of groups in our society. The knowledge required in school systems, including an understanding of how the systems themselves operate, reflects the present network of power relations.

According to Bourdieu (1994), the dominant structures of society, especially its educational institutions, determine the role of the school in maintaining the school culture and represent an essential element for acquiring and maintaining social power relations. Besides content, the manner in which subjects are taught has differential effects on the children of those in dominant and subordinate positions. The children of those in the dominant groups are given skills recognized as "capital," or those beliefs, skills, and abilities necessary to achieve success as defined by the dominant society. Hence, those who pass through the educational system acquire differing amounts and kinds of capital reflecting the existing power relations. Thus, it is clear that all groups have some form of capital enabling them to maintain themselves in human society, and it may be said that certain kinds of capital are devalued or ignored in the functioning of the dominant institutions. Specifically, the cultural capital of both minority families and those of the working class (Lareau, 1989) are generally devalued at schools, with the minority disadvantage being multiplicative with other disadvantages. The consequences of the situation described are high drop-out rates and other academic problems already described.

We do not consider language maintenance as an isolated issue. Rather, language maintenance is considered within the broader framework of social, political, and ideological factors, particularly when analyzing the situation of culturally diverse students at schools (Corson, 1993, 1994, 1995; Cummins, 1995, 1996, 1997; Macedo, 1997; Nieto, 1996, 1999). Language operates as one of the most important practices within our society wherein cultural production and reproduction take place (Corson, 1998; Darder, 1991). The vitality of a language indicates how well a group is maintaining itself in society.

A number of studies have investigated language issues throughout the discourse of power relations (Corson, 1995, 1998; Cummins, 1995, 1996, 1997; Bernhard, Freire, Torres, & Nirdosh, 1998; Schecter & Bayley, 1998; Soto, 1997; Walsh, 1991; Zentella, 1997). Cummins (1996) argues that teachers' attitudes and behavior toward the language and culture of students largely affect how students perceive their own background. Students are empowered or disempowered as they interact with educators. Their interactions are mediated by the role that teachers assume in relation to language incorporation, community participation, pedagogy, and assessment. Teachers may unwittingly contribute to students' feelings of shame about their cultural and linguistic background.

Research findings have extensively documented both the positive impact of bilingualism and biculturalism among culturally diverse students as well as the negative consequences that often result from language assimilation (Cummins, 1996; Wong Fillmore, 1991a, 1991b). Yet, bilingualism and biculturalism are still very rare in our society. The present study explores home language practices and experiences of a group of Latin American parents facing enormous pressures in their decisions about their children's language. In particular, we look at parents' reactions to assimilative pressures and interactions with school personnel, as viewed by the parents, and we take into account such variables as the use of the mother tongue in the home.

Methodology

This study is part of an extensive research program on Latin American immigrant children and their teachers and families (Bernhard & Freire, 1999; Bernhard, Freire, Pacini-Ketchabaw, & Villanueva, 1998; Bernhard, Freire, & Pacini-Ketchabaw, 2000). The families who are highlighted in this article were part of a two-stage ethnographic study of how 45 Latin American families support their children's efforts to adapt to the Canadian educational system. Because of the authors' familiarity with the language and culture, it was our intention to use what has been called "action research" (Lather, 1986) and participant observation methods, as described in the following section.

Stage One: Exploratory Study

In Stage One we assessed the context of the educational system in one particular school and developed an in-depth understanding of all the actors involved (i.e., children, teachers, support staff, principal, vice-principal, families). The school was chosen because of its proximity to the homes of Latin American refugees and the principal's reputation for being responsive to family needs. During three school terms of five months each, we immersed ourselves as participant observers in three classrooms to study the day-to-day practices of the classroom with a particular focus on the Latin American children. We spent three half days in the school following the 10 Latin American children in two classes through their daily routine in academic and nonacademic activities, to recess, gym, special education classes, and the heritage language program (Spanish). We collected field notes and tape-recorded all interviews. We also talked formally and informally with school personnel and the children's families over a period of 18 months during 1996-1998. Our ethnographic method was based on a naturalistic, cultural contextual paradigm (Cole, 1992; Harkness & Super, 1996; LeVine, Dixon, LeVine, Richman, Leiderman, Keefer, & Brazelton, 1994). Bernhard and Freire (1999) give details of the methodology. In our findings, we identify several themes, which were addressed in the second phase and are reported here.

