Week 1

Week 1

BILINGUALISM The field of bilingualism is interdisciplinary in nature. It cannot be described solely within the science of linguistics (Mackey, 1968).  Exp. Psychology – effects on mental processes; sociology – element in culture conflict and the consequences of bilingualism as a societal phenomenon; education – tied to language education, language planning and public policy. 

Bilingualism  Bilingualism

is not a phenomenon of language but of its use (Mackey, 1968)

Research in Bilingualism Early research – concerned mostly with the degree of bilingualism and the problem of how to measure language proficiency objectively.  Focused on quantitative aspects of bilingualism, those which are easily measured. Exp. Size of vocabulary, control of morphology, etc. 

Common Topics of Research in Bilingualism  (i).

Linguists study code-switching or alternation between languages – discourse, pragmatic, grammatical/syntactic aspects, etc.

 (ii).

Sociolinguists study the function of languages in communities where two (or more) languages co-exist – language choice, language standardization, minority languages, education policies, language planning, etc.

(iii). Bilingualism in education concerns teachers, parents, and policy makers, as well as scientists, scholars and researchers in the field of education.  The issue of bilingual education is closely related to the reasons why and the societal circumstances under which children become bilingual. 

(iv). Research on bilingualism in the field of psychology and psycholinguistics has focused mostly in the following aspects:  - mental representation underlying the competence of a bilingual speaker (in which language he/she thinks);  - language-specific effects on brain organisation; 



- relationship between language and

thought;  - language interference and ways to avoid it.  - possible links between language and intelligence.

Current Research  (i).

Determining the influence of bilingualism on the entire cognitive process.  Exp. the effect of bilingualism on the cognitive content, the thinking process, and on intelligence.

 (ii).

Finding out whether bilingualism had negative (or positive) effects on intelligence.

What is Bilingualism? Defining the term “bilingualism” is a very difficult thing to do and there are variations in its definition among scholars throughout the century.  Generally, however, they have depended on a variety of criteria, characterized in terms of degrees which can be measured. 

 In

terms of categories:  - complete, partial, incipient, passive, home, school, and community, etc.;

 In

terms of dichotomies:  - compound vs. coordinate, horizontal vs. vertical, individual vs. societal, etc.

Definition (Bloomfield)  Bloomfield

(1935:56) defines bilingualism as “…control in a native-like manner of two languages”.

Definition (Siguan and Mackey)  Siguan

and Mackey (1987) propose that a person should be called bilingual when, in addition to his first language, he is similarly proficient in another language and has the ability to use either of them to equal effect in any circumstances.

Balanced Bilingual 

The term “balanced bilingual” is frequently encountered in the literature on bilingualism.

 While

some writers (e.g. Haugen, 1973) use it as a synonym of equilingual, most researchers use “balanced bilingualism” in a different sense which does not imply perfect mastery of both languages (e.g. Peal & Lambert, 1962).

 Balanced

bilinguals in this sense are bilinguals who are roughly equally skilled in their two languages, i.e. a balance exists between the two.



According to Saunders (1988), someone who could pass for a native in both languages would be considered a balanced bilingual, but so too would

someone whose performance in one (or both) of his languages was less than perfect, so long as his ability in both was roughly equal.

 However,

Siguan and Mackey (1987) stress that the perfectly “balanced bilingualism” does not exist in practice.



Even balanced bilinguals are usually “dominant” or more proficient, in one of their two languages, although they may

not be dominant in the same language in all areas, as there may be domains of situations in which bilinguals usually use only one of their two languages.

Definition (Macnamara)  Macnamara

(1969) uses the term “bilingual” to describe persons who could speak, write, understand or read a second language, even to a minimal degree.

Definition (Muller et al.) Muller, et al. (1981) define bilingualism as the alternate use of two languages in the same individual.  The word “alternate” suggests that either each language is used separately and in different situations, or that at any moment during a conversation a bilingual speaker may switch from one language to the other. 

Definition (Saunders)  According

to Saunders (1988), bilingualism simply means having two languages, and is often used in literature to mean the same as multilingualism, that is, having more than two languages.



Bilinguals can be ranged along a continuum from the rare equilingual (having an exactly equal command of two languages) who is indistinguishable from a native speaker in both languages at one end, to the person who has just

begun to acquire a second language at the other end, or monolingual (having very little proficiency in more than one language).

Description of Bilingualism 

Romaine (1995) cites the work of Mackey (1967) who suggest that there are four questions which a description of bilingualism must address:

(i). Degree – concerns aspects of proficiency;  (ii). Function – focuses on the uses a bilingual speaker has for the languages and the different roles they have in the individual’s total repertoire; 

– the extent to which the individual alternates between the languages;  (iv). Interference – the extent to which the individual manages to keep the languages separated, or whether they are fused.  (iii). Alternation

Questions Do you consider yourself and/or people known to you as ‘bilingual’?  Would you describe yourself, or someone known to you, as ‘balanced’ in their languages?  Which language or languages do you think in? Does this change in different contexts?  In which language or languages do you dream, count numbers, pray and think aloud? 

Handout 

Read the article and discuss:

“What do we mean when we talk about bilingualism?”

- Griffith University