STATES that have passed English-only laws aren't typically the sort to shower money on bilingual education. Utah, which declared English its sole official language in 2000, seems to be an exception. The New York Times recently reported that the state is expanding its langauge-immersion programs for young students. French, Spanish, Portuguese and Mandarin are currently on the docket. German and Arabic might follow. According to Utah's governor, this new initiative grows out of the Mormon mission tradition, during which missionaries are encouraged to learn local languages abroad. Utah is some 60% Mormon.
The teachers — most of them from other countries — teach regular subjects like mathematics and reading and social studies, only speaking exclusively in a foreign language. At first, they pantomime and use pictures and videos to get their point across, but they say the students can understand them within a few weeks.
Utahns are quickly catching on.
Parents, wary at first, have rushed to enter lotteries to place their children in the programs. Some school districts have waiting lists 100 students long. Some parents drive 30 miles to bring their children to class, or have even moved to be closer to an immersion school.
This seems to mark a friendlier attitude towards foreign languages more generally. The English-only law was approved by nearly 70% of voters in 2000, while a majority of state legislators voiced their opposition at the time. But in 2003, exceptions to the law were carved out for Utah's public colleges and universities. Utah is one of the whitest states in the country, but immigration in the last decade (in part driven by Mormon converts) is changing the face of the state. Now, public schools' immersion programs could change the way Utahns think of foreign languages in their midst. In contrast, Utah's southern neighbor, Arizona, is still struggling with how to implement Spanish-English bilingualism in schools, even though (or perhaps because) it is roughly one-third Hispanic. Utah's language programs are an important step forward. In the last two decades, Salt Lake City has become more diverse than most Americans realise. With such a public embrace of multilingualism, the state could shed its monocultural reputation entirely.