As Nordlinger describes, America nowadays faces a challenge of keeping English the only official language. Spanish has become a language that presents a challenge to English in America's “contemporary life." “I trust that Americanization will sometime kick in...But if it doesn't, we will lose a lot," said Nordlinger. His message was a warning to English speakers that other languages, Spanish in particular, are invading the Americans' mother tongue. He strongly suggests that construction workers should learn English instead of knowing only to speak Spanish between each other and their bosses. He believes that they signed up for that." The deal was, you came to America and you assimilated into the culture," said Nordlinger. But, as immigrants, do they have to adopt the American culture to learn its language?…
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.…
Also, more and more immigrants are maintaining their ancestry and culture and resisting American language and customs. Thus, concessions have been made, i.e., Spanish signage, automation tellers and phone recordings, as well as Spanish as a Second Language classes in school. Religious mandates and reform is prevalent.…
The Proposition 227 requires that all public school instruction be conducted in English. However, in “The Political Paradox of Bilingual Education”, Crawford argues against Proposition 227 and provides an overview of the political and educational discourse on immigrant children’s language rights. He starts with questions such as “Was the proposition intended primarily to assimilate limited-English-proficient (LEP) children more efficiently? To teach them English as rapidly as possible? To encourage bilingualism and biliteracy? The bill’s legislative history provides no definitive answer (Crawford). According to Crawford, proposition 227 enforce bilingual regulations and the research findings are less encouraging. He explains that the regulations on bilingual provide inequalities to limited-English-proficient student. Hence they are failing to be successful in academic performance and achievement. Crawford supports his argument with examples that in San Francisco, LEP students were only instructed in English and since some students failed to understand the language, they resulted in poor academic performance (Crawford). Thus, Crawford points out how politics…
For two centuries, the U.S has the greatest success because of “the acquisition of English” (Krauthammer 112). Before the great immigration (many different type of races immigrated to the U.S), English had been a dominating language, but since the great immigration, it was no longer the dominating language. The Senate could not declare English as an official language. They only passed an amendment declaring English as the national language. (Krauthammer 112). Even the Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid called that action “racist” (Krauthammer 112). His second argument is it is fine generally if only a small group of people speak their own language but when this group expands, the problem appears. The U.S has been accepting immigrants who speak their mother languages since the great immigration. For example, Brooklyn has different kinds of people speaking varieties of languages; it is still fine when they are only small groups. People can speak their own language in the street and “proudly teach it to [their] kids” (Krauthammer 112). However, all of that will change when the groups expand, more people speak their own languages and they may want the official recognition similarly to French people in Canada. Therefore, the U.S. probably has the same problems as…
Every day, Americans of all races encounter the problem of walking into a store and hearing people of other ethnicities speaking other languages. It is frustrating to have to interrelate with other individuals and not be able to connect fully with them because of a linguistic barrier. In the articles, The F Word by Dumas, Mother Tongue by Tan and Aria by Rodriguez, the difficulties of being an immigrant are stated. Many immigrants have problems adapting to a new society and sometimes society does not understand. Every day, they endure many problems such as not being understood, having to learn a new language, and discrimination.…
If you turn over a permission slip or handout from a public school in Southern California on the backside you will find the same English words translated into Spanish. The act of translating the paper for the “child’s” wellbeing only provides a false illusion to the parent’s that the need to learn English is trivial. In reality it actually hinders the immigrants’ chances of success by denying the full language immersion in English that is needed to thrive in America, not just survive. And once one group of immigrants is catered for, it unjustly secludes others of equal treatment. The responsibility of speaking English falls on the shoulders of every immigrant. The lack of a shared proficiency in the English language…
Currently, and surprisingly, there is no official language designated for the United States of America. Should English be that official language for our nation? The United States is usually thought of an English speaking country and the Official Language needs to be representative of the same for many reasons. The voting public is extremely divided; with some stating that the United States should remain language-less, others claim it should be Spanish, while another viewpoint is to choose multilingualism, and even some claim an unrecognized language of “American” should become the new official language. There are many views on this topic, heated debates, and political upheavals by both citizens and illegal immigrants of various backgrounds, not only the English and non-English speaking. This topic is extremely controversial among many groups; both political and non-political. The underlying ramifications of a decision; or lack thereof, many may not realize but will be presented thoroughly in addition to the mere implications of a decision finally being made on the topic on a nationwide basis and statewide level, will be weighed against each other. The results of the research efforts shall present several aspects concerning English as the official language of the United States including, but not limited to; language choices aside from English that are being presented as the official language, the financial ramifications between having and not having an official language, a brief history on the nature of English as the official language of the nation, a brief overview of the legal actions related to the same; and any incidental information that is deemed relevant pursuant to the nature of the research intentions.…
