A discussion of the movement to make English the only official language in the United States' multilingual society examines the nature and scope of the movement and draws instructional and language policy implications for teaching situations involving language-minority populations. It draws a relationship between the politics of language diversity and the cognitive, linguistic, and cultural factors associated with the academic movement of language-minority students. The English-only movement and its media coverage are analyzed, and research literature on the effectiveness of use of the home language for instruction is reviewed. It is concluded that the English language, as any other, is capable of coexisting with other languages and cultures, and that such coexistence has greatly enriched the English language and the human experience. It is noted that in countries where bilingualism has become associated with a problem, the countries have deep and complex sociocultural, political, and religious histories that have led to mutual hostilities among language groups. It is further suggested that the conceptual, instructional, and curricular tools for assuring that language diversity is used to enrich and not detract from the society are now available. Forty-three endnotes are provided. (MSE)