IntroductionThis article mainly aims to present some important considerations on bilingualism and bilingual education from a sociolinguistic perspective. In the first instance I will deal with some definitions of these terms, placing them along a continuum given the high complexity of the problems. Some characteristics of individual and social bilingualism will also be highlighted and some of the most common effects on the individual and the community will be presented. Finally, a reflection on a sort of 'unnatural' bilingualism is proposed. Definitions In essence, someone who knows and uses two languages ​​is said to be bilingual. More specifically, someone who speaks, reads, or understands two languages ​​equally well (Richards et al., 1992). The term bilingualism has been defined from several perspectives. In fact, disciplines such as linguistics, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics propose, depending on their particular field, a definition of bilingualism. In general terms, bilingualism is characterized by the alternation of two languages. The problem arises when we want to define the extent of linguistic skills that a person must possess to be defined as bilingual. The best known definitions of bilingualism come from Bloomfield (1933) who states that bilingualism is the “native mastery of two languages”; similarly, Haugen (1969), argues that bilingualism is “the use of complete and meaningful sentences in other languages”; and for Weinreich (1953), bilingualism occurs when “two or more languages… are used alternatively by the same people” (1970 [1953]). Clearly, those definitions (and others) can be located along a continuum from a “radical” position to a more flexible one. For example, Macnama......middle of paper......educational institution has the necessary elements of judgment and the necessary tools. For example, if such tools were to measure linguistic competence, communicative competence and also pragmatic competence of the language involved. Finally, what really matters is that in our current world, where distance is drastically reduced if not eliminated, the introduction of bilingual and multilingual communities must be an asset to most societies. However, the design and implementation of such communities must be a matter of informed decisions. It is true that education also depends on political determination, but it is no less true that linguistic, cultural and social factors must be carefully incorporated. This means that language teachers and communities of scholars have an important role to play through serious and sustained research projects.