ABSTRACT
The controversy between proponents and opponents of bilingualism is an old one. We can find statements on the effects of bilingualism made as long ago as the beginning of the nineteenth century, and even earlier (the distinction between bilingual education and bilingual upbringing was not made at the time). The debate was often fuelled by people who seem to us today to have been unqualified to pass judgement because of their apparent lack of first-hand experience of bilingualism and bilinguals. Yet the views of philosophers such as Fichte (1762–1814) and Herder (1744–1803), educationalists like Jahn (1778–1852) and Laurie (who published a series of famous lectures in 1890), philologists such as Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767–1835) and, earlier this century, Schmidt-Rohr (1932; 1936) and Weisgerber (1933), and perhaps even some psychologists and paediatricians (e.g. Sander 1930; 1934; Pichon 1936), have done much to discredit bilingualism. 1 The present century has seen a good deal of polemical writing on the issue, especially in the wake of extreme nationalism and fascism in various parts of Europe and beyond. During the last thirty years, however, an increasing amount of detailed investigation has led to a re-assessment of some of the issues raised previously; with the application of more modern methodologies based on empirical research, new insights have been gained and a more balanced picture has emerged.
