Historically American schools have thrived in the mindset of English only education. English held up in the highest regard and all students are encouraged to use this as their main form of communication. This is reinforced by English being the only language used in academic situations.

Students and entire generations of students lose their language and a part of their culture in this environment. This is only exemplified by the horrendous acts of English only education as well as forced assimilation of the American Indian to the "American" or white culture.

Today classrooms are increasingly diverse in race, culture, religion, as well as language. However, still in these diverse classrooms students are encouraged to adhere to traditional school norms where only English is used. Even when students are labeled as ESL (English as a Second Language) or ELL (English Language Learner) the goal of the program is to transition students to English only classrooms as quickly as possible.

Translanguaging in the classroom allows for English to no longer be considered as the dominant language. A translanguaging classrooms equates the native and home languages of all people in the classroom with the typically dominant language, English