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: (1) defining who is bilingual and multilingual; (2) testing language abilities and language use; (3) languages in communities and minority groups; (4) endangered languages; (5) language planning, language revival; (6) the development of bilingualism in infancy and childhood; (7)bilingualism in the family; (8) age and language learning; (9) adult language learning; (10) bilinguals' thinking skills; (11) bilingualism and the brain; (12) theories of bilingualism; (13) types of bilingual education; (14) heritage language education; (15) evaluations of bilingual education; (16) minority language literacy; (17) biliteracy and multiliteracies; (18) effective teaching and learning methods in bilingual classrooms; (19) the effectiveness of bilingual education in the United States; (20) the history of bilingual education in the United States; (21) language minority underachievement; (22) bilingual special education; (23) the assessment of language minority children; (24) Deaf bilinguals; (25) the spread of English as a global language; (26) learning English as a second or third language; (27) language identity and multiple identities; (28) the politics surrounding language minorities and bilingual education; (29) assimilation and pluralism; (30) bilingualism and employment; and (31) bilingualism and the internet. [For the, " Foundations of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. Third Edition. Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 27", see ED453681.]