Bilingualism in Education in the United Sates

Bilingualism in the United States has been an issue generating a heated debate and controversy. The American language scene is a rendition of over two hundred individual languages, a phenomenon with a longer history than the United States nation. The most potent reason for this multilingual culture is vested in immigration, another strong force in the establishment of the nation up to date (Schaefer, 2006). The ever increasing and rich language endowment that the immigrant founded nation brings forth the issue of bilingualism into a whole new controversial level.

Bilingualism generally results from two situations namely; naturally when two other languages interact and through formal learning. The differences in acquisition of bilingualism have a bearing on the perception of the topic among the people in the US. Natural bilingualism is inevitable and its effects are directly blamed on immigration while learned bilingualism is perceived as a personal enrichment and goes well with many Americans.

Even though English has been the predominant language in the United States, it is not the official language but merely so on a de facto basis. This is particularly so at the federal level despite over eighty percent of the population having it as their mother tongue and another ninety six percent being fluent in it. The second most dominant language is Spanish coming in at slightly over twelve percent of the population only. Except for English, Spanish and other languages influence in the national language debate has been evidenced by the official language movement advocating for bilingual education policies in the US (Picardi, 2007).

Natural bilingualism continues to be discouraged from the American society with many failed attempts to make English the official language attesting to this. While learned bilingualism remains favored, only a few individuals have a second language. This is the reason why antagonistic movements will continue to grapple for an upper hand in the debate.

References

Picardi, C. (2007) “A Study of the Official Language Movement.” Retrieved from: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/450797/a_study_of_the_official_language_movement.html?cat=7

Applying Self-Directed and Transformational and Experiential Learning at the College Level

https://studentshare.net/176-education-article/

Schaefer, R. T. (2006) Racial and ethnic groups. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall