The Challenges Of Multilingualism

Being made of diverse peoples, and being able to continue to use your own language may seem preferable as we encourage individuality and do not want anyone to disappear into the soup. This stand,

In my entire life, I have been labeled many different names such as daughter, sister, athlete, student, but I have never been labeled as a bilingual speaker. My stepmother, who speaks fluent spanish, used to teach me when I was a little girl. We would parade around the house, me pointing out objects and her naming each in a language I was determined to understand. I have always admired the ability to communicate in another language. But I am just one person with one view on the subject. For bilingual speakers Martin Espada and Richard Rodriguez, their experiences explain their different views.

It is important to make a distinction between a ‘national language’ and an ‘official language’ before discussing any further. National language is “a language associated with a particular country where it is recognised as a symbol of national identity” (Joan Swann, 2004) whereas an official language can be defined as “a language which is used for political, legal and administrative communications within a given political territory.” (Joan Swann, 2004) This essay will focus on national languages and their importance across the globe from small communities to national level without overruling the importance of having official language(s) helping to run governments.

Those who believe a shared language shows a country’s identity do so because of the cultural assimilation this provides. Because language is a large part of culture, to learn one language is to culturally unite all of those people in a country with the same shared language. Henry Ford, the creator of Ford automobiles, believed in such an ideal; he was even famous for his English school which taught newly-migrated immigrants to learn the “language of America” while also providing them with jobs and wages. However, shared language does not always mean unity. For example, even in the US where English makes up the majority of spoken language, there are always ideological disparities today between people—like the disparities between Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives, and religious groups and non-religious groups. Likewise, multiple languages does not lend itself to disunity. Even the US Bill of Rights’s guaranteed protection of the “freedom of speech” is not limited to the English language, supporting the idea of a united yet pluralistic society. Throughout the years, though, there have been laws made in America that have either supported or gone against the use of only

The European Union (EU) is a unique economic and political partnership between 28 different countries. It consists of about half a billion citizens, and its combined economy represents about 20 percent of the world’s total economy (Briney, 2015). Today The European Union works as a single market, with free movement of people, goods and services from one country to another. There is a standard system of laws to be followed, and since 1999 many countries share a single currency called the Euro (Europa.eu, 2015). This essay will explore the background history of the European Union and the benefits and drawbacks of the European Union.

When the EU takes on more countries, the differences between the nations and the people in them become more expansive. WIth more cultures and countries to work with, cooperation between the EU becomes difficult. This can be easily shown in the quote, “With all this unifying going on, one of the more delicate issues facing the new Europe is how to create a common foundation without carpeting over the continent’s rich tapestry of peoples, languages, cuisines, and cultures (Doc F).” The EU is struggling with uniting the EU as a whole, while maintaining the properties of that country that make it so unique. This can be a problem in keeping the identity of these countries. Another piece of evidence is the quote “European culture is a bouquet de fleurs,’[bouquet of flowers]...’Together they are beautiful. But the rose is still a rose, and the tulip is a tulip. This must be preserved (Doc F).” Herr Eisenhauer meant by the quote, that Europe is beautiful together, but each country must maintain its own

In recent news a former Yahoo executive turned Florida lawmaker is proposing allowing students to take computer science courses as an alternative to two required foreign language classes.

Abstract: “Breaking the Language Barrier Within the Exercise & Health Field” involves expanding the knowledge of language to be able to aid to patient needs and communicate well with them in the health field. In my case since I aspire to be an athletic trainer, I would use this to be understanding, as well as helping, athletes who are injured. The courses that I plan to be taking to fulfill the 3D requirement will be Exercise Physiology (BIOL 332), Sports Nutrition (NUTR 215) and Intermediate Spanish (SPAN 201).

According to Mark Williams, The debate over English-only policies are divisive in our society, “The instrumental consequences of state and local ‘official English’ legislation are virtually nil, and in the absence of a genuine threat to the status of English, the formal subordination of other languages is mainly divisive.”

For both cases, English is somewhat dominant, albeit at different degrees. For the EU, English was favored as the first foreign language, which impeded the “encouragement of diversity” and directly countered the purpose of MT + 2. In the case of the US, English is regarded as a high status language while other languages like Spanish are considered low status. Furthermore, both US and EU policies do not prioritize or include immigrant languages. IT was indeed interesting that one particular aspect was highlighted in the discussion: the lack of resources. The EU had its own shortcomings in the implementation of the CLIL, which included “an inadequate supply of teachers” and even teachers that lacked the competence for a particular language (Garcia 202) (Refer to Figure 1). The implementation of CLIL was also criticized for a variety issues (Refer to Figure 2). A similar observation was made with regards to the US, which also faced similar problems with its bilingual programs and faced a lack of resources such as a very limited supply of bilingual teachers. In addition, the US also faced resistance in terms of government policies like Proposition 227 that restricted instructions to an English-only

Before analyzing the importance in the semantics in the conversations that are occurring between expressing the duality of citizenship, and duality in cultures, the importance of language in the context of discourse will be briefly explained. Language and its multiple uses, allows for discourse to be examined in ways that allows language as not only something that happens between conversations, but that also happens to people, in every day, any context talk. As James P. Gee (2014) states, “language allows us to do things; it allows us to engage in actions and activities” (p. 2). Gee (2014) presents how approaching meaning through an integrated method of context, theory, and language will enhance the tools, which is language and meaning are

Nobody’s born with the language they speak today. Everyone is born with a clean tongue that is transformed to make sounds and words that are native to their homeland and people they were raised by. Language can’t be described as a trait, like the color of your skin or the width of your shoulders. When society discriminates against individuals that speak differently, they are judging them based on how they were raised and how they were taught to speak, people don’t see them as just a person that didn’t have a choice of how they wanted to communicate, and conformed to fit into a puzzle of a whole area of people that sound the same way. I believe that people are molded by experience and adapt to the environment they were placed in. Life is

The idea of world peace implies there is a common understanding between diverse nations and cultures. Theories or perspectives concerning problems of peace and development, if understood dialectically, can shed light upon the conditions that regulate the use of language. Bourdieu’s conditions refer to the relations of power, whereas Habermas’ conditions refer to relations of reason. The implementation of a politically neutral language affords the opportunity for every sovereign individual to participate within the public realm for rational discourse to take place. Both Bourdieu and Habermas’ theories identify the hurdles of equitable discourse. World peace implies a “neutrality” of speech void of language games and communication anchored in widespread participation.

With all the students having a difficulty in coping with their lessons, Mother tongue-based multilingual education may be helpful or not in solving this problem.

Diversity is one of the main features of European Union (EU). This realises in various national states, in different languages and cultures, in distinct democratic political systems and in contradicting development of EU’s numerous regions. While EU tries to preserve differences which make EU Member States special, disproportions in economic and social development have been seen as a major challenge for stability of the Union. The existence of Cohesion policy rreflects the political agreement on the part of all of the Member States of the European Union on the principle that the process of increasing economic integration in Europe must be