Aliza Fones: Language Policy and Immigration

I definitely enjoyed Aliza Fone's lecture considering language policy and its links with immigration policy and the RIGHT to use languages. I do believe strongly that the US has a responsibility to provide equal opportunity for those who live in America, regardless of documentation status. This is why DACA programs, the Real HOPE Act in Washington State, and other pieces of legislature are so important and increasingly relevant. The right to use one's native language openly, and the right to learn the dominant language of the culture in which you reside, both need to be valued. And these rights cannot be passive or ambiguous; people should KNOW they can feel comfortable speaking their language in the US, have confidence that their children will have access to active and effective English language learning, and should know that they can value both without sacrificing the other.

But about the dilemma I brought up earlier in class - my friend, who is a native English Speaker, attended a session of Office Hours during which her instructor, and the other students that attended, began to speak only in Chinese. She was unable to understand until she interrupted the instructor and asked him/her to reiterate the points in English. The majority of students here found a more comfortable mode of communication to use, but was it right to exclude one of the few non-speakers during the office hours? I believe leading office hours in English, in this particular instance, would have been more appropriate. Does that speak to a de facto English policy that I seem to recognize at UW (for classes other than foreign language-learning courses)? It might! But I do not know how to find a happy medium here.