Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York [Paperback]

Ana Celia Zentella (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1557864071 | ISBN-13: 978-1557864079 | Publication Date: June 4, 1997 | Edition: 1

This book provides an inside view of the social construction of bilingualism in one of the largest and most disadvantaged Spanish-speaking groups in the United States.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Growing up Bilingual is a profoundly compelling account of what it means to come of age in an economically impoverished but linguistically rich cultural environment.Without romanticising an often grim situation, Zentella tells a story that has long needed to be told. It should be read by every teacher and social worker who deals with Puerto Rican children. It should also occupy a prominent spot on the bookshelf of anyone seriously interested in language policy, ethnolinguistics, applied linguistics, bilingual education, ethnic identity or Hispanic studies." Alicia Pousada, University of Puerto Rico

"Along with her splendid sense of the need to portray memory and history, she brings wit, grace, and intelligence to her intimate and detailed portrayals of the life and language of Puerto Rican children and their families in New York." Shirley Brice Heath, Stanford University

• Winner of the Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologists Book Award 1999


• Winner of the British Association of Applied Linguistics Book Prize 1998

"Zentella's book achieves its goal of describing the social and linguistic realities of New York Perto Ricans.........those who advocate for an English-only society and the elimination of bilingual education, as well as their foes, should read this work and consider the significance of language for those who are subject to domination by a different culture."Yolanda Rivera-Castillo, University of Alabama-Tuscaloosa

From the Back Cover

This book provides an inside view of the social construction of bilingualism in one of the largest and most disadvantaged Spanish-speaking groups in the United States. It walks readers through a New York Puerto Rican Community and describes the five varieties of Spanish and English that constitute the community's bilingual and multi-dialectal repertoire, the four major communication patterns that predominate in the homes of twenty families with children, and the syntactic features and discourse strategies of so-called "Spanglish".

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (June 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557864071
• ISBN-13: 978-1557864079
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #227,070 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Anthro-political linguistic study of code-switching., April 29, 2008

By 

Rebecca (Illinois/Iowa/Arizona, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New York (Paperback)

Zentella is an anthro-political linguist describing language use in a New York Puerto Rican neighborhood. She uses rich description and interview transcripts to illustrate the issues surrounding the use of English, Spanish, and "Spanglish" in a group of informants spanning two generations. This book focuses equally well on the anthropological, the political/social, and the linguistic aspects of language use and the decisions the informants make regarding their language use. Growing Up Bilingual is an important book examining some of the complexities of linguistic code-switching in bilingual populations.

5.0 out of 5 stars A sociolinguistic discussion on child bilingualism, March 3, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Growing up Bilingual (Hardcover)

Provides a comprehensive perspective on childhood bilingualism. It is a text for academics, teachers, administrators, sociolinguists, linguists, anthropologists and parents who are interested in learning about life with two languages in a small network within an urban environment.

The text is an excellent source and platform of research as it presents incisive data and colorful narratives of children's speech. Discussions on bilingualism at home and in the community, language loyalty, code-switching are among the many issues covered in the text. It is a must as we enter the millenium with a new perspective on multilingualism and language diversity in the U.S.A. or any part of the world.