bilingual foreign language education policy competitiveness security globalization culture elementary
Abstract:
Languages other than English are becoming more and more prevalent in the
United States and the diversity of foreign language use will continue to have a significant impact on our culture and our society at large. Furthermore, our world is becoming increasingly global in nature with global relationships among people in different cultures that have been enabled by the World Wide Web, Facebook, Twitter, Yammer, LinkedIn, and the other social media sites. To prosper and effectively compete in this global society, the United States must focus education of its children on cultural awareness and sensitivity, including foreign languages. It is critical that this education begin during the K – 8 stage since younger children are much more inclined to learn and retain languages when they are acquired in earlier years. It is also critical to support U.S. national security interests.
This thesis explores the history of foreign language use in America and the
teaching of foreign languages in U.S. schools. It traces the history of the “English Only” movement and the attempt to culturally socialize English by prohibiting other languages to be taught in U.S. schools. It also analyzes the changes in the U.S. demographic regarding language facility and bilingualism and multilingualism. Finally, it argues that we should require foreign language education to facilitate overall learning, to better prepare our future population to effectively compete and to ensure national security.
