26.2942, Review: Anthropological Ling; Applied Ling; Lang Acq; Socioling: Callahan, Gándara (2014)

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Subject: 26.2942, Review: Anthropological Ling; Applied Ling; Lang Acq; Socioling: Callahan, Gándara (2014)

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Date: Wed, 17 Jun 2015 17:06:53
From: Laura Dubcovsky [ledubcovsky at ucdavis.edu]
Subject: The Bilingual Advantage

 
Discuss this message:
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/reviews/get-review.cfm?subid=36002357


Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/25/25-3877.html

EDITOR: Rebecca M. Callahan
EDITOR: Patricia C. Gándara
TITLE: The Bilingual Advantage
SUBTITLE: Language, Literacy and the US Labor Market
SERIES TITLE: Bilingual Education and Bilingualism
PUBLISHER: Multilingual Matters
YEAR: 2014

REVIEWER: Laura Dubcovsky, University of California, Davis

Review's Editor: Helen Aristar-Dry

SUMMARY

The Bilingual Advantage. Language, Literacy and the US Labor Market is a book
that draws from various disciplines--education, sociology, anthropology and
linguistics--to examine the economic benefits of bilingualism in the
workplace.  As explained in the introduction (Chapter 1), the editors
contextualize bilingualism in the information age. They have organized the
chapters in four sections that address, in turn, bilingualism in the current
global market, its economic benefits, the employment and educational
attainment variables, and future alternatives for bilingualism.

In the first section titled, “Bilingualism in the US Labor Market,” Reynaldo
Macías questions the “Benefits of bilingualism: In the eye of the beholder?”
(Chapter 2). He offers an historical overview of the relationship between
language and social context in the United States, highlighting key
periods:pre-national, national, Cold War, Civil Rights movements, and current
events. The author carefully examines the perception of language diversity
according to monolingual and bilingual shifts that take place across time and
that may also cause social tensions, manifested by either more restrictive or
more tolerant policies on segregation/ integration matters. Macías points out
how ultimately the benefits or drawbacks of bilingualism are decided in the
political, educational and economic arenas, through the vote poll, the school
system, and the labor market, respectively.

In Chapter 3, “Exploring bilingualism, literacy, employability and income
levels among Latinos in the United States,” Sarah Moore, Molly Fee, Yongyeon
Ee, Terrence Wiley and Beatriz Arias  target seven specific Latino subgroups:
Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cubans, Dominicans, Central Americans, South Americans,
and other Spanish/Latino origins. They refine the term “literacy” following
traditional indicators of age, gender, and years of schooling, as well as more
sophisticated categories of cultural diversity, economic matters, political
alliances, and immigration decisions. Results show a positive association for
Spanish-English bilinguals’ employment over Spanish dominant among youth and
middle aged cohorts, and a positive association for bilingual employment both
over Spanish and English dominants among older people. Likewise income for
bilinguals looks higher than that for English dominants, while overall
earnings for males are higher than for females.  Finally there is also a
positive association between income and literacy, both in English and Spanish,
, which makes the scholars infer that more years of schooling brings about
economic advantages for a biliterate population. 

Section 2 poses the question, “Are there really economic benefits to
bilingualism in the US labor market?”  Joseph Robinson-Cimpian (Chapter 4)
explores the “Labor market differences between bilingual and monolingual
Hispanics.” He expands previous studies through three independent variables:
labor market participation, employment rates. and annual wages.  His robust
analysis comprises four  models involving gender/age/race, educational
attainment, years of US entry, and enclaves of heritage language users. The
detailed examination discerns not only y average differences between the wages
of bilinguals and monolinguals after statistical conditioning on individual
and locational factors, but also significant disparities between male and
female participation, employment and wages, and the impact of enclaves of
Spanish speakers in the labor market.  In closing, Robinson-Cimpian revisits
the most accepted assumption that assimilation is the logically expected
behavior for immigrants, assuming the lack of evident bilinguals’ wage
compensation. He proposes instead that, “if the labor market differentials
overall favor bilinguals in these locations, and if a heritage language is
easier to maintain in the presence of many heritage language speakers, then
perhaps the loss of bilingualism is not inevitable” (p. 96).

