Workforce Language Services

Even though ELL (English Language Learners) students make up the fastest growing student population in the U.S., teacher-prep courses are not readying teachers for this reality.

The population has grown astoundingly: between 1996 and 2006, the overall U.S. student population has only increased by 3%, whereas the ELL student population has grown 60%. The students come from diverse language and cultural backgrounds, and are foreign and native born.

A Government Accountability Office study on teacher preparation reports that “English language learners…speak more than 400 languages, with almost 80 percent of these students speaking Spanish… These students also include refugees with little formal schooling and students who are literate in their native languages, resulting in a range of educational needs.”

Mary Ann Zehr of Education Week points out that most teacher prep courses focus on students with disabilities and provide field experiences with disabled students, while ELL instruction is not regularly provided. She writes:

Interestingly, administrators of teacher-prep programs told the GAO that one of the main reasons they don’t have stiffer requirements for teachers to be trained to work with ELLs is that their state standards don’t require it of them.

The GAO notes that state standards sometimes include limitations on the maximum number of program or credit hours, so I can see how it could be a challenge for teacher-prep programs to add a requirement that everyone take a course devoted to teaching ELLs.

But I wonder if blaming the lack of standards is really just an excuse on the part of the teacher-prep programs for not keeping up with how school demographics are changing in the United States.

Click here to read Zehr’s full opinion.

A new University of North Carolina study shows that white males receive more tips about job opportunities than minorities and women, particularly in upper management positions.

“Our research shows that 95 times out of 100, white men receive more job leads than white women or Hispanic men or women,” says Dr. Steve McDonald, an assistant professor of sociology at NC State who was the lead author of the study.

The findings of the study show that the disparity between white men, minorities and women is greatest among workers in high-level management. McDonald points out that “these gender and race differences in access to job opportunities help to explain why white men continue to fill a disproportionately large number of jobs in upper management.”

They believe that the cause of this underlying discrimination (whether conscious or unconscious) is so-called “social capital.” In the study’s context, social capital is “the extent and quality of connections to people in various fields of employment.”

Researchers tabulated how many job leads a person receives during routine conversations, without having asked for the information. The study surveyed 3,000 representative U.S. residents.

Click here to read more about the study “Networks of Opportunity: Gender, Race and Job Leads.”

Latino players recruited by U.S. sports teams continue to face a language barrier in an area where communication is make or break.

For example, Reds player Johnny Cueto, born in the Dominican Republic, won’t give post-game interviews in English because he’s still “practicing.” For now, he speaks through interpreters, though teammate Arthur Rhodes says he manages to communicate just fine to women when he goes out.

The language barrier presented a problem back in the 1950s and 60s when Latinos were recruited in big numbers to American baseball teams. An article on Cincinnati.com recreates an unfortunate and humorous tale which might explain why the early expansion Mets were notoriously bad.

On short flyballs to center or left-center field, outfielder Richie Ashburn and Venezuelan shortstop Elio Chacon occasionally collided. Chacon spoke little English and had trouble understanding when Ashburn was calling him off the ball.

Ashburn thus learned to say “Yo la tengo,” Spanish for “I’ve got it.” When Ashburn first used the phrase, it worked well in keeping Chacon from running into him. But then one day, Mets left fielder Frank Thomas crashed into Ashburn while chasing a ball.

After the dust settled, Thomas said to Ashburn:

“What the heck is a Yellow Tango?”

A commenter on the article points out that the language barrier in sports is not exclusive to Latinos—baseball players from South Korea and Japan face the same issues and many use translators to communicate.

Read the full article here.

A story from KTRE news in Texas reports that colleges and universities want to double Hispanic enrollment by 2015. While higher education institutions have seen a gradual increase in Hispanic enrollment over the last few years, rapid growth will be difficult to accomplish.

The article indicates that it is Hispanic students’ families that most influence their decision to go to college. While one family with no college graduates may not consider or encourage college in their childrens’ future, another family with the same educational background might value it more.

Universities face a few obstacles as well. Some worry that bilingual students will be recruited by companies before they reach college level.

