Introduction

With the Latino population in the United States increasing every year, much attention has been paid to teaching English to Spanish-speaking immigrant children. There is the great debate over bilingual education - does it help or hurt? The debate will no doubt continue for many years to come, but it only address half of the population. What about the parents and older relatives of these Spanish-speaking children? If they did not speak English before arriving in the US, how do they communicate in this new environment? One solution of course is to live and work in a barrio where the majority of the population can speak Spanish. However, this can be limiting, with few opportunities to leave the barrio, and there is not always such a neighborhood available. Another option, only available to those with sufficient support, is to have children or other relatives serve as translators. This too is limiting, and does not promote independence in a majority English-speaking country. A third option is to take an adult education class in English as a Second Language (ESL). Again, this is not available in every area, but where there are ESL classes for children, there are likely to be adult classes as well.

Even when ESL classes are available, not every Spanish-speaking adult takes them. The issue that I want to study is what motivates certain individuals to take ESL classes. Are there any trends among individuals who take classes in terms of age, gender, or goals for the future? Of course, taking a class is not the only way, or even necessarily the best way, to learn English, but they offer a more structured introduction to the language, and people in the classes can provide a glimpse into the direction that this specifically educated portion of the Latino community is leading.

Princeton, New Jersey: An idyllic suburb containing a prestigious university, a world-class theater, and more cultural events than most towns its size could hope for. Peaceful country setting with public transportation access to nearby New York City and Philadelphia. Lily-white, upper-middle class population. These sentences are relatively accurate descriptions of Princeton Borough, except for the last one. While the image of Princeton is that of a rather homogenous town, there is an 'invisible' population that the guidebooks rarely mention, made up of people of color. Invisible because they are not well-represented in the crowds strolling down the sidewalks of Nassau Street on Saturday afternoons. The African-American population has roots that go back before emancipation, and there is a newer growing Latino population. The Latinos in fact are particularly visible - if you know where to look: A tex-mex fast food joint, a bakery, the University eating clubs, a landscaping firm. And if you go down a certain street off of Nassau, or another one behind Palmer Square, you can see their children playing on the sidewalk. Yes, the Latino population is here, although not to the degree of other cities in Northern New Jersey, which has a much larger immigrant population because of its proximity to New York. Latinos in Princeton may live in the same neighborhood (there are not many areas of Princeton with inexpensive apartments and houses to rent), but there is no real enclave. This is (obviously) not Los Angeles, where a person can go to a Latino owned store, buy a Spanish-language newspaper, pass signs in store windows written in Spanish, register to vote and take a driver's test, all with out speaking a word of English. In such areas, Spanish is an asset that enables one to function in a virtually self-sufficient district if one lives, works, and socializes in certain parts of LA. "You need to speak Spanish here," says Francisco Simon, a Guatemalan émigré living in LA. "I speak English at school...and Spanish to almost everybody else." ^{For an adult who is not in school, there is little need to learn English while living in a totally Spanish dominated community. At the same time, such a situation can be very isolating, because outside of the barrio it is much harder to get by without English. So the non-English speaker is bound to the borders of the barrio. Princeton does not offer such a community, but it is precisely because it does not have the same elements of the barrio (crime, dearth of job opportunities, failing school system) that draws many immigrants to the area. Does that mean that a Spanish-speaking immigrant can not survive in the borough without English? Not necessarily. That professor who needs a housekeeper just might speak Spanish, and it is easier to get by when several of the other workers in that eating club speak Spanish as well. However, these jobs where English is not a prerequisite usually do not provide large incomes or opportunities for advancement. A non-English speaking immigrant may get along fine working for a landscaping firm with several other Spanish speakers, but he would not be able to run his own landscaping business without the ability to speak to potential customers and colleagues.}

I learned about the ESL classes through Community House, a service organization on campus. My contact was a university student who volunteers to teach a class once a week at the YWCA, so I went to the one that she teaches. By visiting only one class I was able to go several times and get to know the individual students. I attended the class for four weeks in a row, and I really became a part of the class. The first time I went I had the students fill out a brief survey about themselves to document simple background information. In subsequent classes I helped the three volunteer teachers with their lessons. Observing the students and talking to them one-on-one gave me a lot of insight into their experiences, without going through the extraneous effort of setting up separate interviews, and I was able to help them with their English skills at the same time.

The survey asked for the age and gender of the student, country of origin and former job there; length of time in Princeton and current job here; future career aspirations; amount of people in household and how many speak English; and length of time expected to stay in Princeton. All of the questions were in English, with a Spanish translation below. For the beginner students, I individually asked them the questions in English, and translated into Spanish if they did not understand something. The more advanced students, who had more practice reading and writing in English, filled out the surveys themselves, with help from the other teachers and me when necessary. Looking back, it probably would have been better if I had asked the questions to the advanced students the same way I had asked the beginners. Asking each student individually would have been less confusing and more efficient, but I do not think that the answers would have been any different.