The following two chapters are devoted to the “black box” of language in the
labor force. In Chapter 5 Amado Alarcón, Antonio Di Paolo, Josiah Heyman and
María Cristina Morales examine “The occupational location of Spanish-English
bilinguals in the new information economy.” The authors discuss the role,
frequency and distribution of bilingualism in the health and criminal justice
sectors located at the border between Mexico and the United States. They focus
on linguistic (symbolic analysts) and social (interaction with public service)
categories. Their study shows that while the most fluent bilinguals are wanted
for their advanced level of oral proficiency, which is  needed in
interpersonal communication, they are not hired in positions that require
higher educational certification or in professional and managerial
occupations. On the contrary, certified and ranked positions are held  mainly
by monolingual English speakers, while service and physical jobs that demand
minimal written and oral skills are given to limited English proficient
speakers. In light of these results Alarcón et al. reflect that bilingualism
is frequently overlooked for hiring and promotion.  As a matter of fact the
heritage language is not treated as a high skill, but rather as “a freely
available, naturally occurring resource of the border social-cultural
environment” (p.130).

In Chapter 6 Amado Alarcón, Antonio Di Paolo, Josiah Heyman and María Cristina
Morales  continue the discussion, focusing on the “Returns to Spanish/English
bilingualism in the new information economy.” They investigate the potentially
increased earnings in the same two labor sectors as in the previous Chapter,
comparing the Texas geographic zones of the border and the
interior(Dallas-Tarrant Counties).    Their quantitative and qualitative
analyses include occupational distribution (Table 6.1), wage models (Table
6.2), and geographic areas (Table 6.3).The authors especially consider the
language shift reversal phenomenon (Hidalgo, 2001) and the increasing oral and
written language demands needed in current societies. Results show that
speaking Spanish--regardless of English skills--is associated with depressed
earnings, while speaking English only is rewarded with higher salaries, and
that fluent bilinguals’ earnings are equally as low in interior as in border
zones. These findings argue against the intuitive prediction that salaries and
occupational advantages rise for bilingual over monolingual speakers.  The
scholars correlate these negative associations with the impact of
discrimination and marginalization on the current labor market. However, they
are cautious not to draw causal explanations between these factors. Alarcón et
al. propose instead to increase the volume of studies that not only enlarge
the explored geographic and economic scope, but also account for the actual
use of diverse languages in the workplace, the employees’ educational quality
and certification, and the bilinguals’ social network connections. As the
authors suggest, these refined variables would shed light on bilinguals’
occupations and incomes in the market place.

In Chapter 7 Orhan Agirdag investigates “The literal cost of language
assimilation for the children of immigration. The effects of bilingualism on
labor market outcomes.” The scholar focuses on strengths in analyzing the
relationship between earnings and bilingualism, unlike most economists who
almost exclusively focus on the inadequacies of immigrants’ language.  Agirdag
combines sociolinguistic and economic approaches to characterize language as
cultural capital and to position minority languages as subfields in the market
(Bourdieu, 1977). He also evaluates long- term effects of dominant,
non-dominant, and minority language skills on immigrant children (Grin, 2003).
To avoid confounding results the scholar draws from two independent data
analyses, as well as multiple controls for gender, educational attainment,
cognitive ability, parental socio-economic status, self-esteem, family
cohesion, etc.

The study shows that balanced bilinguals are more likely to be employed
full-time than English dominant individuals and to earn significantly more
than the monolingual English speakers (between $2000 and $3200 more annually).
 However, Agirdag observes that multilingualism does not consistently yield
labor market rewards, and that the oscillations may be related to restrictive
educational policies, such as English Only measures. Results also show a
significant financial cost associated with linguistic assimilation. The author
proposes then to encourage bilingual programs that nurture students’ primary
language. As already proven, an effective educational curriculum that develops
biliteracy not only provides all students with a stronger preparation in two
languages but also offers tangible and lasting occupational and monetary
benefits in the labor market.

Chapter 8 “English Plus: Exploring the socioeconomic benefits of bilingualism
in Southern California” closes the second section with a summary of the most
recent state of the art of immigrants in the region (1980-2010). Rubén 
Rumbaut uses data from two major surveys of adult children of
immigrant--Immigration and Intergenerational Mobility in Metropolitan Los
Angeles (IIMMLA) and the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Studies
(CILS)--to explore the socioeconomic benefits of bilingualism or “English
Plus” in the region. The scholar conducts an in-depth analysis, introducing
age, gender, ethnicity, parental SES, GPA, family structure and social issues
(gangs, drugs, and crime) among other control variables. He also unpacks
traditional pan-ethnic categories into finer immigrant traits (Table 8.1),
generational cohorts (Table 8.2), and language preference and levels of
proficiency in the non-English language (Table 8.3).

