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

 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

 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.
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• 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 vs. Late Bilinguals
• 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
child
adoloscent
adult
 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.
 Early vs. Late Bilinguals

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 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.
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.
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 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.
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.

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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-switching
code-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
Forward Mediation
•First to Second

•Word Association
Backward •Second to First
 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.
COGNITIVE ADVANTAGES OF 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??
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?