Hello and welcome to the Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia. This week we'll look at the development of multilingual and multicultural education in relation to the United States, Canada and the European Union. We'll also look at the specificities and different approaches to multi-lingual and multicultural education in these countries. This week, we'll focus on the United States. And we'll look at the main points in bilingual education development. The linguistic and cultural diversity has long been present in the United States. There are around 300 languages spoken, some of which survive even today. But let's take a look at the 16th century. The arrival of Europeans in America brought new languages, they brought different languages and the different regional varieties with them. Apart from languages and cultures, Europeans brought slaves, slaves from West Africa. These slaves had their own cultures and spoke their own languages. And this contributed even more to the linguistic and cultural diversity in the United States. Let's take a look at the 19th and the 20th century when a large number of immigrants started arriving in the United States. They arrived from all over the world, bringing in more languages and more cultures. So the plethora of languages and cultures were mixed, evolved, forming or shaping new ways of communicating. Despite the linguistic and cultural diversity, the nation in the United States has been ambivalent in terms of attitudes towards diversity. For example, certain places show more acceptance of diversity and willingness to incorporate otherness. In this way, embracing more pluralist discourses. Other places, however, show less tolerance of diversity, focusing on common language as part of the identity construction. In this way, asserting more assimilationist discourses. Let's take a look at the beginning of the 19th century with a focus on education. See what's happening in terms of education and the different languages that are spoken in the United States. So linguistic communities bring children to school in large numbers and, as one would expect, the language of instruction was usually the languages of those communities, and in combination with English, of course. For example, German and Dutch were taught in Pennsylvania, French in Louisiana, and in Texas usually Spanish and German languages prevailed. But let's take a look at the end of the 19th century and see what had happened by the end of this century. So we witness a kind of shift towards monolingualism, so public schools have become more English-speaking, whereas the teaching of other languages was discouraged. And there are primarily two reasons responsible for this. First is the industrial revolution and second is the influx of new immigrants to the United States. So these new immigrants didn't speak the English language and it was necessary for the educational system to assimilate the newcomers. So the primary purpose of schooling was the Americanization of the newcomers, of the new settlers. And some scholars point out that the extreme assimilation was triggered by, first, two world wars, which implied the immigration of Europeans from the European continent to the United States. And, second, the political and economic isolation in the first half of the century. It's important to note that the languages of the indigenous population in the United States as well as those of immigrants were discouraged and de-emphasized. And these languages were relegated primarily to the home. In this respect, English only education becomes rigid policy in schools throughout the United States. Speaking and using exclusively the English language had become inextricably linked with the American identity construction. It should be pointed out that during the Cold War era, the state had to unite the population and language was an important part of this process. In conclusion, it's important to know that handling diversity was not an easy task. I'm not sure whether I'm pronouncing this correctly, [FOREIGN] which meant out of many one. And this implied that the American nation must be both supportive of pluralism and dedicated to unity. But the main question is how to keep this balance between the two. So controversy in bilingual education emphasized the assimilationist strategies in education, imposing English-only policy as part of the nation-building process. So what's happening in the bilingual educational sphere today in the United States? I will be talking about this in the next video. That's all for now. Thanks for watching. See you later, bye bye. [SOUND]