This book proposes an integrated approach to the study of bilingual education in minority and majority settings. Contributions from scholars in different countries in Europe and the Americas show how to bridge the gap between elite bilingualism and the bilingualism of minority communities and work towards multilingual spaces.

This book offers a new perspective for research in the field of bilingual education by proposing an integrated approach to the study of bilingualism in minority and majority settings. Programmes for indigenous groups, for national minorities and for migrants are analysed together with programmes aimed at dominant language groups, by well-known scholars from eight different countries in Europe and the Americas. Each contribution seeks to go beyond the traditional dichotomy between policy, practice and research into bilingual education programmes for majority language speakers, and modalities offered for minority language speakers. Thus, the book argues for the construction of a shared discourse for research into bilingualism and bilingual education and for the adoption of an ecological perspective on language education.

1. Introduction - Christine Hélot and Anne-Marie de Mejía

SECTION 1: THE AMERICAS

2. Teaching Spanish and Spanish in Teaching in the US: Integrating Bilingual Perspectives - Ofelia García

3. Plurilingual Latin America: Indigenous Languages, Immigrant Languages, Foreign Languages - Towards an Integrated Policy of Language and Education - Rainer Enrique Hamel

4. Points of Contact or Separate Paths: A Vision of Bilingual Education in Colombia - Anne-Marie de Mejía and María Emilia Montes Rodríguez

5. Staff Profiles in Minority and Prestigious Bilingual Education Contexts in Argentina - Cristina Banfi and Silvia Rettaroli

SECTION 2: EUROPE

6. The National Languages Strategy in the UK: Are Minority Languages Still on the Margins? - Jim Anderson, Charmian Kenner and Eve Gregory

7. Bilingual Education in France: School Policies versus Home Practices – Christine Hélot

8. Languages and Language Learning in Catalan Schools: From the Bilingual to the Multilingual Challenge - Cristina Escobar Urmeneta and Virginia Unamuno

9. Educating for Participation in a Bilingual or a Multilingual Society? Challenging the Power Balance between English and Irish (Gaelic) and other Minority Languages in Ireland - Muiris Ó Laoire