The issue of an official language for the United States of America has remained a contentious one; people passionate on the issue at hand are vehemently on either side of the debate. Some people believe that the United States should have an official language in order to facilitate more unified communication between citizens. Others, however, believe that the principles behind America lead it to be a diverse nation, making the implementation of an official language to be impractical and even a little exclusivist.
According to structural functionalism, English as an official language would stand in the way of the already-complex system that already exists in America. It would prevent those who do not speak English from participating in the system, diminishing America as a result. From a conflict theory perspective, making English the legal language of America is tantamount to race and class warfare, eliminating non-English speakers from power. As for symbolic interactionism, however, the legalization of English would likely be used to facilitate better communication and social interaction, and would create more compatible symbols by which people could interact with each other.
I personally do not believe that the United States should have an official language - if it does, it should not necessarily be English. While the majority of the citizens of America speak it, there are far too many residents of the United States who primarily speak Spanish, Chinese, or other languages to smoothly transition into one single language, that being English. There is no real historical basis for making the English language the default; in fact, the notion often seems to come from individuals who simply wish to not have to deal with cultural pluralism, and is offended by someone who does not speak the same language as them.
Works Cited
Blumer, Herbert. "Society as Symbolic Interaction". In Arnold M. Rose. Human Behavior
and Social Process: An Interactionist Approach. Houghton-Mifflin. 1962. Print.
Knapp, P. One World – Many Worlds: Contemporary Sociological Theory (2nd Ed.).
Harpercollins College Div, 1994, pp. 228–246.
Talcott Parsons, "The Present Status of "Structural-Functional" Theory in Sociology." In Talcott
Parsons, Social Systems and The Evolution of Action Theory New York: The Free Press,
1975.
