Maryland is increasingly becoming a multicultural, multiethnic, and multilingual state. Last July, the state reported that 16.7 percent of the population were born outside of the country– around 946,000 multilingual individuals out of 6,180,253 total residents. According to 2020 U.S. Census Bureau numbers and Data USA, about 22% percent of the state population identifies as belonging to ethnicities other than White American or African American alone, that is, Asian (about 6%), Multiracial (about 3.6 %), and Hispanic (about 12%). Relatedly, nearly 21 percent of Maryland households report speaking languages other than English at home as their primary language. The five most common languages in Maryland’s households other than English are Spanish (494,447 households) and Chinese, including Cantonese and Mandarin, (72,246 households), followed by French, Korean, and Tagalog.
These numbers demonstrate the linguistic and cultural richness of the state, and highlight the need to value the many economic, educational, and political contributions that this diversity brings to our communities. Multilingualism has always been part of our social fabric, despite English’s dominance. This has, for many years, created a tension between and within PK-12 education and higher education. While the first has often positioned the multilingual child as a “problem” to fix with the help of English Language Learning (ELL/ESL/ESOL) courses, the best higher education institutions, such as Washington College, recognize acquisition of an additional language is one of the most significant academic and professional assets one can obtain. This tension, between and within PK-12 education and higher education institutions, often limits students designated as English learners from accessing sufficient resources for their academic and professional success.
Unfortunately, due to the lack of a robust multilingual education, by the time high schoolers arrive at college, some have not fully developed their home languages. Similarly, many multilingual students (both ‘heritage’ speakers or international students) have to quickly “catch up” and acquire mastery of the English language during high school to thrive or get into college. Maryland community colleges do not currently award college credit for ELL classes, nor are these classes’s credits transferable to bachelor-awarding institutions. The problem with this “English first” approach is that we, as a society, are missing opportunities to energize multilingual citizens, value their multiculturality, and recognize their hard work.
Students and educators on the Eastern and Western Shores of Maryland are working together to ensure that the academic work of multilingual students is valued by passing the Credit for All Language Learning (CALL) Act in the Maryland General Assembly. The CALL Act requires Maryland community colleges to award degree-applicable credit for advanced ELL courses and requires Maryland colleges and universities to accept these transferred credits for the fulfillment of foreign languages requirements and/or Humanities electives. Multilingual students in Maryland who have taken ELL courses are working as hard as any other student learning French, Spanish, German, or Chinese. As a community college educator on the Western Shore and a World Languages professor on the Eastern Shore, we fully support the CALL Act because of the positive impact it will have on students, their families, and our communities. This Act brings value to the mastering of languages and to the academic work of multilingual English learners.
It is important to consider the positive impact the CALL Act will have on both the Western and the Eastern Shore’s education systems, economies, and cultural lives. At the high school level, the CALL Act would send a message to students learning English that the workforce and academic credentials offered at community colleges are for them, too. Community colleges, meanwhile, would likely see increased enrollments and retention of multilingual English learners. Currently, both Chesapeake College and Wor-Wic College offer robust ESL programs for beginners, and may add offerings of the advanced courses incentivized by the CALL Act. Many colleges and universities support this initiative, from ESL professors and staff at University of Maryland Eastern Shore to Washington College’s professors and staff. They all recognize that multilingual students are an asset for our state and our nation, regardless of a student’s first language.
The benefits of the CALL Act would also stimulate economic and cultural vibrancy in the region. Multilingual employees and multilingual businesses are better positioned to meet the needs of an increasingly multicultural and globalized world. Enhancing workers’ English skills is good for workplace safety, from the farm field to the packing plant to the hospital emergency room, energizing a more efficient workforce. Furthermore, valuing Marylanders’ multilingualism, and recognizing their hard work as active members of our society, is the first step in embracing the rich cultural tapestry made by the many cultures and languages they bring to our Shores.
We encourage our neighbors, on both shores of the mighty Chesapeake Bay, to support the Credit for All Language Learning Act. Contact your state senator and delegate and ask them to vote for SB395 and HB569, respectively. Our students will appreciate it, as will our local schools, businesses, and cultural centers.
Owen Silverman Andrews is a community college instructional specialist of ELL on the Western Shore. Dr. Elena Deanda-Camacho is a professor of Spanish and Black Studies at Washington College.
Bishop Joel Marcus Johnson says
What a fine article. 30 years ago, offering the first ESOL courses in Talbot in the former St. Andrew’s Chapel, Tuesday & Thursday evenings were prime time for our eager young adults. Part of the time was spent in black board presentations of language structure, which is remarkably different between English and Spanish – but also a necessity as some of our students were Mayan, straight out of the Guatemalan rain forest. Then, with our volunteer teachers, we had breakout groups introducing conversations. ….. Best of all, we soon had the partnership of the Talbot schools introducing ESOL classes. I cannot say enough of their devotion to these new learners. ….. Then, there was myself. I had the advantage of two persons, retired [the late] Rear Adm. Rafael Benitez, a Puerto Rican native, former law school dean, and trilingual. I wanted to speak Spanish as beautifully as our students in their new English – even elegantly for offering the Sunday Eucharist in Spanish. Then, there was also the church’s director of the Hispanic Enculturation Project, a young Costa Rican whom I hired, who spoke perfect English. Walking with our students through the isles of grocery and hardware stores, I caught on to coloquialisms found not in books but in the common daily ergot. ….. The object of the exercise? Find yourself an hispanic friend, learn the talk over dinners and drives, adopt his family. Moreover, support Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center!
Constance Morris Hope says
I fully agree with the authors of this important piece! Learning another language is a way to be exposed to new and different cultures, which, in turn, contributes to one’s appreciation of ‘difference’. The earlier we can offer this opportunity to our children the better. The more we can encourage them and provide an incentive to study a different language, the better!
For those whose first language is not English, we must appreciate that they bring important cultural diversity to our community. They should not be penalized. Their effort to learn English should be recognized. The CALL Act is a step in the right direction.
Willard T Engelskirchen says
This is such a complicated topic. My first wife, the mother of my children, was born in Chicago of Mexican immigrant parents. All three of them ended up with advanced degrees. When the kids were born, twins in 1967, I suggested that they be raised bilingually. Their mother said no because there was a study from anglophone Canada which showed that bilingual children did not do as well as monolingual children. This study has been debunked.
One of the girls, now grown women of course, pursued Spanish fluency by years of study and by living in Mexico and working on the economy for a year and a half. She has been interviewed in Spanish on Univision. It takes a lot of study and work to gain that kind of skill. She can translate in real time in front of an audience.
On the other hand, a relative who became the CEO of a company he founded told me once that he was asked by his then employer to attend a meeting in Mexico City. He did and was very distressed to learn that his Spanish was, as he described it, “kitchen table Spanish”. He vowed never to do that again.
This is, as I said, a very complex issue. It is complicated by the fact that many Hispanic Americans very rightly want to add to their cultural background rather than abandon it.