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Is Perfect Bilingualism Attainable?

Its time to reconsider what it means to be bilingual.
07/26/2016 05:33 pm ET | Updated 6 days ago

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Kevin M. Wong Multicultural | Educator | Advocate

Raising children to speak two languages is no easy feat. Parents often find
themselves enrolling children in language immersion programs, exposing
them to different languages at home, encouraging them watch cartoons in

another language, and sometimes even hiring language tutors or nannies to

speak to their kids in foreign languages. But does this process need to be so
hard? All we want is for our kids to become bilingual.
While many parents might define bilingualism as a person who can speak two
languages with native-like fluency, this gold standard is often unreasonable
and unattainable. Bilingualism exists on a continuum, where a speaker has
varying levels of linguistic proficiency in a first language and a second
language. The following article seeks to uncover a nuanced understanding of
what it means to be bilingual, in hopes of breaking down the seemingly
daunting task of raising bilingual children.
Receptive Bilinguals
A receptive bilingual is someone who has native-fluency in one language, and
can understand but not speak a second language. Many second-generation
immigrant populations in the United States are receptive bilinguals, where they
understand the mother tongue used by their parents, but respond to their
parents in English the language of school and society. While many are quick
to categorize receptive bilinguals as monolingual, the reality is they belong on
the bilingual spectrum. With an astute awareness of linguistic diversity (e.g.,
distinguishing in Cantonese between thank you or excuse me, and
thank you for a gift); and with an appreciation for the sociocultural
idiosyncrasies that are embedded within a language (e.g., using
Have you eaten yet?, as a greeting), receptive bilingual speakers are far
different from children who speak one language and understand one culture.
With America becoming increasingly diverse, it is imperative that we become a
society with more receptive bilinguals.
Dominant Bilinguals
A dominant bilingual is a person who is more proficient in one of two
languages. These speakers tend to have native fluency in language one, with

elementary to average proficiency in language two. This category might

include people who develop a decent command of a foreign language in
school or living abroad. It might also include people in the workplace, who
gain notable proficiency in their second language within a specific domain
(e.g., politics, education, fashion, or business). In these contexts, people
accumulate essential work-related vocabulary, phrases, and cultural
mannerisms to work in their second language. While society often illegitimizes
the linguistic prowess of dominant bilinguals, or believes that they need to
work harder to attain native-like fluency in their second language before it can
be considered a second language, the reality is that they, too, are a far cry
from being monolingual, and deserve a place on the bilingual continuum.
Balanced Bilinguals
A balanced bilingual is a person who is equally proficient in language one and
two, but does not necessarily pass for a native speaker in either language.
This might occur among populations who are immersed in two languages but
are not equipped with a strong literacy foundation in either. It may also occur
among children who move from country to country, adapting well from one
linguistic environment to the next. Balanced bilinguals have a commendable
repertoire of languages, but are unfortunately subject to criticism for their lack
of native-like fluency in any language. Like the receptive and dominant
bilingual speakers, balanced bilinguals are assets in todays globalized
economy as they navigate cross-cultural differences and bridge linguistic
divides.
Equilinguals
Speakers who are equilingual speak two languages with native-like fluency. In
other words, they are indistinguishable from native speakers of either
language. This is the strictest form of bilingualism, which is considered by
many as the gold standard. While being an equilingual speaker reaps obvious
benefits, the reality is that perfect bilingualism is often an unattainable and

unreasonable expectation, as perfection is an unfair bar to hold a child to. In

addition, parents may feel paralyzed by the burden of
raising perfectly bilingual children. Therefore, revisiting what it really means to
become bilingual that is, to be placed on the bilingual spectrum, frees us
from striving for flawless fluency, and enables us to instill bilingualism as a
norm in this next generation.
Someone who is trilingual speaks three languages.
Someone who is bilingual speaks two languages.
Someone who is monolingual is American.
Lets not make that joke a reality. Reconsider what it means to be bilingual,
and strive together for an intercultural, multilingual nation.