I used a survey format so that I would have the same information on all of the students. A asked questions specifically about employment to see if they experienced any downward mobility upon arriving in Princeton, and if they had specific goals in mind and/or aspired to jobs that specifically required a knowledge of English. The question about how long they wanted to stay in Princeton revealed their dedication to settling down here for good. For some students, this question also showed woe well they felt that they fit into the area; the few who enthusiastically intend to stay here felt positively toward the town. The questions about the household proved not to be as informative as I thought they would be. The answers were inconsistent because some people included themselves among the members of the household who spoke English, and some did not. The question did suggest that if there were a lot of people living together then there would be less space for students to study on their own time, but I do not know if that is really a valid assumption. Nonetheless, the combination of the information gathered from conversations with students about their experiences and the surveys provided enough insight into their lives to be able ascertain a lot about their motivations for taking the class.

The first Thursday night it is pouring rain. Stephanie, Becca and Shlomit climb into the red Community House car and drive down the street to the Princeton YMCA. Two ESL students are already waiting, sitting quietly at a table in the sun room. The three volunteer teachers go the ESL resource office and grab some extra books that they think they might use tonight. A third student arrives as they are setting up, and the six people spread out in the kitchen and dining room, one student per teacher. Eventually three more students join Becca in the kitchen, where they work on reading and writing skills. For tonight, nobody else ventures out in the rain to come to class.

Stephanie works with the lone female in the class, a middle-aged woman from Colombia. Pupil A, we'll call her 'Alicia,' forgot her reading glasses at home, so she can only read what Stephanie writes on a large tablet across the table from her. 'Alicia' mentions that the other night when she went to class the Wednesday night teacher used a book that she thought was very good, so they continue working with the same book. They go over questions such as 'what is your name?' 'what is your address?' and 'what is your phone number?' 'Alicia' continues asking and answering questions and spelling the words out loud for most of the evening, lapsing into Spanish when she has a story to tell about her son or her 'working.'

'Alicia' differs from her classmates in several areas. She is the only woman here tonight, and she is also older than anyone else. She has been in the US for the longest amount of time (ten years), yet she knows the least amount of English. At first it may seem odd that 'Alicia' waited so long years before taking an ESL class, but it was not possible, nor even really necessary for her to do so earlier. She works for a couple that speaks Spanish, so she did not need to learn any English for her job. She has been a housekeeper for this same family for all of the ten years that she has been here, but now she is starting to think about changing careers. She would like to work in the field of cosmetics, and she knows that she must know English in order to land such a job. Now that her employer's children are older, and some have moved out of the house, she does not need to spend as much time at work, and she has time to pursue her own studies. This is the first time in several decades that she has been a student. As the oldest of ten children, 'Alicia' had to drop out of school around the third grade in order to help out her family. Her lack of education in Spanish makes it that much harder for her to read and write in a foreign language. After ten years here, 'Alicia's' husband and son do not want to return to Colombia. Her employers gave her a plane ticket to go home for a month as a Christmas gift, so she can see her family and friends again without moving back.

The next student, let's call him 'Berto,' works on reading and writing questions similar to the ones 'Alicia' reads out loud. He seems slightly embarrassed by his situation, he blushes easily. Twenty year old 'Berto' was a student in Mexico City before he came to Princeton, now he works in a bakery. His higher level of education shows in his better penmanship and his realization that he is starting at the bottom. He has already been here for four years, but he does not know too much English, but he is good at faking it. Unlike 'Alicia,' he does not expect to live in Princeton for the rest of his life; in a few more years he would like to return to Mexico.

In the kitchen, four young men in their early twenties read short stories and practice tongue twisters with Becca. This is the advanced group - they can carry a conversation in English, but they still need practice. Most of them were students in Mexico, Colombia or Guatemala before coming to the Princeton area. Their ambitions in the future vary from moving up in the ranks of the painting profession in order to be a spray painter, to becoming an interior designer, to simply working 'somewhere better' than the low-wage jobs as baker, painter, landscaper or the all-encompassing store helper. Their futures in the Princeton area are varied and unsure as well. One expects to return to his country within a few years, another one says 'I don't even know.'

