Introduction: multilingualism and education: the critical nexus
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Language Processing in Bilingual Children
1. Language modules and bilingual processing Michael Sharwood Smith 2. Phonological processing in two languages Ian Watson 3. Second language learning in children: a model of language learning in social context Lily Wong Fillmore 4. Interdependence of first and second language proficiency in bilingual children Jim Cummins 5. Giving formal definitions: a linguistic or metalinguistic skill? Catherine E. Snow 6. Metalinguistic dimensions of bilingual language proficiency Ellen Bialystock 7. Translation skill and metalinguistic awareness in bilinguals Marguerite Malakoff and Kenji Hakuta 8. Towards an explanatory model of the interaction between bilingualism and cognitive development Rafael M. Diaz and Cynthia Klingler 9. Constructive processes in bilingualism and their cognitive growth effects Janice Johnson 10. Language cognition, and education of bilingual children Ellen Bialystock and Jim Cummins.
Swedish Research and Debate about Bilingualism
‘My wish is not to enter into the extremely, even for the field of bilingual education. acrimonious Swedish debate, but rather to extrapolate such facts and trends on which all can agree’. (p. 11). A futile hope! Hard-fact evidence or common-sense conclusions are not seen with friendly eyes by the advocates of ‘positive segregation’, ‘integration by segratation’, mother-tongue classes and seniilingualism. Some of these concepts are now spreading around the world. Because of the fierce debate in Sweden, the National Board of Education (NBE) gave Prof. Paulston the assignment to review the reasonably serious research and debate. She has made a fine, in part brilliant, characterisation of the Swedish situation. A linguist by training, she has combined this perspective with those of sociology and anthropology. She also uses hard as well as soft data. According to her. bilingual education (BE) can be seen in two basic perspectivcs. Structural-functional theory aims at evaluating the efficiency of various programmes in solving the problems. This is the American, the Canadian and the Swedish attitude. Conflict theory stresses social justice. BE reforms can only be understood in terms of the relationship, basically one of power conflict, between the various interest groups. Another important question in evaluating reforms in this latter perspective is that of ciri bono? This is a pertinent question in Sweden, where the battle is for or against nionolingual (during the first 3 years) mother-tongue classes or bilingual classes or ordinary schooling with home-language tuition certain periods per week, throughout secondary school. In the structural-functional perspective the answer is given: only the two latter alternatives will prepare the students for the society i n which they actually are going to live after school. M T classes and ideas about semilingualism have grown from the conflict perspective. Other answers are, however, possible in response to the question ciri bono? Other groups than the children have vested interests. A huge service sector has grown to cater to the immigrants’ needs. School and social-service officials of many types, home-language teachers, teachers of SSL, the staff of the immigrant organisations and many others belong to this sector. All these persons have a vested interest in maintaining the immigrants’ problems and their jobs to handle these problems. Hence immigrants and their children are depicted as severely debilitated. In summary, C.B.P. finds that the conflict perspective which she used to apply in her earlier activities in North and South America is not very suitable for the Swedish situation. The goals for the immigrant policy equality, cooperation, freedom of choice cannot be considered conflict-generating guide-lines. In-