2. Bilingualism
• True or False?
• Learning more than one language confuses a child and lowers
his/her IQ?
• A child should learn one language properly before learning a
second one.
• A person cannot be a real bilingual if he learns a second
language late.
• Bilinguals have to translate from their weaker to their stronger
language.
• Learning two languages may cause cultural identity problems
for a child.
2
3. Bilingualism
• Why do we study bilingualism?
• A large proportion of the world’s population knows and uses more than one
language on a regular basis. Multilingualism is the norm. More than 140 languages
are spoken in Manchester. Language planning (social and educational policy) is a
political issue often based on academic research.
• Topics in bilingualism
• Who is bilingual? What is a native language?
• How does a child acquire two languages?
• How does bilingualism influence a human being’s intellectual and mental growth?
• When and how should we learn a second language?
• Does a bilingual’s brain function differently from a monolingual’s brain?
• How and when do bilinguals switch from one language to the other?
3
4. Bilingualism
• Approaches
• Linguistics – studies the structure and development of the two
languages
• Psycholinguistics – studies the psychological basis of bilingual’s
language competence and performance
• Sociolinguistics – looks at how cultures/social groups affect
language performance and language choice
• Neurolinguistics – studies the relationship between language
and the brain
4
5. Definitions
• Individual bilingualism Vs. Societal bilingualism
• As an individual attribute: a psychological state of an individual
who has access to two language codes to serve
communication purposes.
• As a societal attribute: two languages are used in a community
and that a number of individuals can use two languages.
• Should bilingualism be defined at an individual or a
societal level?
5
6. Definitions
• 5 dimensions
• Age of acquisition
• Language proficiency
• Sequence of acquisition of two languages
Individual characteristics
• Cognitive organisation of two languages
• Societal factors
6
7. Compound vs. Coordinate
• Compound bilingual:
• Has one semantic system but two linguistic codes. Usually refers to
someone whose two languages are learnt at the same time, often in
the same context.
• Coordinate bilingual:
• Has two semantic systems and two linguistic codes. Usually refers to
someone whose two languages are learnt in distinctively separate
contexts
• Subordinate bilingual:
• The weaker language is interpreted through the stronger language
7
8. The mental lexicon of
monolinguals
Has wings
Has feathers
Can fly
Semantic
system
Language
code
Orange
Apple
Bird
naranja
mansana pajaro
8
9. The mental lexicon of
bilinguals
Semantic system
English
Spanish
Compound bilingual
Semantic
System 1
English
Semantic
System 2
Spanish
Coordinate bilingual
9
10. The mental lexicon of
bilinguals
Semantic system
English
Spanish
Subordinate bilingual
10
11. The mental lexicon of
bilinguals
Semantic
System 1
English
Semantic
System 2
Semantic Semantic
System 1 System 2
Spanish
English Spanish
11
12. The mental lexicon of
bilinguals
• Whether there are two or more systems depends on:
• Age of acquisition
• Learning/teaching method
• Similarities and differences between the two languages
12
13. Early vs. Late bilinguals
• Early bilingual:
• someone who has acquired two languages early in childhood
(usually received systematic training/learning of a second
language before age 6).
• Late bilingual:
• someone who has become a bilingual later than childhood (after
age 12).
• Discussion: Is there a “critical period” for second language
learning?
13
14. Early vs. Late bilinguals
How do we determine the age of acquisition?
14
15. Balanced vs. Dominant
• Balanced bilingual:
• someone whose mastery of two languages is roughly equivalent.
• Dominant bilingual:
• someone with greater proficiency in one of his or her languages
and uses it significantly more than the other language.
• Semilingual:
• someone with insufficient knowledge of either language.
15
16. Successive vs. Simultaneous
• Successive bilingualism:
• Learning one language after already knowing another. This is the situation for all
those who become bilingual as adults, as well as for many who became bilingual
earlier in life. Sometimes also called consecutive bilingualism.
• Simultaneous bilingualism:
• Learning two languages as "first languages". That is, a person who is a
simultaneous bilingual goes from speaking no languages at all directly to speaking
two languages. Infants who are exposed to two languages from birth will become
simultaneous bilinguals.
• Receptive bilingualism:
• Being able to understand two languages but express oneself in only one. This is
generally not considered "true" bilingualism but is a fairly common situation.
16
17. Additive vs. Subtractive
• Additive bilingual:
• The learning of a second language does not interfere with the
learning of a first language. Both languages are well developed.
• Subtractive bilingual:
• The learning a second language interferes with the learning of a first
language. The second language replaces the first language.
• Additive or subtractive bilingualism is related to the different
status associated with the two languages in a society.
17
18. Elite vs. Folk
• Elite bilingual:
• Individuals who choose to have a bilingual home, often in order
to enhance social status.
• Folk bilingual:
• Individuals who develop second language capacity under
circumstances that are not often of their own choosing, and in
conditions where the society does not value their native
language.
18
19. Summary: Definitions
• Coordinate vs. Compound bilingualism
• Early vs. Late bilingualism
• Balanced vs. Dominant bilingualism
• Simultaneous vs. Successive bilingualism
• Additive vs. Subtractive bilingualism
• Elite vs. Folk bilingualism
19
20. Language acquisition of
bilingual children
• Bilingual acquisition is a complex phenomenon.
