Reviewed by Jill Hallett, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Language diversity in the classroom is John Edwards’ collection and critical examination of classic and recent linguistics and education research. Price notwithstanding, this book is accessible to researchers in various fields as well as to teachers, teachers-in-training, parents, and administrators in multilingual and multicultural school situations. Fourteen chapters comprise the book, roughly organized such that the broader concepts of classroom language, methodologies, and disadvantage appear in earlier chapters, with chapters on specific issues in linguistic diversity in education appearing later.

Ch. 1, ‘Introduction’ (1–23) outlines issues that arise in linguistically-diverse classrooms, including lack of teacher preparation and students’ susceptibility to prejudices associated with their home languages. In Ch. 2, ‘Discourse analysis and its discontents’ (24–39), E discusses the problems with discourse analytic approaches to educational research, such as the great number of insular offshoots and the tendency to  rely heavily on samples that serve to confirm the researchers’ hypotheses.

In Ch. 3, ‘Disadvantage: A brief overview’ (40–51), E evaluates the term disadvantage, finding it an apt term for discussion of social inequality. Here, the reader is also introduced to the terms difference and deficit with regard to varieties of English. The deficit theory is fairly bludgeoned in Ch. 4, ‘Disadvantage: The genetic case’ (52–76), in which a discussion of the eugenics movement and its language testing implications will turn the stomach of all but the most ardent racist. Environmental deficiency is explored in Ch. 5, ‘Disadvantage: The environmental case’ (77–92), in which E describes schools as ‘middle class institutions’ (84) for which students are expected to be prepared. E again emphasizes the case for the use of difference over deficit in minority language theory.

Ch. 6, ‘The language debate’ (93–125) raises issues of research damaging to linguistic minority students, further discussed in Ch. 7, ‘The persistence of linguistic deficit’ (126–45). E reports on various reactions to prestige and non-prestige language in Ch. 8, ‘Evaluative reactions to the language of disadvantage’ (146–69), which is followed by a case study in Ch. 9, ‘Black English as Ebonics’ (170–85).

In addition to the background on English variation in educational settings, E takes on issues of multilingualism in Ch. 10, ‘‘Foreign’ languages in the classroom’ (186–205) and what it means to have a multicultural education in Ch. 11, ‘Multiculturalism and multicultural education’ (206–33). E specifically draws examples from the English-only movement in the United States and the plural linguistic situation in Canada. In Ch. 12, ‘Bilingualism: A very brief overview’ (234–49) and Ch. 13, ‘Bilingual education’ (250–78), E does a fair job of explaining nuances of bilingualism, such as additive and subtractive bilingualism, submersion, and weak and strong bilingual education, adding that the implementation of bilingual education is highly political.

Ch. 14, ‘A concluding statement’ (279–88) implores the reader not to romanticize disadvantage but to reject the notion of substandard languages, and suggests that educators work with what the children bring to the classroom.

E’s style is smart and witty, and this book will be an asset to the libraries of educators and researchers.