THE BILINGUALISM READER. Li Wei (Ed.). London: Routledge, 2000. Pp. xv + 541. £18.99 paper.

Abstract

This volume consists of a collection of 18 chapters of previously published articles, mostly classic works on bilingualism (all but five were published before 1990). The majority of the authors are very well known and well respected scholars in the field: Auer, Blom, Ching, Clyne, de Bot, Ferguson, Fishman, Galloway, Genesee, Green, Grosjean, Gumperz, Jake, Mackey, Meisel, Milroy, Myers-Scotten, Obler, Paradis, Poplack, Vaid, Wei, and Zatorre. Wei's motivation for this reader is that it serve the dual purpose of compiling many of the important articles on bilingualism, which in many parts of the world are unavailable because of inadequate library facilities, and encourage researchers to read the original works rather than commentaries on them. As Wei put it, “I am nevertheless concerned that a new generation of ‘scholars' might be emerging out of a ‘hear-say' tradition” (p. ix).