Finding U.S. Census Bureau Data Relevant to Heritage

Language Education

Susie Bauckus, NHLRCJuly 25, 2013

We’ll find:

1) aggregate #s: Total #/% residents who speak a language other than English (LOTE) at home + the foreign born

2) # speakers of particular LOTEs

in a given area (nation, state, county, city)

The American Community Survey*’s questions re: language:

“Does this person speak a language other than English at home*?[if yes] What is this language? ______

How well does this person speak English? -- very well, well, not well, not at all.”

Aggregate #s: why important?-shows importance of field-geography matters-general descriptor for an area-???

Let’s get started:

www.census.gov >>Quick Facts > choose a geography

Look for:• “Speak a Language other than

English at Home” • “Foreign Born”

To find aggregate #s:

Heritage language is a family phenomenon

Relevant study findings: “Children from immigrant families are the fastest growing group of children in the United States” (Urban Institute, 2010)

“Census Bureau Reports Foreign-Born Households are Larger, Include More Children and Grandparents” (U.S. Census Bureau, 2013)

Survey of students studying HL ranked “to communicate w/ family and friends in the U.S.” More highly than “to communicate w/ family and friends abroad”Even among Spanish speakers who visit their country of origin often (Carreira & Kagan, 2011, p. 48).

patterns

U.S. California Los Angeles County

Alhambra City

Speak a LOTE at Home20.3% 43.2% 56.6% 74.9%

Foreign Born12.8% 27.2% 35.6% 53%

Source: Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, 2006-11 5-year estimates

Finding Particular Languages

African languagesArabicArmenianChineseFrench (incl. Patois, Cajun)French CreoleGermanGreekGujaratiHebrewHindiHmongHungarianItalianJapaneseKoreanLaotianMon-Khmer, CambodianNavajoPersian

PolishPortuguese or Portuguese CreoleRussianScandinavian languagesSerbo-CroatianSpanish or Spanish CreoleSpeak only EnglishTagalogThaiUrduVietnameseYiddishOther Asian languagesOther Indic languagesOther Indo-European languagesOther Native North American languagesOther Pacific Island languages 

Census Bureau lists 39 Languages/groups:

Let’s find the tables

start @ www.census.gov, find link to American Fact Finder at bottom of page

In Table field, type “B16001” (Language Spoken At Home By Ability To Speak English For The Population 5 Years And Over)

Then choose geography …

Geography matters: another example

Examples of Variation in a Large Urban Area: Most Spoken LOTEs in Descending OrderLos Angeles County: English, Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Armenian, Persian Cities in Los Angeles County• Alhambra – Chinese, Spanish, English, Vietnamese• Bell – Spanish, English, Arabic, Pacific Island, Tagalog• West Hollywood – English, Russian, Spanish, French• Glendale – Armenian, English, Spanish, Korean • Long Beach – English, Spanish, Khmer, Tagalog• Beverly Hills – English, Persian, Spanish, Hebrew(source: 2007-11 American Cmmty Survey 5-yr estimates)

numbers

Connecting the dots: family ties strengthening academic skills identity HL as job skill me > world

Advocacy/explaining: arguing for teacher ed collaboration across langs persuading admin., colleagues, parents, kids, gen’l population

Funding proposals

Publications: academic and non-academic articles public relations (brochures, websites, etc.)

Informing, justifying decisions on languages for HLL classes/programs

part of HL education

What will “languages spoken” table not tell us?

serbian versus croatian versus bosnian

french from canada versus from france versus from Rwanda

mandarin versus cantonese versus taiwanese

north versus south vietnamese (see Lam, 2006; Polinsky & Kagan, 2007)

moroccan arabic versus algerian versus lebanese versus syrian versus egyptian versus mauritanian etc. etc.

peninsular spanish versus puerto rican versus argentinian versus mexican

western versus eastern armenian

relationship w/ home country

waves of emigration; historical event associated w/ emigration

Find #s for your own area; • Rank languages from most >

least spoken• Compare over time• Take your own census: collect

data from your students including place of birth, parents’ native language/s.

For Information and tutorials: see NHLRC’s Demographics Page:

(search from nhlrc.ucla.edu)

has tutorials and links to U.S. Census Bureau pages, Table numbers, and other information

References

Carreira, M. (2007). Spanish-for-native-speaker matters: narrowing the Latino achievement gap through Spanish language instruction. HeritageLanguage Journal, 5(1), 147-171. www.heritagelanguages.org

Census Bureau Reports Foreign-Born Households are Larger, Include More Children and Grandparents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010)http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/foreignborn_population/cb12-79.html

Early Education Programs and Children of Immigrants: Learning Each Other's Language. (2010). http://www.urban.org/publications/412205.html

Walters & Trevelyan. (2011). The Newly Arrived Foreign-Born Population of the United States: 2010 (2011), pp. 3-6. http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/ acsbr10-16.pdf

Please send questions, comments, and feedback to

sbauckus@international.ucla.edu