DEFINITION OF BILINGUALISM
The RCSLT Core Guidelines (2006): defines the term bilingualism: “Individuals or groups of people who acquire communicative skills in more than one language. They acquire these skills with varying degree of proficiency, in oral and/or written forms, in order to interact with speakers of one or more language at home and society. An individual should be regarded as bilingual regardless of the relative proficiency of the languages understood or used." (P268)
“Bilingualism refers to individuals who have to alternate between the uses of two languages whatever their level of proficiency in each of the two.” Cline. T., Fredrickson. N (1991)
DIFFERENT GROUPS OF BILINGUAL CHILDREN
Children become bilingual for different reasons in different social contexts. In the UK it is possible to identify three major groups:
Elite Bilinguals
Children of diplomats and business people. They are often upper/middle class professionals whose first language is no way threatened.
Bilingual Families
E.g. The child of an English speaking mother and a French speaking father
Linguistic Minorities
The largest numbers of bilingual children in this country are in this group and likely to be of most concern to teachers and clinicians. Whether they are from refugee or other immigrant families, the home language is likely to have low status or value in the new society.
Children from these families will be subjected to strong pressure to learn the language of the majority community and will need to become competent in speaking, reading and writing for economic survival. They are also likely to have pressure from their families to take advantage of better educational opportunities but also strong pressure to retain their first language and culture.
TYPOLOGIES OF BILINGUAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT
SIMULTANEOUS DEVELOPMENT
This type of bilingualism is described for the acquisition of two languages together, usually before the age of three years.
SEQUENTIAL/SUCCESSIVE DEVELOPMENT
This is when one language follows, or is second to, the first in the acquisition order. This defines second language (L2) acquisition for both children and adults.
In addressing the issue of second language (L2) acquisition for children however, it is helpful to distinguish L2 acquisition in the pre-school years from that in the school years when the child is at higher maturational levels and when literacy, reading and writing also becomes part of the total process of becoming bilingual.
Some of the pre-school children in the linguistic minorities group although potentially sequential bilinguals are primarily monolingual, in that they are mainly directly exposed to one language, their first language (L1), but additionally receive passive exposure to English (L2) from their surroundings (e.g. from siblings, television etc.)
However, the L2 is not directly spoken to them, thus they can be termed “PASSIVE BILINGUAL” (Miller, 1994).
SUBTRACTIVE AND ADDITIVE BILINGUALISM
The way in which proficiency develops will depend on the social context that leads the child to acquire more that one language.
Subtractive bilingualism refers to the negative effects on L1 of learning L2 – that is, an immigrant child is forced to give up L1 but does not yet have L2.
This can result in negative consequences for both cognition and language.
Therefore, one should not advocate the use of English only either at school or home.
A lot of these children may demonstrate language profiles similar to those of bilingual children with language disorders.
Additive Bilingualism refers to the positive effects on L1 of learning L2. e.g. children of diplomats.
Adapted from Cline T, Frederickson N (1991) ‘Bilingual pupils and the National Curriculum'.
Bilingual children, who experience language loss in their first language, because it has not received continued support when they began to learn English, may demonstrate language profiles similar to those of bilingual children with language disorders.
WHAT IS LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY?
Ref: Cline, T and Frederickson, N (1991):
The ability of human beings to use language can be considered from different perspectives:
• They know the forms of language – how the words sound and how they go together (competence in PHONOLOGY and SYNTAX).
• They are able to use those forms to convey meaning and can understand what others mean when they use them (competence in SEMANTICS).
• They understand the social conventions that determine how people use language to each other, so that they appreciate another speaker’s intentions in speaking and can communicate their own intentions to the listener (PRAGMATIC competence).
• They can vary the style and form of their language to suit the needs of different listeners in a conversation (CONVERSATIONAL competence).
• They understand how language use and language conventions vary with the social and culture context (SOCIOLINGUISTIC competence).
The proficiency of a bilingual speaker is best understood if all five of these perspectives are taken into account; they complement each other. A speaker’s proficiency is thus not just made up of knowledge of the languages and skills in listening to them and speaking them. It also involves attitudes and feelings about the situations in which each language is used. A proficient bilingual speaker requires not only competence but also confidence across a wider range of situations than a monolingual speaker will ever face.
