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English: Our Official Language?

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English: Our Official Language? (ENGLISH: '-." .-::;. OUR OFFICIAL LANGUAGE?) Edited by BEE GALLEGOS THE REFERENCE SHELF Volume 66 Number 2 to~~;<=~. .... "'h (}(;;-.;,._:\· . ~.-. l· BARNES',-)LLi., GA ?:!) THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY New York 1994 p 1/Cf. 3;2. ~i.p'f THE REFERENCE SHELF CONTENTS Th'~lf: in this series contain reprints of articles, excerpts from books, and addresses on current issues and social trends in the United States and other countries. There are six separately bound numbers in each volume, all of which are generally published m the same calendar }'ear. One number is a collection of recent speeches; each of the others is devoted to a single subject and gives background information and discus­ sion from various points of view, concluding with a comprehensive bibli­ 7 ography that contains books and pamphlets and abstracts of additional PREFACE ••.•...•..•..••.••..•.•..•...•••.•••••••••••• articles on the subject. Books in the senes may be purchased individually or on subscription. ~ t') I. ENGLISH ONLY Vs. ENGLISH PLus Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data fW) IV) Editor's Introduction ................................ 9 English-our officiallangt!age? I edited by Bee Gallegos. Jamie B. Draper and Martha Jimenez. Language Debates p. em. - (The Reference shelf ; v. 66, no. 2) 10 Includes bibliographical references. ! in the United States ..................... Epic Events ISBN 0-8242-0857-9 S. I. Hayakawa. One Nation ... Indivisible? ............ 1. Language policy-United States. 2. English language-United 15 States. 3. Language and education-United States. I. Gallegos, ...... The Washington Institute for Values in Public Policy 22 Bee. II. Series. ~ Towards a United America ................. U.S. English Pll9.32.U6E54 1994 u English Plus: Statement of Purpose .......... Epic Events 24 4973-dc20 94-7872 0 f6.4' CIP Leah Eskin. Pro-Con: Should English Be Our Official Language ......................... Scholastic Updi.Ue 27 Cqver: The growing immigrant population of many U.S. cities has prompted newsstand owners to increase the number of foreign­ language publications they sell. Photo: AP/Wide World Photos II. HISTORICAL, PoLITICAL, AND LEGAL IMPACTS Editor's Introduction ................................ 29 Jack Citrin. Language Politics and American Identity .... .................................. The Public Interest 30 James C. Stalker. Official English or English Only ....... ..................................... English Journal 44 James Crawford. Official English Isn't As Good As It Sounds ....................... American School Board Journal 52 Copyright© 1994 by The H. W. Wilson Company. All rights reserved. 59 No part of this work may be reproduced or copied in any form or by English Vs. Spanish in South Florida ...... CQResearcher any means, including but not restricted to graphic, electronic, and Karen L. Adams. White Supremacy or Apple Pie?: mechanical-for example, photocopying, recording, taping, or informa­ The Politics of Making English the Official Language tion and retrieval systems-without the express written permission of the of Arizona ................... Arizona English Bulletin 61 publisher, except that a reviewer may quote and a magazme or newspaper 68 ~y print brief p~sages as part of a review written specifically for mclu­ Roberto Rodriguez. Against English Only ....... Hispanic uon m that magazme or newspaper. Harriet Chiang. English-Only Labels OK, Court Rules .... 69 Printed in the United States of America .............................. San Francisco Chronicle 5 069170 86 The Reference Shelf English: Our Official ? 87 target of English-onlv lobbving groups, who fear it is a device for Hispanics in southern California suggests, simply acquiring En­ minoritv language maintenance rather than for an orderlv transi­ glish is not bringing the educational and economic successes tion to English. Troubling to teachers as well is the fan that bilin­ promised by the melting-pot myth. Linguistic assimilation may gual pmgrams are often poorlv defined, underfunded, and inad­ simply not be enough to overcome more deep-seated prejudices equatelv stalled. while parents and students frequentlv regard against Hispanics. bilingual as a euphemism for t·emedial. In its defense, we can say 1'\onetheless, there are many minority-language speakers 111 that second language education did not come into its own in this the CS, and with continued immigration they will continue to country until after \'\'orld War II. Bilingual education, along with make their presence felt. The 19HO Census showed that one 111 other programs designed to teach English as a second language, seven Americans speaks a language other than English, or lives at·e reallv the first attempts bv American schools in more than two with someone who does. Even if the courts do not strike down centuries to deal directly with the pmblem of non-English speak­ English-onlv laws, it would be difficult to legislate minority lan­ ing children. Thev represent the first attempts