Bilingualism

Bilingualism

What is it?

• Proficiency in two or more languages.

• Bilingualism is evident in reading, writing,

speaking & listening.

• 50% of the world’s population is bilingual

bilingual.

Who are bilingual children?

• A bilingual has full fluency in two languages.• Children can acquire two languages at the

same time in early childhood and be proficient in both.

• Children may also learn a second language after mastering the first to become bilingual.

• It is rare for proficiency in both languages to be perfectly balanced in the child.

Concepts Related to Bilingualism

Consecutive versus Simultaneous Bilingual

Early versus Late Bilingual

Balanced versus Dominant Bilingual

Additive versus Subtractive Bilingual

Elite versus Folk Bilingual

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Consecutive vs. Simultaneous• Consecutive (or Successive) bilingual:

– 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 bilingual: – 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 bilingual: – 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.

• Most bilinguals are consecutive.• No two bilinguals are alike.

• Studies have shown that features of L1 can

have a powerful influence on L2.

• L1 “transfer” can be positive or negative.

• Studies examining true simultaneous

bilinguals are rare.

• Brain imaging studies show a spread in

activation across left and right hemispheres.

• Early age of bilingual exposure has a significant impact on multiple aspects of a child’s development: linguistic, cognitive and reading.

• Children who experince early and extensive exposure to both of their languages quickly grasp the fundamentals of both of their languages and in a manner similar to that of monolingual language learners

Early vs. Late Bilinguals

Categorizing bilingual acquisition by the age at which the two languages

are acquired:infants

childadoloscent

adult

Early vs. Late Bilinguals

Early vs. Late Bilinguals

Infant bilingual acquisiton involves the child learning two languages almost simultaneously from the outset.

Sometimes this results from having parents who have different native languages, but also speak the other parent’s language.

Child bilingual acquisiton may start quite early in life, but involves the successive acquisition of two languages, as do adolescent and adult bilingualism.

Early vs. Late Bilinguals

Adolescent bilingual acquisition refers to the acquisiton of a second language after puberty.

Adult bilingual acquisition refers to acquisition after the teen years.

Early vs. Late Bilinguals

Early vs. Late Bilinguals

• Early learners of a second language can speak it like a native speaker.

• Late (older) learners make faster progress in acquiring morphosyntactic and semantic aspects of a second language.

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Early vs. Late Bilinguals

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Balanced vs. Dominant Bilinguals

• 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.

Types of processes in becoming bilingual

• Additive bilingualism– Gain a second language while retaining a first

language– Acquisition of a second language is treated as an

asset.• Subtractive bilingualism– Lose fluency of a first language when acquiring a

second language– Special heritage language schools can help children

maintain the language and culture of their parents.

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Additive vs. Subtractive Bilinguals• 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.

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Elite vs. Folk Bilinguals

• 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.

Effects of the second language on the first language

FIRST LANGUAGE

SECOND LANGUAGE

TRANSFER

Moving Between Languages

• How do we translate between two languages?

Language Mixing

• Switching from one language to another is termed a “crutch” syndrome. There are two types of language mixing:

code-switchingcode-mixing

Language Mixing

• Code-switching involves inserting whole utterances (inter-sentence) in a second, non-dominant language during conversation.

• Code-mixing (or borrowing) involves the blending of non-dominant language words or phrases within an utterance (within-sentence).

Language Mixing

• Using this definition, and presuming that English is the dominant language in the following utterances:

• ‘Is this what we are having for dinner today? Sira naba tuktok mo? [Are you crazy?] It’s not Saturday and I don’t eat tuyo [smoked/dried fish] except on Saturdays. It just doesn’t seem right!’

Language Mixing

• The first italicized utterance is a code-switch, while the second italicized word in the next utterance is a code-mix. • Some say that this crutch syndrome

is a model of incompetence.

Language Mixing: Example• An Turkish Arabic bilingual boy,knew the word

for an object in each of his languages,but would choose the one which was easier for hım to pronounce.

FOR EXAMPLE: Arabic = tiyyara English = plane • He knew both the English word 'plane' and its

Arabic equivalent 'tiyyara'.On the other hand, he preferred the English 'plane' to the Arabic 'tiyyara'.

Translation • Conceptual Mediation • First to SecondForward

• Word Association• Second to FirstBackward

Translation

• Forward Translation – Where the bilingual translates words from the first to second language by conceptual mediation (or forward translation). • This means that the person must first

access the meaning of a word in order to translate it.

Translation

• Backward Translation – In contrast, the bilinguals will translate from the second language into the first by word association (or backward translation) – that is, we use direct links between items in the lexicon.

COGNITIVE ADVANTAGES OF BILINGUALISM

Growing up bilingual can be a tremendous blessing. In addition to the obvious benefit (i.e., the ability to speak and understand more than one language), recent research has revealed a number of cognitive advantages to bilingualism.

1. Better metalinguistic awareness (ability to identify and describe characteristics and features of language);

2. Better classification skills; 3. Better concept formation; 4. Better analogical reasoning; 5. Better visual-spatial skills; 6. Better storytelling skills; 7. Better semantic development. 8. Prevention of some neurological disabilities??

COGNITIVE ADVANTAGES OF BILINGUALISM

Bilingualism & Neurology

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeVx68xGT0Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBLwDU6NIjo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TLEJN0xSyA

Bilingualism:Difference versus Disorder

• For the SLP, there are challenges in regard to both the diagnosis and treatment of bilingual individuals. Is it a communication “difference” or a communication disorder?

• When to treat & when NOT to treat?