ABSTRACT
In 1990,15 million of the 19.6 million immigrants in the United States, or 79 percent, reported speaking a non-English language at home, and 9.2 million, or 47 percent of all immigrants, reported that they do not speak English “very well.” Among the 4 million recent immigrants who entered the United States during 1985-90, 88 percent reported speaking a non-English language and over 70 percent reported that they did not speak English “very well” (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1993b). Because of historically high rates of language shift from nonEnglish languages to English (Lieberson and Curry 1971), immigration is the single most important source of potential non-English-language speakers in the United States. The extent to which immigrants con tinue to speak their non-English language therefore largely accounts for the continuing presence of non-English languages in the United States and shapes the setting for transmission of the language to the next generation. The extent to which immigrants become proficient in English is also one of the best predictors of immigrants’ social and economic adaptation to the larger American society. Immigrants who do not speak English, for example, can suffer severe occupational and economic penalties (e.g., Stolzenberg 1990).
