English as the Official Language of the United States - Article Example

English as the Official Language of the United s: An Annotated Bibliography Di Rado, A. (2005, March) Bill Calls English Official Language: House Panel Hears Debate. The Washington Times.B01. The article discusses the bill that would make English as the official language of state government. According to the article, the bill is co-authored by two republican representatives coming from Baltimore County and supported by the Democrat-controlled General Assembly. The bill will require all government transactions be conducted in English. According to a Montgomery Democrat, a country needs unity; however, there are thousands of immigrants in the United States that makes it difficult to achieve national unity. From the perspective of the bill’s supporters, using English as a common language will allow cultural diversity and will eventually lead to a unified country. Currently, there are 27 states using English as their official language and this includes Virginia. This article provides an easy to understand explanations of the bill. The article also gives an overview of the scope of the said bill. When it comes to reliability, the article can be considered reliable because it gives facts about the development of the said bill. Moreover, the article comes from a reputable publication company in United States. Lewin, T. (2005) Virginia: ACLU: That is Racist. Retrieved 05 May 2006, fromTheDailyFarce.com.Website:http://www.thedailyfarce.com/politics.cfm?story=2005%5C04%5Cpolitics_englishofficiallanguageaclucries The Republican representatives has been accused being a racist, because of the bill will make English as the official language of West Virginia. It discriminates various ethnicities and cultures residing in the United States. On the other hand, the Republican representative denied the accusation, he said that making the English language as the official language in West Virginia is nothing new and is not strange to the people. Just like the other article on English language, it stated that, there are already 27 states using English as their official language and this includes Virginia. The author of this article has based the facts from the interviews of the representatives in West Virginia. Using these interviews as the primary source makes this article credible. . Mujica, Mauro. (2003, December) Why the U.S Needs an Official Language. World and I, p.36. The author provides an overview on how the American language has evolved from three hundred years ago. The author also presents the new and complicated developments of English language through social and economic conditions, of the country. The author emphasized that the English language in United States has shared a great influence in the development of the civilization of the modern world. The study examined the impressionistic or polemic interest in speech, and often animated, amusing, and sometimes the vehicles for a certain amount of valuable information. They have offered very little in the way of systematic elucidation of the English language in United States. The article also explains that making English as the official language will be an advantage to the government offices in the country. Giving most important services to immigrant in their native languages is expensive for American born taxpayers and will limit immigrants linguistically. This will give an opportunity to immigrants to learn mainstream English and will give them direct access to economy, politics and culture. Just like the article from the Washington times, this article provides an easy understanding of the bill. The article provided an explanation of the benefits of making the English language as the official language in United States. Although the article contains the opinion of the writer, it can still be considered very objective because the basis of his opinions is from his observation. In research methodologies for social sciences, first hand experiences are one of the most reliable sources. Mujica, Mauro. (2003) Should English be the Official Language of the UnitedStates?Retrieve04May2006,fromkswygert.Website:http://www.kimberlyswygert.com/archives/001690.html. According to a survey, many countries agreed to the importance of learning English. These countries are: Vietnam, 98 percent; Indonesia, 96 percent; Germany and South Africa, 95 percent; India, 93 percent; China and the Philippines, 92 percent; Honduras, Japan, Nigeria, and Uganda, 91 percent; and France, Mexico, and Ukraine, 90 percent. The results of the survey are never new, people around the world, especially parents are aware that English is the global language that every person needs to learn in order to succeed. That is why the American government is declaring English as their official language. However, why still need to declare a policy that is already happening? The answer is simple; the use of English in schools, workplaces and government offices is drawing back because of too many immigrants. Teaching English in schools and University will not rob students of their linguistic choices but will provide them quality education and access to American culture. The author used quantitative surveys as the basis of writing the article. In the academe, quantitative methods of study is a strategy-or plan-for achieving some goals; methods are the tactics that can be used to service the goals of the methodology. In essence, methodologies provide the blueprints that prescribe how the tools should be used. Those prescriptions can be traced to the axioms beliefs about how research should be conducted. Phillips on R. ( 1992). Linguistic imperialism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. English, and the ideology it communicates, is therefore part of the legitimization of situations inside the global division of labor. English should not be interpreted as if it were basic tabula rasa. The imbalanced power relations between English and other languages are rationalized. It is