Must-Read Book: Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism

[Harold Schiffman]

Multilingual Mania: Brazen Thoughts From An Unapologetic Polyglot:
Must-Read Book: Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism


A new online friend that I met on twitter recently asked me about the
best book to read regarding bilingual and multilingual education. I
told her without hesitation that a must-read book is Colin Baker’s
Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. The book is
currently in its fourth edition and I just can’t get enough of the
book. I have read each edition, and the fourth edition is absolutely
the best!! This book has invaluable information to both bilingual ed
neophytes, as well as experts in the bilingual education community.

The book has nineteen chapters and an extensive bibliography. Each
chapter is extremely detailed and provides suggested reading as well
as activities to develop your understanding of the information in each
chapters. The topics include the following information:

Chapter One: Bilingualism and Distinctions. The first chapter
discusses distinctions of bilingualism (i.e., balanced bilingualism,
etc) as well as the topic of levels of communicative competence (e.g.,
Does the bilingual have conversational or academic proficiency?).
Chapter Two: The Measurement of Bilingualism. The chapter title sums
it all up. Baker discusses the purposes of measuring bilingualism,
forms of assessments, and the limitations in assessment.
Chapter Three: Endangered Languages: Planning and Revitalization.
Chapter three details the current state of endangered languages, as
well as language planning and policies that can endanger or revitalize
languages.
Chapter Four: Languages in Society. Chapter four discusses language
shift and maintenance, as well as language decline, death and
resurrection. The topics of language conflict and nationalism is
covered as well.
Chapter Five: The Early Development of Bilingualism. This chapter is a
must-read for any parent who desires to raise a bilingual child.
Various models are discussed (i.e., “one parent-one language”), as
well as the types of childhood bilingualism and trilingualism. This
chapter also reviews the bilingual child case-study literature. There
is also an interesting little section on codeswitching, when bilingual
children and adults mix the two languages.
Chapter Six: The Later Development of Bilingualism. Chapter six
details the various societal and individual reasons for learning a
second language, as well as individual differences in attitude and
motivation regarding second language learning. The chapter also makes
some interesting points of identity formation of bilingual
individuals, something that I have also started to write about here
and here.
Chapter Seven: Bilingualism and Cognition. This chapter discusses the
following aspects of bilingualism: 1) intelligence; 2) brain research;
3) creative and divergent thinking; 4) metalinguistic awareness (i.e.,
thinking about language); and, 5) communicative sensitivity.
Chapter Eight: Cognitive Theories of Bilingualism and the Curriculum.
Chapter eight focuses on the theories of the balance theory, iceberg
analogy, and the thresholds theory. If you don’t know these theories
about second language education, then read the book!!
Chapter Nine: Historical Introduction to Bilingual Education-The
United States. This fascinating chapter provides a brief overview of
the history of bilingual education in the United States, as well as
the Proposition 227 (i.e., “English for the Children”) policy designed
to eliminate or restrict bilingual education. The federal “No Child
Left Behind” legislation is also discussed. The issue of the
achievement gap is also discussed.
Chapter Ten: Types of Bilingual Education. Baker compares and
contrasts the various forms of subtractive (i.e., taking away a
student’s primary language while adding a second language) and
additive (i.e., developing and maintaining students’ primary language
while adding a second language) bilingual education programs.
Chapter Eleven: Education for Bilingualism and Biliteracy. Chapter
eleven reviews Dual Immersion/two-way immersion/dual language
programs, heritage language bilingual education programs (e.g.,
development and maintenance of heritage languages, as in the case of
Native American languages), and immersion bilingual education (e.g.,
Canadian immersion programs which develop French-English biliteracy).
Chapter Twelve: The Effectiveness of Bilingual Education. Chapter
twelve clearly delineates the research base on the effectiveness of
bilingual education, including Dual Immersion programs, immersion
bilingual education programs, and heritage language programs. This
chapter is a must-read for everyone, because it dispels many of the
myths regarding the ineffectiveness of bilingual education which are
perpetuated by the media as well as people without a background in
bilingual education.
Chapter Thirteen: Effective Schools and Classrooms for Bilingual
Students. The title sums it all up. Chapter thirteen details the
various components that are necessary for effective schools and
classrooms in the education of bilingual and trilingual students.
Chapter Fourteen: Literacy, Biliteracy and Multiliteracies for
Bilinguals. This chapter discusses the various viewpoints of teaching
reading to bilingual students, as well as how to best foster
biliteracy development.
Chapter Fifteen: The Assessment of Special Educational Needs of
Bilinguals. In this chapter, the following topics are covered: 1)
gifted multilingual and bilingual children; 2) language delay issues;
3) assessment of struggling learners; 4) causes of special needs and
learning difficulties; and, 5) special education for bilingual
students.
Chapter Sixteen: Deaf People, Bilingualism, and Bilingual Education.
This chapter explores the concepts of deafness and bilingualism.
Fostering bilingualism with sign language is also discussed.
Chapter Seventeen: Bilingualism as a Problem, Resource, or a Right.
This chapter summarizes Ruiz’s notions of bilingualism as a problem,
resource or right. The chapter describes how bilingualism has been
characterized in the past as a “problem”, such as the former notion
that bilingualism retards intelligence. In addition, the chapter
describes that bilingualism can also be viewed as a “resource”, one of
the main premises of Dual Immersion programs. In addition, Colin also
discusses that bilingualism is a “right”, that language minority
populations have the linguistic human right to be bilingual.
Chapter Eighteen: Bilingualism and Bilingual Education: Ideology,
Identity and Empowerment. Chapter eighteen covers the topics of
assimilation, linguistic and cultural pluralism, and
bilingual-bicultural identity construction.
Chapter Nineteen: Bilingualism in the Modern World. Chapter nineteen
provides an overview of bilingualism and the following topics: 1) mass
media, 2) the workplace; 3) the internet; 4) the economy; and, 5)
tourism. There is an interesting brief section on the economic
benefits of biliteracy in the global economy.
I can’t reiterate enough how valuable this book is. I consider myself
to be extremely knowledgeable about the field of bilingual education,
and this book is a resource that I frequently return to in order to
look for future reading topics. The citations that Baker uses are
abundant, and the book points you in the direction of additional
readings on each of the topics. I just can’t live without this book.

Buy it for yourself! Trust me–you won’t regret it!!

http://multilingualmania.wordpress.com/2009/04/05/must-read-book-foundations-of-bilingual-education-and-bilingualism/

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