Designed for an international audience of students, Baker's text (Bangor U., Wales, UK) provides an updated introduction to bilingual education, bilingualism and multilingualism. The text covers a wide range of topics from individual and societal concepts in minority and majority languages, to childhood development perspectives, general bilingual education issues, bilingual classrooms, and political and ideological perspectives. The fifth edition features updated references, additional research findings, and incorporation of the most recent evidence; referenced websites were accessed and checked through November 2010. New and more thoroughly covered topics in the fifth edition include endangered languages, language planning, early childhood bilingualism, cognition and neurobilingualism, recent changes in bilingualism in the US, the assessment of bilinguals, bilinguals with addtional learning needs, content and language integrated learning, effective practices in bilingual schools and classrooms, and globalism. Distributed in the US by UTP Distribution. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)