Bilingualism is pervasive throughout the world, but there is considerable variation in (1) the conditions under which people become bilingual, (2) the uses they have for their various languages, and (3) the societal status of the languages. For example, in postcolonial Africa, students may be educated in English or French while another language is spoken in the home, and yet another (e.g., Swahili in eastern Africa) may be used in public encounters and institutional settings, such as the courts (Fishman, 1978). In officially bilingual countries such as Switzerland, children use one language at home and for most schooling, but are expected to acquire competence in at least one other official language; thus in Switzerland, French and German are of equivalent social status and importance to success. Yet another set of conditions is created in bilingual households, where parents who are native speakers of two different languages choose to use both in the home. Finally, in other contexts bilingualism is often the product of migration. Immigrants frequently continue to use their native language—which may be of low status and not institutionally supported—at home, and learn the dominant language of their new society only as required for work, public encounters, or schooling. The children of such families may end up fully bilingual, bilingual with the new language dominant, or having little knowledge of the parental language. They are the children of particular interest in this report.

A number of typologies of bilingualism follow. A major distinction among these typologies is that some focus their explanation of second-language acquisition at the individual and others at the societal level.

Weinreich (1953) theorized a distinction among compound, coordinate, and subordinate bilinguals, who differ in the way words in their languages relate to underlying concepts. In the compound form, the two languages represent the same concept, whereas in the coordinate form, the concepts themselves are independent and parallel. In the subordinate form, the weaker language is represented through the stronger language.

Researchers also distinguish at the individual level between simultaneous and sequential bilingualism: the former begins from the onset of language acquisition, while the latter begins after about age 5, when the basic components of first-language knowledge are in place (McLaughlin, 1984). In the sequential type, a distinction is made between early and late bilinguals, according to the age at which second-language acquisition occurred (Genesee et al., 1978).

Front Matter (R1-R10)

1 Overview (1-10)

2 Bilingualism and Second-Language Learning (11-20)

3 Cognitive Aspects of School Learning: Literacy Development and Content Learning (21-32)

4 The Social Context of School Learning (33-40)

5 Student Assessment (41-54)

6 Program Evaluation (55-72)

7 Studies of School and Classroom Effectiveness (73-88)

Concluding Remarks (89-90)

References (91-112)

Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff (113-117)

Other Reports from the Board on Children, Youth, and Families (118-118)