While reading Aria written by Richard Rodriguez, there is a significant focal point on the way that assimilation has had an impact on his life, even outside of the classroom. Those who are bilingual or support bilingual education push that students will miss out on a large portion of information due to language gaps. These students start to feel that their home language is meant to be used privately, rather than recognizing their language skills as being beneficial to their education. While language barriers hindered some parts of their education, there is also a lack of awareness on how it can make a child feel in the classroom. To those who don't have access to their language in school will start to feel a disconnect from the room and feel shameful to speak it themselves. These students, similarly to Rodriguez, felt that they had a private and public identity that was boxed off based off of what language they felt they could use.
Rodriguez, already feeling conflicted on using his home language in the classroom also faced his teacher attempting to influence their own language not only in the classroom but at home as well. Not even addressing him by his correct name, he felt unwelcome in the classroom and struggled to have a connection with the classroom overall. With this struggle of what language to use, he felt English wasn't his to speak, but now with it being pushed into his home, he heard Spanish less and less. He describes it as a clash of two worlds where his familiar feeling and look of home was being invaded. With the request of English to be used more at home, he felt pushed away from his parents hearing how they would switch from Spanish when they heard him. Longing to hear his family speak, he gave in and started to learn and speak English. He started to not recognize different American accents and how people spoke to him, becoming more fluent and familiar with the English language. This increase of social belonging resulted in the destruction of his close knit connection with his home; decreasing the feeling of being individualized based on family.
This assimilation, while still being a loving home and family, affected the connection between family members. His mothers attempts of becoming more American, having neighborhood children at their home and leaning towards what was seen as the norm for the neighborhood, changing much of how they lived prior. Rodriguez struggled to differentiate if his parents were using Spanish or English tones when speaking, but realized Spanish would come out clearly when speaking with relatives. This assimilation completely diminished how the family interacted and minimized conversations between them entirely, leaving many nights quiet. From the growing language barrier between parent and child to not feeling their home language terminology could be used anymore, they grew further and more restless. Rodriguez described a lack of attention on the grammatical errors in his families conversations, only noticing it in public spaces.
With the need to ensure equality among all students, it is overlooked on how language is necessary factor to incorporate into the classroom. Ultimately, being bilingual is far more beneficial than the ability to assimilate into another culture. Cultural diversity is something that is better being incorporated into the classroom, so why would language be left out? The ability to ensure that students can connect themselves into the classroom will have a large impact on how they perform academically and socially.
Here is an article from the Minneapolis school district and how they are working to help families and their students with language barriers:
https://www.mplsschoolsvoices.news/posts/language-barriers-disrupt-connections-between-families-and-the-district
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