Forging Multilingual Spaces: Integrating Perspectives on Majority and Minority Bilingual Education

Thirteen international academics, researchers, and policymakers contribute nine chapters to a text based on an international symposium on bilingualism, held in Barcelona in 2005, where participants explored the gap between elite and minority bilingualism and to share findings from researchers who have studied bilingual education from different perspectives. Each contribution endeavors to go beyond the traditional dichotomy between policy, practice and research into bilingual education programs for majority language speakers, and modalities offered for minority language speakers; collectively they support the adoption of an ecological perspective on language education. Following an introductory overview, the text includes four case studies from the Americas--the U.S., Colombia, Argentina, Mexico--and four case studies from Europe--France, Ireland, Catalonia, and England. No subject index. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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

Anne-Marie de Mejia works in the Centre for Research and Development in Education at Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, 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.