Modular Perspectives on Bilingualism 1 Norbert Francis Northern Arizona University, Education - Box 5774, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona 86011, USA The following review of the research traces the current discussion on models of bilin- gualism to the contributions of L. Vygotsky and A.R. Luria. The attempt to differentiate among the different components of language ability in child development has from the beginning sparked sharp debate. Bilingualism, as an object of study, offers researchers a privileged viewpoint on the questions in dispute: the distinction between interper- sonal conversational discourse and literacy-related academic discourse, the relation- ship between the development of linguistic knowledge of two languages and general cognitive development, and aspects of development that are universal and those aspects of child bilingual development that show wide variation. The article proposes that a modular approach to studying the different aspects of bilingual development promises to chart a course toward finding a broader common ground around research findings and interpretations that currently appear to be irreconcilable. Introduction In the study of bilingualism, research is drawn toward multidisciplinary approaches to a greater degree than in the linguistic and cognitive sciences in general. Tied closely as it has been to applied fields in bilingual education and second language learning, researchers borrow freely from theoretical and exper- imental work in a number of areas. Since bilingualism involves another layer of interactions among the different cognitive domains, it has been difficult to delimit the investigation to one or another. This of course both offers opportuni- ties and opens up many traps to fall into. On balance, however, the interchange (mostly one-sided for now) between the applied-oriented and theoreti- cally-oriented research programmes is probably a good thing, not just for the former. This discussion paper will explore one such application of a proposal from linguistics and cognitive science: how the concept of modularity, or cogni- tive models of the modular type, may help bring clarity to a number of vexing conceptual sticking points that have persisted in the research. In particular, the inquiry and debate that interests us here concerns the relationship between linguistic knowledge and the competencies that underlie what have variously been described as the higher-order discourse abilities and proficiencies related to literacy and academic language use, competencies that are associated with secondary discourses learned through schooling, and its extracurricular counterparts. In accord with our multiple focus, we will consider what appear to be some historical antecedents to the modular approach (from outside its traditional sphere of investigation), apply it to a current leading model of bilingual profi- ciency (that of J. Cummins), and assess a recent critique of Cummins’ model (MacSwan, 2000), distinguished as it is from the more well trodden line of criti- cism of the model in its point of reference from within the cognitive sciences. As a part of an examination of recent applications of the modular approach to the 1367-0050/02/03 0141-21 $20.00/0 ©2002 N. Francis International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism Vol. 5, No. 3, 2002 141 Modular Perspectives on Bilingualism