In California, one out of five children is designated as limited English proficient. In this country, there are detrimental results to not learning English. Studies show that Latinos are the most undereducated major segment of the U.S. population. Although lack of English skills cannot entirely account for these statistics, it is certainly one of the factors. Although no studies have attempted to address the issue yet, it makes intuitive sense that the proliferation of Spanish-language television viewing by these children has had a negative impact on their ability to learn English.
Many researchers agree that much of what children learn, at an early age, is through television.
I grew up in a primarily Italian-speaking household in the city of Somerville just outside of Boston, where many other children were reared in bilingual households. However, I wasn't at a linguistic disadvantage. Neither were my grade-school classmates, Elizabeth Rodriguez and Kenny Emmanuelle, who grew up in households where only Portuguese and Creole, respectively, were spoken. We weren't at a disadvantage because we didn't have television and radio programs in our parents' native tongue. We were able to function in dual cultures because we learned the English basics, as well as our ancestral language.