The practice of teaching English in Puerto Rico

Originally written on Thursday, March 3, 2011.

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Throughout the years the teaching of English in Puerto Rico has been shadowed by the language policy the government has implemented and the attitudes of Puerto Ricans towards the language itself. Spanish has been main language of Puerto Rico for more than 500 years since the Spanish colonization and remains the native language of the majority of Puerto Ricans. Even though English was not unknown before 1898 with the takeover of the U.S. of the island, the language was forcibly introduced and put into contact with Spanish from this time on. Any attempts towards shading a favorable light to the English language or the teaching of it in Puerto Rico as a useful skill and tool for professional and personal improvement have been clouded by chaotic language policies, partisan politics and negative views of the language as an imposition rather than a learning opportunity.


The first efforts to Americanize Puerto Ricans after the U.S. invasion were the implementation of at least six different educational policies towards language in a period of 50 years. With these and other facts, I see that that these policies did not take into consideration that there was no need for another language for Puerto Ricans to communicate in (if anything the efforts resulted in some students not learning appropriately either language) and so the Americanization plans were doomed to fail from the start. Learning English was simply an imposition rather than an option or choice so it comes as no surprise that these feelings may still prevail nowadays.


After the tumultuous changes in policies during these years, during the 1950s partisan politics seem to dominate the status of English in the island and influence public opinion on the issue. The changes in the 1990s between either have Spanish only as official language or have both Spanish and English as official languages have led the issue to become one of partisan passions than the result of previous study and evaluation. A 1997 Project to Create a Bilingual Citizen was also met with criticism which to this date has not achieved its goal. This program, as well as the rest of the English-language policies from 1898 through the 1950s, has obviously not been implemented with the aim of creating an educational policy geared towards responding to the socio-linguistic and political realities of Puerto Rico. If the educational process is going to be successful it cannot be based simply on partisan politics.


It is clear that the many studies conducted about English in Puerto Rico have basically been ignored throughout the years. The findings have pointed out the problems that many teachers face when teaching English in Puerto Rico. They could have been used to create a comprehensive English program in Puerto Rican schools but that has not been the case. These studies seem to show that Puerto Ricans do understand the benefits of learning another language, especially one such as English, and many even show a fervent desire to learn it, however the proficiency level of many seems to be very limited.


In my opinion, Puerto Rico cannot yet be called bilingual country, even though the influences English has had on the vernacular language and in Puerto Ricans themselves are evident. For me, it would not be a bad idea if our country could come to be called bilingual in the best meaning of the concept. Nevertheless, if one does not learn one’s native language well enough, continually develops and strengthens it, it could affect the way he or she learns a second language. For this, I agree with Dr. Alicia Pousada’s assertion in her paper, “The Singularly Strange Story of the English Language in Puerto Rico”, that English teachers should make students understand the beauty of their first language, for them to feel proud of it and not see learning English as a threat.


All in all, I believe the best way to resolve this issue is to start developing an educational policy towards language that responds to the realities of the Puerto Rico. It should absolutely steer clear of partisan politics and other opportunistic, unfounded reasons for commissioning projects and changes in educational policies towards language. The teaching of English in Puerto Rico will probably continue to have a turbulent trajectory but as English teachers we can never stop putting forth the efforts towards an educational reform that responds to the realities of the island.