Native Language Support

When examining sociolinguistics views relating to whether or not children should have support in their native languages, there are surprisingly several theories. With each article and author, with each study, a new idea is formed. Likewise, non-linguists responded the same way. For the interviews, I interviewed Isaac, Betty, and Chantelle. All thought that support came from the family and they had various reasons why they thought so; when it came to potential problems, social factors were the answer.
Native Language Support Betty believed that there should definitely be support for native language speaking. This support should be centered around the home and around family. She elaborated: “What does it look like? Well, I would say that the more interaction with the parents and family, the better. Sit down and talk. Read, write, just use the language. That’s supporting it. Practice is support.” She believed that the government should not pressure English only at home. They have no authority to have influence what is spoken at home at all. Isaac was eerily similar in his viewpoints: he thought children should be able to speak to their parents and family in their native language. They could easily be supported in this by having TV channels accessible, by having movies, books, a strong community tie with others speaking the same language. He stressed that he had TV while growing up and international channels that helped him learn fluent Spanish that sounded more native than the broken Spanish he would have spoken with no contact with other people speaking the language. Today, he’s able to speak with others with no issues, and has no issues with English, either. Chantelle was of slightly different opinion. She thought it was definitely better to use some English at home, along with the native language. Parents should be able to use some English to make sure that their children know and understand the language that they need to use in the outside world. To her,