Abstract
Migration is what sets this world’s societal tendencies apart from the society of previous centuries. Of course, it is hard to deny that contemporary people are seeking the best ways to live and the most comfortable places. This is the prior reason they chose the United States’ democracy as a variant of making the lives better. It is a well-known fact that Spanish, Japanese, etc. immigrants feel going home from home because the US is a melting pot, a very diverse country, there are thousands of communities formed by different nations, and due to this circumstance there arouse burning debates as per the language they have to speak at school and other official institutions of the United States. Namely, whether the issue of mandating immigrant lean English is that simple, whereas learning English for qualifying for American rights in full dimension might entail overall changes in American culture.
Introduction
An immigrant is a person who travels to other country in order to stay there permanently. Immigrants usually face a lot of factors that start disturbing their identities much at the beginning and sometimes the concern of the issues does not disappear until the end of life. It is important to understand that migration and obtaining other country’s culture is always a hard and effortful process. Among the problems an immigrant has to overcome are cultural differences, homesickness (eventually), and language barrier. Even if a person has been studying English for years in his/her native country it is impossible to claim that he is not to face the language barrier because once a person gets into the foreign verbal environment cultural shock is inevitable. Therefore, it is necessary to help a person – who decided to contribute their own life to the foreign country – to adopt and adjust to the traditions, language usage, and environment in general easily.
Within the problem of communication and language issues it is important to denote the notion of language policies that in some cases imply not the best side of American hospitality. However, generally they are aiming at a balance of cultural diversity throughout the country. There is no language policy in the state that forces immigrants to learn English obligatory. However, with the span of time foreigners understand that it might be to their own benefit. In some cases, nevertheless, immigrants demand the equal status of their native language, which is likely to change the overall American culture ultimately. So, it is important to investigate the origins of the language policy and how the language policy that is currently in use affects immigrants and American culture.
Language Policy
It is important to understand that within the states of America, any kind of immigrant has to show excellent skills in English speaking, reading, and writing in order to acquire citizenship. From here, the question of the importance versus constraints arouses. Is English really as secondary as the government tries to convey? Since there is no obligation to study English by 1st and 2nd generation immigrants, then the sense of getting citizenship with English speaking skills only does not make any sense.
Moreover, another problem that American society is about to face in several decades is a complete change of society due to the learning of English debates. Since immigrants validly feel the power of their rights within the country due to their population number, it is vitally important nowadays to prove the English language important to be taught to immigrants. Meanwhile, the number of immigrants solidly yields to the number of Native Americans, so the problem of future cultural alternations is not urgent yet, though it might become so if correct actions are not taken timely. Namely, it seems that encouraging the learning of English is not a prior goal of today’s immigration institutions.
Language Learning Opportunities
Adult ELLs
To be more exact, it is necessary to draw the example of immigrant adult learning. They seek to get the necessary skills level, however, English does not happen to be affordable and accessible enough. Unfortunately, many schools refuse to make the facilities for English teaching practice available after the main work. Therefore, it is explicitly seen that the man problem is a lack of opportunity not a desire. Among the problems of learning English for immigrants are: long working hours, no transportation, lack of teachers and funding. The teacher would not usually take up this kind of job because not encouraged by high pay and career perspectives. Therefore, the schedules of a teacher and an immigrant and location constraints make it almost impossible to learn English and prolong the major careers of teachers.
Children ELLs
As per the problems in English studies it is necessary to mention the second generation immigrants – the children. The elementary schools have a lot of disputes over the studying methods of the kids-immigrants. It is said that a bilingual environment is impossible for those kids whom parents want to see developing in their native environment. However, it is clear that kids are willing to use their native Spanish, Chinese, etc in order to acquire literacy. The reason for that is evident: they speak their native language in their families because their parents do, and the entire community does. Therefore, it is hard for a 6-8 year old to adjust right away and perceive all instructions in English. However, as per pedagogic and psychological issues, the pre-school students are likely to absorb the information easily and become English speaking learners simply. There was an observation held in the pre-school in Ms. Lewis’s class who started talking to the kids in the class in English only. This was the structured English Immersion program that is believed to have the best outcomes for the students who need English as a resource. Nevertheless, Ms. Lewis affirms that “We want our children to be bilingual and biliterate…My goal is for these children to learn English and they are learning English, but do not take away their Spanish along the way, use them together to get them there” (Soltero-Gonzalez, 2009, p. 285). It is necessary to outline that bilingual students are more likely to get more out of the education than their monolingual peers: “…students who are instructed in their home language and in English outperform … students from similar linguistic backgrounds instructed solely in English” (Soltero-Gonzalez, 2009, p. 284).
