Cummins and Swain 1986

Cummins, Jim, and Merrill Swain. 1986.Bilingualism in education: Aspects of theory, research, and practice. London: Longman. 235 pages. 0582553806. Location: Dallas SIL Library 371.97 C971. Interest level: academic.

Is a guide to current bilingual education research in Canada. Is aimed at

• teachers
• policy makers, and
• academic researchers.

Offers a synthesis of recent work relating to educational development of bilingual children from both majority and minority language backgrounds. Analyzes controversial issues, such as the consequences of bilingualism for cognitive development. Discusses the importance of clarifying the nature of language proficiency and assessment in relation to language planning in a wide variety of educational contexts. Reviews immersion education in Canada. Discusses program planning for bilingualism, and learning difficulties of minority students.

Concludes that "L1-based education can promote the development of many aspects of L2 proficiency. L2-based education is particularly important, however, for the development of context-embedded grammatical proficiency, and will be most successful where the environment is rich with opportunities for interaction in the second language in purposeful, meaningful activities."

Chapter 9 is excellent. Discusses large-scale communicative language testing.

• Bibliography module: Cummins and Swain 1986
• In overview module: Bibliography (Literacy): C
• In modular book: Bibliography (Literacy), by Doris Gallemore, Trudi C. Hunt, Jeanne Swanson, and Stephen L. Walter
• In document collection: Reference materials
• In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 18 May 1999

© 1999 SIL International