Acquiring literacy in english and Spanish in the United States

Although the United States has been a bilingual country for centuries, with Native-American languages (Cherokee, Ojibway, etc.) and languages of new immigrants (German, Spanish, Chinese, etc.) existing side-by-side with another immigrant language, English, the debate on bilingualism has become fiercer in the last 75 years (Casanova & Arias, 1993; Daniels, 1990). It is ironic that this debate on bilingualism, and the scathing rhetoric of the English-only movement, come at a time when English is enjoying its status as lingua franca to a much larger extent than in the years before, and has become the major international language of trade, technology, and diplomacy (Baron, 1990; Secada & Lightfoot, 1993). Moreover, research on new immigrants shows that members of the first generation after immigration rapidly become monolingual English speakers. Other studies show that among Hispanic parents, 98% believe that their children need to speak English perfecdy in order to succeed (Crawford, 1989).