Bilingualism: An Advanced Resource Book (review)

This up-to-date and intelligently structured reader-cum-textbook will meet the needs of many Canadian university-level courses on bilingualism. For an undergraduate introduction to the field, in keeping with the expressed intention of the authors, additional readings would probably not be strictly necessary. More advanced undergraduate courses or graduate courses, however, would require supplemental reading.

Like the others in this series of 'advanced resource books' published by Routledge, Bilingualism has a tripartite structure. Section A covers seven important topics in bilingualism in introductory and textbook fashion. Section B guides the student through some key readings in each of the seven sub-fields, doing considerable predigesting and road marking to help readers less familiar with the conventions of academic writing. Finally, Section C contains workbook-like suggestions for student projects in each area.

Instructors and other readers thus may choose to treat Sections B and C as review of the topic coverage in Section A after all seven topics have been read through, or they may deal with one topic at a time, moving to the readings and mini-study work for each topic after the initial introduction.

The topics represent a fair and balanced attempt to present the main ideas and research trends in the field for a very general audience. Research from many parts of the world is represented. This diffuse geographical focus has the intended effect of making the book potentially useful in university classrooms just about anywhere; however, it may also detract from the book's usefulness to any given local student readership.

The topics covered in relation to bilingualism as a phenomenon are, roughly paraphrased, as follows: describing it; measuring it; acquiring it; cognition and; losing it; reading and writing in; and attitudes to. Not all the topics need be covered, nor does the order of presentation necessarily have to be respected. From that point of view, this is a 'modular' and flexible tool for teaching about bilingualism.

In Section A, key terms are set forth for each topic in clear and helpful fashion. The student comes away with good definitions of, for example, elective vs. circumstantial and additive vs. subtractive bilingualism. The main forms of bilingual or not-so-bilingual education are accurately summarized. Important distinctions such as the minority or majority status of a speaker's/learner's languages are not neglected. Unusually good coverage is given to questions relating to indigenous, and therefore often endangered, languages. Examples are drawn from many different contexts worldwide. Some key debates (whether BICS/CALP is a useful categorization; the 'semilingualism' issue; 'one system or two' in bilingual acquisition) are presented.

The readings excerpted in Section B were chosen to represent both older, classic papers (e.g., Mackey, 1962; Peal & Lambert, 1962) and very recent studies (Sanz & Huer, 2003), as well as sampling many points in between. However, it would be impossible for a selection such as this to satisfy all audiences. While Canadian research is well represented (some might say over-represented; but Canadian research has dominated this field from the start), many more relevant readings could be included for Canadian university populations. Instructors elsewhere would no doubt feel the same way about their own corners of the world.

The book does not include a glossary, which seems puzzling. However, the list of references, running to 25 pages, is satisfyingly wide ranging and should wear well. In fact, more than 100 years of research on bilingualism are represented, from a mention of early work by Grammont (1902) and Ronjat (1913) to the latest books by Myers-Scotton (2006) and Rampton (2006). No journal article later than 2005 is included, although coverage is extensive up to that year.

An especially useful feature of this book is the five-page preface to Section C on how to collect data and write up reports. Indeed, this could easily be a reference for budding researchers in any language-related field. It includes a short and insightful discussion of ethical considerations in research...