Includes an Appendix (Council of the European Communities - Directive of 25 July 1977 on the education of children of migrant workers), bibli. references, a subject, author and an index of places, languages and peoples. Also includes a list of maps : 11.1 Indigenous linguistic minorities in Western Europe -- 12.1 Alsace Lorraine -- 13.1 Linguistic minority areas in Spain -- 13.2 The spread of Catalan dialects -- 14.1 Migration and immigration to West Germany

Part I: PSYCHOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF BILINGUALISM

1. Individual bilingualism 1.1 Societal and individual bilingualism -- 1.2 Describing bilingualism -- 1.2.1 Some definition of bilingualism -- 1.2.2 Some types of bilinguals -- 1.2.3 Factors taken into account when describing bilingualism -- 1.3 Semilingualism -- 1.4 Biculturalism -- 1.5 A bilingual profile

2. The study of bilingual children 2.1 Early and late bilingualism -- 2.1.1 Is early bilingualism "better" than late bilingualism? -- 2.1.2 The Language Acquisition Device (LAD) and the Critical Period Hypothesis -- 2.1.3 Children are not necessarily better bilinguals -- 2.2 How does the child become bilingual? -- 2.2.1 Some examples -- 2.2.2 Bilingual patterns -- 2.3 Types of bilinguals -- 2.4 Case studies of bilingual children

3. Patterns of bilingual language acquisition 3.1 The description of bilingual language acquisition -- 3.2 Phonological development -- 3.3 Semantic and lexical development -- 3.3.1 General acquisition processes -- 3.3.2 Lexical development in bilingual children -- 3.3.3 Acquisition of equivalents -- 3.3.4 The semantic load -- 3.4 Development of grammar -- 3.4.1 Morphological development -- 3.4.2 Syntactic development

4. Aspects of bilingual competence 4.1 The bilingual's linguistic competence -- 4.2 Early bilingualism: one language or two? -- 4.2.1 The unitary language system hypothesis -- 4.2.2 The separate or independent development hypothesis -- 4.2.3 An assessment of the two hypotheses -- 4.3 Language awareness and differentiation -- 4.3.1 Manifestation of language awareness -- 4.3.2 How does the child keep the languages apart? -- 4.3.3 The importance of context -- 4.4 Language choice in children -- 4.4.1 Language choice in monolinguals and bilinguals -- 4.4.2 Determinants of language choice in bilingual children

5. Features of bilingual speech 5.1 Interference -- 5.1.1 Interference at the phonological level -- 5.1.2 Interference at the grammatical level -- 5.1.3 Interference at the lexical level -- 5.1.4 Interference in spelling -- 5.2 Borrowing -- 5.3 Individual creation -- 5.4 Mixing -- 5.5 Code-switching -- 5.5.1 What is code-switching? -- 5.5.2 What type of code-switches are there? -- 5.5.3 Who code-switches MT -- 5.5.4 Can code-switching occur anywhere? -- 5.5.5 Why do bilinguals code-switch?

6. Cognitive and educational aspects of bilingualism 6.1 Contradictory research findings -- 6.1.1 Bilingualism and cognitive functioning -- 6.1.2 Overview of research on bilingualism and cognitive functioning -- 6.2 Linguistic competence, cognitive functioning and the education of minority children -- 6.2.1 Semilingualism - "BICS" and "CALP" -- 6.2.2 The Balance ad the Think Tank models -- 6.2.3 The Threshold Theory -- 6.3 Summary of the issues

7. Sociocultural aspects of bilingualism 7.1 Issues raised in the discussion of bilingualism -- 7.2 Views on bilingualism -- 7.3 Psychological aspects -- 7.3.1 Stuttering -- 7.3.2 Personality development -- 7.4 Linguistic aspects -- 7.4.1 Assessing bilinguals -- 7.4.2 Linguistic competence as the object of assessment -- 7.4.3 Measuring bilingual language skills -- 7.4.4 The problems of assessing bilingual proficiency

Part II: SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECTS OF BILINGUALISM

8. Societal multilingualism 8.1 Multilingualism in society -- 8.2 Factors contributing towards societal multilingualism -- 8.2.1 Historical factors -- 8.2.2 Contemporary factors -- 8.3 Patterns of societal multilingualism -- 8.3.1 Determinants of multilingual patterns -- 8.3.2 Basic types of societal multilingualism -- 8.3.3 Diglossia -- 8.3.4 Examples of multilingual patterns in contemporary Europe -- 8.4 The unstable nature of multilingual situations

