An Exploration of the Effects of Language Policy in Education in a Contemporary Puerto Rican Society

During the Spanish regimen, Puerto Rican education was limited and restricted to Spanish language as the medium of instruction. It was not until the U.S. colonization of the island that public education was introduced. As a result, English replaced Spanish as medium of instruction in the new educational system. Immediately after, Puerto Rican elitists and politicians ignited a political movement against using English (Algren de Gutierrez, 1987), resulting in a language battle fought through a series of educational language policies. In the end, policymakers enacted a language policy that reinstated Spanish as the official language of Puerto Rico’s education system . Consequently, policymakers also strengthened the use of Spanish instruction in Puerto Rican schools and universities while English was taught as a subject through all grade levels (Canino, 1981). Thus, this policy secured the island’s status as a “monolingual Spanish speaking society”. Education Policy Analysis Archives Vol. 24 No. 85 SPECIAL ISSUE 2 In addition, the enactment of this language policy also legitimized English as a de jure second official language, with the possibility of recognizing Puerto Rico as a “bilingual speaking society”. This paper discusses the impact of these language policies on the use of Spanish and English in education and presents a case study of Guaynabo City to exemplify the effects of these language policies on a contemporary Puerto Rican society and its acceptance of or resistance to becoming an English-speaking society.

In addition, the enactment of this language policy also legitimized English as a de jure second official language, with the possibility of recognizing Puerto Rico as a "bilingual speaking society".This paper discusses the impact of these language policies on the use of Spanish and English in education and presents a case study of Guaynabo City to exemplify the effects of these language policies on a contemporary Puerto Rican society and its acceptance of or resistance to becoming an English-speaking society.Keywords: language ideologies; language education policy; English as a second language; Spanish-English medium of instruction Una exploración de los efectos de la política del lenguaje en la educación en la sociedad contemporánea puertorriqueña Resumen: El sistema de educación Puerto Rico estaba limitado al uso del idioma español como vehículo de instrucción durante la época del régimen de España en la isla.No fué si no hasta que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos comenzó con la colonización de la isla que el sistema de educación público se introdujo a la isla.Con este sistema de educación se implementó entonces como vehículo de instrucción el idioma inglés reemplazando así el español del sistema.Esto desató inmediatamente un movimiento en contra del inglés por parte del grupo elitista puertorriqueño que se oponía al uso del idioma inglés en el sistema educativo de Puerto Rico (Algren de Gutierrez, 1987).Esto dio paso a una batalla que protagonizó el cambio de diferentes políticas de lenguaje en educación durante c uatro décadas.Como resultado, se estableció de una manera decisiva y duradera una política de lenguaje que establece el idioma de español como vehículo de instrucción pública en las escuelas primarias y secundarias al igual que en el nivel universitario en Puerto Rico Canino, 1981).Esta política ayudó a solidificar el estatus de la isla como una sociedad monolingüe española parlante.En adición esta política legitimizó el idioma del inglés como Segundo idioma oficial de la isla de manera tal que podría abrir la posibilidad de convertir a Puerto Rico en un sociedad bilingüe.Este documento presenta una discusión acerca del impacto que estas políticas de lenguaje tienen respecto al uso de los idiomas español e inglés en el sistema educativo en la isla.Además presente un resumen de un estudio de caso que ejemplifica los efectos de estas políticas de lenguaje en una sociedad contemporánea puertorriqueña que rechaza o acepta la posibilidad de convertirse en una sociecad angloparlante.Palabras-clave: ideologías de lenguaje; políticas de educación y lengua; inglés como segundo idioma; español e inglés como vehículos de instrucción Uma exploração dos efeitos da política da língua na educação na sociedade contemporânea Porto Riquenha Resumo: Durante o regime Espanhol, a educação Porto Riquenha era limitada e o meio de instrução era restrito à língua Espanhola.A educação pública foi introduzida somente após a colonização da ilha pelos EUA.Consequentemente, no novo sistema educacional, Inglês substituiu o Espanhol como meio de instrução.Imediatamente após à colonização, a elite Porto Riquenha e os politicos exaltaram um movimento politico contra o uso da língua Inglesa (Algren de Guitierrez, 1987), resultando em uma batalha linguística combatida através de uma série de leis educacionais de linguagem.Por fim, os legisladores decretaram o Espanhol como a língua oficial do Sistema educacional de Porto Rico.Consequentemente, os legisladores também reinforçaram o uso de Espanhol em escolas e universidades Porto Riquenhas, enquanto o Inglês era ensinado como uma disciplina em todas as séries (Canino, 1981).Adicionalmente, o decreto desta lei linguística também legalizou o Inglês como a de jure segunda língua official, com a possibilidade de reconhecer Porto Rico como uma "sociedade bilíngue".Este trabalho discute o impacto destas leis linguísticas no uso de Espanhol e Inglês na educação, e apresenta um estudo da cidade Guaynabo que exemplifica o efeito destas leis linguísticas na sociedade Porto Riquenha contemporânea e sua aprovação ou resitência em se tornar uma sociedade que fale Inglês.Palavras chaves: ideologias de linguagem; leis de línguas na educação; Inglês como segunda língua; Espanhol-Inglês como meio de instrução

