August 24, 2006
Memo From Mexico,
By
Allan Wall
Learning English
Here And There
English language instruction is a big business in
Mexico because many Mexicans want to learn English.
There are private institutes here
that provide English instruction, there are
private tutors that teach it, there are
English-language books and magazines available in many
stores.
Practically all families in the
Mexican
middle and upper classes send their children to
private schools. In these private schools, in which I
have worked for years, English and computer science are the most
sought-after subjects by the tuition-paying parents.
Some
private schools here have some very intensive
English programs, a few even offer more hours in English
than in Spanish.
It’s not much of an exaggeration to
say that any native English-speaker with a body
temperature above room temperature could make some money
here as an English instructor.
It
might actually be easier for Mexicans to study English
here in Mexico than in the U.S.A. More and
more and more Mexicans in the U.S.
aren’t learning English.
Why
should they? There are growing
Spanish-speaking enclaves throughout the world’s
largest
English-speaking country. In these enclaves,
English is not necessary.
I have
a Mexican friend who visits the U.S. frequently. He says
he would like to practice English, but when he goes to
LA everybody he’s with speaks Spanish.
Mexican immigrants can
speak Spanish on their jobs,
Spanish at the store, and go home and watch
Univision or another
Spanish-speaking network.
Our politicians (of
both parties) cater to U.S. citizens in the
Spanish language. Even the
National Rifle Association has opened up a
Spanish-language website.
It used to be that just about every
young Mexican sent to study English abroad went to the
United States. But now a growing percentage study in
Canada instead. Several years ago, I heard a
representative of a Canadian English program speaking to
students. She told them it was better to study
English in Canada, because in the U.S. so many
people speak Spanish and it’s an official language of
the country. Not too far from the truth, actually.
A prime exhibit of America's
linguistic problem is the dispute this past school year
in California, over the
high school exit exam.
In order to graduate high school,
California students were required to pass the CAHSEE
(California High School Exit Exam) by scoring higher
than 55 percent on an 8th-grade math exam and
60 percent on a 10th-grade English exam.
But by the end of the school year,
there were still about 46,000 college seniors who hadn't
been able to pass it. They were non-native speakers of
English who still didn’t have a high enough level of
English proficiency. (So what were they being taught
in?)
Naturally, this resulted in a
lawsuit against the school system, brought by
students who had failed.
When I was in high school, I can’t
recall any of my colleagues even considering a lawsuit
against the school because they failed an exam.
Mainstream press news articles
about the case were quite predictable, painting the poor
students who failed as victims.
In May, a meddling California judge
ruled against the exam. [Judges
ruling blocks exit exam, Nanette Asimov and Bob
Egelko San Francisco Chronicle May 12th, 2006] but by
the end of the month, the California Supreme court had
upheld it.
So a journalist got to write a
tear-jerker article about students who didn’t get a
diploma because
they didn’t pass the exit exam. [For
some, exit exam taints rite of passage By
Shirley Dang Contra Costa Times, June 09, 2006]
Kudos to California State
Superintendent of Public Instruction
Jack O’Connell, the hero of this saga. As a state
senator O’Donnell wrote the exit exam law. Later, as
state superintendent he fought all along to maintain the
exit exam, to retain some kind of standard in California
education.
http://www.cde.ca. xygov/eo/ Drop him a line
communications@cde.ca.gov and let him know you
appreciate it.
This attack on a simple exit exam
is bad enough. But, even worse, one of the articles
revealed how the California test is conducted:
"Students who speak little English may have the test
directions read to them in their home language. They may
also use a hand-written glossary when taking the test,
but only if there is no explanation of the English word
beyond its exact translation. And they may take all day
to finish." [Exit
exam a test of determination | Language barrier
adds unfair burden, critics say of requirement, By
Nanette Asimov, San Francisco Chronicle, February
27, 2006]
So despite the fact that they are
given instructions in Spanish (and
other languages), despite the fact that they have
all day to complete the exam, despite the fact that they
get to have their own hand-written glossary (in my day
we called that a "cheat sheet"), there were still
46,000 who failed!
I teach English in Mexico, and I
don’t run my classes like that. In my classes, I speak
English. I don’t recognize Spanish in my class. If a
student speaks to me in Spanish, I answer "What?"
To further strengthen the Anglo
ambience I anglicize my students’ names. Carlos becomes
Charles, Alejandra becomes Alexandra, Pedro becomes
Peter, Maria becomes Mary, Raul become Ralph, etc.
Other names, such as Andrea and
Hector, are spelled the same in both languages, but
pronounced a little differently. In my classes, I
pronounce them as we pronounce them in English.
My students understand that Mr.
Wall’s class is an English-Only zone. And they get into
it. They’re being challenged to learn.
It becomes like a game. On
occasions, a non-English speaking
school employee has entered the classroom on some
kind of school business. My students have yelled to him
"In English!"
When I listen to a student
struggling to tell me something in English – something
he can’t quite verbalize but is making the effort to –
then I know he is acquiring English.
I figure if you want them to learn
English, get serious about them hearing and practicing
English. Don’t coddle them with the bilingual stuff.
It’s better linguistically. If you
really want to acquire a language, don’t translate –
think in the target language.
When I teach vocabulary I demand
real definitions. If I ask
"What is the definition of the word house?" and
a student answers "casa"
– that’s a wrong answer.
The word "casa" is a Spanish
translation of house, it is not a definition. A
definition would be "a structure in which people
live" or something like that.
Yet in California, they allow
students taking the exit exam to use a Spanish-English
glossary! And they still fail!
They’d be better off studying
English in Mexico. They might learn more.
As a nation, what can the U.S. do
about this?
Obviously, the first thing to do is
cut immigration. We are just taking in
too many immigrants to assimilate. When they’re not
learning English, they’re not assimilating.
English has been the language of
America since John Smith got off the boat
at Jamestown 399 years ago. If we ever cease to be
English-speaking,
we won’t be the same nation.
Why should U.S. taxpayers have to
pay for immigrants and their children to learn English?
Along with reducing immigration
levels, we should put the
burden of knowing English on the immigrant. Passing
an English exam ought to be a requirement for all future
immigrants – or at least heads of families.
Foreign university students, after
all, are
compelled to pass the TOEFL exam before studying
at American universities.
How about an English test for all
prospective immigrants?
Those who fail don’t get in.
That’d be a great
incentive. They could prepare for it by studying English
in
one of my classes in Mexico.American
citizen Allan Wall (email
him) resides in Mexico, with a
legal permit issued him by the Mexican government. Allan
recently returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the
Texas Army National Guard. His VDARE.COM articles are
archived
here; his FRONTPAGEMAG.COM
articles are archived
here his "Dispatches from
Iraq" are archived
here his website is
here.