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Languages Spoken in Oakland Public Schools sample essay
Oakland is a highly ethnically diverse district, which is also reflected in the number of languages spoken by its population. A considerable number of children are raised in families where English is not the first language. Therefore, when these children go to school, they may fall behind just for the reason that they do not understand everything that is being taught by teacher in English. They might loose a part of their initiative because they feel uncomfortable expressing their thoughts in English. This is a serious problem because it concerns not just a limited minority group, but 30% of those whose first language is not English and many more of those who feel comfortable speaking one of 80-plus languages represented in Oakland by certain subgroups.
Languages spoken in Oakland Public Schools by students
Oakland community is very diverse both in ethnicity and in languages spoken, which is reflected in the variety among public schools students in the district. Applied Research Center reports that out of 53.5 thousands students in the district 50.9% are African-American, 23.1% - Latino, 19.3 – Asian, 6.1% - White, 0.6% - Native American (Keleher). Oakland Public Library states that about 30% of Oakland citizens do not speak English at home, where Chinese and Spanish are the most frequent. As for the languages spoken at Oakland Public Schools, the Oakland Unified School District indicates over 30 other languages used by Oakland students (Oakland Public Library). American Association of School Administrator name even larger number of languages - more than eighty in total, sixty one of which are actually recognized (Getridge).
Considering the fact that there is such a variety of ethnic languages spoken by the students and the fact that around 30% of the population (School Administrator Edition says the same applies to students too) speak a language other than English at home, it is obvious that some of students are not as good in English language as it is necessary for effective studying held in this language.
The most common language spoken
Speaking of the most common language spoken I would point out Spanish, Chinese and so called Black English. The latter deserves for the first place in terms of numbers as we have seen from the numbers provided by the Oakland Public Library report African-American students is the most numerous group among the other ethnic groups in Oakland schools. African-American students form the majority accounting for slightly over 50% (some sources, like School Administrator Web Edition give 52%) of total schools’ enrollment.
Oakland school board believes that this group speaks so called African-American Vernacular English (AAVE), which is considered to be a mix of Pan-African language and American English (Salvucci). Both Salvucci and I doubt that this definition is correct as there are over 1300 languages spoken in Africa, which belong to four different language groups: Afro-Asiatic, Niger-Congo, Nilo-Saharan and Khoisan. Therefore it is doubtable that there is a possibility of a linguistic version that would combine elements from all of the African languages.
However, I believe the Board of Education had some common sense saying that there is a specific language spoken by African-Americans, which is culturally and historically based on West and Niger-Congo African Language Systems and was transformed into its modern version being influenced by English language spoken in the United States. The Board of Education believes that this language is the primary language of African-American students in Oakland (Salvucci). Since African-American students are the most numerous in Oakland public schools, the most common spoken language thus is the AAVE.
The most recent language added to the language spoken in OPS
This fact was officially recognized and called for certain actions to be taken. Oakland is known for its low level of educational success in schools. There were numerous reasons stated: the poverty, family problems, etc. although the one that is related to the topic we are particularly interested in is the language problem. Since English is not the first language to around 30% of students (Getridge) it is hard for them to study in this language.
Thus, the Oakland school board passed a resolution to recognize Ebonics (official version of the AAVE) as the primary language of Oakland African-American students and to adopt it as a second official language in Oakland schools. This resolution was passed on December 18, 1996 (Lee). From that point students were to be taught in that language also in order to increase their understanding of the material. The Board even suggesting schools to apply for federal funds to launch the bilingual education in schools. (Lee)
We see that this resolution of the Oakland Public Schools Board was rather logical and was based on numbers. Since English was only a second language to such a large number of students and the majority had one language that they would feel more comfortable studying in, it was a rather natural decision and could be beneficial if the new official language is applied correctly. We should not forget that there are many other numerous groups, like Chinese and Latin-American and White who do not know this language and have their own ethnic languages. Chinese and Latin groups are also very big is Oakland, thus the Board should be very careful in the language question, so that it does not violate rights of other groups while trying to benefit learning conditions for the other.
Bibliography
Getridge, Carolyn M. “Our Story of Ebonics: A Tale of Language, Literacy and Learning.” The School Administrator Web Edition. September 1997.Keleher, Terry, Libero Della Piana, and Manijeh Fata. “A Look at Seven School Districts.” Applied Research Center. August 1999.
Lee, Tena Jamison. “How Can There Be Free Speech If It's Only In English? The Debate Over Language Rights.” Human Rights 24 (1997): n. pag. Online. Internet. 28 Apr. 2005. Available: http://www.abanet.org/irr/hr/leespr97.html
Oakland Public Library. “Collection Development Policy Outline.” 2004
Salvucci, Claudio R. “Junk Science and the "Ebonics" Resolution: Is academia looking the other way?” Evolution Publishing. June 1997.
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Users have left 1 comment so far
Clearly the author did research ebonics very well because of the following statement: "Both Salvucci and I doubt that this definition is correct . . ."; It shows poor research as well as clear negative bias on the topic. Especially because the essay writer then makes the inaccurate assumption that all African-American students speak AAVE which is incorrect. We wouldn't assume that all Latino students speak Spanish or that all Chinese students speak Chinese, would we?
There are so many things wrong with this article . . . "it is hard for them to study in this language . . ." The sentence alone is poorly written and what is it even saying? Do you mean tha English is difficult to master? Do you mean that students struggle in their content area if the class is unmodified for English Language Learner? Do you mean that these students literally cannot study from an English textbook? This sounds like it may pass the high school exit exam but other than that, this essay is poor.