Recruiting Hispanics is a big challenge, says Avant. “Each student that we have that are already bilingual, they have jobs waiting for them,” [Dean of Social Work Dr. Freddie] Avant said. High schools, community colleges, and minority conferences are targeted by university recruiters. Recently, the SFA Social Work departments partnered with the school of foreign language to seek applicants to its masters’ scholarship program.

The most successful way Dr. Avant found is reaching out to parents. He is encouraged by the fact that graduates will more than likely teach their own children the value of higher education. “Really being able to reach the students and their parents and saying these are some of the opportunites for their children to build a profession and a career.”

Learn more about this issue in the full article.

As we’ve seen in the news so much lately, the Hispanic community contributes to a large and growing portion of the online commerce. Hispanics now make up 11% of the U.S. online market.

This leads to many questions that a Practical eCommerce article addresses in easy-to-understand terms. For example, the first question you might ask is Do I need to market to the Hispanic community? If your business is specific to one area or does not fit the wants and needs of the Hispanic community “(i.e., The All Things Irish Boutique),” the answer is probably no.

But if you belong to the vast majority of U.S. retailers, it’s time to take a look at your marketing strategy from a new perspective.

Next, How do I revise my marketing strategy to involve the Hispanic community?

To make the most of your marketing, try to understand how Hispanic consumers use, think about, and understand your products, brand, and offers. Determine what should be said to address this community and start to say it in the language your site already uses, i.e., English.

Once you’ve got a new marketing foundation for the Hispanic demographic, it’s time to communicate your message in Spanish.

As an example, Best Buy famously reported last year that visitors to its Spanish language pages spent twice as much time on page as visitors to English language pages, presumably because the U.S. Spanish-speaking community was starved for product information.

When it comes to translating your site into Spanish, do not use a machine translation service alone. Instead, invest in a professional translator who can demonstrate fluency in both languages.

Read the full Practical eCommerce article here.

We can help! To find out about WLS’s Hispanic marketing consulting and Spanish website translation, click here.

For past generations of Hispanics in the United States, becoming part of a corporate entity was sometimes viewed as “selling out.” But for second and third generations, that attitude is changing.

Many Hispanics came to the United States to take advantage of college education, and young Hispanic professionals these days are beginning to reap the benefits. Not only are they climbing the corporate ladder at higher rates than in the past, many are becoming business owners in sectors where Hispanics were previously underrepresented—technology, engineering, finance and law.

Roberto Cornelio, 51, director of the chamber’s Hispanic Entrepreneurship Center, says it’s not just mom-and-pop businesses, either.

“Traditionally, the Hispanic business community focused on providing goods and services to the Hispanic community,” Mr. Cornelio says. “That’s changing. It’s still an important part of our community, but people have been exposed to many other opportunities. We’re seeing people go into technology, and a number of Hispanics have opened professional services business.”

A Chicago Business article quantifies the shift:

• Between 2003-2008, Hispanics in management, business and financial operations rose from 5.9% to 7.5%
• In the same period, Hispanics in chief executive positions rose from 3.3% to 4.8%
• The Illinois Chamber of Commerce has grown 1,000% in the last several years
• 6,787 Hispanics earned MBAs in 2007, making up 4.6% of the degree-holders

And still, there’s a long way to go:

• Hispanics comprise about 15% of the state of Illinois’s population, but only 4% of Illinois businesses are Hispanic-owned (the number is growing, however)
• Hispanics hold 234 seats on Fortune 1,000 corporate boards, only 2.3% of all seats
• There are just six Hispanic CEOs represented in the Fortune 500
• 71% of Fortune 500 companies have no Hispanics on their boards

Many Hispanic business leaders quoted in the article believe that Hispanics will continue to push for more recognition in the business world. Says Leopoldo Lastre, president of the Hispanic Lawyers Assn. of Illinois, “We will see more gains as long as there are opportunities. We’re not looking for the bar to be lowered.”

Click here to read the full article.

A UCLA study shows that Latino-owned businesses are moving in an upward trajectory: there’s been a 3.43% increase in growth between 1997 and 2002, with $35 billion in sales generated in 2002.

The study points to some strengths and weaknesses of Latino businesses, which occupy the largest percent of minority-owned businesses and therefore make a greater impact on the regional economy.

