ORGANIZING RESEARCH ON BILINGUALISM: THE ICRB STORY

Abstract

Only ten years ago the International Center for Research in Bilingualism came into being under international auspices, at Laval University in Quebec City. It found itself with an immense task to do in simply clearing the ground and systematising work already done, let alone in indicating key research in a field which meanwhile was receiving urgent and highly politicised attention in the Center's immediate community. Like any pioneering institution, it quickly discovered alarming gaps in what was known, notwithstanding a need to know that concerned millions of people all over the face of the globe. Professor Mackey, a participant in the Centre since before its foundation, here delineates its work and its problems in documentation, in research, and in the various publication series it has initiated.