Puerto Rico's Historical and Socio-Cultural Perspective
Puerto Rico is strategically located in the northeastern Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, and east of the Dominican Republic and west of the Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico became the focus of the Spanish colonization because its location facilitated trading and shipping of good and merchandise.This accessibility allowed Puerto Rico to become an important international trading hub for agriculture, especially for sugar and coffee.
Since Puerto Rico was already a trading port, the Spanish Crown issued permission to open up the slave trade into the island.The integration of African slaves in Puerto Rico became part of what Rohrlich-Leavitt (1974) referred to as Puerto Rico's inter-racial and cultural mingling.This contributed greatly to the cultural and racial hybridity that still exists, which comprises a Puerto Rican heritage coming from Spanish, Taino, and African descent.However, the Spanish culture and language and Catholic religion became prominent in Puerto Rican culture to this day.
Ending almost 500 years of Spanish rule, the United States invaded Puerto Rico in 1898 during the Spanish-American war.As a result, Spain relinquished Puerto Rico to the US under the Treaty of Paris (Resnick, 1993).Although Puerto Rico became a U.S. territory there was not a total political assimilation.They sustained a metropolis and colony relationship for most of the beginning of the 20 th century.The U.S. government appointed military officials, even though the Foraker Act of 1900 stipulated that the popularly elected House of Representatives should govern the island.In addition, the judicial system followed the American legal system, which consisted of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court and the United States District Court.Puerto Rico did not have voting rights in the U.S. Congress, but did appoint a non-voting member as representative of the island in Congress with the title of Resident Commissioner.It was not until 1947 that Puerto Rico popularly elected its first governor Luis Muñoz Marín, whose major contribution to the island was to pass a bill that granted Puerto Rico its own constitution in 1952.Under the new established Constitution of Puerto Rico, the island adopted the name of Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico (Commonwealth of Puerto Rico).The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico retains the political status of the island as a U.S. territory today.The U.S. Congress influences legislative statutes over Puerto Rican citizenship, currency, postal service, foreign affairs, military defense, communications, labor relations, and commerce, among others.As a result, Puerto Rico's economy has shifted from an agriculturebasedeconomy to one based on tourism, service industry, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Currently, Puerto Rico's political status is still the subject of debate and controversy.This debate is spearheaded by members of the three major political parties that exist in the island: El Partido Popular Democrático (pro-commonwealth), El Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP, prostatehood), and El Partido Independestista Puertorriqueño.The ideological alignment of these three parties and their position vis-à-vis Puerto Rico's relationship with the United States is also reflected in each party's position towards the use of English in education.

Theoretical Framework: Language Planning and Policy
Language planning is defined as "the deliberate, systematic and theory-based attempt to solve the communication problems of a community by studying the various languages or dialects uses, and developing a policy concerning their selection and use; also sometimes called language engineering or language treatment" (Bright, 1992, cited in Wiley, 1996, p. 108).Language planning and policies (LPP) are created in order to either homogenize or to validate and promote linguistic diversity in a given socio-cultural context.In other words, language policies can be the reflection of a sociolinguistic situation, such as language practices, ideologies, choices and legislation, as well as a vehicle through which language policies are restructured, constructed, and implemented (Dal Negro, 2009;Marten, 2010;Sloboda, 2009).These policies also establish various linguistic goals under various approaches.These approaches include status planning (attitudinal and political language/code/dialect choice), corpus planning (standardized norm selection and codification), and acquisition planning (language education decision-making) (Ager 2010;Ricento and Hornberger, 1996;Wiley, 1996).This resonates with the cases of Quebec and Tokyo where status language planning has taken place in order to allow French and Japanese, respectively, to prevail visibly in public spaces (Bakhaus, 2009).This strengthens the idea of how the publicly displaying particular languages through language policies can help preserve these languages' vitality within a given social context while at the same time representing their own linguistic community.
By the same token, LPP considers specific goals in the creation of language policies within and across the three orientations described by Ruiz (1984).These goals include language, political, and economic goals.The first category refers to linguistic goals that include language shift policy (language use shifts from one to another), language maintenance policy (maintaining native language), and language enrichment policy (revitalizing endangered languages).The second category considers nation-building concepts that include horizontal and vertical axis, and the third category promotes economic goals associated with international and global communication and marketing (Ager, 2010;Wiley, 1996).
More often these goals (linguistic, political, and economic goals) are considered in the creation of language policies at national and institutional levels, and are usually perpetuated and reproduced through the education system.For example, creating educational programs that implement language policies to privilege one language over another will determine whether or not any of the LPP goals will be achieved.The implementation of educational programs that assigns a particular language as medium of instruction in language programs (immersion, additive/subtractive bilingual, dual language) can determine the status, vitality and economic value (in terms of linguistic capital as an economic resource and social mobility) of a particular language.Furthermore, it will create social order and hierarchies by limiting or granting access to linguistic resources in a given space (Ricento, 2009;Tollefson and Tsui, 2004).This resonates with the case of Puerto Rico's educational system, which underwent a series of changes in language policies in education during the first four decades of American colonization (these policies will be discussed further in the paper).
Furthermore, in educational settings, language practices are often implemented in order to promote "ideological power in societies" (Shohamy, 2006, p.90).This ideological power permeates through language policies that choose particular languages as medium of instruction, perhaps even with the intention to replace others.As a result, the policy raises this language's status as well as allowing its speakers to acquire a higher level of linguistic, cultural, and social capital within the social context where it is enacted (Bourdieu, 1977).Tollefson and Tsui (2004) argue that "medium of instruction policy determines which social and linguistic groups have access to political and economic opportunities, and which groups are disenfranchised" (p.2).In other words, selecting a particular language over another as mean of instruction in education would grant economic advantages, power, and social mobility to those who are represented by the language of choice.This is why policy and lawmakers usually rely on rhetorical tactics in order to spark a "grass-roots" movement in order to inject their own political agendas into these policies.
In addition to Tollefson's and Tsui's (2004) argument about language educational policies as determining factor of linguistic capital, Hornberger and Johnson (2007) argue that such implementations, negotiation, and sense of agency regarding language policies can open up ideological spaces that can help implement language practices and facilitate language instruction.This is the case in Puerto Rico's language battle that was ignited at the beginning of U.S. colonization after the Spanish American war of 1898.During this period of time, language policies in the island were solely channeled through the education system.These policies allowed English and Spanish to vacillate as medium of instruction as an attempt to either provide Puerto Rico's younger generation with a space to facilitate English language acquisition as means of capital in the mainland and/or as means to ensure Puerto Rico's Spanish heritage by maintaining and preserving the language.

