He suggests that America should support people who fight to keep the right of their mother language to stay the absolute common and official language in their land. The author does not see America as one culture-country, yet he sees it with one official and common language: English. “It would be hard to defend the argument that there is only one culture in the United States," he said. He agrees to have more than one culture in the United States, and he disagrees to have another language, other than English, in it that considered more than a private…
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…
Rodriguez strongly encourages children of immigrant parents should adopt English, the “public language” as their main language in order to become assimilated in the “public society” and have a better future. He certainly does not agree with “Hispanic American activists” who support a bilingual education for ESL learners. He thinks that that instructing the children in Spanish rather than Spanish might delay their own entrance into the public world of English-speaking society, and hurt them in the long run.…
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.…
Living with Mexican or American people would be perfect if both of them knew one another’s language. School, jobs, and traveling are a big part in why people should know how to speak and understand more than one language. These three topics go well together because your start off with school to get a good job and then having money to travel to places you always dreamed of going to. The interesting thing about this paper is the fact that knowing more than one language has more advantages than disadvantages. Although some people would not be interested to learn, they should recognize the fact that when they do learn to speak a different language more opportunities come their way and they will feel proud for what they accomplish. To this end, hopefully if people read this essay it will convince them on why it is important to speak and understand different people from all races speaking another language when they are around them. They might be talking trash about them and they would not have a clue in how to respond back. Although, it is like learning anything new because it will take time and reflection until people master…
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…
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.…
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.…
From the perspective of the opposing side, everyone has the right to their own language. By making English the official language of America the nation would be denying certain rights and services to those who are non-native speakers. Moreover, America is known to be a “melting pot”, a multicultural nation built and maintained by immigrants. It is they who bring with them their multitude of cultures and languages that give the nation its diversity. These different languages and cultures lend to the nation an uncommon uniqueness. Furthermore, as pointed out by Dennis Barron, official English may be unnecessary as “without legislation [the United States has] managed to get over ninety-seven percent of the residents of this country to speak the national language. No country with an official language law even comes close.” He goes on to explain that in today’s era, non-native speakers are learning English “faster than earlier generations of immigrants”. He proposes that, instead of official English, the United States should adopt "English Plus", which would encourage residents to speak both English and another language. By doing this, culture in the United States would be more universal and the U.S. itself…
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.…
mainstream. It will be important for me as a teacher to help my parents of English language…
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…