to t·evise language guages out of existence because we simplv ha\·e no mechanisms in education in an effort to keep children in school: to keep them this country to carry out language policy of anv kind (schools, from repeating the depressing and wasteful pattern of failure which are under local and state control, have been remarkablv experienced by earlier generations of immigrants and non­ erratic in the area of language education). On the other hand, anglophone natives: to get them to respect t·ather than revile both even in the absence of restrictive language legislation, American English, frequentlv perceived as the language of oppression, and society enforces its own irresistible pressure to keep the Lnited their native tongue. all too often rejected as the language of pov­ States an English-speaking nation. The Census also reports that ertv and failure. 97 percent of Americans identify themselves as speaking English · T)espite resistance to bilingual education and problems with well or verY well. English mav not be official, but it is definitely its implementation, the theory behind it remains sound. Children here to stav. who learn reading, arithmetic, and othet· subjects in their native If the ,;ast cvcles of protective legislation for English are any language while they are being taught English will not be as likelY indication, whatever happens in the present debate m·er the English to fall behind their anglophone peers, and will ha\·e little diffi­ Language Amendment to the CS Constitution and in similar de­ culty transferring their subject-matter knowledge to English. as bates at the state level is likely to be minimallv disrupti,·e and only their English proficiency increases. On the other hand, when temporary. The issue of minority languages will not soon go away, nonanglophone children or those with \·en· limited English are and a constitutional amendment cannot force people to adopt immersed in English-only classrooms and left to sink or swim, as English if they are unwilling or unable to do so. !'\or will English they were for generations, they will continue to fail at unaccept­ cease to function as the nation's official language even if it does not able rates. have a constitutional amendment to establish it .... English i.1 Here to Stay Those Americans who fear that unless English is made the official language of the C nited States bv means of federal and state con­ LEGISLATING ASSIMILATIOJ'\: THE 1 stitutional amendments they are about to be swamped by new ENGLISH-01'\LY MOVEMEJ'\T waves of non-English-speakers should realize that even without restrictive legislation, minoritY languages in the CS have always been marginal. Research shows that Hispanics, who now consti­ Contention between people who speak different languages is tute the nation's largest minority-language group, are adopting as old as the story of Babel. The ancient Greeks referred to those English in the second and third generation in the same way that speakers of German, Italian, Yiddish, Russian, Polish, Chinese or ·~Article hv !\lark R. Halton. From The Lhrl\luw Cnllun· !\ L~J. l9H~~. (:opyrig-ht Japanese have done in the past. Howe,·er, as the experience of © 19H9 Christian Century Foundation. Reprinted hy permission. ~ 88 The Reference Shelf English: Our Official Language? 89 who spoke in other tongues as "the babblers." Ancient Slavs called English. which claims 350.000 members. cites the "political up­ the Ger·mans across their border "the mute" or "unspeaking" peo­ heavals over language that ha\·e torn apart Canada, Belgium, Sri ple. Today, C.S. residents whose primar·y language is other than Lanka ... and other nations" as a reason to ban the use of "manv English-especially Spanish speakers-are being regarded as languages" for official purposes. "un-American.·· 1\fost opponents of the English-onlv mm·ement-such as the A pitched battle is under way between those who consider Mexican-American Legal Defense Fund and the C.S. Catholic that, for the sake of America's cohesion, English must be legis­ Conference's Secretariat for Hispanic :\flairs-are not against i<lled the official language through state or federal constitutional ethnic groups lt'anring English. but against the us-versus-them amendments, and those who consider such attempts bigoted or rhetoric a<h·anced In mam English-onlv adn>Gttes. (;eorge xenophobic. The main goals of the English-onlv movement are to Muiioz, writing· in the Chimgo Sun-Times. has said, "Opposition to eliminate or limit bilingual education in the public schools; to English-onlv is not from a desire to stav apart; most Hispanics prevent state or local governments from spending funds for want to integrate. But thev don't want to be denied access to the translating road signs or government documents or for transla­ mainstream while thev're learning English." Mur1oz argues that tors to assist non-English-speaking patients at public hospitals; it's not the language of communication that should be important and to abolish multilingual ballots-required in 375 jurisdictions to the gmenllnt'nt but wht'ther the gm·ernment can make itself bv the 19():) Voting Rights Act.
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