High and Low varieties

I was very intrigued by Valdés's use of the terms "high" and "low" in reference to the language situation between English and Spanish here in the Southwest. Our discussion of this particular point in class only piqued my interest even more, because I had never before considered that as a possible explanation for how things work here.

Last semester I took another sociolinguistics class, and we only talked about these terms ("high" and "low") in the context of a societal bilingualism that was nationwide, such as in Paraguay. My teacher made it clear that the definition of societal bilingualism is that everyone is expected to be proficient in BOTH languages in order to function as a fully-contributing member of society. I don't necessarily agree with the terms "high" and "low" being used to describe this situation, because of certain implications or assumptions that can be made about the inherent value of the languages in question, but nor do I think that this is the intent.

It was interesting to take this national idea of societal bilingualism and apply it to a smaller area or microcosm such as the southwestern United States or parts of Albuquerque. I think that such an application is valid, to a point. Unfortunately the current situation only really mandates that non-native speakers of English be bilingual; the compulsion is not so strong the other way around. Maybe in time things will be different and everyone will need to know another language or two in order to participate in all spheres of life. I suppose we will just have to wait and see.