The debate over immigration has generated calls from many Americans to make English the nation's official language — a demand that was backed by the United States Senate in May 2006. UCLA Magazine Senior Writer Ajay Singh recently moderated a discussion at the UCLA Faculty Center among four professors about the implications of making English the national language in a highly multilingual society.Participants included Otto Santa Ana, an applied linguist who is associate professor of Chicano/a Studies; Vinay Lal, an associate professor of history who specializes in the diverse civilizations of South Asia; and Edward Condren and Henry Ansgar Kelly, both professors of English who specialize in medieval literature.

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