1. U.S. English Dialects: Chicano English

2.  Southwestern U.S. and California  Roots in Bilingual culture  Spoken mainly by people of Mexican origin in the U.S.  Is not Spanglish, or watered-down English; is a fully formed dialect.

3.  It’s an interesting dialect because it grew out of a bilingual setting  It emerged and stabilized with the children of immigrants who grew up with both Spanish and English  Many of my students speak Chicano English  It is not a reliable indicator of how fluent they are in academic English or in Spanish.

4.  Chicano English is not “learner English”  It is a fully formed non-standard variety of English  Speaking Chicano English fluently is not a clear indicator of whether or not a person is fluent in Spanish.  Chicano English includes both Spanish influence, and the influence of other non- standard varieties of English such as African American English and Valley girl English.

5.  Spanglish is a term often used to describe interspersing Spanish words while speaking primarily English.  Many Chicano English speakers do this, even those that do not speak Spanish fluently.  It is natural code-switching that occurs when growing up in a community where two languages are spoken regularly.

6.  While Chicano English has been influenced by many different languages and dialects, we can now watch as the influence goes in the other direction.  Chicano English is now influencing various U.S. English dialects, especially in parts of the country with a large Chicano population.  In the school that I work at, everyone’s speaking is influenced by Chicano-English speakers.