Rethinking the Education of Multilingual Learners

Reviews / Votes

In this volume Cummins brings the reader along on an inspiring journey that spans over 40 years and offers a unique synthesis of a life-long dedication and contribution within the field of bi- and multilingual education. The journey starts with a retrospective look at Cummins' revolutionary and frontier-pushing theoretical hypothesis on early research in bilingual development within education and ends with presentations of innovative and creative crosslinguistic and multilingual pedagogies. * Siv Bjoerklund, Abo Akademi University, Finland * This evidence-based, nuanced and scholarly volume is Cummins at his best. Courteous and collegial, Cummins distinguishes between defensible complementary theory, and enthusiastic but conjectural false dichotomy. The single purpose is to guide educators towards how best multilingual students can learn and succeed if we are to ensure equity and social justice. * Kathleen Heugh, University of South Australia, Australia * In this book, Jim Cummins not only presents his ideas and writings, giving insights into their origins and evolution, but importantly, he answers his critics. The volume provides an up-to-date analysis of translanguaging, considering its strengths and its criticisms, and offers practical translanguaging ideas for classrooms and curriculum activities. This book is Jim Cummins' finest contribution to the literature. * Colin Baker, Emeritus Professor, Bangor University, UK *