Description
Book SynopsisThis 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.
Trade ReviewThis collection, is well-designed, highly readable, and provides many insights useful beyond the case examples from the two continents covered.
-- Hugo Baetens Beardsmore, The Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences
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.
-- Francisco Ramos, Department of Language and Culture in Education, School of Education, at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California * Language Policy (2011) 10:73-75 *
Table of Contents1. Introduction - Christine Hélot and Anne-Marie de Mejía
SECTION 1 THE AMERICAS
2. Teaching Spanish and Spanish in Teaching in the US: Integrating Bilingual Perspectives - Ofelia García
3. Plurilingual Latin America: Indigenous Languages, Immigrant Languages, Foreign Languages - Towards an Integrated Policy of Language and Education - Rainer Enrique Hamel
4. Points of Contact or Separate Paths: A Vision of Bilingual Education in Colombia - Anne-Marie de Mejía and María Emilia Montes Rodríguez
5. Staff Profiles in Minority and Prestigious Bilingual Education Contexts in Argentina - Cristina Banfi and Silvia Rettaroli
SECTION 2: EUROPE
6. The National Languages Strategy in the UK: Are Minority Languages Still on the Margins? - Jim Anderson, Charmian Kenner and Eve Gregory
7. Bilingual Education in France: School Policies versus Home Practices – Christine Hélot
8. Languages and Language Learning in Catalan Schools: From the Bilingual to the Multilingual Challenge - Cristina Escobar Urmeneta and Virginia Unamuno
9. Educating for Participation in a Bilingual or a Multilingual Society? Challenging the Power Balance between English and Irish (Gaelic) and other Minority Languages in Ireland - Muiris à Laoire
