This article suggests that the terms "bilingual education, multicultural education, bilingual instruction, and total immersion" refer to four distinct processes, each needing to be defined more clearly. To define them, a theoretical framework is proposed based on two sets of variables. The first set integrates the anthropological model of human relations ("I, I and You, I and the Community") and the pedagogical model of educational goals (self-promotion, socialization, acculturation). The second set comes from a theory of language policy that distinguishes two types of multilingual societies, the "melting pot" and the "rice salad." Applying this framework to the four notions illustrates that they are different processes and should be differentiated in curriculum design, in the language used by schools and educational authorities, and in the literature. (Contains 19 references.) (MSE)