Language rights and language education in the United States territory of Guam

This paper examines the language legislation of the United States territory of Guam in the area of language education as stated in the Organic Act of Guam (1950) and its legal statutes. The paper aims to aid the United States and its territories to improve the quality of indigenous language legislation (Chamorro). As in a few states in the United States (i.e., Hawaii, Louisiana, and New Mexico), Guam established linguistic laws with provisions that protect the language rights of Chamorro speakers, the native population of Guam, especially in the areas of education and language standardization.

In spite of the impressive array of language laws enacted by Guam's legislature to teach Chamorro language and culture in the schools for more than half a century, the use of English is increasing, while that of Chamorro is shrinking continuously in Guam, which may be due to a lack of gaining Chamorro indigenous population buy-in of the importance of expanding the use of this language for the purpose of maintaining a modern-day Chamorro identity.