Volume 35 in the Multilingual Matters series.

Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Introduction

1. Bilingualism and Intelligence
Introduction -- The controversies -- Summary -- Research findings -- Summary and conclusions

2. Bilingualism and cognitive functioning
Introduction -- Divergent and creative thinking -- Bilingualism and divergent thinking -- Bilingualism and an analytic orientation to language -- Piaget and bilingualism -- Communicative sensitivity -- The cognitive style of field dependence-independence and bilingualism -- Explanations of findings -- Critique -- Conclusion

3. Bilingual Education in Britain and Ireland
Introduction -- Types of bilingual education -- Bilingual education and Ireland -- Bilingual education in Scotland -- Bilingual education in England -- Bilingual education in Wales -- Conclusions on Celtic and English bilingual education

4. Bilingual Education: The Judgment of North American Research
Introduction -- United States of America -- Canada -- Conclusions

5. Attitudes and Bilingualism
Introduction -- Attitude theory -- Attitude measurement -- Attitude to Welsh: Decline with age -- Attitude to Gaelic and Irish: Public support and personal skepticism -- Attitude change -- Final conclusions

6. Bilingualism and Motivation
Introduction -- The definition of terms -- The measurement of motivation -- An overview of bilingualism and motivation -- Integrative and instrumental motivation -- Research in Wales on bilingualism and motivation -- Conclusions

7. Theory into Practice
Introduction -- The balance theory -- Think Tank model -- The Thresholds Theory -- The evolution of a theory concerning the language proficiency of bilinguals -- Two attitude/motivation models -- C.B. Paulston's bilingual education theories -- Spolsky's bilingual education evaluation model -- The input-output-context-process bilingual education model -- Cummins' theoretical framework for minority student intervention and empowerment -- Conclusion

"The book looks at world-wide evidence on three issues that concern all those interested in bilingualism and bilingual education. The first issue is whether speaking two languages affects thinking skills. This is examined in terms of the relationship between bilingualism and intelligence, and also in terms of a wide variety of international researches on bilingualism and cognitive development. A critical examination of the researchers on this first issue highlights the many weaknesses and limitations of such research. However, with expressed reservations, the evidence indicates that bilingualism has positive consequences for thinking skills and cognitive development.

The second issue examined is whether children suffer or benefit from education which uses two languages. Traditions, recent developments and research on bilingual education from the USA, Canada, Wales, Ireland, England and Scotland are portrayed and discussed. The conditions of success for bilingual education, the relative merits of different types of bilingual schooling and a critical evaluation of the North American, British and Irish research are each considered.

The third issue of the book concerns the role of attitude and motivation in bilingualism. An individual's attitudes and motivation to becoming and remaining bilingual, or to allowing bilingualism to decline, is shown to be crucial. Discussion of this third issue suggests key psychological factors in the status and destiny of languages.

The book concludes by integrating the three issues. A wide variety of theories of bilingual development at a personal, social and educational level are explored. This provides the basis for a summary of the present state of our understanding about bilingualism and bilingual education." (Book Cover)