Language Diversity in the Classroom - ymerleksi - home

210 Language Diversity in the Classroomsensitivity, none should be taught as a subject. Indeed, we might want togo a bit further, and say that none can be taught as subjects in anymeaningful way. (Schank’s impressive educational credentials are,perhaps, a little sullied by his current occupation. He is ‘Chief LearningOfficer’ at Trump University, an online real-estate college founded by‘The Donald’ himself in 2005.)All of this tends to a broad and venerable conclusion: the mostimportant things cannot be taught, although they can obviously belearned. This does not lessen for a moment the importance of teachers, ofcourse they will always be needed to provide educational fuel,incentive and, often, inspiration but it does remind us of the centralityof the recipients to the whole enterprise.Another relevant development is the post-2001 American debate overborder security and immigration, including the question of the twelvemillion ‘illegal aliens’ that was brought to the fore in early 2006. Amongother things, this has reawakened interest in making English the officiallanguage of the country (Agence France-Press, 2006; see also Edwards,1990). Proponents of ‘Official English’ in the USA have been directly orindirectly involved in legislative efforts at the state level: thirty statesnow proclaim English as official, with Ohio set to become the thirty-first.Success has eluded them at the federal level, however. The most recentattempt there occurred in February 2007; more than one third of themembers of the House of Representatives agreed to ‘declare English asthe official language of the United States’ (H.R. 997). Academic reactionhas always been quick in these matters. For instance, in connection withan earlier (2006) legislative initiative almost every sitting of Congresssees a proposal to make English official members of the AmericanAssociation for Applied Linguistics received an email message noting theorganization’s deep concern about moves to legally enshrine the status ofEnglish and to restrict the provision of services in other languages. Theywere urged to get in touch with their state representatives, and atemplate letter for this purpose was attached to the main message.Beyond the assertion that language matters are not an integral part ofborder security, four specific points were made: (1) the status of Englishdoes not need legislated protection; (2) respect for other languages in theUnited States is important for ‘fostering national loyalty’; (3) for the‘unity of national purpose’, it is preferable that citizens and residentshave documents and services in their own languages; (4) attempts toheighten the importance of foreign-language learning ‘for nationalsecurity purposes’ will be weakened if foreign languages are undercut