At the end of the two hour session, the four advanced students are teaching Becca some tongue-twisters in Spanish. 'Alicia' is telling Stephanie in Spanish about how she worries that her teenage son does not like to do his homework, and 'Berto' continues to write about the characters in the reading comprehension book. As they say their good-byes, the volunteer teachers speak English while the students sprinkle their responses with Spanish. The observer sees that this two hour ESL class not only helps develop English skills, it also helps the new and the not-so-new immigrant feel more comfortable in the Garden State. Nobody laughs at their heavy accents, and the teachers can speak Spanish if the student is confused.

Although the weather is much nicer, fewer students show up the next week. The teachers are very excited about an idea that they have to pretend to have interviews for a dating agency, the students are a bit less enthusiastic. The class starts with all three of the students together around the long table, reading aloud the model interview form an ESL textbook. The students are politely interested, but they become more involved when they fill out information about their favorite color, food and music. Later in the evening they split up again. 'Alicia' continues working on filling out information about herself, and 'Carlos' and 'Donaldo' write letters to a character in the textbook. Neither man has been out of school long, 'Carlos' in Colombia and 'Donaldo' in Guatemala, but 'Carlos' is the more industrious of the two. He has just made plans to enroll in courses at the community college next fall to study interior design. The two hours go by quickly, and soon 'Carlos' is rushing off to catch his bus, as everyone else slowly starts their good-byes, and the class is over.

A pattern has developed with arrival times. 'Carlos' is already waiting when the teachers arrive. 'Alicia' would usually be waiting, but she does not make it tonight. A sudden thunder storm erupts, and for a while it looks like 'Carlos' will be the loan student, when all of a sudden 'Emilia' arrives. She has not been to class for a while, but is very excited to see the familiar faces of Stephanie and Shlomit again. Like 'Alicia,' 'Emilia' is in her forties. She works as a babysitter for a woman with three children. 'Emilia' left her native Venezuela only ten months earlier, with the intention of starting a new life in the US. Her children and the rest of her family remain in Venezuela. In ten months she has learned more English than she at first lets on, but in her excited state from seeing the teachers again most of her words only come in Spanish. The class decides to go on a field trip to a nearby ice cream parlor, and all head out into the diminishing rain. As if on cue, 'Donaldo' appears in the parking lot on the way to the car. At the ice cream shop, everybody orders for themselves. It takes a while with so many choices available. The men both get large cups, thinking they can handle it, but later they have trouble finishing. After loitering around the shop for some time, the group moves to the public library across the street. 'Carlos' actually goes there often, at least once a week from the time he gets off work to when the ESL class begins. He does not can not borrow books because he does not live in Princeton and does not want to pay the twenty dollar fee to get a non-resident library card. 'Donaldo' does live in town, so he decides to apply for a library card. He seems excited at the prospect of borrowing all kinds of books and even video tapes for free. Tonight's class did not have any formal classtime, but the students found the 'real world' experience to be fun and helpful.

One of the teachers could not make it today, but the teacher-student ratio is still incredibly high. Once again 'Carlos' is the first to arrive, and the teachers try to play a complicated word game called "Taboo" with him, but its a little difficult to explain. Eventually the same two students from last week come, just as a game of charades is developing. A simpler game to explain and execute in English, charades provides a good laugh or two as well. The class had started at a picnic table outside, but it gets chilly soon and everyone decides to move inside. There, the students write about their experiences on the 'field trip' last week. The pace slows down a lot from the frantic charades game, and soon it is time to say good-bye again.

Only a few students make it consistently every week to class. Their ability to come and dedication to the class illustrate motivations that others who come sporadically may lack. A study appeared in the journal Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in 1989 entitled "Hispanic Adults and ESL programs: Barriers to Participation." The study investigates what kind of deterrents prevent Hispanic adults form taking ESL classes. Although my study looks at motivation to take classes, the students in the class overcome many of the barriers that the TESOL study mentions. The TESOL study separates different barriers into groups that are useful for analyzing.

The biggest barriers have to do with the present situation and responsibilities of the prospective student. The cost of moving to Princeton is very high, and most newly arrived immigrants work long hours each day, six or seven days a week, just in order to get by. It took student 'Alicia' ten years before she was able to work a schedule which allowed her to take classes. For many who work in service industry related jobs, an ESL class is a luxury simply because any free time is a luxury.

Accessibility is also a big hindrance. Student 'Fernando,' a housepainter who lives in Trenton, came once during the month that I went to classes. The fact that he does not live nearby prevented him from coming more often. On the day that he did come he had just gotten off of work, so he was probably working in the area that day. The students who do make it to class regularly either live or work within walking distance of where the classes are held.

Childcare is also an issue that the regulars do not have to deal with - most of them did not have any children. Of the two mothers who attend the class, one of them has an eighteen-year-old son who obviously does not need childcare, and the other woman's children are all in Venezuela. The situational constraints that the TESOL study found to be prevalent do not apply to those students who go to the class most often, so they can best take advantage of the classes.

