BILINGUALISM

PRESENTED BY
MUHAMMAD SANA ULLAH
PRESENTED TO
PROF. DR SAFDAR HUSSAIN

CLASS M.PHIL ENGLISH

Bilingualism
 INTRODUCCTION
Nowadays there are between 5,000 and 7,000 languages in the world. It is difficult to know
the exact number of languages because the distinction between a language and a dialect is
not always clear. In fact languages are not isolated entities and in many cases there are no
clear boundaries between them, it is rather a continuum that extends along a geographical
area.
Most of the world’s population speaks more than one language but most of the population
in western cultures are monolingual in one of the ‘big’ languages in spite of being exposed
to other languages mainly in the school context. Therefore we can say that multilingualism
at the sociolinguistic level is more spread than multilingualism at the individual level but
even in this case it is extremely common. The spread of multilingualism justifies its
importance in research. In fact the study of different aspects of the diversity of languages
should be one of the main goals of linguistics. At the psycholinguistic level this has been
highlighted by Cook (1992).
 DEFINITION
Bilingualism. The term ‘bilingual’ refers to an individual who uses two
or more languages or dialects in his or her everyday life, regardless of the
context of use. Taking this definition into account, more than half of the world
can be considered bilingual (Giussani, Roux, Lubrano, Gaini and Bello,
2007: 1109). At an individual level, there is a distinction between a person's
ability in two language and their use of those two languages. Bilingual
typically use their two languages with different people, in different context
and for different purposes. Balanced bilinguals with equal and strong
competence in their two languages are rare. In terms of ability in two
languages, the four basic dimensions are listening, speaking, reading and
writing.
 CONCLUSIONS
Bilingualism is shaped in different ways depending on a variety of social and other factors
which must be taken into account when trying to assess the skills of speakers and how
speakers use the languages they know. It is possible ( or not according to some linguist) for
a bilingual to be fluent in both languages taken together without being able to function
completely like a monolingual in either one on its own. The study of the behavior of
multilingual individuals and societies thus requires us to go beyond many of the concepts
and analytical techniques presently used within linguistic theory which are designed for the
description of monolingual.
There is no evidence to indicate that bilingualism is an inherently problematic mode of
organization, either for a society or for an individual. Because languages and dialects are
often potent symbols of class, gender, ethnic, and other kinds of differentiation, it is easy to
think that language underlies conflict in multilingual societies. Yet disputes involving
language are really not about language, but instead about fundamental inequalities
between groups who happen to speak different languages.