Lecture: Prof. Eric Dwyer “Situating English within (and without) Florida’s Multilingual Narratives”

In 1964, Coral Way Elementary, situated in the heart of Miami, opened its doors as one of the first dual language immersion programs to offer content curricula in English and Spanish in the United States. Indeed, in Miami, Spanish is used roughly in 75% of all homes.

However, in May 2015, a group of teachers, parents, and politicians gathered in a crowded room at the University of Miami to discuss a cross-generational shift from Spanish/English bilingualism to English monolingualism within their own families. They called their meeting “SOS: Save Our Spanish.”
In this presentation, dynamics of bilingualism in South Florida are examined, where in people’s homes it thrives, but in its education system it is almost nonexistent and mostly eschewed. An attempt will then be made to place Miami’s story within a worldwide scope of English as a medium of instruction.