Moreover Rumbaut examines outcomes on education attainment, labor force status
and annual earnings (Table 8.4), dropping out of high school (Table 8.5), and
occupational status and annual earnings (Table 8.6). The study first confirms
previous results on the rapid switch that takes place across time, by which
English becomes nearly the universal language of preference by the third
generation. It also finds an accompanying effect of quick atrophy of the basic
language skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing that occurs in the
mother tongue.  Rumbaut describes the positive associations between bilingual
adolescents and academic achievement, family cohesion, parent-child relations
and self-esteem aspirations.  Above all the scholar focuses on the
significance of dropping out of high school, as it constitutes both a turning
point in the transition to adulthood, as well as in accessing higher levels of
education and later labor market insertion. 

The third Section of the book addresses “Employment, educational attainment
and bilingualism.” In Chapter 9  Lucrecia Santibañez and María Estela Zárate 
examine “Bilinguals in the US and college enrollment,” as they consider that
higher education is a precursor to the labor market. The authors use data from
the Educational Longitudinal Survey (2000-2006) to analyze two and four year
college attendance, including multiple factors that affect college choice,
such as individual and institutional variables, language minority status and
proficiency in the two languages, academic achievement and standardized test
scores, and student expectations and parental involvement. 

Results show a positive and statistically significant relationship between
probability of college attendance and bilingualism,  in contrast to English
monolingualism. They also indicate that Spanish speakers who maintain and use
the language frequently are more likely to attend college than heritage
speakers who are just born in Spanish speaking households but do not develop
their mother tongue.  Santibañez and Zárate agree on previous findings that
highlight bilinguals’ cognitive, social, and academic advantages, such as
working memory, academic achievement, and social network connection. Likewise
the scholars follow results that show how higher levels of proficiency in two
languages strongly relate to college enrollment and positive labor market
outcomes. Finally the authors are cautious about rapid linguistic
assimilation, because, as explained in previous chapters, in the long run this
assimilation may reduce young people’s chance  to gain a college education. 

In Chapter 10, Diana Porras, Yongyeon Ee and Patricia Gándara ask the
question, “Employer preferences: Do bilingual applicants and employees
experience an advantage?”  The authors examine the impact of language and the
type of job or industry on both employers and employees in the modern labor
market. To pursue their goal the scholars take up a positive perspective of
multilingualism (Forbes, 2011) and conduct 289 surveys of questions related to
employment in key sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and
construction, retail trade, education, health, arts and entertainment. 
Results show a positive relationship between bilingualism and the job market,
although this is primarily  shown indirectly, through educational attainment
and hiring in the first place. 

Porras et al. explain that the lack of direct evidence is partially caused by
the official overlooking of multilingualism as an asset for the labor market.
They also recognize the difficulty in collecting employers’ responses about
their employees’ earnings. Exceptionally, some offices in the public sector,
for example the California Highways Patrol and the Oregon Department of
Administrative Services, openly offer bilingual pay differential to
individuals in certified bilingual positions). In spite of the absence of data
on direct effects, the scholars claim that managing two languages offers
evident advantages in the labor market. Taking a broader approach to
bilingualism and biliteracy, beyond handling simply linguistic forms, lexicon
or grammatical structures, Porras et al. evaluate how bilinguals are currently
hired for their linguistic and cultural competency to serve multilingual
customers and work cooperatively with multilingual co-workers.  For example,
bilingual employees help clients navigate bureaucracy, gaining their trust and
even assisting in life threatening situations (as documented in suicidal
cases).  

The last section of the book focuses on “Fostering bilingualism in the market
place.”  In Chapter 11 Ursula Aldana and Anysia Mayer present “The
International Baccalaureate: A college preparatory pathway for heritage
language speakers and immigrant youth.” They describe eight International
Baccalaureate (IB) programs, half of them from California, and the rest in
Oregon, Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin, and compare commonalities among the
different locations, such as having a rigorous curriculum, which is vertically
and horizontally aligned, and highly content-loaded. The scholars also
contrast differences in specific settings, educational levels, population
composition and individual trajectories. Finally the authors enumerate
observable caveats about some of the programs, such as high costs,
stereotypes, and marginalization of English Learners.  

Above all, Aldana and Mayer highlight the common additive perspective on
bilingualism and biliteracy of all IB programs, by which two or more languages
are valued as beneficial. As illustrated in passages taken from the actual
interviews, principals and teachers hold positive attitudes toward
bilingualism, perceive languages as a human resource, use it as a means to
communicate content rather than as an end in itself, and do not privilege one
language over the other. Moreover, the authors explain that the selected
schools attempt to reach out all types of students, and in some cases they
actually serve substantial numbers of low-income Spanish heritage speakers.
Therefore, the scholars conclude that IB programs represent a valuable
educational alternative for heritage and immigrant language speakers, as they
provide minority language students with opportunities to access college
careers and be better situated for their future insertion into competitive
labor markets.

