Learning a Second Language

• Main Author: Macaulay, Ronald
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 2006
• Subjects: Iceland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195187960.003.0023; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52478160/isbn-9780195187960-book-part-23.pdf

Abstract For some reason, many people seem to find the very notion of bilingualism threatening. Yet bilingualism (or more commonly multilingualism) is the norm for most nation-states. There are fewer than two hundred nation-states and perhaps six thousand languages. Only about ten of the nation-states can be said to be predominantly monolingual (for example, Portugal, Iceland, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Bangladesh, and the Dominican Republic). Even in countries where the overwhelming majority speak one language, as in the United States and Britain, there may be substantial numbers of people who speak other languages. In 1976 the number of people in the United States from a non-English language background was determined to be 28 million, and it is estimated that by the year 2000 this figure will have risen to 39.5 million. However, rather than being seen as an asset, the presence of speakers of other languages is resented by many Americans. In recent years this anxiety has taken the form of “English-only” proposals designed to make English the official language of the United States and to ban the use of other languages in public institutions. This is a reaction to, among other things, the Bilingual Education Act of 1968, which for the first time in decades provided public support for instruction in a language other than English. At the same time, American educational institutions devote extensive resources to instruction in “foreign” languages, with little evidence of widespread success.