Department of Sociology, University of Akron, Akron, OH 44325-1905, USA.
Soc Sci Res. 2013 Jul;42(4):1109-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2013.03.002. Epub 2013 Mar 22.
Using 1% Public-Use Microdata Samples (PUMSs) of the 1980, 1990, and 2000 census and the 2010 American Community Survey (ACS), this study evaluates three simultaneous longitudinal trends in immigrants' English fluency: the assimilation process, variations across arrival cohorts, and periodical changes. The key findings include that the declining initial English fluency among new immigrants reported in a previous study based on 1980 and 1990 data (Carliner, 2000) was reversed in the 1990s and 2000s. Immigrants who arrived during the 2000s have the highest level of English fluency at the year of entry among all cohorts. Immigrants are assimilating. However, changes in social and linguistic environment in the US during the past two decades have suppressed the advancement of immigrants. The decline in the average English attainment from the 1980s to the 1990s reported in a previous study (Pitkin and Myers, 2011) was found to extend to the 2000s. Using new census data, this study updated the current knowledge on immigrants' English fluency by revealing a never documented upward trend among recent immigrants and suppressive period effects from 1990 to 2010.
利用 1980 年、1990 年和 2000 年人口普查以及 2010 年美国社区调查（ACS）的 1%公共使用微观样本（PUMSs），本研究评估了移民英语流利程度的三个同时发生的纵向趋势：同化过程、不同到达队列的变化和周期性变化。主要发现包括，基于 1980 年和 1990 年数据的先前研究报告的新移民英语初始流利程度下降（Carliner，2000）在 20 世纪 90 年代和 21 世纪得到逆转。在 21 世纪到达的移民在进入美国的当年拥有所有队列中最高水平的英语流利程度。移民正在同化。然而，过去二十年美国社会和语言环境的变化抑制了移民的进步。先前研究（Pitkin 和 Myers，2011）报告的英语平均水平从 20 世纪 80 年代到 90 年代的下降被发现延伸到 21 世纪。本研究使用新的人口普查数据，通过揭示最近移民中从未记录过的上升趋势以及 1990 年至 2010 年期间的抑制性周期效应，更新了移民英语流利程度的现有知识。
