Bilingualism and Language Pedagogy.Janina Brutt-Griffler and Manka M. Varghese (Eds.). Clevedon Hall,England: Multilingual Matters, 2004. Pp. v + 145.

� In an increasingly globalised world, bilingualism is more the normthan the exception. However, for too long, bilingualism has been viewed

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as a subdiscipline of areas such as linguistics and applied linguists orpsychology and education, where the bilingual speaker is interpreted asperforming a balancing act between two binary opposites, two discon-nected language systems. The editors, Brutt-Giffler and Varghese, arguethat bilingualism should be accepted as a discipline in its own right, andthey have put together a very welcome and insightful collection of ar-ticles that deal with some of the practical pedagogical issues surroundingbilingualism. In their view, culture and worldview are essential elementsin planning for bilingual education because the bilingual speaker isinvolved in ongoing negotiation and mediation between his/her lan-guages, cultures, and worldviews. Therefore, bilingualism should beviewed as a continuum rather than as negotiation between binary oppo-sites. The field of bilingualism, as the editors see it, has become moreand more politicised, pitted as it is against essentialist notions of nation-ality, culture, and ethnicity, and involving issues far wider than that ofcommunication (p. 2). The book draws together arguments from studiesof curriculum, pedagogy, teacher training, and linguistic imperialism inan invaluable contribution to a vital issue.

The articles in the collection illustrate the necessity of widening thedebate beyond such essentialist interpretations by looking at vital com-ponents of the bilingual speaker’s world: definition of the languageneeded for survival and success academically in the dominant culture,positive aspects of being a bilingual speaker as well as teacher and stu-dent issues in a number of bilingual contexts.

Valdes’s discussion, though centred on the U.S. environment, hasrelevance for all other educational situations drawing attention as it doesto the multiple definitions of academic language. Problems stem, she ar-gues, from a lack of clear consensus on what constitutes academic lan-guage, little or no communication between those involved in Englishlanguage teaching, and a very different approach to the academic lan-guage requirements for speakers of English as a first (L1) and as asecond language (L2). For L2 speakers of English, the focus may nevermove beyond basic interpersonal communication skills and stylistic con-ventions, but academic language courses for L1 English speakers focuson the necessary cognitive language proficiency required for success inthe academic forum. Lack of a clear definition of academic language hasrepercussions throughout the school system. In suggested solutions, Val-des identifies a number of areas that involve a clear definition of aca-demic language, along with an efficient way of evaluating student andteacher proficiency.

Interlanguage studies have long viewed features of the developinglanguage of the L2 English learners in a positive manner, an approachwhich Toribio argues should now be applied to the code-switching pat-terns used by bilingual speakers of Spanish and English in the United

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States. Her research indicates that far from illustrating deficiency, “illicitlanguage acts” such as code-switching “signal the strategic and efficientuse of linguistic and cognitive resources in the appropriation and man-agement of two language system” (p. 42). This approach has both po-litical and pedagogical implications, preferring as it does to view suchattempts at communication as a form of empowerment and indicatingrule-governed and systematic linguistic behaviour.

Four contributions discuss teacher training as a vital component ofwidening the debate on bilingualism. Hornberger, along with advocatinga continuum model of biliteracy and bilingualism, also outlines how thismodel can be achieved through teacher education. The University ofPennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education programme, she argues,stresses the inclusive and contextualized nature of communicative com-petence. She discusses issues such as context, content, and media ofbiliteracy and deals with pertinent points involving topics such as globaland local dilemmas, language imperialism, and language content.Creese describes a British situation where teachers of English as an ad-ditional language (EAL), often subject trained, work alongside a class-room subject teacher to make the curriculum accessible to all students instatutory education. Subject teachers may not be able to facilitate lan-guage development in the classroom, and this role also falls to the EALteacher, though problems can arise if the EAL teacher is viewed only asa helper. The question of teacher identity may become a problem. Thebilingual EAL teacher may use the students’ L1 to explain the lesson andthus create identity issues for the subject teacher. Morgan’s article ex-plores teacher identity as a pedagogical tool in its own right. In a post-structural educational world, teacher and student understanding can benegotiated through practical activities in the classroom, and his descrip-tion of his own experience with a group of Chinese students is bothentertaining and enlightening. His “image-text” was a learning sourcefor himself as well as his students but he cautions that such an approachshould be “unthreatening and respectful” and should be “always open tocritical analysis and reinterpretation” (p. 92).

Benson discusses the context of developing countries, where the lan-guage of education often differs from the language spoken at home.Such situations present a distinct challenge to the bilingual teacher.Mozambique and Bolivia are cited as examples. Both countries have hadeducational systems that use the colonial, exogenous language for popu-lations the majority of whom do not speak this language at home.Mozambique has at least 24 indigenous languages, and only about 24%of Mozambicans speak Portuguese as a first, second, or foreign language.Knowledge of the colonial language has always given the elite group aposition of superiority over those less versed in that language. It is there-fore essential to build an inclusive educational system that provides op-

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portunities to the less well off and at the same time accommodates theirown indigenous languages. Similarly, Bolivia, with 33 indigenous lan-guage groups, faces problems even though about 50% of the populationspeaks Spanish as a first or second language. Demands on bilingualteachers are tremendous in both contexts. Teachers with little formaltraining and no role models are expected to provide instruction in twolanguages. Challenges to be faced include looking outside the colonialframe of reference and developing a more organic, local approach thatincludes coordination, cooperation between teachers, team teaching,more classroom aides, and activities that encourage language acquisi-tion.

Overall, this book provides a vital contribution to the more practicalissues of bilingualism and widens the scope of the discussion to includeimportant political and pedagogical questions. The articles should be ofinterest to those already working in ESL situations in the monolingualworld of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Irelandand should also be essential reading for a teacher preparation course.

JOSEPHINE O’BRIENSandford Language InstituteDublin, Ireland

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