Review of Cenoz, J. (2009) Towards multilingual education: Basque educational research from an international perspective

Abstract

In Australia debates about language policy and language education are frequently contextualised in a monolingual language ideology. While Australia is a richly multicultural nation where many people are bi-or multilingual, in educational contexts, as well as in broader society, what ultimately matters is how well one has acquired standard Australian English. The languages of migrant and indigenous communities remain peripheral to a fundamentally monolingual sense of Australian identity. You don't need to be bilingual to be Australian; it's fine to be monolingual, as long as that language is English.This attitude towards multilingualism is common in many English-speaking countries where the social and cognitive benefits of multilingualism (Cummins, 1976;Baker, 2003;García, 2009) tend to be subsumed under discourses of expediency and efficiency. It is not uncommon to hear arguments that multilingualism represents a lack of willingness to integrate, an economic or social burden, or is functionally redundant: these days everybody speaks English so what's the point in learning another language?This view of language, however, is not shared in many countries where societies are historically multilingual and where multilingual education forms a cornerstone of linguistic, educational and social policy and practice. Many countries and regions have explicit objectives of second and third language acquisition at school. Others, including Luxembourg, Quebec, Wales and the Basque Autonomous Community, have bilingual, and in some cases multilingual language-in-education policies aimed at promoting not just the language skills of school-leavers but societal multilingualism. One of these regions, the Basque Autonomous Community (BAC) is the subject of this book.Cenoz seeks to map the complex linguistic terrain of the BAC by looking at languagein-education policies over recent decades and the ways these have influenced language practices. She describes an autonomous region of Spain where societal multilingualism has a long tradition but also one where language practices are rapidly changing. The Basque language, often positioned as a minorised language in relation to a dominant Castillian, now finds itself located within a broader and more complex linguistic field. This includes the role and status of English as an international language and the increasing BOOK REVIEWS 20.1