The_Official_Language_Movement

Hispanics in the US share the heritage of the Spanish language. They do not always speak the language and some do not know it at all. The level of Spanish use relates to their origin and length of time in the US and if they born here, per our text. As of 2002, Mexican Americans were 51% Spanish dominant 26% bilingual. US Puerto Ricans in the US were 21% Spanish dominant. and 40% bilingual. Salvadorans, Dominicans, Colombians, and other Central and South Americans tend to be more Spanish dominant. Nationally, about 70% of Latino children report speaking Spanish at home. (Brodie et al. 2002; Bureau of the Census 2003a:158) Per the article Bilingual Education: A Critique by Peter J. Duignan, Bilingual Education has been debated since the 1960’s. This article follows the subject from the Civil Rights Act in 1964 to the Bilingual Act in 1968 which decreed children should be taught in their native tongue for a year while they are learning English. This mandate was largely ignored by bilingual enthusiasts. English was neglected and Spanish became the norm. The Lau v. Nichols (1974) decision was a landmark that caused Bilingual education to move away from a year to a multiyear plan to teach children first in their original language first. This theory progressed to only Spanish being taught, and bilingual education became Spanish cultural maintenance with English limited to thirty minutes a day. Per an article on Reference.com (Multilingualliving) In 1778, a year after it was written, The Articles of Confederation (the predecessor to the Constitution of the United States) was published in German. The issue of bilingualism in the US is centered on the Spanish language, due partially to the number of recent Spanish speaking immigrants. In 2008, 12% of U.S. residents spoke Spanish at home. More than half of those also spoke English in daily life. Currently, multilingualism and the English-only movement are divisive issues, in the United States impacting education, economics and politics. At present bilingualism in politics is on increase because of various factors. These factors are rapid demographic changes, national interest resurgence or high level migration starting from globalization, per MWok Blog.com. The article regarding The Importance of Language in Politics states that this subject is more of an issue in the U.S. due to the large amount of migration that is taking place here each year. Additionally stating that Politics pervades the issue of bilingual education on helping immigrants master English and achieve success. On the federal level, the bilingual education has gained immense influential political tie-ups. Samuel P. Huntington (Harvard University) discusses in "Who Are We'" the importance of bilingualism in the US in Business, Politics, Education – for example: In Miami, those with the highest incomes are bilingual, those with the lowest speak only English. The rationale is that if you have a business that does deals in Spanish and English, and there are no bilingual candidates, it's better to hire someone who speaks Spanish in order to get the Spanish speaking clients. Therefore, we must educate our students to be bilingual for the future. For business, for politics and all facets of life.