Disadvantages of Refusing to Learn English
The quantity of native English speakers far exceeds the number of immigrants of any nation in the United States. This entails precise dominance of the English language as an elite language for the majority of the spheres of business, trade, commerce, and others. Therefore, it is important to state the fact that Lucy Tse expressed in her Harvard Education Review: “English fluency is a badge of prestige, a membership card for entry into the mainstream” (Tse, 2009.n.p.). Therefore, if an immigrant wants to have a highly paid job rather than “entry-level low-wage jobs that cannot sustain a family” (Wrigley,2009, p. 5), performing excellent English skills is necessary.
Besides, assimilating into American society gets much harder when you do not know English, at least, at an elementary level. (Bartlett, 2011, p.56). Cultural shock is a very serious problem immigrants face although living in their native language environment. That is why acculturalization needs an immigrant to learn and use English. All the more, learning English is also essential to adults because otherwise they will not be able to indulge in the problems of their kids and different school affairs. Moreover, unfortunately kids, whose parents are not English speaking, have a higher risk of obesity and other health problems. This all depends upon the lingua-cultural aspect when parents simply do not associate problems of a teen age with the language. Lack of English-speaking skills may lead to complete misunderstanding between an immigrant and legislature. As such, immigrants frequently face problems of understanding of American bureaucracy and law-enforcement staff. Besides, this may sometime be regarded as disrespect towards American culture. (King, 2010, p. 659). Nevertheless, nowadays in contemporary society the second generation immigrants are likely to choose the English code for everyday use sometimes even within the family. (CHEN Chun-hua, 2007, p.4)
Mandating Immigrants Learn English
Surprisingly, the issues of mandating immigrants learn English has two completely different perspectives. So, since the reason government wants immigrants to learn English is to get qualified enough to qualify for passport, also in order to show they cherish the traditions, culture, and language they live in. While there is another thing that comes up immediately from the latter reason for mandating: once the immigrants learn English enough to participate and pay tribute to the country of America, they will start contributing immensely to the cultural history of the United States of America. And, supposedly this contribution will originate from an own cultural heritage. That is why the question arises as to whether it is so necessary for the government to force everyone to learn English if they are so afraid of cultural assimilation that may result in changes in American culture, and hence political history. So, therefore we can explicitly see how natural or circumstantial causes of not learning English help both immigrants and American culture save their cultural uniqueness.
Conclusion
To crown it all it has to be said that the outcomes of immigrants’ language education are thoroughly examined now by culture experts. However, unfortunately, it is impossible to predict all aftermath yet. In order to estimate the importance for the immigrants to learn the English language, it is enough to understand that the country of residence does not always have all services adjusted to all languages. That is why the foremost reason for an immigrant to learn English s to feel comfortable and confident which helps keep them healthy psychologically and physically. As per the government, it is now evident that mandatory learning of English is superfluous because it may cause much more inevitable and unexpected changes in political and cultural systems than thought of.
References
Bartlett, Lesley. Garcia Ofelia. (2011). Additive Schooling in Subtractive Times: Bilingual Education and Dominican Immigrant Youth in the Heights. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.
CHEN Chun-hua, and HU Ya-min. (2007). Language attitude reflected in the code choices by American Chinese immigrants in The joy luck club. US-China Foreign Language, 5(12), 1-6.
King, K. A.;De Fina, A. (2010). Language Policy and Latina Immigrants: An Analysis of Personal Experience and Identity in Interview Talk. Applied Linguistics, 31(5), 651-670.
Soltero-Gonzalez, L. (2009). Preschool Latino Immigrant Children: Using the Home Language as a Resource for Literacy Learning. Theory Into Practice, 48(4), 283-289. doi:10.1080/00405840903192771.
Tse, L. (2009). Resisting and Reversing Language Shift: Heritage-Language Resilience among U.S. Native Biliterates. Harvard Educational Review. Harvard Education Publishing Group. p.676-709.
Wrigley, H.C, Jing;W, Sheida, S, J. Assessing the literacy skills of adult immigrants and adult English language learners. New Directions for Adult & Continuing Education, issue 121, 2009, p. 5-24.