The Language Battle and Language Education Policies in Puerto Rico
At the beginning of the American colonization, a language battle emerged as the result of the U.S. attempt to infuse the English language through the newly introduced public education system.While under the Spanish regime, Puerto Rican education was very limited and restricted.It was available through the Catholic Church with Spanish as only medium of instruction, which also evidenced Puerto Rico's status as a monolingual Spanish speaking society.Public education was later introduced to the island with the installment of the new U.S. government.This meant that the English language would be injected through the education system in order to infuse American customs into the heart of Puerto Rico, the new generation (Torruellas, 1990).Soon after, Puerto Rican elitists and politicians ignited a movement against English as the medium of instruction in the education system (Algren de Gutierrez, 1987).As a result, language policies determining a language (either English of Spanish) as medium of instruction were continuously changing for the next four decades (see Table 1).
The first language policy in education was implemented in 1898 by the Eaton-Clark administration.This policy established English as the only language used as medium of instruction in schools throughout all grade levels.Spanish was eliminated from the curriculum completely until two years later when the Brumbaugh administration re-introduced it as medium of instruction along with English as a subject in early-grade levels.At higher-grade levels, English was used as the medium of instruction along with Spanish being taught as a subject.This was the first policy enacted as an attempt to re-introduce Spanish into the curriculum in the public education system.Nevertheless in 1903 and under the Faulkner-Dexter administration, English once again became the medium of instruction in all grade levels.However, Spanish remained in the curriculum but only as a subject.Although English became the primary language used in instruction, Spanish continued to be present in the curriculum, which in a way cemented the possibility of maintaining the language as part of Puerto Rican's cultural heritage.Later in 1917, the Miller-Huyke administration created and enacted a policy that would create Puerto Rico's first bilingual-dual program.This policy established Spanish as medium of instruction up to grade 4 and introduced English in content areas in grade 5 as a transitional model.English was then used as a medium of instruction in only higher-level grades.By this policy, consequently, the use of Spanish was increased from the previous policy, recognizing its importance for early childhood education and development.However, this changed in 1934 with Taught as a subject along with Spanish for the rest of the content areas.Used as medium of instruction in Higher grade levels across content areas along with Spanish as a subject.Faulkner-Dexter 1903-1917 Taught as a subject.
Used as mean of instruction in all grade levels across content areas with Spanish as a subject.Miller-Huyke 1917-1934 Used as medium of instruction across content areas for grades 1-4.Used as medium of instruction along with English as a transitional Bilingual program for grade 5.
Used as medium of instruction in grades 6-12 across content areas.
Taught as a subject along with Spanish for the rest of the content areas.Used as mean of instruction in Higher grade levels across content areas along with Spanish as a subject.Gallardo 1937-1945 Used as medium of instruction in grades 1-2 along with English as a subject.Used as medium of instruction along with English as dual bilingual program.
Taught as a subject in grades 1-2.Used as medium of instruction in higher grade levels along with Spanish as a subject.
Villaronga 1949-present Used as medium of instruction across grade levels.
Taught as a subject across grade levels.
the Padin administration, when English was only taught as a subject along with Spanish in lowergrade levels, but remained as medium of instruction across all content areas with Spanish as subject in higher-grade levels.This policy allowed Spanish gain more ground by eliminating content areas taught in English in lower-grade levels.After this policy, and for the first time, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt voiced his opinion regarding the instability of the language policies in Puerto Rico's education system.He further highlighted the importance for Puerto Rican's new generation to become competent English speakers as their right as American citizens (Resnick, 1993).This led yet to another policy instilled by the Gallardo administration that introduced English back into lower-grade levels and established a bilingual-dual program similar to that of the Miller-Huyke administration in 1917.This policy established Spanish as the medium of instruction across content areas with English as subject in grades 1-2.Grade levels 3-6 would use both English and Spanish across content areas, and English as medium of instruction with Spanish as a subject in higher-grade levels.This policy reduced the use of Spanish in the curriculum and led to the final and lasting language policy in education enacted in 1949 by the Villaronga administration, which established Spanish as only medium of instruction and English as a subject throughout all grade levels.To this day, this policy has ensured the preservation of Spanish as the primary language used for and by Puerto Ricans in school.This policy has had a huge impact on the relationship between Spanish and English and how Puerto Ricans interact with and through either language.Although both languages are the de jure official languages, Spanish remains the de facto language spoken by all Puerto Ricans on the island.Moreover, the Villaronga policy, established in order to preserve Spanish as the primary language used in Puerto Rico's education, has influenced the way Puerto Ricans construct their cultural, linguistic, and social capital through notions of identity and language use/display in their environment.This has specifically contributed to the embodiment of a self-patriotism, which opposes the sentiment of a centralized North American nation (Algren de Gutierrez, 1987).Therefore, Puerto Ricans developed a very strong sense of Hispanic pride that still thrives through contemporary urban Puerto Rican culture inside and outside the US.

