Bilingualism and Inclusion: more than just rhetoric?

Within education policy in England the principle of inclusion has been established as a goal and a factor on which improvements in overall standards are seen to depend. Prominent within the drive to raise standards has been a demonstrable need to improve the National Curriculum attainment of members of certain minority ethnic groups, some of which are characteristically bilingual. In the context of education in England, this paper explores the relationship between bilingualism and inclusion, examining, on the one hand official attitudes to bilingualism, and bilingual support as expressed in the publications of the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) and on the other on the reflections of a number of bilingual teaching assistants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]