ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 situates the need to use the mother tongue as a resource in the context of linguistic diversity in the United States and the persistence of an achievement gap that is particularly harmful to English as a Second Language students. This chapter problematizes the notion that the United States has ever been a monolingual English-speaking country and addresses the issue of hostility toward linguistic diversity. It then examines current statistical data showing that multilingualism the in United States is increasing exponentially. Turning our attention to the achievement gap, the chapter discusses its causes and argues that language inequality is partly responsible for the re(production) of systemic barriers to academic success.
