Language Policies and Bilingual Schooling in Europe

As a political entity, Europe can be conceptualized in two ways. The first and politically more influential is as the European Union (EU), the federal community consisting of 27 member-states, with 23 official languages. The second is the Council of Europe (CoE), a forum for debate about political, humanitarian, and ethical topics, consisting of 47 member-states. This entry begins its review of European language policies and bilingual schooling by outlining the explicit language policies of both the EU and the CoE. Next, multilingualism as a common perspective is explained and types of bilingual schooling in Europe are described. The entry concludes with a brief look at implications of the European experience for other nations.