Current Language Policy and Public Education in Puerto Rico
The Villaronga language policy of 1949, which established Spanish as medium of instruction throughout all grade levels, also allowed Spanish to continue to be both the de jure and the de facto language of communication (oral and written) in all of the non-federal government offices.This allowed everyone in the island, especially the average Puerto Rican with limited English contact, to continue to use his or her native language to access services provided by the government.On the other hand, this did not mean that English would be completely inexistent in the island.As the department of education developed further the curriculum for English classes as a subject, they also began to promote oral communication in this language through private courses offered to people involved in health care service institutions,and tourism (Muntaner, 1990).Thus, allowing English to occupy niches accessible to a specific part of the population gave those individuals the capacity to become bilingual speakers of English and Spanish, thus, strengthening and expanding their linguistic capital.The English language also became attached to the idea of progress, with the promise of better employment, social mobility, and economic prosperity on the island.However, this also solidified the exclusivity of progress to only those who could afford it, which constituted a minority of Puerto Ricans.
Subsequently, teaching English in the island became a problem in the education system.According to Muntaner (1990), Puerto Rican scholars, such as writer Rene Marques, pointed out the need to improve and deepen English education in the public system by placing the focus of education onto English rather than Spanish.Adversely, the opposition towards the English teaching movement felt that this focus was becoming a detriment to the Spanish mediated instruction in the island.Worried about the island's educational fate, the then-secretary of education began a campaign that involved denying accreditation to private schools that heavily used English in their curriculum.
Nevertheless, English continued to be the focus of the private sector all throughout the 1960s, and the private English schools continued to increase, once again, marginalizing those who were not able to afford to attend schools where the possibility of becoming bilingual was at hand.
Language policies in Puerto Rico were mostly, if not only, discussed as an educational issue rather a social one.The attempt to declare Spanish as the only official language in Puerto Rico did not occur until 1992, when the Partido Popular Democrático (Pro-Commonwealth), the political party in power at the time, repealed the Official Language act that established English and Spanish as official languages.Their administration created and enacted a policy that established Spanish-only as the de jure official language on the island.Although this policy was not exclusively directed to education, its implementation was again used to shape the curriculum in Puerto Rico's schools rather than language use in social contexts, even in the government.These discussions created opposing discourses and rhetoric about Puerto Rico's language and status situation that circulated around education.Many came to believe that implementing this policy was more a political strategy than a way to continue to allow Puerto Ricans to have access to quality education and to preserve Spanish as their heritage language (Schweers & Velez, 1992).However, with the shift of power to the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP) English became the focus in education policy.
In 1993, the Partido Nuevo Progresista (pro-statehood) took over the government and reverted to the old language act that established English and Spanish as official languages in the island.This, however, did not change the status of Spanish as the heritage language of Puerto Ricans nor did it replace it as the language of medium of instruction in the public education system.Aside from education , this policy didn't assign social contexts for English to exist that perpetuate certain Puerto Ricans' chances to become bilingual.Spanish continued to be the language used as a medium of instruction with English taught as a subject, just as it was dictated decades before by the Villaronga administration in 1949 (Rodriguez-Arroyo, 2013).The reinstatement of English as a de jure official language along with Spanish facilitated the government to create new initiatives to restructure the curriculum in the public education system.Governor Pedro Roselló, along with the secretary of education from the PNP party, created and established the Bilingual Citizen Act thatestablished programs to increase the amount of English content in the curriculum.These programs doubled the time originally allotted to English classes (45 minutes) as well as introduced English textbooks in the subject areas of science and math.They walso reinforced and emphasized the strengthening of English literacy skills in elementary grades.The program also included certified English teachers from inside and outside the island to teach in schools.This was a point of major controversy, since many teachers who were trained and only spoke Spanish feared losing employment.Once again, the changes in language policies within education proved to be just a political strategy, as the programs were left unevaluated and deemed to be an eventual failure.With the change of government these policies were completely eliminated by the opposite political party (Partido Popular Democrático) in 2001 (Navarro, 1997;Pousada, 1996).As before, there were no changes on language education policies during the term served by the Partido Popular Democrático until 2008 when the opposite party regained control.The governor Luis Fortuño began to plan bilingual programs in Puerto Rican schools with an initiative of 15 million dollars to be used in the implementation of 31 bilingual schools and for teacher training (Coto, 2012).Even though teacher training took place during the summer of that year, history repeated itself and the programs stagnated with the election of the opposite political party a year later.To this day, language policies in Puerto Rico remain a topic of controversy, not only in its political and social context, but also in education.The Spanish and English curricular framework used in the public education system highlights the importance of contextualizing language education into Puerto Rico's linguistic reality rather than its political situation.

