Press "ONE" for English: Language Policy, Public Opinion, and American Identity
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"This book represents an important contribution to public opinion research generally and to the study of U.S. language policy in particular. Deborah Schildkraut not only convincingly demonstrates that conceptions of American national identity are key causal factors shaping people's opinions about language policy issues, but she also advances the study of this identity."--Ronald Schmidt, California State University, Long Beach, author of Language Policy and Identity Politics in the United States"This well-written, intelligently organized book shows that public opinion of ordinary people is more complex, more situational, more subtle than what simple-minded survey questions reveal."--Raymond Tatalovich, Loyola University Chicago, author of Nativism Reborn? The Official English Language Movement and the States Thomas Ricento - Political Science Quarterly In this well-written and engaging book, Deborah Schildkraut argues that competing images constitute distinct conception of American identity and that all of these must be incorporated into analyses of public support for and opposition to ethnicity-related policies such as official English. . . . The fact that ethnoculturalism is a full-blown conception of American identity suggests that ascriptive attributes of ethnicity and race will continue to play an important role in ethnicity-related debates on immigration and language policy.
Ch. 1Introduction1Ch. 2Symbolic politics : theory and evidence21Ch. 3Theories of American identity38Ch. 4American identity in surveys67Ch. 5Defining American national identity86Ch. 6Discussing language policy127Ch. 7Mixed messages : hybrids, taxes, and the case of bilingual education162Ch. 8Conclusion193App. AExploratory factor analysis of American identity items (1996 GSS)207App. BQuestion wording and coding for 1996 GSS data analyzed in chapter 4209App. CFocus group procedures213App. DQuestion guide for focus groups222App. ECoding ambivalent and opinionless policy-related thoughts224
