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The fifth edition of this bestselling book provides a comprehensive introduction to bilingualism and bilingual education. In a compact and clear style, its 19 chapters cover all the crucial issues in bilingualism at individual, group and national levels. These include:-defining who is bilingual and multilingual-testing language abilities and language use-languages in communities and minority groups-endangered languages-language planning, language revival-the development of bilingualism in infancy and childhood-bilingualism in the family-age and language learning-adult language learning-bilinguals' thinking skills-bilingualism and the brain-theories of bilingualism-types of bilingual education-heritage language education-evaluations of bilingual education-minority language literacy-biliteracy and multiliteracies-effective teaching and learning methods in bilingual classrooms-the effectiveness of bilingual education in the United States-the history of bilingual education in the United States-language minority underachievement-bilingual special education-the assessment of language minority children-Deaf bilinguals-the spread of English as a global language-learning English as a second or third language-language identity and multiple identities-the politics surrounding language minorities and bilingual education-assimilation and pluralism-bilingualism and employment-bilingualism and the internet