This book is a collection of papers that explore the ways in which bilingual children cope with two language systems. The papers address issues in linguistics, psychology, and education bearing on the abilities that bilingual children use to understand language, to perform highly specialised operations with language, and to function in school settings. All of the papers provide detailed analysis about how specific problems are solved, how bilingualism influences those solutions, and how the social context affects the process. Finally, the implications of these findings for policy-setting and the development of bilingual education programmes are explored. This will be an important and useful volume at the forefront of topical research in an area which is exciting increasing interest among linguists and cognitive scientists.

1. Language modules and bilingual processing Michael Sharwood Smith; 2. Phonological processing in two languages Ian Watson; 3. Second language learning in children: a model of language learning in social context Lily Wong Fillmore; 4. Interdependence of first and second language proficiency in bilingual children Jim Cummins; 5. Giving formal definitions: a linguistic or metalinguistic skill? Catherine E. Snow; 6. Metalinguistic dimensions of bilingual language proficiency Ellen Bialystock; 7. Translation skill and metalinguistic awareness in bilinguals Marguerite Malakoff and Kenji Hakuta; 8. Towards an explanatory model of the interaction between bilingualism and cognitive development Rafael M. Diaz and Cynthia Klingler; 9. Constructive processes in bilingualism and their cognitive growth effects Janice Johnson; 10. Language cognition, and education of bilingual children Ellen Bialystock and Jim Cummins.

Michael Sharwood Smith, Ian Watson, Lily Wong Fillmore, Jim Cummins, Catherine E. Snow, Marguerite Bialystok, Marguerite Malakoff, Kenji Hakutu, Rafael M. Diaz, Cynthia Klinger, Janice Johnson, Ellen Bialystok, Jim Cummins