In Chapter 12, “Looking toward the future: Opportunities in a shifting
linguistic landscape” Patricia Gándara and Rebecca Callahan summarize common
themes and contrasting approaches presented in the book. In spite of the
absence of a common language theory and the varied interpretations throughout
the chapters, the editors praise the contributors’ commitment to deepening the
understanding of the interconnected fields of multilingualism and economy. 
Moreover, all invited authors bring new information, fine-grained analyses,
and an open-minded philosophy to tackle minority languages in additive terms.
Gándara and Callahan also include their own remarks, emphasizing the promising
role of the United States in leading linguistic and economic changes in the
twenty-first century. As they point out, America has a “unique opportunity to
be at the forefront of a more visionary, but also more practical, language
policy” (p.287). 

The editors suggest that in order to gain this leadership, the US still needs
to acknowledge cultural and linguistic diversity as an invaluable asset. As an
example, they mention educational policies that remove immigrants’ language
and culture, hindering children from accessing genuine resources to become
biliterate citizens.  The scholars also pinpoint the triple segregation of
language, ethnicity and poverty that is still negatively affecting  new
generations of immigrants (Gándara, 2010).  In closing, Gándara and Callahan
take a firm position against isolation, rooted in both the international
market that brings about a gradual raising of cultural and linguistic
awareness among global citizens, and the domestic market that embraces
increasing multilingual and multicultural needs.

EVALUATION

“The Bilingual Advantage. Language, Literacy and the US Labor Market”
addresses professional and lay readers who are interested in updated
information about bilinguals in the American labor market. The book presents
different perspectives and interpretations, maintaining careful analysis in
each study. Throughout the chapters, readers will appreciate the attempt to
analyze the complexity of multilingualism in the current global economy  based
on robust and well-organized sets of data, as well as interdisciplinary
approaches that combine economic, social and linguistic variables. Above all,
the different authors contribute to a better understanding of the advantages
and disadvantages of bilingualism not only in economic terms of wages,
occupational distribution and employment, but also in social terms of
identity, race and linguistic enclaves. Moreover, the strong corpus of studies
shows promising paths to take in examining the professional role of
bilingualism in the workplace. 

The openness encouraged by the editors has however some drawbacks, especially
given some contradictory results. For example, the reader finishes the book
without fully understanding whether bilinguals earn more or less than
monolingual English speakers, as some authors recognize that they cannot
always show bilinguals’ advantages in numbers, and allude to indirect effects
only, which cannot always be proven. Likewise there are some leaps between
mostly detailed quantitative analyses and some qualitative interpretations on
relevant themes, for example on bilinguals’ marginalization and the structural
racism bilinguals experience, as presented in some chapters. Finally, the
absence of a common theory to explain the role of language leaves room for
different interpretations of labels and categories used in the literature. 
Therefore, similar variables--such as language proficiency and age--may be
defined differently throughout the chapters, and this variation may cause
differences in the outcomes. As Gándara and Callahan explain, we still need
more studies that address current gaps and open new possibilities for current
multilingual economies.

REFERENCES

Bourieu, P. 1977. The economics of linguistic exchanges. Social Science
Information 16: 645-668.

Forbes Insights 2011. Reducing the Impact of Language Barriers.  http:
//www.forbes.com/ forbesinsights/language_study/ (5 January, 2015).

Gándara, P. 2010. Overcoming triple segregation. Educational leadership 68(3):
60-64. 

Grin, F. 2003. Language planning and economics. Current Issues in Language
Planning 4: 1-66.

Hidalgo, M. 2001. Spanish language shift reversal on the US-Mexico border and
the extended third space. Language and Intercultural Communication 1(1):
57-75.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Laura Dubcovsky is a lecturer and supervisor in the teacher education program
from The University of California, Davis. She has a Master’s in Education and
a PhD in Spanish linguistics with special emphasis on second language
acquisition. Her areas of interest combine the fields of language and
bilingual education. She is dedicated to the preparation of prospective
bilingual Spanish/English teachers, working with student teachers and
in-service teachers. She collaborates as a reviewer with the Linguistic list
serve and bilingual associations, as well as with teachers, principals, and
specialists at the school district. She has taught a course that addresses
Communicative and Academic Spanish needed in a bilingual classroom for more
than ten years. She also published the article, Functions of the verb decir
(''to say'') in the incipient academic Spanish writing of bilingual children.
Functions of Language, 15(2), 257-280 (2008). She continues researching on
relevant language features as used by bilingual teachers in the classroom, as
well as presenting these topics on related forums.





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