ERIC Number: ED639229
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2021
Pages: 165
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: 979-8-3801-8315-4
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Available Date: N/A
Language and Identity of Transnational People in Central Mexico
Elena Costello
ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The Ohio State University
Within Mexico City a community has formed known as Little L.A. This community came to exist as United States call centers in Mexico employed English speaking repatriated Mexicans. Repatriated in that individuals were either deported by force, some returned by choice, some were US citizens who came back with family members or loved ones. A call was made for those who identified as bilingual to participate in a medical interpreting course in conjunction with The Ohio State University, a non-profit organization for repatriated people -- "Nuevo Commencements," and the local Mexico City government. All participants were of Mexican decent, various citizenship status, all had lived in the United States. While the objective began to train bilingual bicultural people as medical interpreters, the intensive course was forced to shift its focus slightly to look at language ideologies and language variety and language validity. While all participants had self-identified as bilingual, the language insecurity that comes from labeling in the US as "English Language Learners," or as having been labeled in Mexico as "not real Spanish speakers" while having had their US identity stripped, of having their Mexicanidad questioned, had created a feeling of linguistic inferiority. Language was used in the community as a tool of prescriptive superiority to argue "incomplete acquisition" and not belonging, and in turn the medical interpreting course had to confront these ideologies as part of understanding the value repatriated people brought to interpretation. The cultural knowledge that is understood as a bicultural person is not one learns in a classroom, the ideologies of language registrars, the identifying of language varieties and the understanding that perhaps their Spanish was different in that it was US Spanish and that in itself was a valid language variety. That perhaps their English was different, it was US English and that they possessed the ability to navigate US English that was being exploited by the call centers. [The dissertation citations contained here are published withTelecommunication the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]
Descriptors: Mexicans, English (Second Language), Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Language Attitudes, Intensive Language Courses, Bilingualism, Spanish, Biculturalism, Self Concept, Cultural Awareness, Employment, Language Variation, Telecommunications, Foreign Countries, Migration, Native Language
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Publication Type: Dissertations/Theses - Doctoral Dissertations
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Mexico (Mexico City); United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A