Ethnicity and Bilingualism in the US Educational Language Policy

The main focus of this paper is the issue of ethnicity and bilingualism in the U.S. educational language policy. It gives a historical overview of the development of bilingual education in the United States, presents laws and movements which tried to either advance or repress bilingual education. It deals with English-only movement which fought for the declaration of English as the official language of the U.S., repression of minority languages and discrimination and xenophobia aimed towards immigrants and their children. It shows the effects of bilingual education with the opposition to English immersion educational programs imposed on non-English speakers and demanded by English-only laws. Furthermore, it uncovers the ideologies and beliefs underlying the English-only movement, the glorification of the English language as the key part of the American nation, and pays attention to the movement’s impact on civil and linguistic rights of minority language speakers.