English Language Learners - Essay Example

It is worth noting that all these communities have co-existed since time immemorial. With time, different cultures that speak different languages have devised their own mechanisms of survival. More importantly, these survival and communication mechanisms have changed with time in response to the changing global challenges. According to Index omundi the U.S language demographics stands at “English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7%” (Index Omundi, 2011, web).

Certainly, the population is usually distributed according to native language. Therefore, people who share similar language occupy relatively the same geographic region. This implies that they can communicate effectively and carry out their businesses and day-to-day activities with their native languages. Therefore, they do not need to speak English to survive. Speakers of English as a second language more often than not come from other countries or regions. For instance, an appreciable percentage of people who speak English as a second language in UK are immigrants from other countries such as china and japan. . This way, these language communities stay at proximity and therefore able to carry out their businesses in their native languages.

Although most of them undertake English language lessons, they can still do business and interact with fellow native speakers. Although the absolute use of English for all government activities such as voting has always been advocated, provisions for other languages are usually provided for non-English speakers. According to Runnymede Borough Council, “All ballot papers are in English - this is the law. However there may be guidance notes in other languages” (2012, web). Therefore, people who speak English as a second language can participate even in national events without having to be fluent in English.

Businesses such as voting are made possible by provision of native language guidelines or better still, voting assistants. However, communication in other sectors of the society is the same. For instance, most of the communication platforms in U.S have options for users to select English or any other language as the preferred language for communication. Most of U.S telephone services require one to press 1 for English. Therefore, the communication system considers speakers of other languages.

This implies that business for speakers of English, as a second language will still go on uninhibited even through communication platforms. Therefore, speakers of English as a second language do not need to be fluent English speakers to do business or other life activities. It is also important to note that a sizeable proportion of any society can speak other languages besides their native language. For instance, approximately 40 percent of the UK population can speak at least one