Student Use of Aspirational and Linguistic Social Capital in an Urban Immigrant-Centered English Immersion High School

Expanding upon Yosso’s theory of community cultural wealth, this interview-based qualitative study finds that Mexican youth in an urban two-year English immersion high school here referred to as Literacy High are assisted academically by what Yosso would call their aspirational capital and what the present article theorizes as their linguistic social capital, or their ability to utilize a Spanish-speaking student network to understand assignments and instructions. Among these students, opinions regarding the need to develop oral English proficiency vary widely, with some students choosing Spanish as a form of resistance while others feel anxiety regarding their lack of fluency in spoken English.