Christine Hélot and Anne-Marie de Mejía (eds.): Forging Multilingual Spaces: Integrated Perspectives on Majority and Minority Bilingual Education

Abstract

As Helot and de Mejia explain in the Introduction to this edited volume, this book attempts to go beyond the classical distinction between ‘‘elite’’ and ‘‘folk’’ bilingualism (p. 204), or enrichment bilingualism for language majority groups and compensatory bilingualism for linguistic minorities, to explore alternatives conducive to the integration of both approaches and the development of bi/multiculturalism for all. Accordingly, the book adopts a linguistically ecological perspective, ‘‘where all languages are envisaged as learning resources for those who speak them, as well as for the monolingual majorities’’ (p. 5). In other words, it embraces a positive view of bi/plurilingualism as asset and resource instead of threat, the latter an unfortunately negative perception of the process pervading many societies worldwide. The seed for the volume dates back to a 2005 symposium on bilingualism held in Barcelona, Spain, in which participants were asked to rethink this phenomenon as well as examine policies and practices in relation to the acquisition of other languages in schools. The purpose of the symposium was twofold: to gather scholars of bilingualism from different angles (i.e., programs for indigenous populations, or for various national majority and minority groups) and ‘‘to confront reflections on how to bridge the gap between elite and minority bilingualism’’ (p. 2). In its present book form, the scholars’ insights present interested readers with a broad yet thorough view of different efforts aimed at the promotion of bilingualism and bilingual education in a variety of contexts, among them the US, Colombia, Argentina, the UK, France, and Ireland, both in terms of language policies at the national, state, regional, or local level, and their actual classroom implementation. Regrettably, the latter aspect is an issue of concern in a majority of the situations