Stage Two: Confirmatory Study

In Stage Two, we involved an additional 35 families in the following manner. We contacted several agencies that offer services to the Latino community in the same Canadian city and asked for names of families with school-age children who had been in Canada for less than 10 years. We received the names of such families, contacted them, and informed them of the purpose of the study: to gain knowledge of children's learning and adaptation to the Canadian educational system. The third criterion for participation was that the family members had not been seen by mental health professionals and had not formally received services for psychoemotional problems, and none of them declined. Thus, five families were excluded leaving the sample at 35.

Procedure

After the initial telephone contact and selection, each family was interviewed on two occasions in Spanish at the family's home (each interview lasted 2-3 hours). After establishing rapport, background information was sought. Parents were then asked questions that had the same content as that described in Stage One of the family consultation. Additionally, parents were asked to show us documentation from the school, including report cards and other correspondence, and to explain their content. Behavioral observations were recorded after the interviews.

Table 3
Demographic and Family Characteristics of Mothers Interviewed

F=Father, M=Mother

Table 3, cont.
Demographic and Family Characteristics of Mothers Interviewed

Table 3, cont.
Demographic and Family Characteristics of Mothers Interviewed

Table 3, cont.
Demographic and Family Characteristics of Mothers Interviewed

Table 3, cont.
Demographic and Family Characteristics of Mothers Interviewed

The families lived in different parts of the city had immigrated to Canada in the last 10 years from Central or South America, and had children attending public schools in the Toronto area. Background characteristics of all the families are given in Table 3.

Because the selection criteria for the families in the two stages of the study were identical, and the exploratory findings were supported by the confirmatory study, all findings are reported together. The present paper reports the data gleaned from these extensive interviews. Although the families were recruited through "snowballing" referrals, the group essentially constitutes a sample of convenience.

Findings

Spanish Maintenance

Although the parents faced strong assimilative pressures, they viewed the raising of bilingual children as an important task and saw Spanish maintenance as a way to foster family unity, Latino identity, and professional advancement. The parents interviewed expressed a number of reasons for wanting their children to grow up knowing Spanish as well as English. First, knowing Spanish was seen as essential for maintaining contact with relatives and keeping links with their native culture. Mrs. Guzman, a mother of a 6-year-old daughter who emigrated with her husband from Colombia 10 years ago, said:

Mrs. Martinez, a Colombian mother of two children, ages 7 and 9, also recognized the value of Spanish for developing a sense of Latino identity.

Most of the parents spoke of the benefits of growing up bilingual. Mrs. Madeiros, a Salvadoran mother of three children, like the other mothers, envisioned greater professional opportunities as a result of having two languages:

These examples illustrate the parents' positive attitudes toward raising bilingual children and their satisfaction in seeing children become capable of communicating in both languages.

Strong Assimilative Pressures

Strong Assimilative Pressures experienced by parents often resulted in their doubting the wisdom of speaking Spanish at home. Although all the mothers favored the use of Spanish at home with their children, many of them perceived a number of threats in this practice. Some mothers routinely related suspicious comments about the negative role of Spanish use in children's English acquisition. Mrs. Valenzuela, who emigrated from Colombia nine years ago, recounted her experiences with her two sons:

Mrs. Guzman's experience also shows that the school did not attach any particular value to Spanish:

Although not all parents faced explicit disapproval regarding Spanish maintenance, they talked about the constant subtle messages they received from school personnel. The school psychologist diagnosed Mrs. Madeiros's son as having language and speech problems, and he was attending a special program offered by the school. Mrs. Madeiros was required to attend monthly meetings to discuss her son's progress with school personnel. In all the meetings, she heard school personnel discuss the possibility that her son's problem could be linked to the use of Spanish at home. During the research interviews, Mrs. Madeiros stated that after attending the meetings she doubted her decision to raise her children in her mother tongue:

Another example of the subtle messages parents perceived from schools devaluing bilingualism is Mrs. Martinez's case. She was a strong advocate of using Spanish at home. However, she questioned whether this practice would be detrimental to her children. While school personnel did not make remarks about the use of Spanish, neither did they actively encourage the use of the mother tongue at home. Mrs. Martinez felt that her two children's difficulty in reading and writing could be due to her not speaking English:

In Mrs. Martinez's case, the teacher had not explicitly advised her to switch to English in the home, but her acceptance of her child's Spanish language ability was passive; she paid no attention to that language in the class. This message gave Mrs. Martinez the impression that her children would benefit if she would speak better English.