Spanish Curricular Framework
The curricular framework used in the public education system in Puerto Rico is locally developed and implemented.It stipulates the standards and objectives that should be achieved and assessed in each one of the content areas included in the curriculum for all grade levels.The Spanish curricular framework is designed to provide a contextualized Spanish curriculum that best serves Puerto Rican students according to their cultural and social needs.It also fronts language as an important social and cultural tool that allows students to further develop their communicative and cognitive competence.It states that " language is the essential tool that students need to develop their cognitive and communicative competence to the maximum which will in turn allow them to facilitate social mobility, and to adapt accordingly to the demands that comes with it" (la lengua es la herramienta esencial… por lo que se necesita desarrollar al máximo las competencias comunicativas y cognitivas de los jóvenes para que puedan moverse adecuadamente en la sociedad del conocimiento y responder a los requerimientos que ésta les proponga" (Instituto nacional para el desarrollo curricular 2003, p. 7).Furthermore, it identifies Spanish as the vernacular of the Puerto Rican students and establishes the curriculum design as a tool to develop students' communicative competence.Therefore, the curriculum aims to help students to develop: 1) accurate communicative competence across diverse linguistic contexts.
2) a sense of cultural and national identity in relation to language.
3) cognitive and critical thinking skills.4) language awareness as a reflective tool that would allow students to re-assess their personality.5) a sense of transcendence to be aware and to adapt to their surroundings.6) strategic use of language in order to be active participants and contributors to the society they live in.7) abstract and esthetic perspective of artistic creativity as a way of expression.8) language skills (oral and written) in order to facilitate access to information and technology in academic settings as well as the workplace.
These objectives or principles of curricular Spanish instruction are embedded not only in the context of the classroom but also in the context of the students' cultural and social setting where they interact.In this sense, language instruction and the development of communicative competence are not only discussed academically but also socially and culturally.In other words, language is described as an academic tool for cognitive development and as a social tool for cultural and social development as well.
The curricular framework highlights Spanish as the vernacular and primary language of Puerto Ricans students, which is an integral part of their individual, cultural and social development.Nevertheless, it includes an approach to Spanish instruction as a second language to students whose primary language is other than Spanish, more specifically but not exclusively to Puerto Rican students (returnees) who were born and raised in the United States and whose primary language is English.These students have been identified by the Department of Education as Limited Spanish Speakers (Instituto nacional para el desarrollo curricular 2003).As in the case of Spanish instruction as a vernacular, Spanish second language teaching also focuses on the development of students' communicative competence and skills, and it is discussed within the body of literature from the field of second language acquisition.However, most of the curricular framework's focus is on Spanish as the vernacular and/or primary language of Puerto Rican students.
The Spanish curricular framework also situates Spanish instruction within the context of Puerto Rico.It provides a definition of what it means to be a Puerto Rican and how it relates to the use of their vernacular language from an ethnolinguistic and sociolinguistic perspective.It highlights the importance of language as a way of making sense of who Puerto Ricans are as part of a collective society, community, and culture.It further describes culture as a way of communication by which geographical boundaries can be transcended and blurred; especially when it comes to maintaining ties of communication between islander Puerto Ricans and the Puerto Ricans that live in the US as way to strengthen a common sense of identity and membership to Puerto Rican culture.

English Curricular Framework
Similar to the Spanish curricular framework, English instruction is developed by Puerto Rican educators and members of the National Institute for Curriculum Development (NICD).It also identifies Spanish as the primary and vernacular language of Puerto Ricans, which in turn places English as a second language in the island.The curricular framework also describes English as a contact language through Puerto Rican migration to the United States and as global language, a language of social empowerment, and a key to socioeconomic mobility.English is also described as a tool for social and cultural awareness.Furthermore, English is discussed within the historical, social, and cultural context of Puerto Rico's education system through the language policies that had been created and implemented since the beginning of this educational institution upon the U.S. arrival to the island in 1898.
As it was discussed previously, English is taught in Puerto Rico as a subject with Spanish as medium of instruction for all other subjects.This was decreed after 1947 when Puerto Rico's educational policy became autonomous under the supervision of Villaronga-Toro the commissioner of public education at the time.Before then, the U.S. government solely determined and established educational policies in Puerto Rico.This meant that all of the decisions concerning education were made outside the context of Puerto Rico, which extricated any sense of authenticity and relevance to the island's cultural and social situation.Therefore, English also became an outsider and foreigner to Puerto Rico's culture and its people.The English curricular framework draws from research that focuses on the attitudes of learning and teaching English in the island that highlight its disconnection from the linguistic and cultural reality in Puerto Rico (National Institute for Curriculum Development English Curricular Framework, 2003).This means that the cultural and social contexts where English exists has been limited and assigned through and within the educational system.Thus, since it is not widely spoken outside the classroom it creates a disjointed approach for teaching English as a second language in the island.
The English curricular framework takes into consideration the relationship between English language and its lack of contextual uses on the island as an attempt to connect pedagogical strategies of language instruction with Puerto Rico as an English-speaking society.It does recognize the fact that English does not fit into the traditional conceptual sense of a second language within a society.However, it does not provide further explanations as to what is the nature of the relationship between English and its contextual uses on the island.This disparity between English as a second language and Puerto Rico's linguistic reality is discussed in terms of the sequence of acquisition of the languages instead of its sociolinguistic nature.According to this curricular framework "stressing the meaning of 'second' as sequential in terms of the timing, i.e., sequence of language acquisition, we can move away from the traditional concept and its various emotionally and politically charged connotations.In this way, we can clarify and establish the order of acquisition of L1 (Spanish first) and L2 (English second) in Puerto Rico.Thus, a chronological sequence is established and the term ESL becomes more neutral and less politically and socio-psychologically charged" (National Institute for Curriculum Development English Curricular Framework, 2003, p. 8).It is pushing forward the idea that if English is considered only as a second language outside any cultural, social and historical issues, it would be easier to address English education under an additive perspective rather than subtractive.It would divert from a monolingual predisposition as a need to preserve the first language onto the acquisition of an additional one, in this case English.
Although it is not stated explicitly in the curricular framework, it is implied that the use of English as a second language in Puerto Rico's language instruction is a way to avoid the heavy connotations that the concept of bilingualism has, as per the initial intentions that the U.S. government had when they created and implemented language policies that designated English instead of Spanish as medium of instruction at the beginning of the 20th century.In this sense, the concept of bilingualism began to be perceived as a way to replace Spanish as the vernacular of Puerto Ricans and as a result it is commonly used today to describe what is considered to be English immersion programs in educational setting.This I believe is what causes a broad rejection for the implementation of bilingual programs in the island whether if it is approached under this perception or under the traditional sense.
In the same token, the English curricular framework draws heavily from a theoretical framework rooted in the second language acquisition field, particularly from a constructivist standpoint.This approach describes students as autonomous learners capable of establishing connections between their own perceptions and knowledge of their world and what it is presented in the classroom.In other words, student should learn within a contextualized environment that is relevant and pertinent to their reality.However, and as it was established before by the curricular framework, English is not part of Puerto Rican student's perceived reality.Therefore, teaching English as a second language in Puerto Rico seems somewhat contradictory in nature according to what this framework establishes (National Institute for Curriculum Development English Curricular Framework, 2003).It describes this approach as a way to provide students with genuine language input and communication amongst second language learners and the teachers as a facilitators.However, they do not place this kind of interaction in useful contexts that resemble that of the students' environment outside the classroom.

