"The existing investigations of Spanish-language maintenance among Chicano speakers in the Southwest offer evidence of a process of language shift from Spanish to the dominant societal language, English. The existing literature shows a relationship between such a shift and the factors of the speakers’ age and generation, with younger [respondents] and successive generations of speakers within the same families showing decreasing maintenance of Spanish."
--Mary Beth Floyd, Oakland (California) School District
Spanish in the Southwest: Language Maintenance or Shift?1
| Purpose of Bilingual Education Programs | |
| "In your opinion, what ought to be the purpose of bilingual education programs in the public school system: To make sure that students learn English well, or to teach immigrant children in their native language so they don’t fall behind in other matters?" | |
| Learn English well | 68.2% |
| Teach in native language | 25.9% |
| Don’t know/refused | 5.8% |
| The Latino Coalition, 2002 National Hispanic Survey6 | |
"What is undoubtedly the most highly debated and manipulated issue is the level of acculturation and language use of Hispanics. This has been a constant source of debate and contention given that, since its origins, the dominant view in the Hispanic marketing industry is that Hispanics speak Spanish and thus Hispanics respond, understand, and connect more efficiently to messages that are transmitted in 'their language.' … The irony that remains unstated is that such language purity is an unattainable goal in the world of advertising, where U.S. products are being advertised and where product names – all in English – necessarily fill the airwaves with English names and Spanglish phrases.
--Arlene Davila
Latinos Inc.: The Marketing and Making of a People
| Barriers to Success | |
| "What do you consider to be the greatest barrier that keeps Latinos from succeeding in the United States?" (Open question) |
