De Gruyter Mouton Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism: 87 (Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL], 87)

This volume contributes to the debates about the social aspects of bilingualism, focusing on the various opportunities and challenges bilingualism presents to today's society. The contributions in this volume are of a prospective stance, delineating directions for future research on bilingualism and/or identifying important issues which have been under-researched or which are still of a controversial nature. All the contributions are from leading international scholars who have researched and published extensively in the field of bilingualism. To facilitate further discussions of the issues raised in the volume, there are study questions and suggested reading attached to each of the main chapters. Review All in all, however, the present book is a readable, informative, and highly recommended, serval small proofing omissions notwithstanding. For those who have just started their journey into the dense forest of bilingualism, this book will be a good guide to theories and major issues of societal bilingualism, such as language planning, managing, ideology and maintenance/shift. To those who are already familiar with the field, the cases reported from various parts of the world should be quite intriguing and provide rich resources as well.Masayo Yamamoto in: Language and Education 18, 5-2004 About the Author Li Wei is Professor of Applied Linguistics at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Jean-Marc Dewaele is Senior Lecturer in French at Birkbeck College, London, UK. Alex Housen is Lecturer at the Vrije Universiteit, Brussels, Belgium.