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Subtractive Bilingualism In The United States

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Subtractive bilingualism refers to the idea of ridding someone of their native language in order to learn the language of their new country in order to participate in the country fully. Historically in the United States this approach has been used on immigrants and the children of immigrants as a means to quickly assimilate them and rid them of the burden of their native language (Nieto, 2003, p. 211). For example, a Spanish-speaking student who has just emigrated from the United States would be in a classroom that only used English and would not be allowed to speak in Spanish. Additive bilingualism refers to someone learning a new language in addition to the language they already know and therefore increasing their knowledge of languages.
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