Specialized and Bilingual Schools in Puerto Rico
The general curriculum used across public schools provides a guide regarding how the English and Spanish languages are, and should be, taught in schools as subjects.In addition, the language policies implemented within the education system on the island establish which language is used as medium of instruction (Spanish) and which one is taught as an additional or second language (English).Because Spanish has become the only language used as medium of instruction in Puerto Rican public schools, the department added schools with bilingual programs that include English along with Spanish as medium of instruction within their part of their 'specialized schools' system (Unidad de Escuelas Especializadas).
This system exists within an educational subdivision in the department of education in Puerto that provides 45 schools with a curricular framework that focuses on particular subject areas.It was developed as a separate unit because it follows the structure of non-traditional education, which would require a different administrative and pedagogical approach.An example of this is the Montessori method and curriculum, which is also part of this system.This system was created to offer qualifying students with the opportunity to develop further their talents and skills in any of the programs they offer.Some of the programs focus on specialized subject areas such as fine arts, technology, agriculture and ecology, business, sports, and bilingual programs.Students who wish to attend these schools need to fulfill a series of requirements that include standardized examination in the area of language arts and math such as the PIENSE1 (Prueba de Ingreso y Evaluación para Nivel Secundario) exam.
No other public schools offer programs with English as medium of instruction outside this specialized schooling unit/system, which constitutes only 1% (10/1556) of the public schools that form the public education system on the island.Table 2 shows the list of the 15 bilingual schools by city and grade level that are part of this system, from which 10 are at the elementary level.This means that English is used as medium of instruction for the most part at the elementary level, similarly to the bilingual programs that exist in the US.In addition, these bilingual programs are defined and implemented differently across the board.The amount of English used as medium of instruction is not the same in every one of these schools.It depends on the definition they adhere to from the provisions established by the English curricular framework.These bilingual programs used the term 'bilingual' subjectively depending on the proficiency level of the students and the different degrees of linguistic contexts that exists in each area.Moreover, some schools might even implement different aspects of different bilingual programs into their curriculum.As for example, the Felix Rosario Rios School in Arecibo offers a bilingual educational program with English immersion, and English as a second language from kindergarten to sixth grade.Another example is the Antonio Gonzalez Suarez Regional Elementary School in Aguada that implements a more balanced bilingual program.In this school Spanish and English are used jointly as medium of instruction in the subjects of art, health, computing, and physical education.Spanish is used as only medium of instruction in the subjects of social sciences and Spanish, while English is used in math and science.

Effects of Language Policy in Education on Puerto Rico as an English-Speaking Society
As a result of the implementation of the Villaronga's administration policy that established Spanish as the medium of instruction in Puerto Rico's public school system (Algren de Gutierrez, 1987;Canino, 1981;Rodriguez-Arroyo, 2013) spaces for English to exist were reduced, while at the same time ensuring that Spanish would keep the domains that it already occupied.In addition, having English taught as a subject in a monolingual Spanish-speaking society that also kept a territorial relationship with a predominantly monolingual English speaking society complicated the way in which English language learning is described and approached.In their attempt to characterize Puerto Rico as an English-using society, Blau and Dayton (1997) point out that Puerto Rico appears to have characteristics that make it difficult to characterize the island as either an ESL or an EFL English-using society.On the one hand, different from an ESL society, Puerto Rico is not characterized by a high degree of multilingualism, nor it is different from a monolingual EFL society.Puerto Ricans give English a more important role in Puerto Rico than it plays in other EFL societies.For example, English is widely used in the domains of government, technology, business, media, and education within the island.This fits within Kachru's (1996) description of English as spoken in the different circles, which in this case resembles more of an English speaking society within the "outer circle".
Although English is widely used in a number of domains, different from ESL societies, in Puerto Rico English is learned through formal instruction rather than through the social interaction that comes about through exposure to native speakers on a daily basis.In general, Puerto Rican university students have had 12 years of English by the time they reach the university.
In addition, Puerto Rican society displays a cultural and political situation in which two languages exist in a conflictive relationship.Spanish and English are the two official languages spoken on the island.Because Spanish remains the language spoken by the vast majority of its inhabitants, Puerto Rican elitists reject the influence that English has had on Puerto Rican Spanish as part of a political agenda that is set out to maintain their version of Puerto Rican culture intact.Whereas Anglicisms are commonly found in most languages, and particularly in varieties of Spanish in Latin America, English borrowings are even more prevalent in Puerto Rican Spanish, where words like parking and sandwich are part of the everyday lexicon.Not only are English and Spanish related in conflict but also in paradox.Although Spanish purists on the island do not see English as part of Puerto Rican culture there is an undeniable fact that a heavy influence of English exists not only in the choice of English lexicon in its vernacular but also in their language practices.It is been well documented that Puerto Ricans can be proficient code-switchers of English and Spanish (Zentella, 1997).However, most of these researches focused on the Puerto Rican population residing on the mainland.Nevertheless, this is not to say that island Puerto Ricans do not engage in this kind of practice.According to Mazak (2008), even when Spanish is used as medium of instruction in Puerto Rico's education system, there are institutions (monolingual private schools, public and private universities) with de facto policies that provide the inclusion of English instruction by using textbooks in English that introduce content area key terms and concepts into the classroom.Although Spanish is expected to be the language used in communication in the classroom, as indicated by the educational policy that establishes the language as medium of instruction, it is perfectly acceptable to use English within the context of a given content area, so long as it is for educational purposes (Mazak, 2014).This creates ambivalence, not only in Puerto Rico's political future, but also in the possible repercussions of content and language learning.In addition, with the globalization of English, exposure to the language through media, and the ideology of progress and social mobility attached to the language, some of the Puerto Rican community on the island have recognized the importance of learning English.This has been long facilitated in Puerto Rican elitist society due to the fact that they have the means to access to education in English.Nevertheless, the majority of the Puerto Ricans have limited access to resources that would allow them acquire English, and with it, economic progress and social mobility.According to Hermina (2014), Puerto Ricans from the lower and upper middle class are more open to accept the establishment of more spaces for English in the public education system as they are " the individuals and families….who really see the need for English in their lives, and most importantly, they did not resort to politics or rhetoric to prove their points" (p.213).This also resonates with the National Institute for Curriculum Development description of English as a key to social power and socio-economic advancement, as well as its implication for the success of English language teaching and learning in Puerto Rico by detaching it from political ideologies (2003).

