Language, dialect, and bilingual education: multilingualism in Reunion Island

Abstract

I review the situation of multilingualism on Reunion Island, a French department located in the Indian Ocean. I analyze the concepts of language and dialect in this context, and, in particular, regarding the island’s main language, known as Créole. I also study the implications that these categorizations have on the implementation of Créole-French bilingual education. The data comes from both published papers and a series of interviews with Créole mothers, metropolitan and Reunionese professors, as well as speech therapists attending language problems.