How Language Diversity Can Cause Problems in the United States

To understand the challenges that can occur in a multi-lingual society and the vast attempt to accommodate residents and visitors of The United States who possess solely their own native language and not the common language shared by the majority of its people, one must also consider the conditions that caused this phenomenon and the reasons why these customs have become so entrenched within our nation. Factors such as whether a group of people or a society is primarily rural or urban, sedentary or migratory, will often influence language diversity and individual bilingualism. The social and political relations between groups often determine how it is perceived, treated, or utilized within the society as a resource, problem, or even as a part of the civil and human rights of individuals or groups. In the twentieth century, the development of popular schooling in multilingual situations often is organized with bilingual or multilingual instruction. Early primary grades are often taught in the native language of the community, with the regional and/or the national languages added as the student matured. The integration of countries into regional economic, political, and civil societies, has put social pressures on groups to maintain their national languages at the same time they are to learn other regional languages and some languages for wider communication, such as English. This results in the promotion of at least bilingualism among the population. This trend has raised the question as to whether or not an approach to allow non-english speaking people to function within our society and not possess a basic knowledge of the common language spoken is fair and/or working, and has set off a series of issues that have become emotional on all sides, including an amendment to the Constitution to name English as the primary language in The United States, thus requiring all residents to speak it, and limit publicly funded material which has been translated to accommodate