The context for this article investigated the intricate connection among the shaping of ESOL as a school construct, colonialism's historical legacy, the current impact of globalizing forces on the teaching of English as a second/foreign language worldwide and the lives of multilingual students enrolled in ESOL programs. A year of critical feminist ethnographic research of four first-year teachers, reveals three interrelated colonialist manifestations within the U.S. Public Schools at study: English supremacy and a monolingual identity model; a distinction between the 'self' and the deficit 'other'; and the promotion of a White, American norm, thus marginalizing ethnic minorities and the immigrant status.