DIMENSIONS & MEASURES

OF BILINGUALITY &
BILINGUALISM
BY
Saniya G. Abirin, MAEd
 BILINGUALITY VS.
BILINGUALISM
 BILINGUALISM
• is defined as having or using two languages especially
as spoken with the fluency characteristic of a native
speaker (Webster, 1961)
• refers to a native-like competence or native-like
control of two languages (Bloomfield, 1935)
• should be defined on a multidimensional continuum
(Paradis)
 BILINGUALISM
- refers to the state of a linguistic community in
which two languages are in contact with the result
that two codes can be used in the same interaction
and that a number of individuals are bilingual
(societal bilingualism); but it also includes the
concept of bilinguality (or individual bilingualism).
 BILINGUALITY
- is the psychological state of an individual who has
access to more than one linguistic code as a means
of social communication; the degree of access will
vary along a number of dimensions which are
psychological, cognitive, psycholinguistic, social
psychological, social, sociological, sociolinguistic,
sociocultural and linguistic (Hamers & Blanc, 2000:).
Dimensions of Bilinguality
(Hamers & Blanc, 2000)

(1) Relative Competence

• Balanced bilinguals
• Unbalanced or Dominant Bilinguals
 Dimensions of Bilinguality
(Hamers & Blanc, 2000)

(2) Cognitive Organization

• Compound System – two labels can be
associated to the same concept
• Coordinate System – translations in the two
languages coincide with two different set of
associations
Dimensions of Bilinguality
(Hamers & Blanc, 2000)

(3) Age of Acquisition

• Childhood bilingualism
• Adulthood bilingualism
Dimensions of Bilinguality
(Hamers & Blanc, 2000)

(4) Exogeneity
- refers to the presence of different
speech communities in the child’s
environment
Dimensions of Bilinguality
(Hamers & Blanc, 2000)

(5) Social Cultural Status

• Subtractive bilingualism
• Additive bilingualism
Dimensions of Bilinguality
(Hamers & Blanc, 2000)

(6) Cultural Identity

- when bilingual recognizes the self
as members of the cultural groups
speaking different languages, they are
considered bicultural
MEASURES OF BILINGUALITY
1. Comparative measures
- the most frequently used technique for
measuring the various dimensions of
bilinguality consists in taking measures in
each of the bilingual’s two languages and
comparing them.
MEASURES OF BILINGUALITY
2. Measures of Bilingual Competence
a. test in competence in the mother tongue
b. test of competence in the second language
c. behavioural measures
c.1. reaction or latency-time measures (VD/NVE, NVD/VE, & VD/VE)
c.2. completion & word-detection tests (words in L1=words in L2)
c.3. Verbal association tests (giving many associations as possible to
stimulus word
c.4 interlingual verbal flexibility (e.g. test of speed translation, switching)
c.5. Use of interlingual ambiguity (reading aloud crosslanguage amb. words)
MEASURES OF BILINGUALITY
MEASURES OF BILINGUALITY
3. Compound-coordinate bilingually
4. Language biographies, self-evaluation
and judgments of bilingual production
5. Bilingual specificity
6. Cognitive correlates of Bilinguality
7. Affective correlates of Bilinguality
TECHNIQUES
semantic satiation & semantic generalization;
semantic distance; core concepts; & word-
association
self-evaluation & evaluation scales
Code-switching & code-mixing
Comparing bilinguals with monolinguals
Valude Judgments: Likert-type evaluation scales,
semantic differentials
Cultural Identity: multidimensional scaling,
ethnic dolls role-playing, questionnaires
THANK YOU!!!