Abstract

Given the multilingual contexts in which the majority of the world's population lives, educational systems have in some cases implemented instructional programs using multiple languages, sometimes in response to pressure by activists, sometimes as a means for spreading the national language among language minority groups, and sometimes as part of effort to promote economic competitiveness. After briefly reviewing the links between bilingual education and larger issues of ideology and political discourse, we will describe a variety of frameworks that researchers have used to analyze talk among bilinguals and we will discuss the value that a discourse analysis approach provides. We will then turn to bilingual classrooms specifically and provide an overview of empirical studies that have looked at talk in such classrooms, focusing particularly on code-switching. Finally, we will sketch some directions for future research in which discourse analysis could continue to serve as a tool for deepening our understanding of bilingual education and power relations in multilingual contexts.