424 PERSUASIVE SPEECHES FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Multicultural, Multilingual
1 Perdóneme señor; me perdí. Podría decirme cómo ir al Hotel del Sol?
2 A few of you may know what I just said, “Excuse me, sir. I’m lost. Could you tell me
how to get to the Sun Hotel?” However, some of you may not, even though you had three to four
years of Spanish in high school. I have one question for you: Would you be able to get around in
a foreign country where the language you studied was spoken?
3 According to a class survey I conducted, all of you said that you studied a foreign language
in high school, the majority of you for three to four years. Yet most of you do not have enough
knowledge of the language to use it correctly. In addition, 92 percent of you said you thought it
would have been more helpful to have started your foreign language study earlier.
5 The first reason such knowledge is critical is because it is essential for global communica-
tion. According to an article in Current magazine, Americans both in and out of government pro-
claim the new global economy the defining reality of our age. With technology growing faster and
faster, we have now become closer to our global neighbors than ever before. Governments and
businesses will increasingly need workers who can communicate with our global partners in Latin
America, Africa, and Europe.
MULTICULTURAL, MULTILINGUAL 425
8 According to Table 57 in the Statistical Abstract of the United States, people born in anoth-
er country make up 9 percent of the American population. An article in the Population Bulletin
states that 32 million people reported to last United States Census that they spoke a language other
than English at home. This number is larger than the populations of New York, Pennsylvania, and
Colorado combined and is six times larger than the number of people that live here in Wisconsin.
9 According to the Census Bureau, more than 17 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish as
their primary language. In many parts of the country, knowledge of Spanish has become a vital
day–to-day issue. Kathy Lemmons, chairwoman of the foreign language department at Fayetteville
High School in Arkansas, says, “When I talk to doctors, they wish they would have taken Spanish;
when I talk to lawyers and business people, they say the same thing.”
10 But whether Spanish, Japanese, German, Italian, Chinese, or Polish, it is obvious that profi-
ciency in another tongue is needed. To meet this need, I propose a solution that mandates state gov-
ernments to require foreign language instruction in all elementary schools. The program I advocate
is called FLES, the Foreign Languages in Elementary Schools Program. This program is based
mostly on the spoken word versus writing and interpretation, and it starts teaching foreign lan-
guages as early as the first grade or even kindergarten.
11 It’s important to note that much of the foreign language instruction done in this program is
very basic. Olwen Bell, a French teacher at an Arkansas elementary school that has implemented
the program, states that “There’s a lot of role playing, singing, and chanting.” Classroom teachers
can easily take courses to learn how and what to teach the kids. It’s not necessary for teachers to go
back to school to get a degree in a foreign language. However, teachers should take instructional
courses so they have opportunities for continued professional growth.
15 John Silber, Chancellor of Boston University and Chairman of the Massachusetts Board
of Education, remarks, “It is quite clear that remarkable competence in a language can be
achieved in three years—if these years are the ages three, four, and five. There is no question that
for the average child trying to become bilingual, the earlier the better.”
426 PERSUASIVE SPEECHES FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
16 Finally, although some people wonder whether early foreign language instruction gets in
the way of learning other subjects, according to the book Foreign Languages and the Elementary
School Child, experiments done in public schools in Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and New York
showed that learning foreign languages had no adverse effects on achievement in subject areas
such as math and social studies. In some cases, kids who had foreign language instruction per-
formed better in subjects such as spelling, reading, arithmetic, and language usage.
17 Furthermore, studying a language can help students better understand those outside their
own culture and aid them in becoming more tolerant.
18 Cuándo visitamos un país extranjero, estamos suponiendo que alguien habla Inglés?
Depende de un diccionario? To put it in English, “When we visit a foreign country, are we to
expect that someone will speak English? Depend on a foreign language dictionary?”
MULTICULTURAL, MULTILINGUAL 427
Multicultural, Multilingual
Commentary
By analyzing the use of supporting materials in a speech, students often get a better idea of how to use
them in their own speeches. “Multicultural, Multilingual” has a variety of supporting materials and illus-
trates how they can be employed to clarify and bolster a speaker’s ideas. It also provides an opportunity
for students to discuss how the speaker could have employed supporting materials more effectively.
Here is a synopsis of the speech.
Specific Purpose: To persuade my audience that foreign language instruction should be mandatory in
all U.S. elementary schools.
Central Idea: Mandatory foreign language instruction in all U.S. elementary schools will help prepare
today’s students for interaction in the global economy and in the increasingly multicultural con-
text of the United States itself.
Method of Organization: Problem–solution
Introduction: The introduction consists of paragraphs 1–4. Posing the opening question in Spanish is
an excellent attention–getter. In paragraph 2, the speaker relates the question to her audience,
Body: There are two main points in the body of this speech. The first explains why knowledge of a
second language is vital for the world today and is developed in paragraphs 5–9. The speaker
begins by demonstrating that being able to communicate in a foreign tongue is a great ad-
vantage in the global economy (paragraphs 5–6). After an excellent transition in paragraph 7,
she then shows that the United States itself is growing more multilingual day by day (paragraphs
8–9).
The second main point presents the speaker’s solution and runs from paragraph 10 through
paragraph 17. In paragraphs 10–11, the speaker introduces her policy of mandatory foreign lan-
guage instruction in all U.S. elementary schools. Paragraphs 12–17 are devoted to discussing the
428 PERSUASIVE SPEECHES FOR ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
Supporting Materials: The speaker uses a number of brief examples to reinforce her ideas. One exam-
ple appears in the problem section when the speaker observes that some accountants at firms
such as Chase Manhattan Bank and National City Bank need a second language to better serve
the banks’ international clients (paragraph 6). This example is especially effective because most
people would assume that accounting is a technical subject that does not require knowledge of
a foreign language.
The heaviest concentration of brief examples in this speech occurs in the solution section,
and especially in the paragraphs devoted to showing the practicality of the speaker’s policy. In
paragraph 12, she cites several states that have successfully instituted a program similar to the
one she recommends. In paragraph 13, she mentions that European and Asian nations have
long begun foreign language instruction in the early grades, and in the same paragraph she
specifies Australia as an example of an English–speaking nation that requires extensive foreign
language training in elementary school. In paragraph 16, she points to the experience of public
served by starting foreign language instruction earlier in their education. In paragraph 6, she
presents figures from the Foreign Language Annals about the growth of international business.
In the same paragraph she draws from a survey in the Journal of Education for Business to note
that 51 percent of the responding firms would give hiring preferences to accounting and busi-
ness majors skilled in a foreign language. As in other parts of the speech, her figures here are
presented. Finally, in paragraph 9 the speaker cites statistics from the Census Bureau showing
that 17 million people in the U.S. speak Spanish as their primary language.
It is worth noting that all of the speaker’s statistics occur in the need section of the speech,
while most of her examples occur in the practicality section. This is not unusual in a persuasive
speech on a question of policy. When demonstrating the need for a change from current policy,
find it helpful when the distinctions among them are clearly established. Problematic cases can
then be dealt with on an individual basis as they arise.
There are a number of clear cases of testimony in this speech. In paragraph 9, the speaker
presents a quotation from Kathy Lemmons, chairwoman of the foreign language department at
Fayetteville High School, about the need for knowledge of Spanish among doctors, lawyers, and
in the entire speech—a quotation from John Silber underscoring the point that early instruction
is the best way for a child to acquire fluency in a second language.
The only point in the speech that is not documented occurs in paragraph 17, where the
speaker asserts that studying a foreign language helps students become more tolerant and
more understanding of people outside their own culture. While this point would appear more or