[Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities
This article is a response to Mark Pfeifers Cambodian, Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese Americans in the 2005 American Community Survey and elaborates on the utility of the American Community Survey (ACS) for studying immigrant groups in the United States of America, and also compares the ACS to the U.S. C...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Purdue University Press
2008-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement |
| Online Access: | http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jsaaea/vol3/iss1/16/ |
| _version_ | 1818834739403948032 |
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| author | Gerda de Klerk Terrence G. Wiley |
| author_facet | Gerda de Klerk Terrence G. Wiley |
| author_sort | Gerda de Klerk |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article is a response to Mark Pfeifers Cambodian, Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese Americans in the 2005 American Community Survey and elaborates on the utility of the American Community Survey (ACS) for studying immigrant groups in the United States of America, and also compares the ACS to the U.S. Census. Neither the Census nor ACS questionnaire is structured to capture the language and literacy skills of immigrant communities in as far as these surveys only collect information about respondents oral language abilities, with a focus on English fluency. Direct, self-reported, and surrogate measures of literacy are discussed, with a proposal to use education level as surrogate for literacy. Using the Vietnamese subpopulation in the ACS, examples are presented of ways to construct composite variables from the ACS raw microdata, to measure respondents bilingualism and biliteracy. When such new variables are used in analysis of immigrant communities, a more complex multilingual picture emerges than is presented normally in Census and ACS data products available to the public. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-19T02:39:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c15b493cc0514b8bba6233a115fb4fa1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2153-8999 2153-8999 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-19T02:39:36Z |
| publishDate | 2008-01-01 |
| publisher | Purdue University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement |
| spelling | doaj.art-c15b493cc0514b8bba6233a115fb4fa12022-12-21T20:39:11ZengPurdue University PressJournal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement2153-89992153-89992008-01-013113010.7771/2153-8999.1112[Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant CommunitiesGerda de Klerk0Terrence G. Wiley1Arizona State UniversityCenter for Applied LinguisticsThis article is a response to Mark Pfeifers Cambodian, Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese Americans in the 2005 American Community Survey and elaborates on the utility of the American Community Survey (ACS) for studying immigrant groups in the United States of America, and also compares the ACS to the U.S. Census. Neither the Census nor ACS questionnaire is structured to capture the language and literacy skills of immigrant communities in as far as these surveys only collect information about respondents oral language abilities, with a focus on English fluency. Direct, self-reported, and surrogate measures of literacy are discussed, with a proposal to use education level as surrogate for literacy. Using the Vietnamese subpopulation in the ACS, examples are presented of ways to construct composite variables from the ACS raw microdata, to measure respondents bilingualism and biliteracy. When such new variables are used in analysis of immigrant communities, a more complex multilingual picture emerges than is presented normally in Census and ACS data products available to the public.http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jsaaea/vol3/iss1/16/ |
| spellingShingle | Gerda de Klerk Terrence G. Wiley [Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement |
| title | [Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities |
| title_full | [Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities |
| title_fullStr | [Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities |
| title_full_unstemmed | [Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities |
| title_short | [Special Issue on SEA Demographics] Response - Language Policy: Using the American Community Survey to Investigate Bilingualism and Biliteracy among Immigrant Communities |
| title_sort | special issue on sea demographics response language policy using the american community survey to investigate bilingualism and biliteracy among immigrant communities |
| url | http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jsaaea/vol3/iss1/16/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT gerdadeklerk specialissueonseademographicsresponselanguagepolicyusingtheamericancommunitysurveytoinvestigatebilingualismandbiliteracyamongimmigrantcommunities AT terrencegwiley specialissueonseademographicsresponselanguagepolicyusingtheamericancommunitysurveytoinvestigatebilingualismandbiliteracyamongimmigrantcommunities |