Lingua America

IN ITS CONTENTIOUS immigration debate, the Senate has defended English, voting by 63 to 34 on Thursday to declare it the ''national language," and by 58 to 39 that it is the nation's ''common and unifying language." It was a dubious victory.

There is no war on English. Immigrants who come here and don't learn the language are isolated and suffer for it economically. Meanwhile, English is a robustly healthy global celebrity. It's famous, sought after, and tossing out a stream of new products from ''e-mail" to ''bling."

''We are trying to make an assimilation statement," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican. That's important, but people who have never come here are already being assimilated: They consume American movies, music, television, fashions, and ideas. Move here and it's hard to avoid at least some of the culture and language.

The 2000 Census found that 18 percent of the population spoke a foreign language at home. That's an increase from 14 percent in 1990. But in 2000, 55 percent of these people reported that they spoke English ''very well." They seem to have accepted its primacy.

Those who don't speak English need help. Unfortunately, the senators did not vote to invest more in English classes. That's a loss. In Massachusetts alone, thousands of people spend years waiting to study English in publicly funded classes.

The English debate obscures a related problem: Too many Americans speak only English. So they can't help this country maintain a competitive bilingual edge in business, academia, and national security.

In the current issue of ''Foreign Policy," writer Douglas McGray describes a 15-year-old who thinks the Philippines is a country in China. McGray notes that in 2000 most students didn't study a foreign language -- 56 percent of high school students, according to the US Department of Education. In a January speech, education Secretary Margaret Spellings said ''learning a second or even a third foreign language is compulsory for students in the European Union, China, Thailand, and many other countries, including those you might not expect, like Kazakhstan."

Voting for English is like voting for apple pie -- neither faces a real threat. The challenge is promoting bilingualism: helping immigrants master English, and encouraging Americans to study other languages.