Implementing Spaces for Language Education Policies in Social Contexts
As per mediating regulations of human experience through social action, Ager (2001) argues that language planning should be considered as another influential factor on social and language behavior.Language planning is defined as a conscious attempt by which structured political, religious, and ethnic communities influence the way in which languages are used in institutionalized and academic contexts (Ricento, 2009).In addition, language planning concerns decisions exercised by individuals and/or communities.Once decisions regarding language planning materialize, it is said that language policies are enacted.Language policies are also a way through which these communities or entities exercise power, organize society, and balance the distribution of resources.In contrast to language planning, language policies are legislated by political, governmental and educational states in order to wield power over a determined society (Ager, 2001;Wiley, 1996).According to Canagarajah (2005) identities and notions of self are heavily influenced by the discourses that are embedded in societies.Therefore, suggesting that decisions regarding language can form discourses that not only shape the identities of individuals that interact in social contexts such as linguistic landscape, but can also reproduce and reconstruct language ideologies according to the changes created and enacted through language policies.In other words, there exists a direct connection between language policies, language ideologies, and practices within the social and cultural contexts where they occur.Language policies can be enacted by either official legislation at de jure practices, or by the agency of individuals and/or community as de facto practices.Furthermore, they also depend on the environment where they exist (Hult, 2009) where individuals as well as whole communities adjust to the different ways in which language policies are employed across different domains including educational reform and setting.This is the case of Guaynabo City where the prevalence of English in its public spaces also represents the educational policies that include the language as medium of instruction in its private sector.Thus, implementing a de facto policy in the public signage where English can exist within the city confines will open contexts where students and English speakers alike can use it and interact with it outside the classroom.Thus, it facilitates language learning and promoting bilingualism in the city as a whole.This is precisely what makes Guaynabo City such an interesting case.This city has appropriated and claimed its public space as a contextual niche for English to exist.Changing the municipality's linguistic landscape into English influenced the way English is used contextually and how it is perceived at a smaller scale in the island.

