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LanguageAcquisitionBilingualism

CliveMcGoun

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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.

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Bilingualism

Why do we study bilingualism?

A large proportion of the worlds population knows and uses more than onelanguage on a regular basis. Multilingualism is the norm. More than 140languages are spoken in Manchester. Language planning (social andeducational 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 beings intellectual and mentalgrowth?

When and how should we learn a second language?

Does a bilinguals brain function differently from a monolinguals brain?

How and when do bilinguals switch from one language to the other?

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Bilingualism

Approaches

Linguisticsstudies the structure and development of the two

languages

Psycholinguisticsstudies the psychological basis of bilinguals

language competence and performance

Sociolinguisticslooks at how cultures/social groups affect

language performance and language choice

Neurolinguisticsstudies the relationship between language

and the brain

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Definitions

Individual bilingualism vs Societal bilingualism

Bilingualism as an individual attribute: apsychological state of

an individual who has access to two language codes to serve

communication purposes.

Bilingualism as a societal attribute: two languages are used ina community and that a number of individuals can use two

languages.

Should bilingualism be defined at an individual or a

societal level?

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Definitions

5 dimensions

Cognitive organisation of two languages

Age of acquisition

Language proficiency

Sequence of acquistion of two languages

Societal factors

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Individual characteristics


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Compound vs. Coordinate

Bilinguals Compound bilingual:

Has one semantic system but two linguistic codes. Usuallyrefers to someone whose two languages are learnt at thesame 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 indistinctively separate contexts

Subordinate bilingual: The weaker language is interpreted through the stronger

language

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The mental lexicon of

monolingualsSemantic

system

Has wings

Has feathers

Can fly

Language

code

Orange Apple Apple Bird

naranja mansana mansana pajaro

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bilinguals

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Semantic system Semantic

System 1

Semantic

System 2

English Spanish English Spanish

Compound bilingual Coordinate bilingual


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bilinguals

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Semantic system

English Spanish

Subordinate bilingual


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bilinguals

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Semantic

System 1

English Spanish

Semantic

System 2

English Spanish

Semantic

System 2

Semantic

System 1


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bilinguals Whether there are two or more systems depends on:

Age of acquisition

Learning/teaching method

Similarities and differences between the two languages

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Early vs. Late bilinguals

Early bilingual:

someone who has acquired two languagesearly in childhood (usually received systematictraining/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?

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Early vs. Late bilinguals

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How do we determine the age of acquisition?


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Successive vs. Simultaneous

bilinguals Successive bilingualism:

Learning one language after already knowing another. This is the situation forall those who become bilingual as adults, as well as for many who becamebilingual 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 tospeaking two languages. Infants who are exposed to two languages frombirth will become simultaneous bilinguals.

Receptive bilingualism:

Being able to understand two languages but express oneself in only one. Thisis generally not considered "true" bilingualism but is a fairly commonsituation.

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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 thedifferent 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 orderto enhance social status.

Folk bilingual:

Individuals who develop second language capacity undercircumstances that are not often of their own choosing, and inconditions where the society does not value their nativelanguage.

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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 bilingualismCliveMcGoun

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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.

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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 childrens language

development is normal?CliveMcGoun

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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 childrens language

development is normal?CliveMcGoun

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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.

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Will learning two languages

confuse children/ Young bilingual children often mix the two languages

andcannot keep them separate.

Language mixing is taken as evidence that learning twolanguages confuses children.

Mixing: a fusion of two languages with the inability todifferentiate one language from the other.

Mixing happens most frequently during early phase oflanguage development, before or around age 2;0 (years;months), whereas later on, bilingual children can easilyseparate the two linguistic systems.

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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 buthave them in the other language?

Unitary language system hypothesis

Vs.

Separate language system hypothesisCliveMcGou

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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 [2.5-

3.3]

III. differentiation of two linguistic systems, lexical as well assyntactic [2.9-311]

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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 butnot both languages. e.g., if the word ` bird ' is acquired one language, itis not acquired in the other language.

This suggests that young bilinguals do not initially differentiate betweentheir two native vocabularies.

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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-imposedstandards of behaviour and shows awareness of his own

ability to meet them.

Slobin (1972, 1973) argues that bilingual children mix because

of acquisitional strategies that are independent of language

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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.

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hypothesis According to Genesee:

The most proficient bilinguals mix the most and in the mostsophisticated ways without violating the rules of either language. Itis normal for children growing up in these communities to mixtheir languages extensively because they are simply learning the

patterns of communication that are common in their community. Itcan be difficult and unnatural, if not impossible, to keep thelanguages completely separate. If most people in the children'swider community use only one language, the children will eventuallearn the monolingual patterns.

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hypothesis The language mixing seen in bilingual children is constrained

by grammatical rules.

Influenced by sociolinguistic factors such as language mixingpattern of parents.

Language mixing is not a consequence of confusion butinstead demonstrates the bilingual child's distinctrepresentations of the two languages from an early age.

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Project ideas

Interview a group of polyglots and childhood bilinguals. Are

there experiences of interference between languages the

same or different?

Use your findings to examine the unitary vs. separate

language system hypthesis.

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Project ideas

Interview parents of children being brought up bilingually.

What kind of bilinguals are they?

Compare your findings with the definitions offered in this

lecture/in the literature

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Project ideas

Interview a group of international students at MMU.

Investigate their experiences of bilingualism with particular

reference to mixing languages. Where, when, and what is the

significance of their mixing.

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Attack on racist census of

bilingual students Teachers of bilingual pupils in Glasgow have claimed that a Scottish

Executive programme asking them to categorise youngsters according totheir fluency in English is "educationally nonsensical and institutionallyracist". EAL (English as an additional language) and bilingual supportteachers are concerned that the programme, which requires them to assessbilingual pupils as being in one of five categories, will damage race equality.

The Glasgow local association of the Education Institute of Scotland iscalling on the union's national officers to intervene with the ScottishExecutive and to clarify with the Commission for Racial Equality whether theinitiative contravenes race relations laws. Around 9 % of Glasgow's schoolpopulation is bilingual - a mixture of Scots-born ethnic minorities, familiesattached to universities and others who have come to the city as asylum-seekers.

(TES 9thSeptember 2005)

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Reading

Fromkin and Rodman An Introduction to Language pp 374-383

The Bilingualism Reader London Routledge 2000 edited by LiWei

Bilingualism [electronic resource] : beyond basic principlesedited by Jean-Marc Dewaele, Alex Housen, and Li WeiMultilingual Matters, 2003

http://www.ivanmoody.co.uk/bilingualism.htm

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/lostop3.html CliveMcGou

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http://www.ivanmoody.co.uk/bilingualism.htmhttp://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/lostop3.htmlhttp://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Research/lostop3.htmlhttp://www.ivanmoody.co.uk/bilingualism.htm

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