The fifth edition of this bestselling book provides a comprehensive introduction to bilingualism and bilingual education. In a compact and clear style, its 19 chapters cover all the crucial issues in bilingualism at individual, group and national levels. These include:

• defining who is bilingual and multilingual

• testing language abilities and language use

• languages in communities and minority groups

• endangered languages

• language planning, language revival

• the development of bilingualism in infancy and childhood

• bilingualism in the family

• age and language learning

• adult language learning

• bilinguals' thinking skills

• bilingualism and the brain

• theories of bilingualism

• types of bilingual education

• heritage language education

• evaluations of bilingual education

• minority language literacy

• biliteracy and multiliteracies

• effective teaching and learning methods in bilingual classrooms

• the effectiveness of bilingual education in the United States

• the history of bilingual education in the United States

• language minority underachievement

• bilingual special education

• the assessment of language minority children

• Deaf bilinguals

• the spread of English as a global language

• learning English as a second or third language

• language identity and multiple identities

• the politics surrounding language minorities and bilingual education

• assimilation and pluralism

• bilingualism and employment

• bilingualism and the internet