Book
Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York
Blackwell • Cambridge, Mass. • Published In 1998 • Pages:
By: Zentella, Ana Celia.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is an excellent study of New York Puerto Rican bilingual language acquisition in East Harlem. Over a 14-year span, Zentella studied 20 families living on one block (el bloque), focussing on the lives of five children. She taped their conversations in the home, corner store, hallways, and streets. The block consisted of young and old, newly arrived and second-generation immigrants, and mono- and bilingual inhabitants. She identifies the use of seven language varieties, including Popular Puerto Rican (PR) Spanish, PR English, African American Vernacular English, and Standard NYC English. The block members' multi-lingual repertoire mirrors the diversity of the neighborhood and surrounding streets and is a unique expression of community identity. Zentella discusses the hows and whys of bilingual language use and acquisition. The study follows the unfortunate breakup of the community and the different paths each child takes. Without the community and with the dominance of English in school and work, the children are unable to keep up their Spanish and fail to raise their own children as bilingual speakers. Zentella argues for the importance of bilingual education in a multicultural America and also for an awareness of cultural differences in language acquisition.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Cultural identity and pride
- Language
- Ethnic stratification
- Community structure
- Transmission of skills
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Puerto Ricans (Mainland)
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnographer
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2000
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1979-1993
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1979-1993
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- East Harlem, New York, N.Y., United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Ana Celia Zentella
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 300-315) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 96025064
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Puerto Ricans--United States