"The book is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary in approach, and analyses bilingualism at individual, interpersonal and societal levels. Linguistic, cognitive and sociocultural aspects of bilingual development are explored, as are problems such as bilingual memory and polyglot aphasia. Hamers and Blanc analyse the relationship between culture, identity and language behaviour in multicultural settings, as well as the communication strategies in interpersonal and intergroup relations. They also propose theoretical models of language processing and development, which are then applied to bilingual behaviour. Other topics reviewed include language shift, pidgins and creoles, language planning and bilingual education." "The book will be invaluable to students, teachers and scholars interested in bilingualism in a range of disciplines including psycholinguistics, linguistics, the social sciences, education and language planning."--BOOK JACKET.