Acceso usuarios
Sharon Chang
As a contested space for immigration and globalization, U.S.-Chinese bilingual education has created a dialectical relationship between assimilation and internationalization. In 1984, Ruíz offered a tripartite language planning orientation through which minoritized languages (e.g. Cantonese and Mandarin) were re-envisioned as resources. Coupled with Norton’s investment theory, language-as-resource illustrates the ways that language learners reposition their social identity and cultural capital while participating in reimagined communities shaped by raciolinguistic ideologies. Using language-as-resource as a unit of analysis, this qualitative case study on the documentary Speaking in Tongues by Jarmel and Schneider scrutinizes students’ Chinese bilingual learning experiences in San Francisco and community members’ viewpoints. The findings suggest that the principles of language-as-resource orientation was present in Cantonese and Mandarin dual-language programs. Although this documentary predates the sunsetting of the Lau Consent Decree in the San Francisco Unified School District, its presentation of conflicting views on bilingualism remain relevant in California and other states and nations. The implications of moving from compliance to capacity building to serving Chinese immigrant communities are discussed. This study recommends an infusion of the language equal-status principle into dual-language programs to increase the Asian American community’s access to bilingual education.