9. Language choice, language maintenance and language shift 9.1 Language choice -- 9.1.1 Domain analysis: person, place and topic -- 9.1.2 The socio-psychological approach: linguistic accommodation -- 9.1.3 Anthropological methods of observing language choice -- 9.2 Language maintenance -- 9.3 Language shift and its causes -- 9.3.1 Migration -- 9.3.2 Industrialization -- 9.3.3 Urbanization -- 9.3.4 Prestige -- 9.3.5 Use as school language

10. Language and national identity 10.1 Language and nationalism -- 10.1.1 Basic concepts -- 10.1.2 Language and nationalism -- 10.1.3 The political dimension of language -- 10.2 Language planning -- 10.2.1 Language development -- 10.2.2 Language determination and allocation of language use -- 10.2.3 Language-planning policies - some examples -- 10.2.4 Practical considerations

11. Linguistic minorities 11.1 Indigenous minorities in Western Europe -- 11.2 Two main types of indigenous linguistic minorities -- 11.3 Ethnic, regional, national and minority languages -- 11.4 A historical perspective -- 11.5 The contemporary situation in Western Europe -- 11.6 Use and maintenance of minority languages -- 11.7 Assimilation of minorities and cultural pluralism -- 11.8 Separatism and separate identity -- 11.9 Language and separateness -- 11.10 Attributes of minority languages -- 11.11 Non-indigenous minorities in Europe -- 11.12 The study of linguistic minorities

12. Case Study I: The Alsatians 12.1 The language -- 12.2 Historical overview -- 12.3 The use of Alsatian -- 12.4 The future of Alsatian

13. Case Study II: The Catalans 13.1 Introduction: Catalonia and the Catalans -- 13.2 Geographical and demographic overview -- 13.3 The Catalan language -- 13.3.1 A sociolinguistic historical overview -- 13.3.2 The impact of immigration -- 13.3.3 The present linguistic situation -- 13.4 Language planning since 1975 -- 13.5 The public use of Catalan -- 13.6 The extent of Catalan knowledge -- 13.7 The future of Catalan

14. Case Study III: Migrant workers in the Federal Republic of Germany
14.1 Old and new minorities -- 14.1.1 Indigenous minorities -- 14.1.2 Refugees and returning German minorities -- 14.1.3 New minorities -- 14.2 Migration -- 14.2.1 Background to migration to Germany -- 14.2.2 Composition of the new minorities and geographical distribution -- 14.2.3 Reasons for migration and problems of remigration -- 14.2.4 Official policies towards migrants -- 14.3 Sociolinguistic aspects -- 14.3.1 Socio-demographic composition -- 14.3.2 The migrants' linguistic background -- 14.3.3 Problems associated with migrants' learning of German -- 14.3.4 Factors affecting migrants' acquisition of German -- 14.4 The education of migrant workers' children -- 14.4.1 The EC Directive on the education of migrant workers' children -- 14.4.2 Educational provision for migrant workers' children in the Federal Republic -- 14.4.3 Problems involved in the education of migrant workers' children

"During the last decade, considerable advances have been made in our understanding of bilingualism. This progress has made a fresh introduction to the subject all the more timely. An Introduction to Bilingualism provides a comprehensive review of the most important aspects of individual and societal bilingualism and evaluates the current state of relevant research.

This innovative and accessible survey examines both theoretical and practical issues. At the level of the individual, it addresses such questions as: What is involved in the study of bilingual children? What are the patterns of bilingual language acquisition? In which ways do the language competence and the speech of bilinguals differ from those of monolinguals? Topics that sometimes arouse controversy are explored - such as the question of whether there is a relationship between bilingualism and a child's cognitive, psychological and social development.

The book is also concerned with multilingualism, that is, bilingualism as a societal phenomenon. It focuses on such issues as language choice in bilingual and multilingual communities, national identity and the education of bilinguals. The inclusion of several case studies of European linguistic minorities serves to exemplify the topics dealt with at the theoretical level and to illustrate the linguistic complexities found in contemporary Europe." (Book Cover)

Assuming no prior knowledge of the subject, this volume will prove invaluable to students of linguistics, sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, as well as being welcomed by teachers, parents, social workers, educational administrators and all those who come into contact with bilingual children and adults.