![]() Our systems and practices are geared mostly toward monolingual English speakers. Given the multiple benefits of speaking more than one language fluently, * we should actually celebrate this diversity-and we can. Across the country, we lack the preparation, materials, supports, or infrastructure to handle our children’s linguistic diversity. For instance, Richard Ruíz and other scholars contend that in the United States, speaking a language other than English continues to be perceived as a problem, which they term a “language-as-problem orientation.” 4 Perhaps because of this perception, the burgeoning multilingualism of our nation’s children is challenging our current instructional practices and even more so our educational systems. As sociolinguist Joshua Fishman and his coauthors have claimed, “Many Americans have long been of the opinion that bilingualism is ‘a good thing’ if it was acquired via travel (preferably to Paris) or via formal education (preferably at Harvard) but that it is a ‘bad thing’ if it was acquired from one’s immigrant parents or grandparents.” 3įishman made that claim more than five decades ago, but it still rings true-if not quite as loudly-today. Such is generally not the case in the United States. In many countries, the ability of children to speak more than one language is seen as important. But as scholars who have focused on an array of issues related to borders and democracy have noted, the United States has a complex history with bilingualism: ![]() This trend is often widely celebrated in other countries. 2 It is obvious that the American student population is becoming increasingly multilingual. public school students were identified as English language learners. 1 And as of 2016, 9.6 percent of all U.S. About one-third of children under age 8 in the United States have at least one parent who speaks a language other than English at home.
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