Official Language Research Paper

"RESOLVED: THAT THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES ENACT LEGISLATION MAKING AMERICAN ENGLISH THE NATIONAL LANGUAGE OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA."

This sentiment was established by the English Only movement, which began in 1981 when Senator Hayakawa sponsored a constitutional amendment to make English the official language of the United States. Variations on his proposal have been before Congress ever since; the Language of Government Act has been pending before the House and Senate since 1991. Despite increasing interest in the concept of a monolingual nation, arguments for the adoption of a national language have been mostly anecdotal and have overwhelmingly been based on misconceptions about language. The territory that the U.S.
now embodies was home to several languages before the advent of European settlers. Each of these indigenous languages was a fully developed system of communication with rich structures and expressive power. The languages were indicative of myriad cultures and ways of life. Unfortunately, most of the indigenous languages of the United
States have become extinct or are severely threatened. All too often, their eradication was deliberate government policy. This is ostensible in the example of the Native Americans and their extermination from American society.
Becoming proficient in the heritage language can assist young people struggling with ethnic ambivalence, or negative attitudes toward their own culture.
It enables them not only to explore their roots and associate more closely with fellow speakers of the language, but also to overcome feelings of alienation with a sense of pride in their community. According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in the world, approximately 6000 languages are spoken, of which only about 600 are confidently expected to survive this century. As our languages experience attrition, our cultures will simply follow suit. Our society has been described as one that is dominated by a loss of cultural and intellectual diversity, in which politically dominant languages and cultures simply overwhelm indigenous local ones. Any further legislation would only augment the embattlement that these cultures already
face.
However, there are significant educational disadvantages in discouraging multilingualism as well. Psychologists have found that bilingualism is correlated with greater mental flexibility, perhaps because command of two symbolic systems provides more than one way to approach a problem. Cognitively, bilingual and multilingual students commonly exceed monolingual ones in academic prospects.
People that are bilingual are not only more mentally adroit, but they are more competitive economically as well. For several years, our world has been globalizing and approaching a community of interdependence. This world is diverse and fosters all existing languages. Consumers across the ocean speak other languages and require communication with similarly speaking people. Overseas, multilingualism increases availability of services and efficiency. Thus, bilingualism and biliteracy are valued increasingly by today's employers.
As members of our integrated world, we need speakers of different languages to succeed in the global economy.
For this reason, it's shortsighted to demean and destroy the competencies of bilingual and multilingual people.
Throughout our nation's history, we have recognized various languages that have made their way to the United States. The First Amendment guarantees freedom of speech. The Fourteenth Amendment forbids abridging the privileges and immunities of naturalized citizens. American English laws would violate these constitutional rights, founded on certain liberties, which we as Americans believe to be undeniable to every citizen.
Some have supported the establishment of a national language on the basis that a universally English speaking populace would be easier to hire and that there is now a widespread resistance to learning our common language. However, making English the official language would do nothing to increase the number of English classes, nor would it teach more people how to speak English. This legislation is not necessary for enriching people with the English
language.
English is the global lingua franca. It is the language of wider communication in this country, and it certainly is not threatened. Scholars say that the descendants of most European immigrants who arrived in the late 19th and 20th centuries became exclusively English-speakers within three generations. According to a 1983 study, titled Language shift in the United States, while the number of minority language speakers is rising, their rate of Americanization is rising even faster. These groups are not only shifting to English as their usual language, but also losing their heritage languages more rapidly than ever in our history. This trend is sustained, without any laws compelling immigrants to speak only English.
We must recognize that a national language would inhibit the practice of multilingualism, which is vital to cultural awareness and academic expansion. We must also understand that this would place a damper on our economy in the international forefront. Founding a national language would be an effort to fix a problem that does not exist. Let us maintain our natural liberties, as citizens of a free and democratic country. Congress has not passed legislation to make American English the national language as of now. It is crucial that we do nothing to