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"a“ :33 Ye ‘II ., 1 _ ,, . V 4|! u ‘ . L... ,.u=Aw.w......Lé, W . ‘ A pigtaias! in. : y A > 1 .v s6. .rk ? 1‘51 $.31. 57...... I1. f THESIS 7. 2009 This is to certify that the dissertation entitled NEGOTIATING EL DIFICIL: ENGLISH LITERACY PRACTICES IN A RURAL PUERTO RICAN COMMUNITY presented by CATHERINE M. MAZAK has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for the PhD. degree in fish 3 Wm H k 7 MajoFProfessor’s Signature W a? 5/ 906C) I / Date MSU is an Aifinnative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution LIBRARY Michigan State University PLACE IN RETURN BOX to remove this checkout from your record. To AVOID FINES return on or before date due. MAY BE RECALLED with earlier due date if requested. DATE DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE NOV 1 7 2007 mm 2/05 p:lC|RC/DateDue.indd-p.1 NEGOTIATING EL DIFICIL: ENGLISH LITERACY PRACTICES IN A RURAL PUERTO RICAN COMMUNITY By Catherine M. Mazak A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of English 2006 ABSTRACT NEGOTIATING EL DIFICIL' ENGLISH LITERACY PRACTICES IN A RURAL PUERTO RICAN COMMUNITY By Catherine M. Mazak This ethnographic case study explored the English literacy practices of a rural, Spanish-speaking, Puerto Rican community. Data collection took place in a K-9 school library which, with the help of a Title V grant, became a community center where students, parents, teachers, and other community members interacted. Data included ethnographic field notes from four months of participant observation, analytic memos, audio recordings of talk around text, textual artifacts, and interviews with ten focal participants. Focal participants included junior high students, teachers, lunch ladies, parents, and professionals. The study explored the questions: How do people negotiate English literacy practices (i.e. ways of using English text)? What is the nature of English literacy practices? What channels of communication (oral/ written, Spanish/ English) are used to accomplish one’s communicative goals? What are the factors that matter (class, gender, cross migration, schooling) in determining a person’s particular “linguistic toolkit”? What are the consequences (in terms of identity) of decisions about English use? What qualifies one to be a language broker? Who seeks out language brokers and why? Analysis of literacy events using Hymes’ ethnography of communication revealed that participants with a range of English language proficiencies used English text. The biggest differences in how participants used English text were discovered when comparing participation across age groups. Older people participated in English literacy practices in domains such as bureaucracy, health, and finances. Young people participated in practices in the domains of entertainment and personal communication. Writing among adults was limited to filling out forms, while young people wrote poems, songs, and letters. These differences were explained by considering how the literacy practices of adults and young people were connected to the institutions with which they interacted. Though English has earned the nickname “el dgflcz'l” (the difficult one) in Puerto Rico, the data showed that participants were able to accomplish their communicative goals with the substantial amount of English knowledge they had. This became clear through the study of language brokering events, when people (clients) approached others (brokers) for help negotiating English text. Previous notions of brokering characterized brokers as bridges between two people with mutually exclusive sets of knowledge/ language skills. On the contrary, in this study, those who sought help from English language brokers often had quite advanced English skills, and the broker may have had limited Spanish skills. Thus, brokering was not a transaction, but a mutual building/ sharing of knowledge. This study informs current thinking on English as an international and colonial language and offers suggestions for English teaching that builds on locally relevant and meaningful practices. Copyright by (LATTIERHDHSB4.NLAZAU( 2006 Para Tary: Siempre estaras en nuestros corozones. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to recognize the support of all those people who helped shape this project. First and foremost, thanks to my advisor, Dr. Geneva Smitherman, for inspiring me both as a scholar and mentor. Thanks to Dr. Anne Haas Dyson, and to all the members of the Advanced Qualitative Research Methods class, who patiently read many iterations of the project proposal and gave valuable feedback on design and methodology. I would also like to thank Dr. Ellen Cushman for her support throughout my graduate studies and her encouragement and intellectual rigor in relation to this project. Many thanks also to Dr. Marilyn Wilson, whose excitement about my work from the beginning has helped me to sustain this project, and who has been an inspiration to me as a teacher and teacher trainer. I am also indebted to the Spencer Foundation for both their financial and professional development support through the Spencer Dissertation Fellowship program. In addition, I would like to thank the Office of the Provost’s Special Funds for Professional Development for their mini-grant which supported the purchase of supplies for data collection. I would also like to acknowledge the Cultural Practices of Literacy Study under the direction of Dr. Victoria Purcell Gates for support in the form of transcribing interviews for this project. Particularly, thanks to Adriana Brisefio for her excellent transcribing work. I would like to thank my husband, Guillermo, without whom I would never have known so intimately the beautiful complexities of life in Puerto Rico. Without his personal support and intellectual insight, this project would be very thin indeed. Thanks also to Guillermo’s family, especially Titi, for their constant support through culture vi shock and long hours of ethnographic work. To nunca lo hubiera podia hacerlo sin wtedes. And last but certainly not least, thanks to Maria, the librarian, for welcoming me into her lively and fascinating world, and to all of my participants, especially the kids, who not only put up with my scribbling, but befriended me as well. Gracia: a todos por su apoyo. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables ..................................................................................................................... xii Introduction: Language and Literacy in Puerto Rico ......................................................... 1 Situating Puerto Rico Globally and Historically ......................................................... 3 Language Policy in Puerto Rico .................................................................................. 6 Second Language Literacy: An Argument for Embedding Disembedded Skills ......... 8 Chapter I: Theorizing Language in Puerto Rico ............................................................. 13 Heteroglossia, Caribbean Style: A Bakhtinian View of Language in Puerto Rico.... 13 Life in the Borderlands: language and Colonialism ................................................. 16 Expected Contributions: Demythologizing el Diflcil .................................................. 21 Implications ............................................................................................................... 23 Overview of Chapters ................................................................................................ 23 Chapter 2: Methods ......................................................................................................... 25 Communities of Contrast .......................................................................................... 25 Getting Connected: My Role in the Community ...................................................... 26 Cultural Sponsors and Social Class .................................................................... 27 Researcher Identity ............................................................................................ 28 N uestra Escuelita (Our Little School) ........................................................................ 29 The Library: The Heart of the School ............................................................... 30 School as Community Center ............................................................................ 33 English Teaching at the School .......................................................................... 34 Phase One Data Collection ....................................................................................... 35 Identifying Focal Participants ............................................................................. 37 Data Analysis ............................................................................................................. 41 viii Language Brokering and Border Crossings ............................................................... 43 Chapter 3: Language and Identity in Ramona ................................................................. 45 Spanish in Ramona ................................................................................................... 46 Appropriations and Borrows .............................................................................. 48 From Novice to Expert: Variations in the English Language of Participants ........... 50 Everyday English Texts ...................................................................................... 52 Attitudes Toward English

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