ACQUISITION OF SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) ENGLISH
Some points that can be summarised from the research are as follows:
• STAGES OF LEARNING ENGLISH
Jean Mills’ checklist on Hilary Hester’s model 1990 is divided into four stages:
Stage 1: for children new to English
Stage 2: for those becoming familiar with English language
Stage 3: for those becoming confident as users of English
Stage 4: for experienced and near fluent users of English in most social
• Development Stages
Development stages of acquisition are roughly the same whether English is the mother tongue or an additional language.
• BICS vs CALP
A model developed by Jim Cummins of Canada looked at educational issues and examined the relationship between fluency in everyday conversation and ability to use language for academic purposes. His research suggests that children who start learning a second language (L2) after school admission may acquire a good level of fluency in everyday conversation (BICS) (Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills) quite quickly – within two years – but it may be a long time – between five and seven years in one Canadian Study before they have caught up with average monolingual children on measures of CALP (Cognitive/Academic Language Proficiency).
Knowledge of these different rates of acquisition of different aspects of language is important in understanding bilingual pupils with alleged learning difficulties - if a child appears relatively fluent in English, academic problems may be attributed to underlying learning difficulties rather than the lack of appropriate language skills.
However, it could be that the surface fluency has misled the teachers/clinicians/EP into thinking the child’s language is sufficient for abstract tasks.
• Language Universals
When linguistic minority children approach the task of acquiring a second language, they bring with them both the competence and performance of their first language. They implicitly know the rules of their first language and its functions. From research it seems that certain language universals apply to all languages, e.g. words for names, actions, attribute etc, words grouped into utterances, phrases, clauses, sentences etc.
• Interference
There may be some ‘typical’ errors in a child’s L2, which appears as the child transfers the linguistic rules of L1 onto L2. This is sometimes called INTERFERENCE. This can be interpreted as having a negative effect on the development of L2. However, in a supportive environment it can be seen as positive L2 learning. Therefore, some knowledge of L1 is required to point out L2 errors/cause.
• Silent Period
Often children learning a second language after the first has been established go through a ‘silent period’. This can often last quite a long time but its importance is to enable meaning in the new language. This may cause anxiety t o some teachers, but it should be treated as a normal phenomenon like any setting in period in a new environment.
• Normal Non-Fluency
Children will often experience a period of Non-Fluency as they learn to use L2.
• Vocabulary
They may also display a higher use of ‘empty’ words and interjections which should phase out their vocabulary in L2 increases.
• STAGES OF LEARNING ENGLISH
Jean mills’ checklist on Hilary Hester’s model 1990 is divided into four stages:
Stage 1: for children new to English
Stage 2: for those becoming familiar with English language
Stage 3: for those becoming confident as users of English
Stage 4: for experienced and near fluent users of English in most social
CODE MIXING, CODE SWITCHING, LEXICAL BORROWING
The language produced as a result of these phenomenon’s is often treated as ‘gibberish’ – simply because of the ignorance and confusion. It is important to remember that these are just typical of bilingual situations and should not be seen as a disorder.
These function as part of a complex sociolinguistic code available only to bilingual speakers. Switching between languages may be used to signal a change in intimacy, to signal an in-group reference/sentiment, to give emphasis, or to simply compensate for the lack of the precisely suitable word in one of the languages.
Code switching
This occurs when L1 and L2 are mixed in a single sentence/conversation.
Punjabi speaker: ‘ama meh roti nahi khani, I want chips’ (Mum I don’t want to eat roti (chapattis) I want chips).
Code Mixing
Intermingling of L1 and L2.
Gujerati speaker: ‘Horse jump kare che.’ (The horse is jumping)
Lexical Borrowing
Swahili speaker: ‘Mimi na kula eggs’. (I am eating eggs)
FACTORS AFFECTING SECOND LANGUAGE (L2) DEVELOPMENT
i) SOCIOLINGUISTIC factors:
Duncan et al, 1985 identified several factors:
• Area of origin in the respective countries.
• Length of residence and establishment in the present country.
• Language status and attitudes to the L1 and L2 in the home, community and school.
ii) AFFECTIVE factors:
Krashen, 1981 looked at Motivation and Anxiety of the learner in the second language environment. He concluded that low anxiety and high motivation, self-confidence and self-esteem in the acquirer are positive influences in learning second language.
iii) COGNITIVE factors:
Concept development and psycholinguistic features affect L2 development. A child with underlying learning difficulties is going to have far more difficulties acquiring L2 than one who does not.
iv) LINGUISTIC factors:
The development of competence in L2 is partly a function of the type of competence already achieved in L1 at the time that instruction in L1 begins. Therefore, children who do not master their first language will have difficulty acquiring skills in a second language.
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