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WHY DON'T THEY LEARN ENGLISH? SEPARATING FACT FROM FALLACY IN THE U.S. LANGUAGE DEBATE
by Lucy Tse.
New York: Teachers College Press, 2001. 120 pp. $42.00, $18.95 (paper).
In Why Don't They Learn English? Separating Fact from Fallacy in the U.S. Language Debate, Lucy Tse provides an account of the state of English and immigrant home languages in the United States. She challenges the notion that immigrants do not learn English and instead cling to and perpetuate the use of their home, or heritage, language across multiple generations. These perceptions, which Tse says are held by the general public and reflected and perpetuated by the media and policymakers, have influenced current policies on the teaching and learning of English for immigrants. However, citing the most recent research in the fields of second language acquisition and immigrant studies, Tse points out the disparities between these public perceptions and the actual state of English-language learning and use of heritage languages. She debunks existing myths and provides an alternative frame for both policymakers and practitioners in thinking about immigrant language education and policy in the United States today.
In chapter one, Tse outlines how public perceptions of immigrant language use have shaped current language restriction policies. She looks at proposed constitutional amendments that have come before the U.S. Congress in the past twenty years, which would require the elimination of the use of any language other than English in arenas such as governmental business, social services, and education. Tse examines speeches by congressional leaders and newspaper opinion articles to identify the arguments used to support these official English-language constitutional amendments specifically, and the English-only movement in general. These speeches and articles often include claims that immigrants resist learning English once they are in the United States. Further, these documents often include anti-bilingual education rhetoric that characterizes bilingual education programs as ineffective at best at teaching immigrant children English, and more often painting these programs as a means by which immigrants are insulated from having to learn English. In fact, bilingual education programs and services are often perceived by the general public as doing little to teach English and promote the assimilation of immigrants, which many view as vital to national security. Tse writes that "public...