traditions of assimilation...

[Susan Penfield]

Those words are bothersome (to put it mildly)...

I am reminded that when Arizona put forth the first bill for English-pnly
legislation, I was on a panel where I said
I felt encouraged that it seemed to show respect for Indigenous
languages-----

How wrong I was!  Witness the struggles at schools on the Navajo reservation
just last year that resulted directly from English-only legislation.

Having just returned from England, where multi-lingualism just hits you in
the face (on TV, the street , everywhere--)
 I am more disturbed than ever ---- this type of legislation is just plain
representative of backwards thinking....



Susan

On Feb 11, 2008 9:55 AM, phil cash cash <cashcash at email.arizona.edu> wrote:

> Momentum Building for Oklahoma Official English Bill
>
> http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/02-11-2008/0004753576&EDATE=
>
> ~~~
>
> While there seems to be  respect for Native American languages, these are
> the
> words of legislators behind the English-only bill in the Oklahoma state
> legislature:
>
> "...maintain a tradition of assimilation through our
> common language of English."
>
> It seems hard to reconcile this position with Native American language
> preservation.  Though I imagine the architects of such legislation view NA
> languages as "preservation at a distance".
>
> l8ter,
>
> Phil
> UofA
>



-- 
____________________________________________________________
Susan D. Penfield, Ph.D.

Department of English (Primary)
American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI)
Second Language Acquisition & Teaching Ph.D. Program (SLAT)
Department of Language,Reading and Culture
Department of Linguistics
The Southwest Center (Research)
Phone for messages: (520) 621-1836


"Every language is an old-growth forest of the mind, a watershed of thought,
an ecosystem of spiritual possibilities."

                                                         Wade Davis...(on a
Starbucks cup...)
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