America is a wonderful country that holds a distinctive quality and that is the acceptance of people from different ethnicities and race to form part of America. Numerous Polls have consistently proved that most Americans believe immigrants who are in the United States illegally should be granted legal status if they take the steps of learning English. This is understandable and should be reinforced. What can't be fair is forcing all immigrants to learn English regardless of their goals in this country. It is great that the United States has no official language. It is a much better idea to allow immigrants to choose whether they want to become legal citizens or not.…
The multilingualism debate in the United States has two sides; one side advocates for multilingualism in order to embrace different cultures and ideas, while the other side supports an English-only policy to unify the country. Although we are a nation of diversity and some think an English-only policy limits immigrants from being as equally successful as English-speakers and prevents diversity from being present in our country, I disagree. I advocate for an English-only policy in the U.S. because having a common language among all unifies the diverse country together, and allows immigrants to participate democratically and politically, and succeed economically. An English-only policy not only creates a necessary bond, but it also doesn’t limit individuals culturally or nationally because everyone is still free to communicate and…
All immigrants to the United States should be required to learn English. It would be in their best interest that they learn English. If they didn’t learn English then they would be an outcast to their peers. It would be very difficult for the immigrants to communicate with other people without knowing English. English is spoken throughout the United States so the immigrants wouldn’t know anything that is going on around them.…
In today’s schools the majority of its students are bilingual, speaking both Spanish and English. This is due to the abundance of Latin Americans coming to the United States in search of new or more opportunities, or simply a better life and education for their children than the one they would have had back in their home country. Being bilingual has not always been viewed as a norm like it is today, or like it has always been here in Florida, specifically in Miami. In other states, such as California, they did not embrace bilingualism in the same manner. In the article “Why this bilingual educational ban should have repealed long ago” by Phillip M. Carter, he effectively argues on why this ban on bilingual education should have been turned…
English was founded with the sole mission of establishing an official language through the English Language Amendment (or ELA), attributing its motivations to the unification of the country. Because of its ‘coincidental’ timing, the nonprofit U.S. English is generally thought to go hand-in-hand with the birth of the English-Only movement and thus, the rejection of bilingualism. Influencing 30 out of the 50 states to pass Official English Legislation between 1981 and 2009, the heavily funded U.S. English has been met politically with more embrace than backlash. However, despite its wide support at both the individual and legislative levels due to the “unity” an official language could bring, legal scholars such as Judge James Crawford are suspicious of the real reasons behind the movement and organization’s popularity. In the preface of his book Hold Your Tongue: Bilingualism and the Politics of “English Only”, Crawford…
Huntington claims that unlike other immigrants, Mexicans will not assimilate to American culture and thereby alter the countries values and identity. He states that upon entering the US, Mexicans have ignored mainstream culture and formed their own “political and linguist enclaves.” Though it is true that Mexicans make up the majority of immigrant population in America, it is an extreme argument to claim that Mexicans are threatening the American national identity. While Spanish is indeed the second most spoken language in America, the US Census found that immigrants “acquire English and lose Spanish rapidly beginning with the second generation,” and by the third generation Spanish has become so lost that people have trouble communicating with their grandparents. Within the article “Huntington: Is Hispanic Immigration a Threat to American Identity” authors Citron, et al; note that the data Huntington refers to does not separate the illegal from legal immigrants. Due to this data fallacy, Huntington’s claims must be disregarded. Illegal immigrants are less educated and more likely to speak Spanish than their legal counterparts. In fact, becoming a naturalized citizen necessitates becoming assimilated to American culture. in order to become naturalized citizens, immigrants must have an understanding of the English language, be able to pass a citizenship test, and find ways to support themselves and their…
mainstream. It will be important for me as a teacher to help my parents of English language…