The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
52. What is the Future of Spanish in the United States?
The Five-Minute Linguist - Bite-sized Essays on Language and Languages Third Edition - Caroline Myrick
Maria Carreira [+]
California State University, Long Beach
Maria Carreira is professor of Spanish linguistics at California State University, Long Beach and Co-Director of the National Heritage Language Research Center at UCLA. Her publications focus on Spanish in the United States and Spanish as a world language. She has co-authored four college-level Spanish textbooks: Nexos (2015), Alianzas (2013), Cuadros (2013) and Sí se puede (2008). She is also a co-author of Voces, Latinos Students on Life in the United States (Praeger, 2014) and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of Heritage Language Education (2017). Dr. Carreira received her Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
Description
This chapter focuses on the latest linguistic projections of the US Census, and the implications of these projection for the future of U.S. Spanish. An update on the status of Spanish in U.S. institutions of learning is provided, which presents a mixed picture: enrollments are down overall, but there are more Spanish-language courses for bilingual Latinos (heritage speakers). Finally, the chapter discusses projections for Spanish as a world language and relate that to the future of Spanish in the U.S.