Toward a broadened context for modern bilingual education

Abstract

J.R. Edwards has in recent years criticised the context of modern bilingual education, paying special attention to a supposed conflict between the ‘transitional’ type favoured by politicians and the general public, and the ‘maintenance’ type advocated by academics and idealistic cultural pluralists. In a 1981 article in the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Edwards alleges that academics have quite possibly misinterpreted modern thinking on bilingualism, cultural pluralism, societal values, and ethnicity on purpose so as to be self‐serving; at the very least, the recent emphasis on maintenance bilingual education shows a wilful wrongheadedness. In response to Edwards’ views, this article shows that his criticisms are not proven, that he ignores some important facts about the mid‐1970s political genesis of America's Bilingual Education Act and that his evaluation of the successes of bilingual education is misinformed. Most importantly, it is argued that we must broaden our understanding of the nature of modern bilingualism through a reading of the pertinent research in recent social science in order to grasp the economic and social class dimensions of bilingualism in current urbanisation and industrialisation. When we understand the need for bilingual education of ethnic groups as they modernise, we are confronted with a rather easy moral choice despite the so‐called ‘expense’ of public‐supported bilingual education.

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