appropriate to the well-known linguistic pattern of the powerful language creating an outer image of itself, other languages being diminished and the association between the two rationalized favoring the dominant language. The promotion of the Official English movement within the United States is nothing but the present indication of a deep-seated predisposition to agreement with linguistic pluralism by favoring one language as the only rightful language of power. Efforts to test the supremacy of English by persevering on the right to express oneself in public in another language and to accept official communications in a language other than English are certain to grow. In this study, the author has shown his ability to efficiently determine and ensure the objective and purpose of his study. The study has a direction to follow and has given pertinent information and was able to arrive into a valid conclusion. Schmidt R. J. ( 1991). Sources of language policy conflict: A comparative perspective. Paper presented to the Annual Conference of the Western Political Science Association, Seattle, WA. English as the official language will provide linguistic access to voting and other civil and political rights. The efforts of making the English language as the official language of United States will result to possible consequences of their own language policy and may oppose bilingual education and linguistic access of the people. The bill may also give way to linguistic pluralism that will result to political conflicts over language policy that should be avoided by the government. From the perspective of some Latino political activists, this will lead to cultural, economic and political divisiveness that will result to life long economic and social disadvantages of some American minority groups. This article gives an analytical framework and factual foundation for understanding the level to which the politics of language in United States. The article answered the following issues: what is the relevance of English as the official language of United States? What benefits will it give to United States and its people? Tollefson J. (1991). Planning language, planning inequality: Language policy in the community. London: Longman Tollefson has explored the language policy in the United States through discussing the latest arguments in making English as the official language of United States. According to Tollefson, there has been some debate on the nature of American identity that considers the English language as the symbol and a tool of American nationhood and state-inspired nationalism. However, there have been issues that English is a mechanism of imperialism and modernization. For them, English will just encourage unequal relationship between developed and developing societies, for the reason, that language fluency is not the only key to information and power. It is also based on institutional organizations, economic resources, and relationships. Tollefson, agreed to the said critics, because he believes that the government cannot use English as the official language of United States, because this will make the language inaccessible to all American people. The American government must enhance the needed institutions to make the English language resources accessible. The resources that Tollefson is referring to are research universities and corporations that control scientific and technological information. Moreover, from the point of view of an innovating country, modernization invites opening their institutions to direct control by nations that lead scientific and technical information. Tollefson has given his opinions towards the issues on English language, against critical and interpretative perspectives of other studies. He had shown different perspectives that vary in terms of the perceived objectives and social reality in United States. He gave an empirical inquiry and the kind of evidence to which most weight is given. Williams C. H. (1994). "Development, dependency and the democratic deficit". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 15, 101-128. According to this study, making English as the official language of United States will be a solution to life long issues of its citizens. He believes that this will provide cultural diversity that will feature international social order. Without an official language, there will always be intercultural conflict through traditional manners, while having an official language will lead the people to search for new means of social integration. Williams provided new techniques in discussing the issues of inter-society and inter-cultural tensions. According to his study, this new techniques will have to look beyond the traditional academic disciplines and ideologies linking to economics, psychology, political science and at the same time, incorporating more distressing radical thoughts and opinions in a more syncretic way. Williams also added that having English as the official language of United States will be a great influence on managing classic immigrant societies, conceptualizations of nationhood, dynamics and development in multicultural societies, organization of linguistic hegemony of English principles of social justice. This will also enable United States to distribute social power and will motivate social groups to participate in the promotion of democracy within the liberal state. Williams’s book has given a clear explanation of how English can help promote cultural diversity in United States. This can be useful in providing information to students and experts in the academe to explore the issues like multi-culturalism, nationhood, linguistic hegemony and social justice. The book can also be a good endeavor to other researcher who has interest in studying the said issues. The study can be considered reliable because of the following reasons: a) William studied the different issues of multi-cultureless by using previous studies and publications written by linguist and sociologist. Read More