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What is bilingual and multilingual education?In the simplest definition, bilingual education is the use of two languages for learning and teaching in an instructional setting and, by extension, multilingual education would be the use of three languages or more.In a narrower definition, literacy is developed and/or specific content areas are taught through the medium of two or more languages in an organized and planned education program.In most cases, one of these is the "home," "native," or "mother-tongue" language, and one is the "dominant" societal language or a "powerful" international language.In multilingual education set tings, the other languages may be dominant regional languages.However, as will be shown throughout this handbook, even these basic concepts such as language, home language, dominant language, native speaker, bilingual, multilingual, and bilingual and multilingual education are highly complex and contested constructs; thus considerations about which languages or varieties of languages to use as media of instruction are not always straightforward.Because education is most often the responsibility of nation states with artificial (and contested) geographical boundaries encompassing many-and oftentimes dividing-linguistic groups, decisions about bilingual and multilingual education are highly political, and influenced by a variety of historical, economic, and sociocultural factors.For example, in 1998 a formal debate over bilingual education was held at California State University Long Beach, in the context of the Proposition 227 Campaign to pass a law restricting the state's bilingual programs through mandates for English-medium instruction.The first author (Wright) was present during the heated exchanges, and listened incredulously as the local chairperson for the Proposition 227 Campaign-an elementary school teacher in Orange County-claimed that bilingual education was a "failed experiment," that "we only do bilingual programs for Spanish speakers," and that "other countries don't do bilingual education, only the United States!" WaynE E. WrIgHT, SOvICHETH BOUn, and OFELIa garCía 1 C O P Y R I G H T E D M A T E R I A Lat the time of this debate, Wright was teaching in a Cambodian (Khmer) bilingual education program at an elementary school just a few miles away.The second author (Boun) was a senior in high school in Cambodia learning both English and Khmer, and later studied at a multilingual university-the royal University of Phnom Penh.The third author (garcía) was a former Spanish-English bilingual teacher in new york City, a professor conducting research on bilingualism and bilingual education in new york City and internationally, that year along the Uruguay-Brazil border as a Fulbright Scholar.as our personal experiences illustrate, political attacks, misinformation, and outright falsehoods often permeate debates over bilingual and multilingual education.Ironically, during this period of renewed attacks on bilingual education in the United States, other countries around the world were turning to bilingual and multilingual education to address linguistic realities and student needs.UnESCO and UnICEF, for example, promote mother-tongue-based multilingual education as a key component of education reform assistance to developing nations struggling to provide universal access to a basic education.Other nations with historically homogeneous populations are also beginning to turn to bilingual and multilingual education to address the realities of demographic change.In the United States between 1998 and 2002, three states (California, arizona, and Massachusetts) passed anti-bilingual education laws (g.McField, 2014), and federal education policy-the no Child Left Behind act of 2001-removed all mention, encouragement, and direct financial support of bilingual education (Menken, 2008).However, the tides are beginning to change.after 15 years of antibilingual legislation in these three states, bilingual programs have been restricted, but not eliminated.Waiver provisions, loopholes, and differing interpretations of the laws by various policy makers provided space for many schools to continue or even expand bilingual education programs.In California, legislative efforts are now underway to reverse Proposition 227 and undo the harm caused by the ill-informed law (Mcgreevy, 2014).Even with Proposition 227 still in place, California became the first state in the United States to recognize the valuable linguistic skills of graduating bilingual students by awarding a "Seal of Biliteracy" on their high school diplomas-a model now being replicated in other states, including new york and Texas (see http://sealofbiliteracy.org/).Thus, bilingual and multilingual education is alive and well and expanding.Indeed, in a world with only 196 "nation states" but over 7,000 named spoken languages (Lewis, Simons, & Fennig, 2013), bilingual and multilingual education is essential.as garcía ( 2009) has argued, in the 21st Century "bilingual education, in all its complexities and forms, seems to be the only way to educate as the world moves forward" (p. 6).nonetheless, there are a wide variety of often conflicting ideologies, theories, policies, and practices surrounding bilingual and multilingual education throughout the world.In some cases, bilingual education may even be misused to limit access and opportunities for linguistic minority students.This speaks to the great need for a comprehensive Handbook of Bilingual and Multilingual Education to: (1) discuss the theoretical foundations and present bilingual and multilingual education as a Overview and organizationThis Handbook builds on the excellent prior work described above by providing both depth and breadth across three major sections: (1) Foundations for Bilingual and Multilingual Education, (2) Pedagogical Issues and Practices in Bilingual and Multilingual Education, and (3) global dimensions of Bilingual and Multilingual Education.The 41 chapters in this Handbook are authored by 78 distinguished, well-known, and rising scholars from around the world.Collectively their chapters provide case studies of, or draw examples from, specific countries and regions from all continents of the earth except antarctica.authors in Sections 1 and 2 were asked to provide an historical overview of their topic, discuss the current state of knowledge with a focus on methodological and theoretical issues and problem areas, and discuss future directions.authors of the country/region-specific chapters in Section 3 were asked to provide a brief historical overview, a brief summary of the current state of bilingual/multilingual education, and then discuss a specific case or provide a focus on one or more of the specific issues in their region/country.These chapters in Section 3 provide vivid examples of the issues raised and discussed in Sections 1 and 2.
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