U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, and Libia S. Gil, assistant deputy secretary of the Office of English Language Acquisition in the Department of Education, wrote an OpEd for Los Angeles’ Daily News last week entitled “English Learners an Asset for Global, Multilingual Future.”
Although the article was short on actual policies designed to promote multilingualism (apart from a reference to the Innovators in Education program), the following passage is encouraging:
“Today, a world-class education means learning to speak, read and write languages in addition to English. In an interconnected, interdependent global economy, we must prepare our children for a future in which their social and economic success will depend on their ability to understand diverse perspectives and communicate with people from other cultures and language groups. This isn’t a matter of getting ahead — it’s a matter of catching up.”