Guaynabo City
Guaynabo City is located in the metropolitan area to the northeast of Puerto Rico and west of the capital of San Juan.It has a land area of 27.13 square per miles, and a population of 107,783 inhabitants.It was long considered a rural area until the 1960s when a proliferating economic revitalization began to take place through a service industry-based economy.Consequently, Guaynabo city is also one of the cities in Puerto Rico with the highest per-capita income ($16,287 USD).In addition, people in this city usually pride themselves on the fast economic progress it has undergone, which is often times connected to the ability to use the English language, not only in the academic and job marketability sense, but also, and recently, in a cultural and identity indexical sense.This is reflected and perhaps proliferated through the current administrations' political ideology.For the past 20 years, the city has been administered by the honorable Hector O'neill García, the head of the Partido Nuevo Progresista (PNP).The PNP is one of the three major political parties that exist on the island, and whose mission is to advocate towards the annexation of Puerto Rico to the US as the 51 st state.Therefore, one could conclude that there is symbolic adoption of English in public spaces, which might be considered as a political statement to show its linguistic parallel to the mainland (US).In addition, because of the rapidly increasing proliferation of the Puerto Rican upper-middle classes, several private schools that broadly include the use of English as the medium of instruction were founded.Although there are other bilingual schools on the island, multiple bilingual or English immersion schools are not located in the same municipality as is in the case of Guaynabo City.In a way, these schools are representative of what a bilingual community is, since having multiple schools where English is acquired by its students will increase and spread the amount of bilingual speakers and contexts uniformly within the city.
Guaynabo City makes an interesting case study as an implementational space for language planning and policy because, as of now, it is the first and only city that has adopted English as the primary language used in the municipal signage.Guaynabo City's economic progress and positive ideology towards English, has led them to create a de facto language policy that provides the citizens of Guaynabo City with not only an ideological space for English to exist but also a physical and contextual space where people can interact with the language.Having English present in Guaynabo as a part of the city's culture has created a more welcoming and accepting attitude to schools that provide with instruction in English.Guanaybo City is one of the cities with the most private bilingual and English immersion programs in the Puerto Rico.Most of the private schools that are located in Guaynabo City include all grade levels.In addition, Table 3 shows the different language teaching approach that these private schools offer.Similar to the public education system, most of the private schools that are located in the city use Spanish as medium of instruction with English as a subject.Nevertheless, there is a considerable amount of private schools in this city that offer either programs with English immersion instruction with Spanish as a subject or bilingual programs through all grade levels.Although Spanish is mandated as medium of instruction through educational language policies, this does not mean that private educational institutions are not free to establish their own programs including English as medium of instruction or some other form of bilingual program.As mentioned before, Guaynabo City is one of the cities on the island with the most English immersion and/or bilingual schools.In a sense, having English as part of the visible spaces that occupy the city is one way to establish a parallel between the existence of English schools and the existence of English in the city's sociocultural and socioeconomic contexts.Moreover, it could be interpreted as an attempt to contest the language policies in education that have been established by the opposing government, which does not provide wide and general language planning and policies oriented to foster English in the public education system.
As expressed by Hermina (2014), many Puerto Rican parents acknowledge the importance of their children's learning English and the need for the education system to implement more stable educational policies across schools district in the island that would facilitate the development of programs that are more inclusive of an education in, and, with English.Bilingual/English immersion schools are scattered across the island's municipalities and only constitute 1% of the public school population in Puerto Rico.In addition, there aren't as many opportunities to be exposed to the language outside the classroom like in the case of Guaynabo City where English is present in the city's landscapes.It would be safe to say that having the opportunity to continue to use the language outside the classroom would afford students and speakers alike to strengthen their language skills and most likely becoming proficient bilingual speakers of English and Spanish.Nevertheless, it is important to consider that in contrast to the other bilingual/English immersion programs offered by the department of education across the island, the one that exists in this English-rich context are only affordable to those with the economic means to access this kind of education.As of now, the opportunity for Puerto Ricans to become bilingual is more an economic issue than anything else.Many of Guaynabo's citizens expressed frustration about the financial sacrifices they endure in order to be able to be able to afford to send their children to these schools.However, they also express gratitude about the opportunities these schools provide and for their children to be able to acquire English in the hopes of giving them a better life than they have had (Maldonado, 2015).Nevertheless, these opportunities would be further reached had the department of education in Puerto Rico created language policies that are politically disenfranchised and more pedagogically inclined.

Conclusion
If we take the history of Puerto Rico's linguistic situation, it is evident that language planning and policy in education has oriented English as either a resource or as a subordinate language depending on who is in power.Because language policies are directly associated with the island's political status and relationship to the US, language planning and policy becomes an educational problem seeded in a strategic political form of rhetoric.In a sense this resonated with Algreen De Gutierrez' (1987) claim that Puerto Rico's language situation will not change until the island experiences a change of political status in relation to the US.Guaynabo City's language ecology is shaped by the political views and ideologies that exist according to the political party that administer the municipality.Guaynabo City's administration belongs to the political party, the Partido Nuevo Progresista that uses English as a way to promote their agenda of becoming the 51 st state of the US.It is almost as if the Guaynabo City's municipality is allowing English to have a physical representation in the spaces that surround the city in order to create an environment where English visibility is synonymous to statehood.As a result, Guaynabo City becomes a site where the status is cemented through the use of English while at the same time attempting to resolve also the language situation under a contextual, and educational, approach.
Guaynabo City could be seen as a model of what could happen on the island if the political status was to be resolved in favor of English and statehood.English would be taught through the public education system as a language with a similar status to that of Spanish.Thus, this ideological stance could also affect the way English is taught in Puerto Rican classrooms, as well as how it is viewed amongst island Puerto Ricans.In Guaynabo City English is viewed as a cultural marker as well as a language that can provide its speakers with economic and social mobility within Guaynabo City's context (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2010).Language education policies that privilege English as the medium of instruction would also contribute to the implementation of spaces where English can exist.
Therefore in a setting such as Guaynabo City the implementation of de facto language policy that creates spaces for English to exist is an indirect way to model the trajectory of where language education should go.It also affects the way its residents perceive and reconstruct ideologies about the language (English).This trajectory points to a more inclusive approach towards English that minimizes the ideological conflicts that exist between English and Spanish in Puerto Rico.This reflects Ruiz's (1984) orientation towards language as a problem, where including English as a visible language in the public spaces of Guaynabo City aims to encompass English with a more positive ideology, almost as if it is held in the same symbolical place as Spanish.This implementation of language planning and policy, or in other words, building an ideology towards English that resists the hegemony of the monolinguist perspective in Puerto Rico and Spanish, .willallow open spaces where English can exist (Hornberger, 1996).

Table 1
Language policies in Puerto Rico's education system: 1898-present

Table 2
Specialized bilingual schools in Puerto Rico by grade level

Table 3 .
Private education policy analysis archives editorial board Lead Editor: Audrey Amrein-Beardsley (Arizona State University) Executive Editor: Gustavo E. Fischman (Arizona State University) Associate Editors: Sherman Dorn, David R. Garcia, Eugene Judson, Jeanne M. Powers (Arizona State University) Cristina Alfaro San Diego State