Bilingualism and Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis:

an Application of
Applied Linguistics in Writing Class

By: Harry Prastyo, S.S., M.Pd.

Email: harrylinguist@yahoo.com

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
ENGLISH LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 What are we going to discuss?
In this session, we are going to discuss about the
concept of bilingualism and Sapir-Whorf
Hyphotesis which are used in writing.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 These are the subtopics:
• Concept of bilingualism
• Types of bilingualism
• Concept of Sapir-Whorf Hyphotesis
• Bilingualism and Sapir-Whorf Hyphotesis in
writing
• Conclusion

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Concept of bilingualism
Bilingualism is a condition in which an individual
uses two languages in society.

WRITTEN SPOKEN
LANGUAGE LANGUAGE

Paragraph
My Focus
Writing
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH
LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Types of Biliangualism
• Simultaneous Bilingualism
• Sequential Bilingualism
• Subtractive Bilingualism

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Simultaneous Bilingualism
• children who hear more than one language
virtually from birth are sometimes referred to
as ‘simultaneous bilingualism’ (Lightbown &
Spada, 1999:3)
• Another name is environmental bilingualism
(environment has the big role to create this
type of bilingual person).
• The children acquire two languages at the
same time from the environment.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Sequential Bilingualism
• It is an ability to use the second language after
the first language
• This idea is supported by Lightbown & Spada
“…whereas those who begin to learn second
language later are referred to as sequential
bilingualisms.” (1999:3)
• Someone can be bilingual person of this type
when he or she learns the second language.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
Both of the bilingualism types can support
someone to be bilingual person. In other
words, someone who wants to be bilingual
should acquire or learn second language.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Subtractive Bilingualism
• It is a type of bilingualism in which the second
language can subtract the first language. In
other words, person cannot use the first
language after learning or acquiring the
second language.
• We do not use this type of bilingualism in this
paper because we need two languages or
more which are mastered by someone.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
Concept of Sapir-Whorf Hyphotesis
• The function of language is to communicate
(in society) our ideas, emotions, desires
(willingness) that uses symbols system
(language);
• It means that language is a media among
individuals in the society as a mean of
communication to communicate our ideas in
our mind;

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 society
Individual 1 COMMUNICATION PROCESS Individual 2

MIND MIND

SUPPORTED BY LANGUAGE

Diagram 1: The correlation between society, mind and language

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH
LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Where is the position of Sapir Whorf
Hypothesis?
• Sapir Whorf hypothesis works on the relation
between language and mind.
• It has two ideas: Linguistics determinism and
Linguistics Relativity

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Linguistics Determinism
• Thinking is determined by language. In other
words, language can determine our thought

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Linguistics Relativity
• people who speak different languages
perceive and think about the world quite
differently. In this case, people who have
certain language, such as Javanese, will have
different way of thinking with people who
have English or Arabic.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Bilingualism and Sapir-Whorf
Hyphotesis in Writing
• Based on the explanation above, there is relation
between language and mind.
• For instance, Javanese people will have different
point of view with Arabic people in understanding
in marital party. Consequently, it can influence
the attitude of the person. It shows that the
language can influence someone‘s way of
thinking.
• In this paper, the writer will try to use the relation
between language and mind to create an idea in
writing.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH
LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 How to use Bilingualism and Sapir-
Whorf Hyphotesis in Writing?
• We focus on paragraph writing.
• According to Oshima & Hogue (2007:38) that
paragraph has some components, they are topic
sentence, supporting sentences and concluding
sentence. It is not easy to find a topic or even to
make a topic sentence. The ability to make a
topic, in this case, depends on the knowledge
that we have. The more knowledge we have, the
easier for us to make topic sentence.
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH
LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 PARAGRAPH
WRITING

TOPIC SENTENCE SUP. SENTENCES CON. SENTENCE

CONTROLLING
TOPIC
IDEA

KNOWLEDGE(S) BILINGUAL
CONDITION

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
• In that case, the position of bilingualism is
very important. For the students who have
more than one language, it is easy for them to
find a topic and to make a topic sentence
because they have more ideas in their mind.
In this condition, we can see the role of
bilingualism for getting the idea.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
• Furthermore, the role of bilingualism in
getting the idea shows that language has
relation with mind (linguistics relativity).
• In short, bilingualism contributes in writing in
the form of proposing the ideas in finding
topic and topic sentence. Furthermore, the
correlation between bilingualism and finding
an idea is supported by Sapir Whorf
Hypothesis.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
FINDING TOPIC = FINDING THE IDEA MIND

CORRELATION BETWEEN
SUPORTED BY
LANGUAGE AND MIND

BILINGUAL CONDITION LANGUAGE

BILINGUALISM SAPIR-WHORF
HYPHOTHESIS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
 Conclusion
Based on the application of bilingualism and
Sapir Whorf hypothesis above, it can be
concluded that both bilingualism and Sapir
Whorf hypothesis are helpful for writing. In
this paper, we can see the function of
bilingualism is in the form of practically,
whereas Sapir Whorf hypothesis is in the form
of theoretically.

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE
THANK YOU

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH

LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE