English As a Foreign Language in America Essay

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Foreign Language Learning

In DeJong's Foundations for Multilingualism in Education, the idea that multilingualism should not be viewed as a specialty but rather treated as a norm is a good one, as Dutta indicates in his experience of growing up using various languages, believing them to be one entity not separate as they are viewed in the West (DeJong, 2011, p. 1). For instance, the UK's tendency to "teach" a separate language in one class but to ignore it in all other occasions does not help to support the actual learning or usage of that language. Yet schools still have a tendency to feel the need to label students and language learners as though they needed to be marked as special or different. It should be the norm for all to learn multiple languages especially at a younger age in order to develop skills and open doors for later careers. Too much is being wasted: the potential for more is there and no one is taking advantage of it. Instead, "structuring classroom participation" is viewed as the height of creative response to this problem: it is not. The problem is that these languages are not being embraced culturally and that there is no incentive to use them outside the rigid confines of the classroom (DeJong, 2011, p. 5).

If the West has supposedly embraced pluralism, it should respect pluralist discourses: "Within pluralist discourses diversity is accepted as a basic part of an increasingly mobile, global, and diverse world" (DeJong, 2011, p.

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15). Yet, as Samway and McKeon (2007) indicate, "Spanish is the native language of approximately 76% of ELLs" (p. 2) in America and ELLs are a growing percentage in schools -- yet there is no real embrace of Spanish language or culture: on the contrary, the white power establishment shuns the idea of learning another language, insisting that they should learn English. Nonetheless, ELLs are in the rural communities and they are viewed as "outsiders" unfortunately: Americans are xenophobic, afraid of anything foreign (Samway, McKeon, 2007, p. 4). This is a major problem in embracing new languages but the demographics are not changing and the number of ELLs is only increasing. Americans should accept the fact that they are not alone and stop attempting to suppress the legitimate exercise of learning multiple languages and using them in daily life to make friends, conduct business, and negotiate the social realm.….....

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