Introduction [Comparative studies in bilingualism and bilingual education]

Abstract

Being bilingual is a way of life and the norm for many people in a wide range of societies. Costa (2019:ix) posits that “bilingualism is the rule rather than the exception in the sense that the majority of the world’s population can communicate in more than one language.” However, the study of bilingualism or “the ownership of two or more languages is… not so simple as having two wheels or two eyes” (Baker 2001:4), but a “simple label for a complex phenomenon” (Cazden and Snow 1990:9). This complexity is nowhere more evident than in this collection of papers, which presents the latest analyses based on empirical research on the linguistic situations in a number of European countries – Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, France, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania and Sweden – as well as those in non-European contexts – Israel, Japan and the United States of America. The chapters in this book present studies on diverse topics, ranging from bilinguals’ everyday language use in their face-to-face interactions, to bilingualism in education and on social media platforms. The perceptions and language attitudes as well as the prominence of the linguistic landscape are some of the other main issues covered in these chapters. This volume comprises seventeen chapters, of which five focus on aspects of bilingualism in Malta, a linguistically unique island in the centre of the Mediterranean Sea which, in view of its minute size but complex language use, offers itself as an excellent laboratory for the scientific study of bilingualism. It is the most densely-populated country in the European Union. Malta’s two official languages are Maltese – a language of Semitic origin spoken locally by approximately 400,000 people – and English – the language of the island’s former British colonisers. The chapters in this volume are grouped under three themes. Five papers in Part 1 concentrate on issues related to Bilingualism and the Linguistic Landscape, six papers in Part 2 discuss Language Perceptions, Use and Attitudes, while the papers in Part 3 focus on Language Learning and Teaching. [Excerpt]