The Position of U.S. English on Bilingual Education

Abstract

U.S. English is a nonprofit organization that promotes English as the common language of the United States. This position has been attacked by bilingual advocates as racist and antiminority. The author examines U.S. English's position toward bilingual education as an educational technique, an educational theory, a social theory, and a political movement. U.S. English has no objection to the use of non-English-speaking students' native languages in classrooms as an educational technique. Research evidence, however, supports neither claims that bilingual education is superior to alternative methods nor the educational theory behind bilingual education. Therefore, U.S. English advocates broadening federal funding for educational programs designed for limited-English-proficient children to include the full range of such programs rather than limiting funding to bilingual programs. Bilingual education is rooted in a social theory of cultural pluralism and a belief in the institutional racism of American schools. U.S. English advocates an emphasis on the commonalities between Americans rather than on the divisions between ethnic and cultural subgroups. It advocates English-language training leading to rapid classroom integration rather than to long-term language-based segregation within schools. Politically, advocacy of bilingual education comes primarily from Hispanic organizations whose continued power depends upon maintaining strong ethnic solidarity and separatism and from defining Hispanic Americans as a minority rather than an immigrant group.