• Monolingual children usually learn language from parents. But
bilingual children may learn languages not only from parents
but also from grandparents, playmates, babysitters, childcare,
school teachers and TV.
• Their exposure to languages fluctuate over time and
situation/environment.
• Childhood bilingualism is poorly understood by many and
regarded with scepticism by others.
20
21. Language acquisition of
bilingual children
• Compared to monolingual children, bilingual children
have less exposure to each of their languages and,
therefore, they never master either language fully and
never become as proficient as monolingual children.
• How do we measure language proficiency?
• How do we determine if bilingual children’s language
development is normal?
21
22. Language acquisition of
bilingual children
• Compared to monolingual children, bilingual children have less
exposure to each of their languages and, therefore, they never
master either language fully and never become as proficient as
monolingual children.
• How do we measure language proficiency?
• How do we determine if bilingual children’s language development
is normal?
22
23. Language acquisition of
bilingual children
• Young bilingual children may know fewer words in one or both
of their languages in comparison with monolingual children of
the same age.
• This is understandable because young children have limited
cognitive / memory capacities, and bilingual children must
store words from two languages, not just one.
• Also, because bilingual children learn words in each language
from different people, they sometimes know certain words in
one language but not in the other.
23
24. Language acquisition of
bilingual children
• When adding the vocabulary that bilingual children know in both
languages, they generally know the same number of or even more
words as their monolingual peers.
• Even when differences like these occur, they are short term and are
likely to disappear by the time the children begin school.
• Bilingual children's overall proficiency in each language reflects the
amount of time they spend in each.
24
25. Will learning two languages
confuse children?
• Young bilingual children often mix the two languages and
cannot keep them separate.
• Language mixing is taken as evidence that learning two
languages confuses children.
• Mixing: a fusion of two languages with the inability to
differentiate one language from the other.
• Mixing happens most frequently during early phase of
language development, before or around age 2;0 (years;
months), whereas later on, bilingual children can easily
separate the two linguistic systems.
25
26. Will learning two languages
confuse children
• Phonological mixing
• Kats – Katt (swedish) & Kass (Estonia)
• [both katt and kass mean ‘cat’ in English]
• Lexical mixing
• I want mansana
• [I want apple]
• Semantic mixing
• I lost the bus
• [lost = missed in Spanish]
• Syntactic mixing
• A house red
• [colour adjectives follow the noun in Spanish]
26
27. Will learning two languages
confuse children?
• Children mix because they are confused by learning two
languages? or,
• Because they lack the appropriate items in one language but
have them in the other language?
Unitary language system hypothesis
Vs.
Separate language system hypothesis
27
28. Unitary language system
hypothesis
• A 3-stage model for early bilingual development
proposed by Volterra & Taeschner, 1978:
• I. the bilingual child has only one lexical system comprising
words from both languages [1.6-2.1]
• II. development of two distinct lexical systems although the
child applies “the same syntactic rules to both languages” [2.53.3]
• III. differentiation of two linguistic systems, lexical as well as
syntactic [2.9-311]
28
29. Unitary language system
hypothesis
• Bilingual children first have a single fused linguistic representation.
• They begin to differentiate their two native languages by age 3:0.
• Implication: Young bilinguals have language delay relative to monolinguals.
• Support for this hypothesis: Volterra & Taeschner (1978)
• Young bilinguals in the one-word stage acquire words mostly in one but
not both languages. e.g., if the word ` bird ' is acquired in one language,
it is not acquired in the other language.
• This suggests that young bilinguals do not initially differentiate between
their two native vocabularies.
29
30. Unitary language system
hypothesis
• Challenges to this hypothesis
• Bilingual children mix because they lack appropriate lexical
items in one language but have them in the other language.
Thus, they borrow vocabularies from the other language.
• Mixing declines as a child comes to recognize adult-imposed
standards of behaviour and shows awareness of his own
ability to meet them.
• Slobin (1972, 1973) argues that bilingual children mix because
of acquisition strategies that are independent of language
30
31. Separate language system
hypothesis
• Genesee F. (1989, Journal of Child Language) argued that:
• “...contrary to most extant interpretations, bilingual children develop
differentiated language systems from the beginning and are able to
use their developing languages in contextually sensitive ways. A call
for more serious attention to the possible role of parental input in
the form of mixed utterances is made.”
31
32. Separate language system
hypothesis
• According to Genesee:
• “The most proficient bilinguals mix the most and in the most
sophisticated ways without violating the rules of either language. It
is normal for children growing up in these communities to mix their
languages extensively because they are simply learning the patterns
of communication that are common in their community. It can be
difficult and unnatural, if not impossible, to keep the languages
completely separate. If most people in the children's wider
community use only one language, the children will eventual learn
the monolingual patterns.”
32
33. Separate language system
hypothesis
• The language mixing seen in bilingual children is constrained
by grammatical rules.
• Influenced by sociolinguistic factors such as language mixing
pattern of parents.
• Language mixing is not a consequence of confusion but
instead demonstrates the bilingual child's distinct
representations of the two languages from an early age.
33