Some parents also felt bombarded with outside assimilative pressures. Mrs. Rodriguez, a Guatemalan mother of one, was very aware of constant messages from the dominant society suggesting that maintaining a sense of Latin American identity was negatively perceived:

Parents' intentions and desires to maintain their mother tongue and their Latino identity became overwhelmingly difficult as they got little encouragement from dominant institutions. For some of these mothers, their feelings of insecurity, and sometimes guilt, led them to abandon the use of their mother tongue with their children resulting in the loss of Spanish. Mrs. Madeiros's children, like other children, were able to understand only some Spanish words and tended to speak more English than Spanish:

Mrs. Guzman, a mother of two who emigrated from Ecuador, also mentioned how hard it was to influence the children to appreciate the value of Spanish:

Although all parents expected their children to be bilingual in Spanish, many of them observed that their children slowly became more and more assimilated to the dominant culture and language. Neither the schools nor society at large helped to encourage parents' desires regarding bilingualism and biculturalism.

Parental Strategies

As illustrated in the above section, bilingualism and biculturalism were not easy to attain for these mothers. They named several strategies they commonly used in order to challenge the messages surrounding them:

Making their voices heard at home and school

Mrs. Ballesteros, a Cuban mother of three, provided an example of how she encountered the situation of bilingualism at home:

Mrs. Valuenzuela, on the other hand, as an attempt to ensure her two sons did not assimilate too rapidly to the dominant culture, challenged the resistance she encountered at school:

This mother took the courage to stand up to the authority of the teacher and made her case heard. However, this situation may not be possible in all cases. Parents often feel that is not their position to make their views known to teachers as they initially view them as authority figures.

Participation in heritage language programs

Many parents encouraged children to participate in heritage programs and found it important to challenge the obstacles they identified. Although the school board often provided heritage language programs, the parents participating in the study had to pay to send their children to Spanish school. Mrs. Martinez explained her reasons for sending her children to Spanish classes and how rewarding this has been for her as a mother. She felt that she could help her children with homework, as she was fluent in the language of instruction:

Visiting relatives in their country of origin

Maintaining contact with extended family was another strategy used by some parents trying to encourage their children to maintain the language. Mrs. Rivas, a Honduran mother of two, explained:

Providing resources at home

Some parents believed that it was important to provide as many resources as possible at home in order to maintain and strengthen the links with the language:

Talking to children in Spanish

Other mothers mentioned that using Spanish in parent-child interactions was important for teaching the language. Mrs. Ovando, a Chilean mother of a 9-year-old boy, mentioned:

Having friends who speak Spanish

Mrs. Pulido, who emigrated from Perú where she was a teacher, felt that developing friendships with other Latin Americans would help her children to be fluent in Spanish:

It is important to note that often parents' behaviors did not make a difference. As we saw in the previous section, many of the children were slowly losing their first language. However, we should understand that parents were very concerned about the issue and tried their best to maintain their children's Latin American cultural and linguistic identities:

The example above shows the importance of community support and how difficult it became for parents participating in the study when support was not present. Unfortunately, the isolated efforts that parents made were not taking them far enough. Societal and school supports are essential for bilingualism and biculturalism. Home support appears to be just one aspect of bilingualism.

The many strategies and efforts used to maintain the Latin American identity show the importance and value these parents assigned to the maintenance of their mother tongue. Although their efforts were not totally successful in the end, these mothers felt that pursuing them was an important task for the betterment of their children.

Specific Changes in the Schools

Parents participating in the study provided examples of what they envisioned for a multilingual and multicultural society. Mrs. Valuenzuela dreamed of schools actively encouraging and promoting the establishment of heritage language programs:

Mrs. Mendoza, a single mother from El Salvador, also expressed the desire that schools participate in the promotion of Spanish among students:

Further, Mrs. Pulido talked about the crucial role that Spanish should play in Canadian society:

As minority-language members of Canadian society, these parents were aware of the need to support their children to function in English. However, they prized their own cultural and linguistic backgrounds and wished to transmit their ethnic pride to their children. In order to attain these goals, schools must undergo democratic transformations, some of which are indicated in our recommendations below.

Discussion

While the phenomenon of assimilation has been widely discussed, detailed investigations of the experiences of those being assimilated are less common. Structural models have been proposed that help to understand, at a macro level, how minorities are disadvantaged in the educational system (Cummins, 1996; Darder, 1991; Ogbu, 1978). Our data, however, are intended to illustrate the personal impacts of such assimilative structures on the Latino children's educational experiences and illustrate the micro-processes constitutive of power. We have shown how both the child and family's cultural capital has little impact on the educational system in which they find themselves. Knowledge of the outcomes of routine and institutional actions as experienced by families is necessary in order to be in a position to help educators and families improve their relationships. Through fuller understanding of families' experiences, educators would be able to build on and recognize the families' cultural capital including their home language (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992). It is an assumption of our analysis that the teachers themselves are generally without ill intent or conscious bias. Hence, when the effects of existing routines are understood, beneficial change is possible. The parents, likewise, are assumed to be willing and capable of departing from their present position of powerlessness, given an improved understanding of the situation and political activity.

