Chapter 8 :

Bilingualism, intelligence, transfer,

and learning strategies
8.1 Varieties of bilingualism
Language in all its complexity can be acquired through a variety
of modalities – sound (speech), sight (writing), and visual
motion (signs) – an adequate concept of a bilingual should allow
for any of these realizations. Thus, we may say that a person is
bilingual if he or she knows:
(1) two languages in the same modality, for example, two speech-
based languages such as spoken English and spoken German,
or, two sign-based languages such as American Sign Language
and Japanese Sign Language
(2) two languages based on different modalities, e.g. spoken
German and American Sign Language, or, spoken French and
written Sanskrit.
8.2 Is bilingualism beneficial or detrimental?

Most of us consider bilingualism as something good, an

advantage. For one thing, knowledge of another language enables
people to communicate with members of other cultures in their
own language. At a personal level, the pleasure and cultural
benefits of bilingualism, too, are obvious.
First, it must be said that the arguments offered against
bilingualism are typically restricted to young children learning a
second language.
Secondly, it must be said that the criticism that has been leveled
against early bilingualism is primarily of another era, the early
half of the twentieth century.
8.3 Effects of early bilingualism on first-language
development and intelligence
Effects on first-language development
The principal of Smith research (1939) finding was that the bilingual
children from Hawaii had many more errors in their English speech
than did their Iowa counterparts. This led Smith to conclude that
bilingualism caused retardation in language development. And
positive reports One long-term study by Bruck et al. (1976) with
native English speaking children in a French immersion program
found that, by the fourth or fifth grade, the second-language French
skills, including reading and writing, were almost as good as those of
native French-speaking children. Importantly, all of this was
achieved at no loss to their English native language development (as
compared to a control group of English monolingual children).
Effects on intelligence
Since language is crucial in order to comprehend questions and to
understand the multiple-choice answers, a low level of language knowledge
will result in a low score and hence a low level of intelligence. The failure of
the test makers and givers of intelligence tests to take into account the role
of language in influencing scores greatly biased the tests. Not surprisingly,
immigrants and non-standard English speakers fared especially badly.
Positive results were also found recently by Ellen Bialystok of York University
in Toronto. She tested the ‘fluid intelligence’ of 154 bilingual and
monolingual English and Tamil adult speakers. The participants were given
the Simon Test where they were required to focus and respond to rapidly
changing tasks. The older bilinguals (ages 60 to 88) did far better than their
monolingual counterparts of the same age. In fact, their results were about
the same as of younger monolinguals (ages 30 to 59) (Picard, 2004).
8.4 Sequential and simultaneous learning
situations
Sequential learning of two languages
In sequential bilingualism young children are said to pass through four
common stages (Tabors and Snow, 1994):
(1) Children attempt to use the language learned at home with other
children in the wider community where a different language is used
(2) They abandon their home language in favour of communication
through gesture.
(3) The children begin to use the second language in ways similar to
children learning a first language
(4) Finally, they begin to produce grammatical utterances in appropriate
situations.
Simultaneous learning
1. One person speaks one language only, or, one person
speaks two languages
2. Developmental stages in bilingual language learning

First-language and second-language relations affect

learnability: the transfer effect
1. First language similar to second language
2. Facilitation occurs even between very different
languages
8.5 Strategies for second-language production

The First-Language Strategy and the Second-Language Strategy

In our opinion, only a minority of errors can be attributed to
interference, where the first language intrudes on the second.
Rather, most errors aresystematic, being the result of the
application of what we shall call the ‘FirstLanguage Strategy’ and
the ‘Second-Language Strategy’. These strategies are applied
when relevant second-language knowledge is not yet available or
is incomplete.
Strategies for sentence production and communication

Communication strategies may have an effect on learning

since the more the learner speaks the greater linguistic input
the learner will receive. The greater the input, the more the
opportunity for language learning.

Communication strategies may also involve using words or

phrases from the first language when they are unknown in
the second language (codeswitching), or coining new words
such as ‘airball’ for ‘balloon’ (Varadi, 1983).
Strategies for becoming a better second-
language learner
Learning strategies which will assist in the acquisition of a second language is a
different topic from the one just discussed.
Thus, for example, according to Rubin (1981) the strategies used by successful
language learners include:
(1) verification: checking to see if their hypotheses about the language are
correct
(2) inductive processing: creating hypotheses about the second language based
on one’s second- or first-language knowledge
(3) deductive reasoning: using general logic in problem solving
(4) practice: such as repetition, rehearsal, and imitation
(5) memorization: including mnemonic strategies and repetitions for the
purpose of storage and retrieval
(6) monitoring: being alert to the making of errors and paying attention to how
one’s message is received by the listener.
8.6 Teaching reading in a bilingual situation at
home

How to teach the reading of two languages

1. First, the parents should be using the One Person–One
Language (1P–1L) approach, which was discussed earlier in
this chapter.
2. As for teaching reading, however, we recommend that the
teaching be done sequentially, with the second language
following the first after a year or two.
3. In our view, the simultaneous teaching of reading is not
advisable, not just because of the risk of the child confusing
the two writing systems, but because the parents would be
greatly burdened.
Which language should be read first?

We would recommend that the language to be learned first is the

one that is most important for the child’s welfare. By learning to
read the language of the community, the child will be able to read
the signs that are everywhere outside the home.
The second language will not be hard to teach to read after the
first, because once the child can read the first language, he or she
will have learned the basic principles of reading.