The aggressive support for English-Only laws in the United States, is largely based on encouraging assimilation, economically, politically, and ultimately - morally. It stands diametrically opposed to bilingualism, threatening that very way of life, and is often viewed in the Latina/o community as xenophobic and nativist. Federal Law in the United States actually stands in opposition to the notion of English-Only laws, refusing to codify English as the official national language, however that does not curb state level social movements advocating in opposition to the marginalized group. Exploring these ideas, it is important to dissect the specific examples of English-Only advocation, as well as the institutional resources that Latina/os use
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Spanish Loss,” Van Tran successfully rebuked the claim made by English-only advocates that bilingualism hurts English adoption, and as a result leads to a lack of national unity. Tran found that second-generation Latinos, universally reported gains in both English and Spanish proficiency over time. Through his cross-sectional studies on language assimilation, Mexicans, the Latino group with the lowest mean English proficiency still found increasing proficiency as time went on, simultaneously, in both the English and Spanish language - bilingualism having little to no effect on English adoption and proficiency. Essentially, we know that the process of English acquisition does not proceed at the cost of Spanish abandonment, so there is little to necessitate a transition to English-only laws, when both will gradually be learned over time having no adverse effects on proficiency in either language. What these findings suggest is that the English-only movement is either xenophobic, nativist, or inherently anti-intellectual by proposing the destruction of one 's tether to their native language under the guise of national unity. The advocation of English-only laws is one institutional example of how the United States racializes the Spanish language and attempts to suppress it. Due to living in close proximity to various Spanish-speaking nations, and immigrants largely grouping together in tight-knit communities, Spanish retention is generally higher across generations than that of other immigrant languages, which seemingly sparks some animosity towards the Latino community. The close Latina/o relation to their mother countries, serves as a unique resistance to the “hegemonic force of English,” which is met by many Americans as an opposition to their way of life, but in reality is simply how Latina/os choose to organize (Davis and Moore). Spanish is racialized in this way, the language being looped in with this American image of
Spanish Loss,” Van Tran successfully rebuked the claim made by English-only advocates that bilingualism hurts English adoption, and as a result leads to a lack of national unity. Tran found that second-generation Latinos, universally reported gains in both English and Spanish proficiency over time. Through his cross-sectional studies on language assimilation, Mexicans, the Latino group with the lowest mean English proficiency still found increasing proficiency as time went on, simultaneously, in both the English and Spanish language - bilingualism having little to no effect on English adoption and proficiency. Essentially, we know that the process of English acquisition does not proceed at the cost of Spanish abandonment, so there is little to necessitate a transition to English-only laws, when both will gradually be learned over time having no adverse effects on proficiency in either language. What these findings suggest is that the English-only movement is either xenophobic, nativist, or inherently anti-intellectual by proposing the destruction of one 's tether to their native language under the guise of national unity. The advocation of English-only laws is one institutional example of how the United States racializes the Spanish language and attempts to suppress it. Due to living in close proximity to various Spanish-speaking nations, and immigrants largely grouping together in tight-knit communities, Spanish retention is generally higher across generations than that of other immigrant languages, which seemingly sparks some animosity towards the Latino community. The close Latina/o relation to their mother countries, serves as a unique resistance to the “hegemonic force of English,” which is met by many Americans as an opposition to their way of life, but in reality is simply how Latina/os choose to organize (Davis and Moore). Spanish is racialized in this way, the language being looped in with this American image of