The idea of “English only” evokes a sense of nationalism and nostalgia for many, but in reality, the United States is a multilingual country and always has been. The majority of our founding presidents were in fact multilingual.  For example, President Thomas Jefferson spoke French and Italian and had some literacy in Greek and Spanish. President Van Buren’s first language was Dutch, not English. Knowing French was considered important for the elite. Therefore, President John Adams, President Monroe, and President John Quincy Adams spoke the language. And this multilingualism and multiculturalism is what should evoke pride in our identity as Americans.  Whether considering the multitude of languages spoken by Native Americans or the many languages brought over by immigrants from the Norwegian to the French to the Italian to more recently, languages brought over by immigrants from Africa and Asia, our country has always been a tapestry of languages and cultures, sewn together with the thread of pride in being American.

Those of my readers whom I’ve met personally likely know that I was born and raised in Texas.  My cowboy boots and southern/western vernacular never fail to escape my colleagues around the country. To state the obvious, Texas is large. Thereby, it encompasses a variety of cultures.  According to Wiliam H. Kellar (1999) from Texas A&M, East Texas all the way to Harris County (where I am from) is culturally southern. Accordingly, Harris County is where the south meets the west, and a cultural shift begins. The Hill Country, which encompasses Austin, embraces a German culture. In fact, Fredericksburg still has bilingual signs in German and English. North Texas is firmly rooted in the Bible Belt.  Border areas have a distinct Mexican flavor and accent.  And throughout all of Texas, especially in our cities, we find people from all over.  

My own parents immigrated from India.  But growing up, I had friends with Greek, Vietnamese, Korean, German, Mexican, Costa Rican, Polish, and so many other backgrounds.  Their languages and cultures were part of their upbringing and some of their culture influenced my identity as well.  Whether it’s by learning to cook Greek food, putting up a German Easter tree gifted by a friend of German descent, or learning the Spanish language with the help of my Hispanic friends, I became who I am today because I mixed with people with heritage from all these different lands. And so many of my friends adapted certain elements of my culture, especially by way of food, into their own identities. These differences have never been a source of division or ridicule. We were and are all proud of being Texan and of being American.  We all use “y’all” when we talk. We all have a little drawl to our accent while denying that as Houstonians, we have an accent at all. And that pride and vernacular runs through the veins of every Texan. That’s what ties us all together.

That and the fact that we all speak English.  In the United States, knowing another language or having cultural practices that vary from “the norm” does not form a threat against the English language. In fact, every language you know strengthens every other language you know.  This is known as bidirectional transfer.  This is why world language students who enter as monolingual English speakers will often say that they understand the grammatical structures embedded in English better after studying the grammatical structures in their second language.  This happened to me when I studied Spanish.  My first two languages (Tamil and English) became stronger. 

Therefore, no multilingual education program takes away from English.  In fact, research has repeatedly proven that Dual Language Bilingual Education programs result in our emergent bilingual students having stronger English Language Arts scores than their monolingual English-speaking counterparts upon graduation. Let’s repeat that.  Students who join Dual Language Bilingual Education programs without being fluent in English end up doing better on English Language Arts exams when they graduate high school than kids who speak nothing but English. 

Additionally, multilingualism provides students with economic and cognitive benefits that we should want for our students. So let us celebrate the beauty of multilingualism in our country.  It is a part of our American heritage.