In today’s society, there are over thousands of different languages or dialects speak around the world. And because America is such a diverse country with many individuals capable of speaking two or more languages, they tend to forget the importance of speaking English in America. As an American living in America, it’s not important whether they speak English or not, but what’s important is which language they choose to represent themselves freely.…
Should English Be the Law? Arguing in support of a tolerant linguistic America, Robert D. King’s liberal article Should English Be the Law? explores the political polarities (and numerous grievances) consequential to governmental interception of national language. Concluding with a don’t fix what isn’t broken recommendation, King fails to validate social conflict as greater than communication barriers.…
As the years pass the demographics in the United States keeps growing rapidly. With the increase in migration, the number of languages that are spoken in the United States is endless. With English being the primary language of the country, many families have different second languages including, to not limiting to, Spanish, French, Italian, Arabic, Portuguese, Korean, Russian, and Chinese. In 1980, 23.1 million people spoke a language other than English at home. By 2010, that number grew to 59.5 million, which is an increase in of 158% (Ryan, 2013, p. 5).…
American values are frequently forced upon students or workers. There are few times, where people look down on people who do not accept the American Way of Life. In “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Anzaldúa wrote, “So if you really want to hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity – I am my language” (Anzaldúa 445). Linguistic identity can be difficult for a bilingual person, being somewhere in-between two different culture is confusing and sometimes uncomfortable. A person can’t simply identify with one or the other because each culture has impacted an individual’s life. Being a bilingual also creates boundaries and limitations because the feeling of being disconnected from the language and culture a person is…
Why the United States does not have an official language has been an ongoing debate for a long time. A lot of people are for it and a lot of people are against it. While conducting my research I learned that if the United States made English the official language of the country it would be going against the first amendment, Freedom of speech. Regardless of going against the constitution 27 states have made English their official language. Why is it so important to so many people that the United States have an official language? Would it aid immigrants in the assimilation process and make it more likely for them to succeed? Can other languages be used in the country for certain official purposes, if English is the sole official language? Does official English offend the idea of American diversity? Does it discriminate against non-native speakers? Does an adequate incentive exist to learn English without it being official? Is there anything wrong with the status quo? Do most countries in the world have an official language? Is it important for any tangible and practical reasons? Do English only laws threaten or enhance public safety? Is official English good public policy? (Debate 2010) These are questions that rise in everyone’s mind when the topic of designating an official language in the US comes up.…
Bilingualism has become very popular within the last couple of years. It is growing into society everyday, making it second nature to some people. In fact there are actually more bilingual individuals around the world compared to monolingual, suggesting that many countries are bilingual (Bialystok et al., 2012). A bilingual individual is defined by society as being able to fluently speak two languages (Woolfolk et al., 2012). Contrastingly, a monolingual individual is defined as only being able to speak one language, which is often called the mother tongue (Woolfolk et al., 2012).…
* Individuals and groups: The role of bilingualism on an individual and also the role of bilingualism in groups such as; school environment.…
The question of whether the U.S should have an official language and whether bilingual language education can be accepted is highly controversial. Hispanic concentrated areas like California, the Southwest and Florida are especially troubled by the proposed English-only movements. People stands for English-only movement claims that linguistic divisions is harmful to political unity, while single official language can provide the chance to the narrow down the distances between the rich and the poor. On the other hand, disbelievers of English-only movements are worrying about the violation of civil liberties which are people’s rights stated in the Constitution Amendment.…
In America, there is a predominant growth in multiple ethnicities and cultural backgrounds; leading to the usage of multiple languages in the American culture. There is a growing need for many people to learn and utilize multiple languages within the workplace and within one 's own personal life. The importance of bilingualism and the knowledge of multiple languages is ever increasing, and therefore becoming more important for the younger generations. The push for knowing multiple languages and becoming bilingual has many potential negative and positive effects.…
Bilingual education and economic inequality are just two of the many issues Texans deal with in today’s society. In “What is Bilingual Education,” Stephen Krashen defines bilingual education as “any use of two languages in school – by teachers or students or both – for a variety of social and pedagogical (educational) purposes” (1). Bilingual education confrontations in Texas are due to the overwhelming amount and diversity of immigrants in the past fifteen years. While good for population growth, bilingual issues are putting stress on our education system. It seems society will always be adjusting to incoming students with language barriers, yet instead of helping them in the best possible way, we continue to debate on how people feel. (Krashen 2)…
mainstream. It will be important for me as a teacher to help my parents of English language…
President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "We have one language here, and that is the English language, and we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans." Making English the official language of the United States does not mean English only. “Having English as our official language simply means that for the government to act officially, it must communicate in English. “It means the language of record is the English language, and that no one has a right to demand government services in any other language” (proenglish n.d.). Those who still wish to communicate to family members, and friends in their native language should be able to freely, but when involving…
For years, there has been debate over whether or not the Congress should pass legislation which would make English the official language in the United States of America. On one side of the spectrum, supporters of the issue feel that official English would help to unify America under one language, thus promoting a faster, cost-effective and efficient way of communicating. On the other side of the argument, opponents feel that making English the official language would be a detriment to our unique “melting pot” culture and would discourage immigrants and tourists. Those against official English also claim that discrimination against non-native speakers may become a problem as well.…
Language is a crucial part of the heritage of any community that shapes and builds its identity. Therefore its existence needs to be valued and preserved as we do with the cultural and environmental heritage of a region. As there are between 5,000 and 7,000 languages in the world and only about 200 independent states, multilingualism seems to be a very common phenomenon. On the other hand, the governments of many countries give official recognition to only one or some of the languages spoken in the country and this creates the impression that multilingualism is not common at all. Thus I can say that linguistic diversity in the world today is an issue of growing social importance and the problem of multilingualism can be studied from different perspectives.…
Multilingualism is an issue that has become a subject of discussion in a variety of language related disciplines. Some researchers discuss multilingualism as a sociolinguistic concept through which issues of language contact and the status of the mother tongue can be interrogated. Others see multilingualism as a political matter, that is, an issue which requires solutions to language problems from the policy makers who are political authorities in a multilingual nation, and as an economic problem, because, as Jahr (1998) states, chaotic language differences are determinants of economic disadvantage whereas well planned language differences are considered to be resources. Many studies on various multilingual societies have been conducted by among others Cuvelier, Du Plessis, & Teck (2003) on multilingualism, education and social integration in Belgium, Europe, South Africa and Southern Africa; Deprez & Du Plessis (2000) on multilingualism and government in Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, former Yugoslavia and South Africa; Emenanjo (1990) on multilingualism and language policy in Nigeria.…