English Language Politics In Great Britain

Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………...…1
2. OVERVIEW OF MINORITY LANGUAGES IN THE UNITED STATES AND GREAT BRITAIN…………………………………………………………………..…2
3. LANGUAGE POLICIES AND IDEOLOGY……………………………………….…3
4. MINORITY LANGUAGE POLICIES IN THE UNITED STATE…………………...4
5. AUTOCHTHONOUS LANGUAGE POLICIES IN GREAT BRITAIN……………..6
6. CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………...8

Dean 1
INTRODUCTION
The term minority language refers to a language spoken by a minority of the population on a certain territory (less than 50 percent of the population). Some minority languages are also national languages like for example Spanish or Irish. Societies undertake actions in order to promote or discourage the use of particular languages,

In Louisiana, however, English and French are legally recognized languages, while in New Mexico, English and Spanish are legally recognized. Traditionally, the predominance of the English language in a country with so many ethnic minorities is a result of extreme patriotism and a systematic assimilation of immigrants and indigenous population. It began in the colonial period with the deculturation of Native Americans, lasted through World War I when German speakers were prosecuted and has been gaining more and more power since the 90s, when the English-Only Movement, also known as Official English Movement was started with the aim of establishing a “common language” and thus a “common culture”. In 1971, Massachusetts became the first American state to pass the law for obligatory bilingual educational program. The idea was that students would be taught English while learning other subjects in their native language. The law was abolished in 2002 with a legislation requiring that all subjects be taught exclusively in English, except under special circumstances. The same happened in Arizona and California. According to research, one out of five students in America is an immigrant or a child of

Obvious violations of human rights can be seen in the case of the federal courts of Puerto Rico where English is mandatory, meaning that jury service is restricted to upper-class Puerto Ricans who have the required proficiency in English. (Piller and Takahashi, 2010: 584)
“In most contemporary societies, literacy mediates access to health care, consumer rights, further education or employment. However, we live in a world where basic literacy is still denied to nearly a fifth of the world’s adult population. That means that some 771 million people aged 15 or above are excluded from access to education, health services, career opportunities and full citizenship that literacy affords.” (Piller and Takahashi, 2010: 585) But the segregation of minorities on the count of language is not typical only for the government, it is also common in social circles and at work. For example, Piller and Takahashi give an example of Spanish speaking kitchen workers in