A second type of barrier more directly related to motivation involves students' perceptions of the class and of themselves. People who can perceive themselves as students have an easier time adjusting to the classroom environment, and the regular students already had some sort of connection to a school environment before enrolling in the class. The younger members were recently students before coming to Princeton, so they are used to being in a classroom situation. While the two mothers have not been in school for many years, they both have school-age children and therefore have second-hand experience of the classroom culture by way of them. This amounts to ESL students not feeling that the classroom is a foreign space for them to be in, which an older adult with no children and no reason to ever be around any schools might feel. The students must also perceive that the classes will be helpful to them, which is evident with the regular students. Student 'Carlos' wrote a letter in class one day, thanking his teachers for helping him with his English, so he obviously believes in the class and that it is working.

In terms of students' self-perceptions, it helps when students have confidence in themselves both as students and as members of the larger Princeton community. Self-confidence is a large factor because, like any student, an ESL student will not succeed if she or he does not have the confidence that this is possible. Student 'Carlos' thinks that a lot of people in the Latino community are embarrassed by their heavily accented English, so they do not speak it very often. The end result is that their English never improves very much, because they do not have the confidence to practice it often. When the ESL class went on a field trip, the students were comfortable ordering their own ice cream and talking to librarians. Some of this confidence comes from practicing in class every week, but some of it must be inherent as well. Self-confidence is also important in another aspect - the student' expectations for themselves. If a student wants to improve his or her career, they must believe that it is possible. The two mothers both have specific aspirations in mind, and (so far) neither one has let the fact that she does not speak English very well yet, or that she is already middle-aged ruin her plans for changing careers. In an age where one can easily become disillusioned by the lack of various opportunities and the rising cost of living, these two women do not have a barrier of low self-confidence to cross.

As for how the students see themselves within the Princeton community at large, it is no coincidence that all of the regular students indicated that they plan to stay in Princeton for several years, if not the rest of their lives. The two women in particular intend to settle in Princeton for good and become fully legal residents. Student 'Donaldo' applied for a library card at the public library, a seemingly insignificant event, but it points to his sense of belonging to the area. He is not just a foreign visitor to the town, he is a member who can take full advantage of the privileges to which all members are entitled.

A study of Canadian students learning French, and their attitudes toward the French community (Gardner & Lambert, 1959) shows that language "achievement was dependent upon both aptitude and intelligence as well as a sympathetic orientations toward the other group. This orientation apparently sustained a strong motivation to learn the other groups language." ^{The students in the study who excelled did so because they felt some sort of connection to the French-Canadian culture. The ESL students also feel a connection to the American culture, learning the language is a big step in being accepted into a foreign culture. This 'connection' is not to be confused with assimilation. As they become more fluent in the language, they may or may not absorb all aspects of American culture and cast off their former values and traditions. What is likely to happen is that they will understand the cultures better, with an understanding of the language, and they will feel like they belong here. There is evidence that they already feel an affinity for American culture - during an exercise where they had to write down their favorite foods, the students who were present all named decidedly American dishes such as hamburgers, pizza, and French fries. Something as simple as food shows that they happily and easily accept parts of the American culture in their lives. In terms of motivation, this affection toward one small aspect of the culture leads to curiosity about more of the culture.}

This study is very narrow in terms of the amount of people involved. In order to analyze a larger subject pool, it would have been better if I had visited classes on other nights at the Princeton YWCA. And it would have been informative to compare experiences of the ESL students with people who have never taken such a class before. Motivation is a highly individual and personal decision, it is easier to find trends regarding background or lifestyle situations. 'Alicia' was pushed by her employers and family to take the class, while 'Emilia' came to the US to learn English and settle down. However, both of their children are becoming self-sufficient, and their jobs as domestic help do not have much room for advancement. They are at a time in their lives when they and their families are ready for a change, and education will help bring about that change. 'Carlos' has specific career goals in mind, and is on his way toward fulfilling them. 'Donaldo' is content working as a landscaper for now. He does not really know how long he wants to stay in Princeton, he just wants to make the most of his situation in the US while he is here. They do not have the same outlook on the future, but both men have been here for a couple years after being in school for many years. Neither has a wife or children to take care of so they have time to explore their new surroundings, including exploring the language.

While each student has his or her own reason for taking the class, the general consensus is that, on the road to success in Princeton, all the signs are in English. All of the students, while not necessarily unhappy in their present situations, want and expect to see a change for the better in the future. The motivation that they all share is a refusal to remain in a static situation.