Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226120163 ISBN 13: 9780226120164

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1992

Synopsis

As late as 1987, two-thirds of the Americans who responded to a national survey believed that English was the official language of the United States. In fact, the Constitution is silent on the issue. Since Senator S. I. Hayakawa first proposed an English Language Amendment in Congress in 1981, Official English has been considered in forty-seven states and adopted by seventeen; the amendment is pending in the 102d Congress.

Supporters argue that English has always been our common language—a means of resolving conflicts in a nation of diverse racial, ethnic, and religious groups, and an essential tool of social mobility and cultural integration. Opponents charge that the amendment is unnecessary and that it threatens civil rights, educational opportunities, and free speech, wrapping racist biases in a cloak of patriotism.

Language Loyalties: A Source Book on the Official English Controversy provides a balanced, comprehensive guide to this complex and often confusing debate. It is an essential handbook and reference for advocates, educators, policymakers, jurists, scholars, and citizens who seek to join this debate fully informed. Addressing the issues involved in developing America's first planned national language policy, James Crawford has expertly collected and introduced more than eighty-five source documents and articles.

About this title

About the Author:

James Crawford is the author of Bilingual Education: History, Politics, Theory, and Practice and Hold Your Tongue: Bilingualism and the Politics of "English Only."

From Publishers Weekly:

This collection of 85 essays, speeches, reports, editorials and other documents provides a comprehensive guide to the complex debate--fueled in the past decade--over whether English should be designated the official language of the United States. first ref/i think our style is U.S. regardless of first reference or not/pk Crawford ( Bilingual Education ) says the controversy masks deeper issues: "tensions about demographic and cultural change and increased immigration from the Third World." Though the book includes essays by advocates from both sides, most contributors persuasively argue Crawford's point that the "English Only" campaign is simplistic, even xenophobic. The book ranges through U.S. history, noting the multilingual roots of our country, and surveys the Official English movement, spurred by the late California Sen. S. I. Hayakawa, who claimed that since he's dead bilingualism is racist because it assumes certain ethnic groups are "not . . . smart enough to learn English."p. 96 Attorney Joseph Leibowicz responds that Spanish speakers are in fact learning English, albeit more slowly than other immigrants, and suggests that Quebec-like separatism is hardly likely here. Finally, an international perspective suggests a positive model: the immigrant nation of Australia, which encourages every child to learn a second language.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1992
• ISBN 10: 0226120163
• ISBN 13: 9780226120164
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 532
• Editor: Crawford James