Bilingual/Bilingue Research Paper Bilingual/Bilingue by

BILINGUAL/BILINGUE Research Paper Bilingual/Bilingue by Rhina Espaillat is a depiction of a girl growing up in a Spanish speaking household in the United States. Through excellent language choices and the successful use of literary devices, Espaillat captures the difficulties of living in an English speaking country but coming from a Spanish speaking home. The story, which relates to the author's own personal experience as a girl from the Dominican Republic growing up in the United States, relates many of the difficulties she face linguistically in a new country.

The primary difficulty articulated is her father's resistance to her intentions to learn English and making her speak Spanish at home. The reasons are highly personal, but do not hinder her development as an English speaker nor her love for her father. Research on the issue of bilingual children and their experience learning a second language is very consistent with Bilingual/Bilingue, as it should be Espaillat knows from personal experience the difficulties languages can cause.

Ultimately Bilingual/Bilingue is a personal account of the realities of bilingualism, and how it is possible to overcome language and cultural barriers to learn a second language. Bilingual/Bilingue reflects the possible difficulties encountered by learning a second language. In the poem, the girl is restricted from speaking English in her own home as her father only speaks Spanish.

"English outside this door, Spanish inside," he tells her reflecting his desire for her to speak Spanish in the home and his fear that his daughter's learning of English will drive him apart from her. It is out of this fear that he resists English in the household, but his daughter, who studies English extensively in and outside of the house on her own, comes to become more than proficient in English.

She realizes what her father does not, that language is not a divisive force, and that she can express herself fully in English, her second language. Thus Espaillat is writing on the success people can achieve in learning and living in the United States as a bilingual individual. Language will not divide her from her father, and she can become a successful English poet growing up in a Spanish household. The cultural and linguistic challenges she faced she was able to overcome.

Espaillat's perspective on the issue of bilingualism individually and as a society is backed up by both empirical and qualitative research. In fact, although Espaillat's childhood experience was many years ago in the 1930s, issues she faced and issues she overcame are relevant to this day. For instance, a 2007 study on bilingual Latino and Latina adolescents evaluated the role of the Spanish language and bilingualism for both gifted and non-gifted students (Shaunessy et all 2007).

This study found that for these bilingual students, regardless of level of academic achievement, that Spanish was their native language. This is consistent with Espaillat's poem in which Spanish in his her native language as a little girl. Also, the students in the study "shared that they spoke Spanish at home and in the community," which suggests that even today Spanish is spoken in the home of native Spanish speakers living in the United States (Shaunessy et. all 2007).

Furthermore, this study found that bilingual students in the United States took "pride in being bilingual," and in a similar way Espaillait does not want to give up her Spanish roots while embracing English (Shaunessy et. all 2007). In considering the real world realities of bilingual students in today's society, those expressed in Bilingual/Bilingue are accurate. Furthermore, in Bilingual/Bilingue the chance to learn a second language and learn it well is not only accepted, but the girl grabs hold and maximizes her opportunity.

She studied "stubborn" and "late in bed" until her English ability "learned to run," which is all a reflection on her dedication, desire, and ability to learn English as a second language despite living in a Spanish speaking household (Espaillat). This holds true to the experiences of Latinos in the United States. One such study on Dominican Americans illustrates this concept.

According to the study, Latinos have "empowering stances toward becoming multilingual and multicultural," which means that there is an inherent desire to become part of the native culture, which in this case is American and the language is English (Pacheco et. all 2006). Other research also indicates the eagerness of students from a Spanish speaking home to learn English.

However, there is a conflicting argument to the views expressed in Bilingual/Bilingue and that is that Latino families which adapt English in the household will offer the child a better opportunity to learn English. For instance, there is a detriment that equates to "potentially negative effects of Latino families' (linguistic) practices on their children's futures" (Pacheco et. all 2006). In more recent years this means the insistence to learn in Spanish while in school, which was not a real threat to Espaillat when she was growing up.

