When I heard the news from the US that the Biden-Harris administration had launched an initiative called Being Bilingual is a Superpower to “promote multilingual education for a diverse workforce“, my first reaction was a positive one. There are millions of dollars earmarked for promotion and revitalization of indigenous languages in Hawai’i, Alaska, and the continental US, as well as funding for bi- and multilingual education.

As Miguel Cardona, the US Secretary of Education, put it:

“Make no mistake: multilingualism is a superpower. Knowing more than one language, acquiring a new language through school, or learning new languages later in life can provide tangible academic, cognitive, economic and sociocultural advantages[.]”

I agree!

But then I read that the initiatives are housed in the Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA), and the initiatives are aimed at leveraging bi- or multilingual education to improve students’ English language proficiency. Don’t get me wrong, “$120 million in investments to eligible institutions of higher education and public or private entities with relevant experience and capacity to support educators of English learner students”, and an English Language family resource toolkit available in Arabic, English, Chinese, and Spanish are great things. And multi-/plurilingual approaches to English language education which take into account learners’ other language(s) have been effective in different US and worldwide contexts.

Although Cardona was quoted in the announcement as saying that ” […] we cannot seize our nation’s full potential to compete and lead the world unless we Raise the Bar and provide all students with opportunities to become multilingual” (italics mine), by the nature of the new initiatives, it seems as though the only people who should strive for multilingualism and whose language learning is supported are those who speak a language other than English in the home. And on the surface, it seems that rather than promote multilingualism due to the academic, cognitive, economic and sociocultural advantages it provides, bi- or multilingualism are tools being promoted in this case to facilitate the learning of and bolster the hegemony of the English language.

But what about the monolingual majority? The approximately 80% of the US population who are monolingual English speakers? Shouldn’t they be encouraged to learn other languages?

As foreign language programs continue to be cut at the K-12 and post-secondary levels across the US, most recently at West Virginia University, if “bilingualism is a superpower” opportunities should truly be available for all students. The bi- and multilingual education programs for English language learners included in the newly announced plan should be complemented by support for “foreign” language programs to promote bi-/multilingualism for monolingual English speakers.