Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism
Anyone interested in the distinctly personal aspects of bilingualism will find it rewarding to dip into this survey; he is bound to discover a good deal that has escaped his own attempts. (W. HaasTimes Literary Supplement)What this book conveys is the incredible variety of ways in which an individual or a nation can be bilingual...Grosjean's book treats the multiple facets of bilingual experience in thought-provoking, wonderful, and lucid prose. Students and general readers, monolingual and bilingual alike, stand to gain new perspectives from reading this excellent comprehensive introduction. (Loraine K. OblerContemporary Psychology)[This book] is virtually indispensable to anyone already interested in language politics...[Grosjean] has assembled a great deal of valuable and often intriguing data and organized it clearly. (Chicago Reader)The volume is written in a highly readable, enjoyable style. The coverage is broad and quite comprehensive, with a wide range of examples from different countries and cultures...The message concerning what natural bilingual behavior is like for most bilinguals comes through strongly and impressively. It is this them which holds the book together and which makes it a unique contribution among writings on bilingualism. (Ellen Bouchard RyanBilingual Review)François Grosjean has undertaken a truly formidable task--to give the serious student and the earnest layman some insight into what a generation of intense research has taught us about bilinguals and bilingualism. The book manages to combine a very personal touch, which one feels everywhere as growing out of the author's own experience as a bilingual, with wide reading in the many fields of research that bear on the problems of bilingualism. (Einar Haugen, Professor Emeritus, Harvard University)[Life with Two Languages] contains a wealth of interesting information which, to my knowledge, has not been put together in one source before--particularly in such a cogent and succinct manner...a thoroughly enjoyable treatment of the phenomenon of bilingualism. (C. Richard Tucker, Director, Center for Applied Linguistics)Grosjean has written a very comprehensive review of the field that is both conceptually sound and entertaining. The book will undoubtedly inform, perhaps provoke and...entertain its readers. (Fred Genesee, McGill University)