Bilingualism: The Key to Personal and National Progress

Since the conception of the United States there has been no official national language, however, English has long been the formal language of choice in America. It is used in nearly all forms of communication both internally and internationally from politics, science, marketing and any other discipline one can think of. The United States has an overwhelming focus on integrating its citizens into speaking English, but a minimal amount of effort is placed on educated any other languages. In most states second language classes are required for only two semesters in high school, and the languages offered in high school and typically limited to Spanish and French. For obvious reasons Spanish is a preferred language to teach to students due to the close proximity of Spanish speaking countries and the high influx of migration of Spanish speaking individuals to America. It is not uncommon for countries to teach its students the languages of other countries that said country is often found associating with. Many countries have already implemented educational systems that require two to three languages to be taught in school. These counties mainly in Europe and Asia are at the forefront of educational learning and economic viability, while they leave America scrambling to catch up. No longer can American education turn a blind eye to this vital and growing educational necessity. Many fear that bilingualism could potential hinder individual’s linguistic progress, but on the contrary bilingualism offers unprecedented benefits both to the individual student’s learning capabilities as well as added benefits to American economical services and growth.

The field of neurobiology is yielding impressive results when examining the bilingual brain. O...

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...n these various cultures and countries is through the ability to speak to one another and the key to this is bilingualism. From the cognitive benefits offered to an early child’s learning, to job opportunities, all the way to global interactions the mandatory inclusion of bilingualism in American education will serve to further advance all of these pursuits.

Work Cited

"Bilingual Youre Valuable." 24 September 2007. Career Builder. Document. April 2012.

Chen, Grace. "Benefits of Foreign Language Education." 21 June 2008. Public School Review. document. april 2012.

"Language Matters: A Global Shift to Bilingualism?" 28 October 2006. Language Instinct. document. April 2012.

"The Advantages of Being Bilingual." 2012. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. Document. April 2012.

"The Bilingual Brain." n.d. Society of Neuroscience. 22 March 2012.