ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the phenomenon of bilingual education in an increasingly globalised, multilingual world. Defining bilingualism depends largely on who defines it, in which contexts and for which populations. It is widely agreed that there is a continuum of bilingualism and biliteracy and that bilinguals fall between two poles. In some circumstances, they may have polished second language skills in their area of work or study but have fewer linguistic competencies in other domains, such as familial interactions or in religious life. Monolingual ideologies are pervasive in contexts where language diversity is seen as a problem or a threat to traditional or socio-historical ways of using language. Especially in the United States and the United Kingdom, groups and individuals often exercise their franchise to block bilingual programmes. Monolingual discourse has prevailed in these nations, reifying a language-as-a-problem orientation toward the use of languages other than English.
