A National Language

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Recommended: Status of English as a global language

America is a country founded on the qualities of many cultures from around the world. As people of this great nation, we have grown up experiencing a variety of languages and cultures. These varieties of languages and cultures founded, built, and fortified this nation. In this “melting pot” called the United States of America, one language has unified the communication of our country, and that is American English, our country’s primary language. As the United States has continued economic expansion, it continues to remain the destination for majority of the worlds' immigrants. Many people come to the United States seeking political and religious freedoms, while others come for better job opportunities, increased wages, and improved living conditions. With this steady growth of immigration, comes an increase in the diversity of languages, other than that of American English. This discrepancy in language differences has created somewhat of a controversy among the unity of our national, governmental, and educational systems. This controversy adversely affects every state in America, “currently, thirty-one states have declared English as their official Language” (U.S. English, Inc.). Figure 1 is a representation of the states shown in blue that have declared English as their official language. With the majority of the United States declaring English as their “official” language, as an American, I believe there should be a unifying, language standard for all to communicate; I too, believe the United States should declare English as the official, national language. Many Countries around the world have an official language. According to the World Factbook, fifty-two countries have declared English as their official language. Language,... ... middle of paper ... ...Adults Topline.pdf>. Lawton, Rachele. “Language policy and ideology in the United States. “Lancaster University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics & Language Teaching”. Majid KhosraviNik, Alexandrea Polyzou: LAEL PG. 2008. 79-100. 10 Aug 2011. . Maci, David. “Future of Language.” CQ Researcher 10.40 (2001): 929-952. Web. 09 Jul 2011. . “Official English.” WWW.US-English.org. U.S. English, Inc., 10 Jul 2011. Web. 10 Jul 2011. . TESOL. (2000). Position Statement on Language Rights. Retrieved 1 Aug 2011. . United States. The World Factbook. CIA.gov, 2011. Web. 10 Jul 2011. .

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