Recognizing a need for an objective, multidisciplinary and comprehensive look at the field of bilingual education, the Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Center for Applied Linguistics cooperated in a state-of-the-art study of the field. State-of-the-art papers were commissioned in four general areas concerning bilingual education: social science, languages and linguistics, law, and education. Each paper formed the central focus for a separate conference at which it was discussed and elaborated upon by specialists from various fields within a given discipline. This volume is the first in a series of four volumes that present a collection of the major papers and the viewpoints of the discussants. The focus of the volume is social science. The state-of-the-art paper is "The Social Science Perspective," by Joshua Fishman, and the viewpoints include: "Social History," by Shirley Brice Heath; "Ethongraphy," by Hugh Mehan; "Anthropology," by Sarah Nieves-Squires; "Sociology and Education," by H. Ned Seelye; and "Political Science," by Brian Weinstein. A bibliography concludes the volume. (CLK)