Adam Prestidge and Dr. William Eggington, Linguistics and English Language

The ability to acquire Standard English is requisite for upward mobility in the United States. As English-language-learners are able to acquire command of a higher code, society rewards them with greater opportunities for success.

For people who immigrate to the United States from Mexico, this linguistic principle dominates all interaction with the English-speaking culture. Unfortunately for many, proficiency in Standard English is never achieved, and they must rely on nonstandard survival English. The negative results of this are well-documented, limiting success in education and increasing dropout rates, inhibiting relocation to non-Spanish communities, closing doors to higher paying jobs, and contributing to increased poverty and crime rates. Generations of Mexican-American families remain mired in the linguistic limbo of passive bilingualism for decades, often surrounded by a Spanish-speaking community that fulfills basic needs, but unable to take advantage of the opportunities afforded to those who are able to acquire the “silver code.”
On the other hand, some people are able to acquire and become proficient in English in a short period of time, acquiring not just basic survival English, but higher codes that allow them to pursue higher education and better-paying occupations. This yields dramatic positive results, improving the lives of individuals, families, and communities in many ways.

However, it appears that there is no magic formula for becoming proficient in Standard English. While extensive research has been conducted to determine linguistic factors that limit upward mobility, it appears that the factors which cultivate upward mobility have not been so clearly defined.
The purpose of this study is to identify general social features that are common among non-native English-speakers who have acquired Standard English and are more successful because of their proficiency. To do this, I identified and conducted extensive interviews with Mexican-American adults who speak Spanish as a native language and were able to acquire proficiency in Standard English sufficient for higher-level educational and professional achievement. While all interviewees were either first or second generation Mexican-American with Spanish speaking parents, I was very surprised to find that these people had little in common in their language acquisition experiences, including different ages, different education structures, and varying levels of family support. My goal was to identify the common factors of their language achievement.

There could be incredible benefits to the potential identification of definitive factors for success in Standard English acquisition. Should such factors be identified and applied, it would open a myriad of opportunities for individuals, families, and entire communities. It would improve millions of lives and positively alter the role of Mexican-American immigrants in the United States.

The surprising result of this study is the lack of common linguistic factors between all four adults. Family support ranges from extremely encouraging and accommodating to discouraging and punitive. Age ranges from early childhood to adulthood. LDS Church membership is not a common factor, neither is formal English education, and each adult was able to become proficient in Standard English without the benefit of many positive factors of second language acquisition. In fact, the principal result of my study is that there appeared to be only two common factors absolutely critical to successful Standard English development: practical incentive and immersion. For the purpose of this study, I made a distinction between desire-based incentive and practical incentive. Practical incentive functions at the economic level – for Standard English acquisition to be successful, it must fulfill a functional necessity. If essential needs are met by the first language, practical incentive does not exist and a strong desire to acquire a second language is simply not enough.

Those I interviewed all had some form of functionally necessary practical incentive, ranging from communication with only English-speaking peers to avoiding punishment in school. In economics and linguistics, it is human nature that people act based on incentives. Based on the data collected in this study, the primary common factor of successful Standard English acquisition is practical incentive.
The second common factor is immersion. Proficiency in Standard English requires some form of an immersion experience because it increases practical incentive and surrounds language learners in their target language. For Mexican-American immigrants, immersion may be the difference between acquiring only survival-English or acquiring high-code English. Without immersion, a person attempting to acquire English in a bilingual community will be able to meet daily needs through acquisition of simple vocabulary and substandard pronunciation and structure. With daily necessities satisfied, practical incentive is decreased. Further, acquiring Standard English requires a different process than acquiring basic English. As much as it is a linguistic experience, acquisition must also be a cultural experience if one is to achieve command of semantics and pragmatics, pronunciation, and nuances of language that are basic functions of the higher codes. This cultural experience is most effective through immersion.

If practical incentive and immersion really are two of the most critical factors for proficient high-code acquisition, they present language planners with considerable challenges in their application. There are several social factors that dramatically minimize practical incentive, especially the feeling of losing personal identity, because for members of the immigrant class, language is critical for solidarity. Likewise, immersion is a difficult factor to apply on a large scale because it involves separating people from their linguistic comfort zone, and placing them in environments where their disadvantage is increased.

One of the best applications of this research, and the area that requires further study, is how the results can be implemented in language planning policy. Acquisition of English by native Spanish speakers is a difficult issue to address because it is so closely intertwined with the contentious immigration debate. However, there is no denying that acquiring standard English has a massively positive impact on individuals and their communities. Hopefully, with further verification and increased awareness, the principles identified in this study can provide clarity to policy makers and open the gates to increased prosperity for generations of immigrant families