Essay on English language

ENGLISH

English is the language that people used mist frequently in the United States. Actually, the language has been used as an official one for a long time. However, it is not officially the language of the United States. I dare to consider that it’s time for the country to make English as its official language. There are three key reasons for that:  education, globalization and immigration.

The debate on whether the United States should make English its official language has a long history. It began in the colonial period and goes on being discussed. The issue affects millions of people and involves a number of aspects that make the problem rather complicated. Consequently, the United States still does not have an official language and it is not accidental. Historically being a country of high heterogeneity, America had its continent occupied by indigenous people that spoke different languages and represented various cultures.  The language of education was mainly English made conditional on “Europeanization”. Thus many students had to assimilate to the new society and use English instead of their mother tongue. That is how the first English-only legislation appeared and developed. Americans traditionally bypassed the language issue in legislation and only John Adams brought forward the idea of setting standards for English. In the nineteenth century they attempted to enforce English among the French- and Spanish-speaking population. In the 1970s, the Bilingual Education Act was signed. It provided the growth of lingually diverse students’ number. Later on bilingual education programs implemented by the National Education Association became more and more popular throughout the country, as instruction solely in English was supposed to deprive non-English speakers of understanding of the curriculum content. So, American history vividly demonstrates how the issue of bilingualism was continuously raised and how the emphasis shifted from Spanish to French.

ENGLISH

Remarkably, Congress did not consider proclaiming English the official language of the nation until 1981, when the English Language Amendment was introduced. Scholars argue that one of the key reasons why the United States has no official language is that it has always been a complicated task to cope with language diversity though many ways to manage it have already been successfully used in a number of countries.  For instance, schooling with primary bilingual or multilingual instruction is organized. This results in bilingualism promotion among the population.

In the US the impact of languages use in education and other social spheres is widely examined, thus English-Only movement that acts in favor of making English the only official language has a great number of proponents that believe that it is the only solution that will simplify government processes and save the state budget. Another organization in the pro-English movement is English First that argues, English in the status of official will assist immigrants in becoming more productive members of American society with better economic opportunities.  Moreover, this will help all the people come together and the official English legislation will provide the idea of unity. They advocate English as the official language and hardly pay proper attention to what consequences it would have on so called minority population, its education in particular. Crawford (1992) in his work “Language Loyalties” describes the views of the pro-English movement, calling the language a massive unifying force of the nation: “English has always been our common language, a means of resolving conflicts in a nation of diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups”¦ English is an essential tool of social mobility and economic advancement.” The scholar reflects the common view that English should be the official language. It is definitely an impetus for immigrants to learn the language and to assimilate.