Linguistic pluralism

- According to the 1990 Census, 31.8 million U.S. residents, or 14% of the population, spoke a language other than English at home. Of these, nearly 45% indicated that they had trouble speaking English.
- In some states, the percentage of those speaking a language other than English at home were much higher: 36% in New Mexico, 31% in California, and 20% each in Arizona, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Texas.
- The March 1997 survey by the Census Bureau revealed that one in ten persons living in the U.S. is foreign-born.
- The U.S. and U.K. are the only two countries in the world that don’t require school age children to learn a second language.
- Proficiency in multiple languages is increasingly important but not currently being addressed by the U.S. educational system.