“Aside from the conceptual issues highlighted above, the detailed discussions of multilingual education policy alone make the book worth buying for scholars of language in education issues.” (Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 10 April 2012)
"It goes without saying that the book has merit in the field of bilingual education. It is not only a desirable material to have for all scholars interested in furthering their understanding of this area. Because of its comprehensive nature and its presentation of solid arguments, it is also an ideal text to use in graduate and undergraduate courses." (Applied Linguistics, 2011)
"This book will become a classic in the bilingual education literature. It provides a comprehensive overview of bilingual education at the levels of philosophy, policy, provision and practice. It has international relevance, global understandings and is suitable for a worldwide readership."
Colin Baker, Bangor University
"Ofelia García writes with wisdom, heart, and an unshakable conviction that bilingual education is the best education for all children in today’s world. A must read for educators everywhere."
Nancy Hornberger, University of Pennsylvania
"Ofelia (and Hugo) have unemployed a lot of researchers. After this book, there is no need for another book on bi/multilingual education for a decade. With its creativity, new conceptualisations, enormous worldwide knowledge and unusual combination of path-breaking theory and insider knowledge about schools, this is, The Book on bilingual education."
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, University of Roskilde
?Aside from the conceptual issues highlighted above, the detailed discussions of multilingual education policy alone make the book worth buying for scholars of language in education issues.? (Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 10 April 2012)
"It goes without saying that the book has merit in the field of bilingual education. It is not only a desirable material to have for all scholars interested in furthering their understanding of this area. Because of its comprehensive nature and its presentation of solid arguments, it is also an ideal text to use in graduate and undergraduate courses." (Applied Linguistics, 2011)
"This book will become a classic in the bilingual education literature. It provides a comprehensive overview of bilingual education at the levels of philosophy, policy, provision and practice. It has international relevance, global understandings and is suitable for a worldwide readership."
Colin Baker, Bangor University
"Ofelia García writes with wisdom, heart, and an unshakable conviction that bilingual education is the best education for all children in today?s world. A must read for educators everywhere."
Nancy Hornberger, University of Pennsylvania
"Ofelia (and Hugo) have unemployed a lot of researchers. After this book, there is no need for another book on bi/multilingual education for a decade. With its creativity, new conceptualisations, enormous worldwide knowledge and unusual combination of path-breaking theory and insider knowledge about schools, this is, The Book on bilingual education."
Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, University of Roskilde
From the Publisher
Ofelia García is Professor of Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has been Professor of Bilingual Education at Columbia University's Teachers College, and at The City College of New York; and has been Dean of the School of Education in the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University. Among her publications are Imagining Multilingual Schools (with T. Skutnabb-Kangas and M. Torres-Guzmán), A Reader in Bilingual Education (with C. Baker), Language Loyalty, Continuity and Change: Joshua Fishman's Contributions to International Sociolinguistics (with Rakhmiel Peltz and Harold Schiffman), and The Multilingual Apple: Languages in New York City (with J.A. Fishman). She is a Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa, and has been a Fulbright Scholar, and a Spencer Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Education.
From the Inside Flap
Bilingual education has long been a controversial topic for communities, policy makers, and teachers. Misconceptions about what bilingualism itself is, and what bilingual education should do, have laid the groundwork for a wide range of policies that don't always have a coherent vision for their students. In this wide-ranging and provocative book, García examines the history and current state of bilingual education programs throughout the world, offers a critical reading of the current conversations around them, and invites readers to imagine a new paradigm for the 21st century: one based on the idea of multilingual fluidity as a social and cultural imperative in a globalized world.
García examines languages and bilingualism as individual and societal phenomena, presents program types, variables, and policies in bilingual education, and concludes by looking at practices, especially pedagogies and assessments. Questioning assumptions regarding language, bilingualism and bilingual education, this book proposes a new theoretical framework and alternative views of teaching and assessment practices.
From the Back Cover
Bilingual education has long been a controversial topic for communities, policy makers, and teachers. Misconceptions about what bilingualism itself is, and what bilingual education should do, have laid the groundwork for a wide range of policies that don't always have a coherent vision for their students. In this wide-ranging and provocative book, García examines the history and current state of bilingual education programs throughout the world, offers a critical reading of the current conversations around them, and invites readers to imagine a new paradigm for the 21st century: one based on the idea of multilingual fluidity as a social and cultural imperative in a globalized world.
García examines languages and bilingualism as individual and societal phenomena, presents program types, variables, and policies in bilingual education, and concludes by looking at practices, especially pedagogies and assessments. Questioning assumptions regarding language, bilingualism and bilingual education, this book proposes a new theoretical framework and alternative views of teaching and assessment practices.
About the Author
Ofelia García is Professor of Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She has been Professor of Bilingual Education at Columbia University's Teachers College, and at The City College of New York; and has been Dean of the School of Education in the Brooklyn Campus of Long Island University. Among her publications are Imagining Multilingual Schools (with T. Skutnabb-Kangas and M. Torres-Guzmán), A Reader in Bilingual Education (with C. Baker), Language Loyalty, Continuity and Change: Joshua Fishman's Contributions to International Sociolinguistics (with Rakhmiel Peltz and Harold Schiffman), and The Multilingual Apple: Languages in New York City (with J.A. Fishman). She is a Fellow of the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa, and has been a Fulbright Scholar, and a Spencer Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Education.
