Foreign Language And Its Effects On American Society

Compared to other Countries, America stands less developed in bilingual abilities due to language requirements taught within our school systems curriculum. Being bilingual is an important skill to have in America, with multiple different prominent languages spoken within our country other than English, we are constantly surrounded by language. The problem that our country is dealing with now, is that we started with the idea that anyone that moved to America should adapt to our languages, instead of us Americans, taking the initiative to learn a new languages. In a report by Hyon Shin and Robert Kominski, showed the number of citizens in America that spoke a language other than English. The “data on speakers of languages other than English

The United States is becoming more and more bilingual every day. It is important for students of the United States of America to keep up with the advancing world. The easiest way to learn a second language is when a person is young. This is why it would be beneficial for schools to start teaching a foreign language in kindergarten and continuing it through twelfth grade. Students are more likely to learn and remember a foreign language if they are introduced to it at a young age. A majority of other countries teach foreign languages to their students throughout their school lives. Most students coming out of high school in other countries are totally

Douglas McGray discusses different ways that being more cultivated could benefit the United States in his article, “Lost in America” in an attempt to convince education officials to incorporate more foreign language and history classes into their curriculums. In the article he explains the different way the United States has neglected foreign language, and how they can benefit from investing money and time into foreign language. Several examples are presented showing the actual importance of language diminishing in the United States education system. McGray wants the education officials to realize that foreign language should be valued more if the U.S. wants to have better access to overseas opportunities. In the article “Lost in America” by Douglas McGray the effective use of satire, irony,

“Language is power. If you cannot understand or be understood you have no power. You are at the mercy of everyone.” – (Rudat, 1994, Stow, Dodd 356) Should Americans be required to learn Spanish as a second language? The construction of our nation stands on documents written in English, however English is not our official language nor has it ever been. America is a “melting pot” in which English is the most prominent language, followed closely by Spanish. Requiring Americans to learn Spanish is a great controversy; I strongly believe that it should be a requirement, because it improves academic achievements, career success, and cultural and social understanding. The controversy has great counter arguments such as the double standard Americans are held to, and further division of the country. Regarding the counterarguments, I still firmly believe that it should be a requirement because the integration of a second language in our schools is more beneficial to our country’s success as a whole.

In addition, 4.4 million limited English Proficient students enrolled in the United States. President Bush proposes new plans for bilingual education. In his plan, it requires a three-year limit on bilingual education to be sufficient enough time for a student to obtain “English fluency” (Krashen, 2001).

In the article “America’s Foreign Language Deficit” by David Skorton explains how learning another language can have many effects. The author, David Skorton, claims that by having the next American generation learning a foreign language, it will prepare them for success in the future. This is a logical claim. First, as the author points out, “[America] need[s] diplomats, intelligence and foreign policy experts, politicians… who are proficient in languages other than English” (Skorton). For example, the military often needs people who can speak a different language for many different reasons, such as having an important meeting with another country. In addition, American businesses need to know how to communicate with other businesses outside

Fundamentally, he shows the effects of social factors to the language and describes how Americans` way to speak their language varies by regions. When it comes to education, unlike MacNeil who neutrally observes the change, McGray focuses on Americans` perspective on language that has changed by social and political issues. He claims that American education did not react to the growing internationalism and let Americans be indifferent to other countries, especially languages (McGray 354). For example, 25 luminaries proposed plausible educational reforms, but government officials did not adopt them (McGray 355). Ultimately, the author suggests that to be competitive in national fields, Americans need to realize the seriousness of their indifference to foreign countries and cultures, understand their indifference to other foreign languages, and change the American education system and policies for foreign languages. Similar to McGray and contrast to MacNeil, Simon worries about the usage of modified English. He recognizes that English has inevitably changed by social circumstances, such

When Immigrants came into America, they start to just speak in their Native Language, but after a few years they started to learn English. “Fully 85% say it is hard to get a good job or do well in this country without learning English; only 12% say it is easy. Some immigrants also see learning English as an ethical obligation. Nearly two in three (65%) say "the U.S. should expect all immigrants who do not speak English to learn it," versus 31% who say this should be left to each individual to decide.”

English might not be the official language of the American nation; however, every immigrant knows that it is the language of the North American country and that it

“Despite about 18% of the U.S. population natively speaking a different tongue than English, a full 96% of United States citizens speak English fluently” (Whiskey 2012). Today in our society, a large majority of American citizens speak English and continue teaching those at a young age to resume this trend in the future. Although there is a minor percent of people whom come to America speaking a foreign language, many of them are learning and practicing the English language as a requirement for success in America. America originated with English being the superior language and shall continue to do so in respect to this nation by coming together as a whole to attain future achievement.

The 2015-2016 school year finds the United States ranked at 14th place on a global education scale, and South Korea currently holds the first place spot. In 2012, when this study was last conducted, South Korea was ranked second in the world. It was then when the South Korean government made a strong push introduce English, a foreign language into the core curriculum (mbctimes.com.). However, in the United

The number of Languages spoken throughout the world is estimated to be 6,000. Although a few languages are for wider communication around the world, these are very often spoken as second, third, fourth, or later-acquired languages. Fewer than 25% of the world 's approximately 200 countries recognize two or more official languages, with a mere handful recognizing more than two. Despite there being lots of bilinguals and multilinguals, there is also a bunch of monolingual people in the world. The adult population is allowing their children not to learn a foreign language, drastically underfunding language courses in middle to high school level classes. Because they think it 's not necessary in this century, thinking they don 't require communication with other people from other countries. But the truth is that it can actually benefit in more ways than people think. The United States school system has started to not require foreign language class for graduation requirements, this places the U.S at a disadvantage in the world scene.

A survey done by the Center for Applied Linguistics in 2008 found that "The findings indicate a serious disconnect between the national call to educate world citizens with high-level language skills and the current state of foreign language instruction in schools across the country"(Cal:Research). This is concerning as all of the competition for the U.S. is gaining a step and we 're doing nothing . If the U.S. expects to continue to be competitive in the global market we need to have bilingual citizens. In order to ensure this, we must require a foreign language be learned in high school.

Language is a key part of any family, community, culture and the human race. Without language the world today would be much different. From cavemen, to the Egyptian use of hieroglyphics, to Old English, to more than 6,500 languages spoken around the world today, the advances that humans have made in language is remarkable and inspiring. The ability to speak, read, write and understand more than one language is also remarkable and expands the liberties in life, especially for young people. High school students should be required to take at least two years of a foreign language class in order to graduate, as many recent studies support the benefits of doing so. Students who have learned a foreign language in high school have proven to have a

You have probably heard recently about the virulent debate occurring in the United-States concerning the learning of multiple language. In fact, last week the President of America made an official declaration which argued that speaking multiple language was “useless”, the learning of the English language was enough due to its international recognition. In addition some schools in North-America refused to teach foreign languages such as spanish or portuguese. This divides also the nations due to the conflict arising in between these countries, and by restricting students for the sake of fitting in the society, it creates close minded thoughts.