In addition to English, city agencies will be required to communicate with New Yorkers in the six foreign languages most commonly spoken in the city: Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian, and French Creole, under a new program that broadly expands the city’s translation and interpretation services.

An executive order signed by Mayor Bloomberg yesterday establishes for the first time a uniform language policy for all city agencies that directly interact with New Yorkers, requiring that they provide interpretation services, oral and written translation services, and the translation of essential public documents in the designated languages.

The translation services could help a homeowner having trouble interpreting a city code, for example, or a couple in need of assistance when applying for a marriage license.

“This effort is a critical part of improving customer service, which is a fundamental concept in the business world, and should be just as valued in the government,” Mr. Bloomberg said yesterday at City Hall. “From now on, New Yorkers with limited proficiency in English will be able to approach the city with confidence knowing that we have the systems in place to respond to their needs.”

The Language Access Executive Order builds upon the city’s existing translation services. The city’s 311 information hotline began providing information for callers in 170 different languages in 2003, and a law passed by the City Council that same year required the city’s social service agencies to help New Yorkers with limited English skills navigate city programs.

The City Council speaker, Christine Quinn, joined the mayor at the signing.

The New York Immigration Coalition, an umbrella group that works with more than 200 immigrant and refugee organizations in the state, also is supporting the effort.

In a statement, the coalition’s executive director, Chung-Wha Hong, called the mayor’s executive order “a landmark step toward ensuring that all New Yorkers — including those who haven’t had the opportunity to master English yet — will have meaningful access to the vital services provided by New York City.”

Nearly half of New Yorkers speak a language other than English at home and a quarter of New Yorkers speak a primary language other than English, according to city figures.

The new rules faced immediate criticism from the Conservative Party of New York State. The chairman of the party, Michael Long, said the translation and interpretation program would divide the city along linguistic lines, rather than unite New Yorkers with a common language.

He argued that immigrants who have come to America to participate in “the American dream” have all had to learn to communicate in English.

“The way to succeed here is to have every one speak the same language,” he said. Forcing government to communicate with people in their own languages only ensures that those non-English speakers don’t have to learn a new language and culture, he said.

The outcome of the executive order will likely be tracked closely by supporters of the program. In December, Legal Services for New York City, which represents low-income clients, issued a critical report that found the city’s agency in charge of distributing food stamps and Medicaid was violating the more limited 2003 translation law.

The report stated that two-thirds of the city’s 69 Human Resource Administration centers did not have documents available in the city’s most commonly spoken languages, and 18% of offices did not have applications in Spanish.

Council Member John Liu, who sponsored the 2003 translation bill, sent out a synopsis of the report to his e-mail list yesterday, and called the Bloomberg administration’s implementation of the 2003 translation bill “lackluster” and a “cause of alarm for many advocates.” In a later telephone interview, he said he was pleased that the mayor signed the executive order.

One of the biggest difficulties Mr. Liu faced when attempting to push his legislation through the council were concerns about the cost of mandating translation services. Mr. Bloomberg would not say yesterday exactly how much the executive order would cost the city.

“I think this thing is something everybody can look each other in the eye and say, ‘This is something worth doing,'” he said. “Incidentally, it is also a relatively small amount of money given the size of our budget and the size of city government.”