Addressing the intersections between cognitive, sociocultural, and sociolinguistic research, this volume explores bilingual development across educational contexts to discuss and uncover the influences and impact of language in school programming and everyday practices. Confronting a standard monolingual lens, this collection highlights the importance of applying cross-disciplinary approaches to examine bilingualism in relation to topics such as language politics, linguistic identities, students’ experiences at home and in schools, asset-based teaching and curricula, and overall benefits. Ideal for courses in bilingualism, literacy, psychology, and language education, this text is an important resource for understanding and applying transdisciplinary, inclusive approaches to positively influence cognitive development, academic learning, and identity formation in bilingual education.

An anthology of articles on ethnic bilingualism and bilingual education from a sociolinguistic perspective. It covers theoretical paradigms (primarily structural-functionalism and group conflict theory and the problem formulations in BE typical of the paradigms), practical research methodology and a number of exemplificatory case studies.

Arguing against a common sense view of bilingualism as the co-existence of two linguistic systems, this volume develops a critical perspective which approaches bilingualism as a wide variety of sets of sociolinguistic practices connected to the construction of social difference and of social inequality under specific historical conditions.

This is the first of four volumes composed of selected papers from the LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY ASSESSMENT SYMPOSIUM. The Symposium provided a forum where a broad spectrum of researchers, practitioners and policymakers met to discuss the major issues and research findings which affect language proficiency assessment practices. The work presented in the four volumes will add new insights into the issue of language proficiency assessment. It is believed that the research and theoretical perspectives offered represent a positive step toward attaining the overall objective of developing effective language proficiency assessment procedures and, ultimately, a more equitable education for language minority students. All four volumes have been edited by CHARLENE RIVERA and they will be published in the MULTILINGUAL MATTERS series.