The authors consider key concepts in the system of language education in both Russia and the USA and analyze the language education programmes for secondary school students. In our research, we identify the factors that caused the reforms in the system of school education in the United States. These factors include the process of globalization associated with the change to the information society; the demography of the country; social demand; as well as variety of university associations, which set standards for professional teachers training programmes in higher educational institutions. These factors become popular in other countries as well as in Russia. The research reveals the main issues of effective implementation of bilingual and multilingual programmes in US schools from different perspectives. At a personal level, we do agree with the point of view of prominent American educators, that the activity, and, as a result, academic success vary from student to student. In a class, groups of students can differ significantly from each other, despite the existence of a single multilingual programme. In a school, the effectiveness of some schools in training multilingual and multicultural students with almost the same cultural background in identical learning environment is worth studying. Finally, in a broader sense, the effectiveness of the implementation of the bilingual and multilingual program is measured at the level of the municipal administrative body of education. Researchers are also interested in the content of the language studied. It is obvious that the basis of the content of education in the multilingual class is the study of language and culture. The main problem is the interaction of these two basic concepts in education.

English as foreign language, English as second language, multilingual education, multicultural education, the USA