Spanish Language Disappearing Among Younger Latinos, But There Is A Silver Lining

Spanish language is on decline among the younger Latino generations in the country, while English is on the rise. According to a Pew research directed by Mark Hugo Lopez, the head of Hispanic research, 57% of Latinos 69 and older are fluent in Spanish. Less than 50% of Boomer and Generation X Latino generations speak the language fluently, and only 25% of Latino Millennial adults are Spanish proficient.

It looks like the circumstances are pushing Latino children more toward English than Spanish, according to the study. 88% of Latinos aged 5 to 17 in 2014 say they only speak English at home and speak the language “very well”, contrasting with the 73% in 2000.

Pew’s research has also found that English proficiency among older Latino adults has stagnated over the same time period, this means that while their children and grandchildren are adopting the English language so naturally, the older generations aren’t learning it at the same rate, or even retaining it, causing a troubling generational communication gap.

Mr. Lopez’s research has found out at that the slowing down of immigration, specially from Mexico to the U.S. is an important factor on why English is gaining ground over
Spanish in Latino residents, with U.S. births being now the main drive of Latino population growth in the country, not to mention the increased intermarriage between Latinos and non-Latinos. “All three are slowly changing the share of the Hispanic population that speaks only English at home,” told the director of Pew’s Hispanic Research to USA Today.

Another constituent driving down Spanish proficiency among Latino populations are the policy changes in schools like Proposition 227 that was passed in California back in 1998, and eliminated bilingual clases for students with poor English skills. Fortunately, for the future of Spanish language in the U.S. this policy was overturned in 2016.

While the loss of a community’s native language from one generation to the next is not exclusive to Spanish speakers, or even new, it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be concerned. Research has proved that learning another language has a lot of cognitive, competitive and cultural benefits. This makes a lot of sense in our globalized world, and now a lot of parents and educators are seeing the benefits of bilingualism.

“Children who are bilingual have cognitive flexibility in thinking and really move through concepts in different ways,” told Hilda Maldonado, executive director of the multilingual and multicultural education department for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) to USA Today.

Patricia Gandara, a research professor at UCLA has emphasized the importance of bilingual education for marginalized children. “Children who go to school where their language and culture are honored and valued tend to do better academically. They have a strong sense of identity and feel like they have something special to contribute.”

Yes, it’s true that children today are disconnected from their roots, but with all this research pointing out the benefits of cherishing our heritage, the future looks very positive for our culture. Sometimes we have to look back in order to move forward.