Bilingualism is defined as having the ability to use two or more languages.
Bilingualism can be individual and collective. When an individual in a society learns a second language he/she becomes a bilingual. There are possibilities and instances where an entire society turns bilingual by learning a second language. By learning another language the status of the learner changes.
Individual bilingualism: There are cognitive advantages. Bilingual people can do certain tasks better than others.
Collective Bilingualism: Emigrants change the linguistic composition of a place. For example, in 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, Persian came to India. Through interaction with Hindi, a new language was born- Urdu. When people from another linguistic background reach another place (colonists, religious, etc.) they bring their culture and language along with them. When British came to India, they took over the political system and then taught us English for the sake of administration. In Belgium, Flemish and French are spoken. Flemish, spoken in Flanders resembles Dutch because of the geographical proximity to Netherlands.
Varieties of Bilingualism:
Bilingualism can be individual and collective. When an individual in a society learns a second language he/she becomes a bilingual. There are possibilities and instances where an entire society turns bilingual by learning a second language. By learning another language the status of the learner changes.
Individual bilingualism: There are cognitive advantages. Bilingual people can do certain tasks better than others.
Collective Bilingualism: Emigrants change the linguistic composition of a place. For example, in 7th, 8th and 9th centuries, Persian came to India. Through interaction with Hindi, a new language was born- Urdu. When people from another linguistic background reach another place (colonists, religious, etc.) they bring their culture and language along with them. When British came to India, they took over the political system and then taught us English for the sake of administration. In Belgium, Flemish and French are spoken. Flemish, spoken in Flanders resembles Dutch because of the geographical proximity to Netherlands.
Varieties of Bilingualism:
- Minority Languages- spoken in restricted areas (Breton in Brittany, France)
- Non-Unique language- Basque in Spain.
- Minority in one setting, majority in another: French in Canada, French in France
3 important variables in Bilingualism
- Speaker
- Language
- Setting
How does Bilingualism begin?
- To bridge language gap
If people of two different languages come together, there has to be a link language or a lingua-franca. It becomes a pidgin as it begins to take shape. Later when it becomes the first language of second generation learners, it becomes a creole. There could be artificial languages like Esperanto.
How do we judge someone to be bilingual?
Someone should be able to speak 2 fully developed languages (not dialects of the same language). The person should be able to comprehend and produce both languages with proficiency. There should be comparable proficiency in both languages. Someone who knows only how to greet in a second language is not a bilingual. There are rating scales, questionnaires, fluency tests, etc. to determine these factors.
Age, gender, intelligence, memory, context of testing, inter-linguistic distance, etc. are important factors that affect bilingualism.
Terminology used in the study of Bilingualism
- balanced bilinguals
- unbalanced bilinguals
- equilinguals
- ambilinguals
- receptive and productive bilinguals
- additive and subtractive bilinguals
- primary and secondary bilinguals
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