Language support for those that don’t speak the native language of the country they reside in has grown in importance in recent years. In the United States, at least, the demand for it has skyrocketed as more and more organizations recognise the need to provide much-needed language back up to those with limited English. For a vast number of organizations, this often means making available a language support person in order to alleviate the language barriers that are often present in their organisations.

Language support importance has been highlighted by the amount the US Federal Government is prepared to spend on such services which had reached about USD 517.2m by the close of 2017 for both translation and interpretation work. This is all partly due to a Pew Research announcement that by 2055 the US will no longer be dominated by any single ethnic or racial majority. Today, more than 14% of the population in the U.S. was born in an overseas country. In the next fifty years or so any U.S. population growth is expected to be due to new Hispanic and Asian immigration.

Other reasons for language support importance include the fact that more than 25 million people are considered to be Limited English Proficient (LEP) and 4.7 million of these were actually born in the U.S. Coupled with this statistic is the fact that multicultural consumers in the U.S. are the faster-growing consumer group so this offers a good reason for language support importance.Fortunately, due to these forecasts there are many language support providers in the U.S. available to meet the growing need for such services.

What are the main users of language support services?

These services are mainly used by organisations such as hospitals and schools. Hospitals have the obligation to provide accurate details about a patient’s condition and prognosis both to the patient and his or her close family. For someone with limited proficiency in English misunderstandings are likely to take place including the correct use of prescribed medications. Similarly, in the education field educators need to be able to communicate with both students and parents when it comes to discussing a student’s progress and needs. There is nothing worse than miscommunication taking place due to the lack of provision of language support for these individuals who can’t speak English well.