Abstract

This book offers a new perspective for research in the field of bilingual education by proposing an integrated approach to the study of bilingualism in minority and majority settings. Programmes for indigenous groups, for national minorities and for migrants are analysed together with programmes aimed at dominant language groups, by well-known scholars from eight different countries in Europe and the Americas. Each contribution seeks to go beyond the traditional dichotomy between policy, practice and research into bilingual education programmes for majority language speakers, and modalities offered for minority language speakers. Thus, the book argues for the construction of a shared discourse for research into bilingualism and bilingual education and for the adoption of an ecological perspective on language education.

This collection, is well-designed, highly readable, and provides many insights useful beyond the case examples from the two continents covered.

Christine Hélot is a professor of English and a teacher educator at the University of Strasbourg in France (Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres d’Alsace). She is the coordinator of a research programme on plurilingualism, intercultural education, and language learning.

Anne-Marie de Mejía works in the Centre for Research and Development in Education at Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. She has a Ph. D in Linguistics in the area of Bilingual Education. Her research interests include bilingual classroom interaction, process of teacher empowerment and bilingual teacher development.

The book offers a global perspective of the impact of overt and covert language education policies on the use and perceptions of majority and minority languages in society as well as on the implementation of bilingual programs in the classroom. This volume constitutes a useful resource for policymakers genuinely invested in the promotion of minority languages in their countries, as well as for researchers and students of teacher preparation programs interested in gaining a better, more global, understanding of the complexities of second and foreign language teaching and the (negative) repercussions that certain linguistic policies have on the maintenance and spread of minority languages and ~n the daily lives of their speakers.