Bilingualism

by Suzanne Romaine

Since it was first published in 1989, Suzanne Romaine's book has been recognized as the most authoritative introduction to the sociolinguistics of bilingualism. The new edition has been completely revised to incorporate recent work in this fast developing field. Throughout the book, bilingualism is seen as both a societal and cognitive phenomenon. Professor Romaine explores various aspects of bilingual behavior, such as code switching and language mixing, in terms of neurolinguistic organization in the individual speaker. The author also assesses the positive and negative claims made for the effects of bilingualism on children's cognitive, social and academic development, and examines the assumptions behind various language policies and programs for bilingual children. In all this, Professor Romaine draws on her own research with Punjabi /Engllish bilinguals in Britain, and Tok Pisin/ English bilingual children in Papua New Guinea.

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, School

401 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

She is Merton Professor of English language at the University of Oxford.

Reviews

[birdmaddgirl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read for a linguistics class: Bilingual Development. An interesting and well-written study of bilingualism, primarily from a linguistics perspective, although there are elements of socio-linguistics to the text as well. Topics covered include code-switching, cognition, and education, among others.

[Anastasia Tuple · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic textbook on bilingualism and sociolinguistics, and with good reason! It is comprehensive, with illustrative case studies, and written in a nice, not too academic, style.

Perhaps it is a bit old-fashioned nowadays (2021)? I mean, there has been so much more research on bilingual societies as well as individuals by scholars, that some of the questions posed by S. R. have already been answered! Also, reading about 'recent research' from...the 1960s (e.g. by Labov, Gumperz and Trudgill) did evoke in me several moments of 'back during the good old times'...

[Nell Drake · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative, the only thing is chapter 4 (code-switching) has now a very antiquated viewpoint.

[Manel]

i want information

[Cada · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to buy this for my FLA 499 Bilingualism and Languages in Contact class at ASU. There is a lot of material covered in the book by the author, but it's very informative and gives good references for further research on bilingualism/linguistics. Glad the professor picked this book--I still reference it for research/sources in my other linguistics classes.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to say that I did not read this book cover to cover as I was interested specifically in learning about bilingualism in children. But the chapters I did read presented interesting cases and a very all-round view of intepretations of what it means to be "bilingual" as well as attitudes towards the same.