Gender and Ethnicity as Factors in the Development of Verbal Skills in Bilingual Mexican American Women

Abstract

This study describes and analyzes differences in student output across ethnicity and gender in a mixed monolingual English and bilingual Spanish/English class in order to understand how L2 oral language skills are developed in a mixed classroom. Primary participants in the study included approximately 30 basic writing students ranging in age from 18 to 60. Fifty-five percent of the students were bilingual Mexican American, and the remainder were monolingual Anglo Americans. Participant observation, informal interviews, and audiotape classroom and tutorial interaction provide the data for this classroom ethnography. Data were analyzed to discover patterns of student output in various interfactional contexts and to discover how the structure and content of interaction influenced these patterns. The analysis revealed that bilingual Mexican American students spoke significantly less in whole class interaction than monolingual Anglo American students. Moreover, an analysis by gender revealed that Mexican American men contributed four times the amount expected, whereas Mexican American women spoke half as much as expected. In other interfactional contexts, however, the bilingual women were quite verbal. The social status of Mexican American women as "double minorities" and negative attitudes toward Spanish/ English bilingual help explain why the Mexican American women alone responded to whole class interaction with silence.

South Asian students’ Chinese language learning in Hong Kong: motivations and strategies

“…It includes those 'actions, behaviours, steps or techniques students use, often unconsciously, to improve their progress in apprehending, internalising, and using the L2' (Oxford 1990, 1). There is a growing recognition that language learning is a more complex process than merely acquiring linguistic structures, and that language learning and use are shaped by sociocultural processes (Hall 1995;Losey 1995;McKay and Wong 1996;Zuengler 1989). Central to these language learning strategies are all of the surrounding sociocultural processes such as racial or ethnic sensibility occurring through everyday life (Thomas and Collier 1997).…”

New directions in the study of multilingualism, second language learning, and gender

“…Moreover, as demonstrated by Heller (1999) and Losey (1995), even when immigrant and minority women do access the classroom, they may get significantly less classroom interaction time than either minority men or majority men and women. Losey's (1995) study of classroom participation patterns of American and Mexican-American students in a community college classroom persuasively demonstrated that Mexican-American women were doubly marginalized in the class, both as ethnic minority members and as women, and thus prevented from taking their turns, expressing themselves, and interacting in the target language.…”

“…Losey's (1995) study of classroom participation patterns of American and Mexican-American students in a community college classroom persuasively demonstrated that Mexican-American women were doubly marginalized in the class, both as ethnic minority members and as women, and thus prevented from taking their turns, expressing themselves, and interacting in the target language. Similarly, Heller (1999) shows that older immigrant girls are the ones who are alienated most in a French-language high school in Toronto, Ontario, and have least access to its linguistic resources, in particular, English.…”

“…Numerous studies demonstrate that in some minority and immigrant communities, where second language skills are highly valued and associated with social and economic benefits, men have privileged access to this symbolic capital, while women are prevented from learning and using the language by a number of gatekeeping practices which restrict women's mobility, access to majority language education, and the workplace (Goldstein 1995;Harvey 1994;Hill 1987;Holmes 1993;Kouritzin 2000;Loftin 1996;Losey Brought to you by | University of Iowa Libraries Authenticated Download Date | 6/20/15 3:55 PM 1995; Spedding 1994;Stevens 1986;Swigart 1992; see also chapters by Blackledge, Ehrlich, Goldstein, Heller, and Teutsch-Dwyer).…”

Learning Korean language in China: motivations and strategies of non-Koreans

“…A significant number of scholars highlight the importance of individual learners, their motivation, and sociocultural context (Brown 2000(Brown , 2001Cummins 1988;O'Malley and Chamot 1990;Oxford 1990;Thomas and Collier 1997). The rise of sociolinguistic and contextual approaches in second language research over the past decade reflects a growing recognition that learning language is a more complex process than merely acquiring linguistic structures, and that language learning and use are shaped by sociocultural process (Hall 1995;Losey 1995;McKay and Wong 1996;Zuengler 1989). According to the Prism Model produced by Thomas and Collier (1997), central to that student's acquisition of language are all of the surrounding sociocultural processes such as racial or ethnical sensibility occurring through everyday life.…”