Bilingualism by Agens Lam

This blog is a part of our ELT-1 class activity,

The references has been taken from the research paper of Agnes Lam: Bilingualism

        

      Bilingualism refers to the phenomenon of competence and communication in two languages. A bilingual individual is someone who has the ability to communicate in two languages alternatively. There are also monolinguals, when the person is able to communicate in only one language he is monolingual. 

There is a distinction between Individual bilingualism and societal bilingualism. There are five types of bilingualism.

     1)    Balanced Bilingual:  the person who is equally good in both languages.

     2)    Complimentary bilinguality: it is domains specific bilinguality, and the person has an ability to communicate in only one language.

     3)    Receptive Bilingual:  Receptive Bilingual refers to those who can understand both language but speak and write only one language.

     4)    Bidialectal: An ability to communicate in more than two dialects.

     5)    Biscriptural:  Ability to read more than one script of the same language.

               Multilingual contexts by Romaine 1996

            

      There is a definition issue between multilingualism and bilingualism because bilingualism includes multilingual contexts; there are many bilinguals in multilingual societies. As Paulston 1994 Cenoz and Genesee 1998 have given an example that individuals in a multilingual society could be bilingual in the dominant language and another non-dominant language.

Further in his research he define bilingual as “the ultimate locus of contact” which means bilingual individual is recognised as the person whom we contact to understand the language.

There are two important terms,

     1)    Simultaneous bilingualism: Acquisition of two languages at a same time. As per McLaughlin (1982) if two languages are acquired below three years old, then it is considered simultaneous bilingualism.

     2)    Successive bilingualism:  Acquisition of one language after another. This term is also referred as Second language acquisition. If the learning starts after three years then it is defined as successive bilingualism.

      Myers-Scotton 1993; Milroy and Muysken 1995 have done research on biculturality. Biculturality is the ability to alternate between two cultures. Bilingual education is very important and how it creates an effect in the life of learner.

     1)    Addictive bilingualism: If becoming bilingual helps learners to develop positive attitudes to their native languages and themselves, the phenomenon is called “Addictive bilingualism”.

     2)    Subtractive bilingualism: If they develop negative attitudes towards their own languages in the process of becoming bilingual, then it is called “Subtractive bilingualism”.

       The publication of Ferguson’s article which is about diglossia (A term used to describe the stable use of two linguistics varieties for different domains of language use in society) paved a way for identification of societal bilingualism.

    

       In America the bilingual Education Act was passed in 1968, in Canada the Official Language Act was adopted in 1969 and in Multilingual India the three language formula (the regional language – mother tongue, Hindi or another Indian language and English or a modern European language) was first devised in 1956 and modified in 1961.

     

       The pioneer work in Bilingualism study is “The International Handbook of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education” by Paulston in 1988. Similar works in bilingualism are by Shapson and D’oyley in 1984 on Canada, Churchill on the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development) and Baetens Bearsmore on Europe in 1993.

    

        In the bilingual development in school programmes Nunan and Lam observed two main issues:

     1)    Whether the non-dominant language is used as a medium of instructions.

     2)    Whether the non-dominant language is a valued as a cultural asset worth acquiring for itself.

    With the help of these issues, Nunan and Lam categorized bilingual education models:

     1)    Submersion model - non-dominant language is neither valued nor use as a medium of instructions.

     2)    Transitional Bilingualism: non-dominant language is used for medium for instruction but not eventually valued as a target language.

     3)    Heritage language programs: non-dominant language is not used for medium for instruction but is valued as a target language.

     4)    The language exposure time mode: the learner’s own language is valued is valued as a target language and also used as a medium for instruction for some subjects. 

           Complete merging of two languages may result in mixed languages such as pidgins (mixed language with no native speakers) or creoles (pidgins that have acquired native speakers i.e. children of speakers of a pidgin.)

Weinreich has worked upon this subject:

His model included three types of bilingual memory systems:

     1)    Coexistent bilingualism: the two language are kept separate

     2)    Merged bilingualism: the representation of two languages is integrated in one system.

     3)    Subordinative bilingualism: L­­­­₂ is based on the representation of L₁

The role of teacher:

®  Teachers have to appreciate the socio- linguistic circumstances surrounding the development of bilingual competencies in their students.

®  Teachers have to identify Cross-cultural identity issues in students.

®  Help the learners to become bicultural – if not bilingual- it will provide motivation to them in learning.

®  Observe the nuances in mixed mode interaction.

 
         After reading the research work we could conclude that the multidisciplinary approach to bilingualism has proved that is good to be adopted in further research and study. Sociolinguistic research and linguistic analysis are coming together much more than before. Healthy classroom interactions can develop the bilingual competency of learners.