“Latino firms are in critical sectors of the economy, both traditional sectors that need to remain strong and entering new sectors like the green jobs sectors that are going to grow the regional economy,” said [Dr. J.R. DeShazo, Director of the Lewis Center in the UCLA School of Public Affairs].

One strength: Latino-businesses are more likely to offer a higher return on investment. One weakness: the Latino business sector lacks technical and banking assistance, which are both key to a business’s long-term growth. Latino businesses tend to be underserved by banking institutions and are more vulnerable when making banking decisions.

The study calls for more policy advocacy for Latino businesses.

While Latino political engagement has increased over the last decade, Latinos have not done as much in advocating for its business community, according to DeShazo. The lack of time and resources, as well as the lack of access to business associations in the region may be factors in the current state of Latino business people’s civic engagement, he says. “One of the most important things we can do as an organization is policy advocacy,” DeShazo said.

To read the full article and more about the study’s recommendations, click here.

2007 saw 937 Hispanic worker deaths compared to 533 in 1992 (a 76% increase); nationwide, total fatalities have dropped in that time period (USA Today reports.) Texas alone reported 50 Hispanic workplace deaths last year.

While an increase of Hispanics in the general workforce has increased as well, it’s clear that there are other reasons causing the discrepancy. First, there’s the language barrier—workers who aren’t able to communicate important information to their supervisors, and vice versa, can miss important instructions that lead to accidents. Then, illegal workers are often exploited—not given proper safety tools for example, or are overworked.

Some more reasons cited:

Workers without legal documentation to be in the U.S. are less inclined to join a union, which helps protect workers, or protest when conditions seem dangerous, said Raj Nayak of the California-based National Employment Law Project. “They’re doing the most dangerous work for longer hours,” Nayak said.

Click here to read the full USA Today article, where most info is gathered from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Relatedly, many workers and their families are not aware of their right to compensation when an accident occurs (legal and illegal workers alike).  See post “Lack of safety training keeps Hispanic construction workers dangerously out of the loop.”

An article by Arizonian Jack Dunning explains why Hispanics have been less affected by the recession than other non-Hispanic Americans. Using recent studies by Univision and the Pew Hispanics, he points to some results:

Just 45 percent of Hispanics carry credit cards compared to 71 percent for non-Hispanics. And even a lesser amount take out loans, only 34 percent versus 53 percent for non-Hispanics. They shop more frequently than non-Hispanics, take more brand prescriptions, and pay more attention to advertising.

With less credit cards and loans comes less debt. And because Hispanics are more likely to rent homes than to own (44% vs. 23%), they have been less affected by foreclosures.

All of these reasons might be why Hispanics are more optimistic about the state of the economy than non-Hispanics, and a reason why Hispanics are more willing to spend. Buying power for Hispanics is increasing at twice the rate of non-Hispanics, and it’s impossible for companies and advertisers not to take notice. Simply translating marketing materials (Hispanics are 38% more likely to buy from an advertiser than non-Hispanics [Index 131 to 95], according to Univision) will bring your business one step closer to accessing a powerful sector of the U.S. economy.

Click here to read more.

Some ex-employee whistle-blowers say that Bank of America ordered them to use their Spanish language skills to push immigrants into bank services they couldn’t afford.

“We were coached every day to push multiple checking accounts, credit cards and debit cards even when the customer didn’t understand how to use them,” said [former bank teller Gabby] Ornelas, who lives in Landover Hills, Md., a town with a large immigrant population and a per-capita income of less than $19,000.

The Service Employees International Union, who is trying to organize BOA, is backing Ornelas and eight of her colleagues as they address what they believe is unethical exploitation of Latino immigrants. They say that BOA’s business model encourages working-class customers to sign up for lines of credit with high interest rates and cash advance services, all meant to maximize charges and overdraft fees.

BOA, on the other hand, believes the union is misinterpreting the relationship they have with their customers. A rep said that the services are legal and useful to customers:

“We believe a checking account is the cornerstone to establishing financial security in this country,” [BOA spokesperson Anne] Pace said in an e-mail. “We offer innovative financial services to meet the needs of all of our customers, including Hispanic customers.”

Click here to read more.