Colonialism, contemporary patterns of communication worldwide, the revival of minority languages and immigration have all increased the prevalence of individual multilingualism and the need for individuals to have multilingual proficiency. While multilingualism and multilingual education share certain characteristics with bilingualism and bilingual education, they present unique characteristics, and promoting them presents unique challenges that have seldom been addressed. The chapters in this edited book provide theoretical, empirical and practical bases for planning and implementing multilingual education programmes that prepare students for a multilingual world. The authors address issues related to multilingual acquisition, the use of content instruction in multiple languages to promote multilingual acquisition, teacher education, and the role of culture in multilingual schools. In addition, case studies of multilingual schools from around the world illustrate not only the achievements of multilingual education but also the challenges it poses.
This book should interest researchers working on bilingualism and multilingualism, teacher educators and teachers who work or plan to work in bi-multilingual programmes and language policy makers.