The important of the study of the effect of bilingualism on the process of leaning and on the intellectual and personality development of children cannot be overemphasized. Bilingualism through formal instruction is promoted in all parts of the world. In multilingual countries like India, though bilingualism acquired through informal means is widespread, it is imperative to develop it through formal means also for economic progress and societal harmony. Existence and development of bilingualism, therefore, are crucial factors to be taken into account when planning language use in education in a country like India.

Bilingualism in education refers to learning of more than one language as well as learning through a non-native language. In either case the students become bilinguals to some degree or other. There are also situations, as in India, where students come to school as bilinguals. All these situations pose different problems for the educational planner to tackle with. Expert opinion on the subject is divided. So are the common man's beliefs. It is, therefore, necessary to conduct scientific studies to find the truth and, with this in view, the three studies reported in this volume were undertaken. The need for such studies is obvious in the present Indian context where educationists and linguists are trying hard to evolve a language policy and a scheme for its implementation in school.

All the three studies, it must be emphasized, are preliminary and have certain limitations. The first study, which is longer than the rest, on the effect of home bilingualism on the achievement of students in all subjects in school has the following limitations. Firstly, bilingualism was not defined rigidly and graded. The students' positive response about the knowledge of languages to the question in the questionnaire was taken sufficient to consider them as bilinguals. The influence of languages learnt in school on bilingualism was not taken into consideration. Learning of languages other than their native language makes all students bilinguals to some degree in the course of their education. Therefore, after a few years in school, there is no monolingual in the strict sense in the school. Secondly, no standardized test was given to evaluate achievement and the marks obtained by students in the school examinations were used for evaluation. This has lot of variables which could not be controlled. Thirdly, all the schools covered in this study are from one city. The conclusions of this study may be undertaken only with these limitations in mind.

The second study, which attempts to study the effect of bilingual medium on two subjects, is based on marks obtained by students in central schools. It is clear that the sample is limited and biased towards urban educated middle class. Both the e studies were designed and data were collected under the guidance of Dr. C.H.K. Misra, the then Deputy Directory in the Institute a few years ago. The results of the second study were interpreted under his guidance.

The third study, by Dr. A.K. Srivastava, Deputy Director and Mrs. Rashida Khatoon, was done in 1979. This is also restricted to Mysore City. This is a more controlled study; it also points to similar findings regarding the performance of students studying through the medium of other tongue. There are however some caveats which have been pointed out.

The references of the first study and the third study have not been merged, in spite of repeating titles, because of the time factor. A select bibliography has been given as Appendix I of the first study to aid the readers for further consultations.

In spite of the limitations, it is hoped that these studies will stimulate further work on bilingualism and its impact on school achievement.

E. ANNAMALAI
Editor