Includes bibliography and index.

Preface -- Introduction -- Part One: The educational development of bilingual children -- Section 1 Metalinguistic and cognitive development -- 1. Bilingualism, cognitive functioning and education -- 2. Bilingualism and the development of metalinguistic awareness -- Section 2 Bilingual education -- 3. A review of immersion education in Canada: research and evaluation studies -- 4. Early French immersion later on -- 5. Linguistic interdependence: a central principle of bilingual education -- Section 3 Programme planning for bilingualism -- 6. Bilingualism without tears -- Part Two: Bilingual Proficiency -- Section 4 The construct of bilingual proficiency -- 7. Communicative competence: some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development -- 8. Language proficiency and academic achievement -- Section 5 The assessment of language proficiency -- 9. Large-scale communicative language testing: a case study -- 10. Minority students and learning difficulties: issues in assessment and placement -- Section 6 A synthesis -- 11. Towards a theory of bilingual proficiency development

"The Applied Linguistics and Language Study series explores the role of language in understanding practical problems of human communication and language teaching, drawing on experimental and speculative research in linguistics, pragmatics and psychology. Its aim is thereby to identify and illustrate the key issues in both practice and theory. This book provides a guide to the research in bilingual education currently taking place in Canada. It is of interest to teachers and policy-makers as well as to academic researchers. The authors offer a synthesis of recent work relating to the educational development of bilingual children from both majority and minority language backgrounds. Such controversial issues as the consequences of bilingualism for cognitive development receive critical analysis and resolution. The importance of clarifying the nature of language proficiency and assessment is analysed in relation to language planning in a wide variety of educational contexts." (Book Cover)