Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
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
