An Official Language for the United States?

The relative lack of multilingualism in the United States emphasizes that American attitudes toward language and language policy exhibit two contradictory tendencies. On the one hand, it is argued that Americans must have knowledge of languages other than English in an increasingly integrated world economy. On the other hand, many object to the use of foreign languages in conducting government business within the United States.

This ambivalence is clear in the political debate concerning whether English should be adopted as the official language. In recent years, several states have adopted policies designating English as their official language. Some have argued that English should be designated as an official language by the federal government. Is it in the best interests of the United States to have English as its official language?

The debate concerning English as an official language has been influenced by the fact that so many Americans do not speak English as a first language. Few recent immigrants from Asia. Latin America, or elsewhere are fluent in English. In fact, there are people whose families have lived in the United States for several generations who do not speak English at home.

Non-English speakers born in the United States include French-speaking Cajuns in Louisiana and Spanish-Americans in northern New Mexico. Nearly 30 million Americans—better than 10 percent of the population—have been raised in homes where languages other than English were spoken.

Supporters of proposals to establish English as an official language argue that American culture would be more unified if everyone was expected to speak English. They also note the traditional role of the English language in the cultural assimilation of immigrants into the United States. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, millions of European immigrants arrived in the United States speaking little or no English.

Many settled in urban ethnic communities where their cultural and linguistic ties to "the old country" could be reinforced. Just as in Vancouver today, immigrants could read only those newspapers and magazines published in their native languages. Schools in which the native language and cultural traditions were taught were maintained in each ethnic community.

American schooling was crucial to the diffusion of English to immigrant communities. Immigrant children who attended American schools soon became fluent in English, were exposed to American cultural traditions, and interacted with children of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Often in a single generation, the transition from immigrant to mainstream American culture had been completed. Supporters of English as an official language object to bilingual education programs today, in which immigrant children are taught some or all of their lessons in their native languages.

On the other hand, opponents of making English an official language claim that the exclusive use of English is discriminatory. According to this view, the exclusive use of English impedes communication with non-English-speaking residents. The exclusive use of the English language in emergency rooms of hospitals could hinder communication with accident victims or critically ill patients who do not speak English. In addition, the exclusive use of English is seen as contributing to the destruction of the cultures of these non-English-speaking areas.

These arguments illustrate that the debate concerning English as an official language in the United States hinges on cultural values concerning the role of language in society. Further light on this question is shed by examining how individual states and communities have dealt with the language issue.