However, this does reflect that a restrictive attitude towards the learning of English within a Latino family does restrict a child's ability to learn English and subsequently have a good future in the English speaking country. While Espaillat is able to successfully overcome the hindrance of her family on her learning English, this may not always be the case and her instance in which she becomes a proficient writer of the English language is certainly an exception.

Therefore Espaillat's poem should be taken as personal instance and as a personal case, and not as the norm or preferred attitude towards English speaking that Latino families should assume. Furthermore, recent developments have led towards acceptance of bilingualism, and perhaps to foster not only English learning but Spanish learning as well. In the case of psychological help, for example, "cultural considerations for Latina/o children" must be considered and this includes bilingual abilities (Villalba 2007).

This certainly differs from the notion presented in Bilingual/Bilingue in which it is noted that English is the primary language outside the house. However, now Spanish much more accepted and not only is treatment given in a person's native language, but even classes are taught to Spanish children in their native language. While it cannot be fully argued whether this is a good or a bad thing without a strong evaluation of data, surely Espaillat would disagree with this notion.

While speaking Spanish inside the house did not limit her, surely her English would have been curtailed if she was able to speak Spanish outside the home as well. This is an important point that must be taken into consideration as it seems that those who are in support of bilingual education ignore aspects taken into consideration by Espaillat.

The argument that supports such views that not allowing for bilingual education is a "one size fits all model" is as follows: "As literacy educators in a multicultural and multilingual society, our pedagogies must continually strive toward the goals of freedom and democracy, and encourage the study of the worldviews, discourse practices, and histories of all groups and their contributions to our society for the common good of humanity" (Language Arts 2006).

While it is of course beneficial to teach multiculturalism, the application of one culture to language, as suggested by Espaillat is a tricky subject, but one in which a student should be encourage to speak the native language. For example, Espaillat cherished the opportunity to speak English, but if she was put into a bilingual classroom and given instruction in Spanish, not only would she be limited in her linguistic expression at home, but in education as well.

As a result, it should be noted that Espaillat would be opposed to this primary issue that is a subject to much scrutiny in today's multicultural world as she yearned for the opportunity to learn English and became more successful because of it. That is not to say that the native language, in this case Spanish, is thrown out and not important to the student's identity.

Espaillat shows her relationship to Spanish and how it is still part of her identity through her work in which selected Spanish words help to illustrate her point. She includes Spanish as it is still part of her culture, and she is not alone in this acceptance of a Spanish language identity even though she has learned English. For example, another bilingual poet, Gustavo P?rez Firmat's speaks directly on the issue of bilingualism through his work "Bilingual Blues" (Cox 2007).

In his work, Spanish language is still part of his identity and he uses "not only languages but also imagery and intertextual reference" to make his points on the important issue of bilingualism (Cox 2007). Thus Espaillat is not alone; her views are not shared from a vacuumed, but rather are reflective of the Spanish culture in America and bilingualism as a whole.

This adds extra value to her personal work, and means that Bilingual/Bilingue is not only the story of one girl, but the story of an identity, a culture, and a common problem that has been facing recent immigrants in the United States for many years. Lastly, the more personal issue discussed in Bilingual/Bilingue should be evaluated, and that is the relationship between the girl's father and a second language.

This is a primary focus of the work as her father resists the English language and he is unable to accept it within his household. This seems to confuse the girl in the poem, yet it does not disturb her. She understands that it is her father who fails to understand both her love for English and undying love for her father.

This is consistent with a recent psychological study entitled, "Effects of Language Usage on the Emotional Experience of Spanish-English and English-Spanish Bilinguals" in which bilingualism does not appear to hinder the emotional experience of those children who are bilingual (Guttfreund 1990). Nevertheless, bilingualism is a personal experience and the relationships involved with language differences vary from person to person and there is no way to fit all experiences with Spanish and English into one category.

Thus ultimately Espaillat's work could be considered as possibly the norm, but not the only reaction for a child growing up in America in a Spanish speaking household. Bilingual/Bilingue touches on many aspects of bilingualism in America and almost all are relevant today over sixty years after Espaillat experienced a bilingual.