Should English Be Official?

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Should English Be Official?

United States is a nation accommodating multi-ethnic groups of almost 500000 Americans. Since 1960s, America has received an increasing number of newcomers and immigrants from all over the world. However, language communication has somehow become a latent problem, whether in economical, political, or social aspects. Although English has been the common language of America for over two hundred years, it has never become the official language. Therefore, question like "Does America need an official language?" has been raised and argued in recent decades. Both sides hold very strong arguments on this controversial issue. In the articles "English Should Be Official" by Bradley S. O' Leary and "Language Cements Nationhood" by Ron Saunders, two authors uphold to make English the nation's official language, while the articles "English Shouldn't Be Official" by Victor Kamber, and "Does America Need an "Official" Language" by Tuben G. Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes are opposed to this resolution. The different attitude toward common language, money, and communication are the major arguments discussed in these four articles.

The first argument is the different attitude toward "common language." Kamber, Rumbaunt and Portes all claim that there is no need to make English the official language for it has already been a common language for hundreds of years. As Kamber states, "We don't need a law formalizing what already is a fact: English is the language in which this nation's business is conducted" (216). Also, Rumbaunt and Portes point out the illusory problem that the nativist organizations propose (217). However, the affirmatives have completely different opinions. O'Leary defends that although English ha...

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...on't help" for the communication between those ethnic groups who can't speak English well will lead to a serious problem (216). For example, "the testimony of crime victims who can't yet speak English might be prohibited in court"; "police officers and doctors might be left without interpreters to protect those who don't speak English"; or it would be very difficult for schools to communicate with students' parents (217).

In these four articles, the affirmatives and negatives express their significant arguments toward this controversial issue. Apparently, it is not an easy task to decide whether or not English should become the official language of America. The upmost thing is that we should evaluate this issue more carefully from various aspects, including economy, culture, social values, politics, etc, so that the judgment could be more fair and complete.

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