STUDENT WRITING: Reflection by LYDIA MORENO

Hidden Good People

In recent weeks in my Listening class, I have seen several documentaries and television programs. There was a documentary on cancer treatment, one on human cloning, one on writers, and some others. Last week my classmates and I saw a documentary on Amadeus Mozart and Albert Einstein. In the Mozart documentary I saw how his talent came from nature and how he started at a very young age to present his compositions in front of public. His father, Leopold, wanted Europe to know him. In the documentary on Albert Einstein, who was the creator of the theory of gravity and the theory of relativity, I saw how he worked hard all his life. Both, Mozart and Einstein, are now considered geniuses, each in his own field; Mozart as the greatest composer of all time and Albert Einstein as the greatest scientist of all time.

Now, watching and learning from these two personalities we ask: why are there not more people like Mozart and Einstein? Where are the great composers and inventors? Perhaps everything has been invented and we do not need more of these people. We know how advanced technology is; Google, Face Book, Twitter, but where can we find more talent?

Coincidentally, this week I received an e-mail about the discovery of human photosynthesis. Not only did I discover the experiment it consisted of, but also, and more surprising to me, that the scientist is a Mexican named Arturo Solis Herrera. He also invented The Bat-Gen, a self-rechargeable battery that is capable of keeping a lamp lit for 100 years. In addition, he is the inventor of electric power generation with water and melamine. He has never received any recognition for his discoveries in Mexico but he received an award for the Photosynthesis Human in Russia on April 2, 2010. When I saw the date, I realized that it had been ten months since the scientist was recognized for his contributions in another country but not in his own, Mexico.

I wonder why? What happens? Perhaps it is because Mexico is going through a time where everything is bad news. Every day we see and hear about people being killed, murderers who are caught but are not in jail, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, and drug cartels. We have forgotten the good and important things. We forget people who are dedicated to their work for years and who are not recognized in their own country. Just as the scientist Arturo Solis Herrera, there must be many more, relegated to obscurity simply because the bad stands out more than the good.

CONCEPT WRITING: Code Switching and Language Borrowing by JM

Code switching and language borrowing are two very typical aspects of Chicano Spanish. The natural occurrence of code-switching and language borrowing in all situations in which two languages come into contact can be misinterpreted as confusion of the two languages. (Ovando and Collier). Nonlinguists sometimes refer to any blend of Spanish and English as "Spanglish". The word ”groceria” (used to mean grocery) for example, does not exist in standard Spanish. Spelled differently (”grosería”) it means expletive. A Chicano though, may use the word to mean grocery store, even knowing that the correct word is ”mercado”, as he is strongly influenced by the English environment. This person's children, however, may never have heard the word ”mercado” and will use ”groceria” thinking it is correct. This is how the original Spanish words are lost. Another example of what may happen when two languages come into contact is code-switching as, for example, when a bilingual Mexican-American child says to another, ”"Andale, pues,” let's go" (O.K. come on, let's go) or "Gimme the ball, ”que le voy a decir a mi Mamá” (Give me the ball, or I'll tell my mother).

Although the desirability of code-switching and its role in language development is debated by many educators, some researchers agree that there is a function and logic to its use. Code-switching is for many bilinguals a way to cope with the bicultural-bilingual setting in which they function. Code-switchers use both languages only with speakers who know both codes. Bilingual speakers are aware that each of their languages has certain strengths and that two languages can be used simultaneously to convey the most precise meaning.

Although sociolinguists emphasize the positive aspects of code-switching, Gonzalez and Maez discuss what they call "regressive code-switching", which occurs when a student who is losing a first language leans on the second language to provide the missing lexical items or structure. If code-switching is used in the classroom, it should be of the intersentential (after the end of a sentence) type and not intrasentential (within a sentence).

Students who use nonstandard varieties of their first and second languages and make use of language borrowing and code-switching strategies have sometimes been called "alingual". Their relative proficiency in each language is limited only by knowledge of the standard variety, or in the case of subtractive bilingualism, by loss of their first language in the process of acquiring another one. A label like "alingualism" is often linked with being culturally deprived, implying that the quality of the student's sociocultural background is deficient. Code-switching may be seen as a reflection of the speaker's inadequacy to express himself completely in one language or the other. (Ovando and Collier, 87.) However, research carried out here in El Paso suggests that code-switching is done for specific functions. To the purist and the Mexican national, word-borrowing and code-switching may seem like a threat to the integrity of the standard language, but such language mixture is an aspect of natural language change. My experience has been that code switching will not arise if a Chicano is perceived by another Chicano not to speak Spanish fluently or to prefer to speak English. If he prefers to speak Spanish, he will be spoken to in Spanish. If the person speaks both languages and the situation is casual, usually code-switching is the norm. Of course, if one accepts this explanation, then he also accepts the fact that mixed language sentences are part of the Chicano language. The frequent involvement of Chicanos in bilingual contexts and consequent exposure to code changes is a possible explanation for this acceptance.

However, there are certain syntactic constraints that are understood by all bilinguals, albeit unconsciously. Adverbial constructions may be switched, ”"Vamos next week" (we'll go next week), but not as interrogatives, ”"When vamos?"; a switch may occur at a noun phrase only after a determiner, ”"Se lo di a mi “grandfather" (I gave it to my grandfather) but not as, ”Se lo di a “my grandfather; an adverb may be switched before an adjective, "”Es” very friendly", (He is very friendly) but not ”Es” very ”amistoso."

The production of switches in any situation requires social knowledge which is subculturally specific and acquired only through practical experience. It is learned by being a member of the group and depends on the individual's bilingual ability to speak appropriately. At the same time, code-switching is governed by constraints which can, in some measure, be compared to grammatical phenomena. It is not random but rather subject to an underlying switching grammar.


Works Cited

Gonzalez and L.F. Maez, "To Switch or not to Switch: The Role of Code Switching in the Elementary Bilingual Classroom," in ”Ethnoperspectives in Bilingual Education Research,”
ed. R.V. Padilla, Ypsilanti, MI: Eastern Michigan University, 1980, 125-135.

Ovando, Carlos J. and Virginia P. Collier, Bilingual and ESL Classrooms: Teaching in Multicultural Contexts, New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985, pp 86-90

Valdés-Fallis) ”Language in Education Series, No. 4: Code Switching and the Classroom Teacher” Arlington, VA: Center for Applied Linguistics, 1978, p 7.)