In this groundbreaking study of multilingual youth in the United Kingdom, Blackledge and Creese disrupt common-sense notions of language, literacy, heritage, and identity. Drawing on innovative research in eight complementary schools in four cities, the authors bring insightful analysis to a complex set of data, arguing persuasively that time and space remain central motifs in the investigation of multilingualism in contemporary society. Researchers, students, and teachers will find the integration of theory and practice both compelling and engaging. Multilingualism represents linguistic ethnography at its very best. - Professor Bonny Norton, University of British Columbia, Canada
An insightful account of a landmark study in multilingual education. This theoretically and methodologically innovative multi-site, team ethnography illuminates classroom linguistic practices in Gujarati, Bengali, Chinese, and Turkish complementary schools in Britain, opening readers' eyes and understanding to the rich diversity of cultural, identity, and learning resources multilingualism represents. This book offers a major, critical alternative. - Professor Nancy H. Hornberger. University of Pennsylvania, USA
British education scholars at the University of Birmingham, Blackledge and Creese investigate the role, values, status, and practice of minority languages in Britain and entertain the possibility that complementary schools might be an avenue for teaching and valuing minority languages that mandatory schooling tends to homogenize out of society. Their perspectives include the ethnography of multilingualism, separate and flexible bilingualism in complementary schools, multilingual literacies across space and time, inventing and dis-inventing the national, and trans-languaging as pedagogy in the bilingual classroom. -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.
'The book has a very clear structure that would make the reading accessible even to a reader who does not have a detailed knowledge of this field... I think this book should be of interest to a large group of people interested in the intersection of language, sociology, and culture. It should work for both researchers and advanced students as a way to acquaint oneself with the more recent work in the field. I also think it would probably work in an introductory course to multilingualism for students.' -- The Linguist List
'Explaining complex bilingual phenomena in a pluralistic, multilingual, and fluid modern society is not a simple task. The authors are to be commended for their critical perspective, their ability to crystallize complex processes into coherent and clear prose, and their unending commitment to constantly re-examining the language practices they see unfolding before them.' -- Language Policy
... remarkable both in breadth and depth... Blackledge and Creese's work is both impressive and inspiring in the scope and depth of the study presented and the clarity of the theoretical frame. -- Language Teaching