Even if we believed in the inevitability of assimilation, we think the psychological and educational price paid by minority students could be reduced. Our preferred route is toward bilingualism in the educational process. While we will not reiterate the earlier findings of benefits of bilingualism here (see Cummins, 1996; Wong Fillmore, 1991a, 1991b), we endorse a variety of bilingual approaches suited to particular contexts in order to enhance students' educational outcomes and Latino families' life in general. Given that we wish to reach appropriate bilingual outcomes, the present data are useful in indicating obstacles and impediments to these goals. Our earlier studies have found evidence that educators and teachers are often unaware that seemingly well-intentioned practices and procedures have often led to poor outcomes, not only loss of language but also impaired educational achievement and damage to career prospects. It is important for educators and teachers to understand the seemingly impersonal processes by which the cultural capital of minority students is modified or rendered irrelevant. Although our data do not indicate the problem that parents strongly believe in assimilation, we believe that those designing a bilingual program should expect to encounter resistance from certain parents and that resistance is not simply a problem to be over ridden. A bilingual program must honor the various sensitivities of families who choose to be involved or who choose not to be involved.

It is worth noting that although Latinos in the United States have been investigated extensively in view of their substantial population (e.g., Schecter & Bayley, 1998; Soto, 1993, 1997; Walsh, 1991; Zentella, 1997), significantly fewer research efforts have been directed toward the situation of the relatively smaller Latino population in Canada. Yet, as we stated earlier, the numbers are large enough to warrant attention, and there is reason to expect an increased percentage of Latinos in the school population. It is probable that some of our findings about doubts or demoralization of the parents reflect the fact that they are a much smaller minority in Canada than in the United States and that the Latino community is relatively fragmented. In another Canadian study, investigators looked at ways in which networking among parents can be encouraged (Bernhard, Freire, Pacini-Ketchabaw, & Villanueva, 1998). We believe that schools can do much to facilitate the formation, operation, and effectiveness of such networks.

Because of the small size of our Canadian sample and the methods by which it was drawn, the above results cannot necessarily be generalized to other Latino populations. The findings are intended to be a basis for preliminary hypotheses to be tested in more extensive investigations. In particular, since Latinos are found in a number of major Canadian cities, an attempt to picture the situation necessarily involves multi-site investigations of various cities and of particular neighborhoods. We educators can do much to improve how our schools are functioning, to recognize the experiences of families and build upon their cultural capital. It is our hope that through deeper understanding, the diverse structural mosaic of Canadian society can be strengthened.

Recommendations

1. School personnel would do well to familiarize themselves with the findings of the present research and other investigators on the subject of bilingualism and its possible benefits.

2. Parents would benefit if school personnel were to have a greater understanding of bilingual issues and to successfully communicate to families the benefits of bilingualism as well the value of maintaining home culture and language.

3. Parents, through their school councils, can encourage teachers to take a proactive attitude toward children's languages by organizing projects focused on home languages, acknowledging children's linguistic accomplishments, learning some of their children's languages, and generally taking a proactive stance toward working with parents to maintain minority languages (e.g., Edwards, 1996, 1998).

4. Parents would do well to form groups that meet outside the schools in which problems can be shared and common approaches can be developed. Based on their participation in such groups, parents can do more to communicate their views about home language maintenance to school personnel. A goal of parents' groups and parent organizations should be to give the families hope for achieving their goals and a belief that interactions with school personnel can be successful.

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Authors' Note

Funding for the project described has been generously provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and by Ryerson University. Special thanks to all the children, families, and teachers for their participation in the study. We gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of our colleagues Jim Cummins and David Corson. Special thanks to Fernando Mata, research officer of the Multiculturalism Program, and the Department of Canadian Heritage for support with census tables. Canadian statistics information is used with the permission of Statistics Canada. Users are forbidden to copy the data and redisseminate them, in an original or modified form, for commercial purposes, without the expressed permission of Statistics Canada. Information on the availability of the wide range of data from Statistics Canada can be obtained from Statistics Canada's Regional Offices, on its Web site at http://www.statcan.ca, or its toll-free number 1-800-263-1136.