Bilingualism

As a social and an individual phenomenon

Defining Bilingual

• Almost everyone has at least some knowledge of another language.

• Some people have excellent command of both languages.

• There is a continuum from una cerveza más, por favor to native like competency

Other issues in defining bilingual

• Skill in one domain may not translate to skill in another (pronunciation, reading, writing, etc.)

• Sociolinguistic competence: knowing styles, registers, discourse customs

• Domains of language use:– family, friendship, religion, employment,

education, hobbies, politics, law/government, etc.

Domains of language use

• family• friendship• religion• employment• education• hobbies• politics, government, law• etc

• Bilinguals are rarely equally competent in both languages to discuss all domains of life.

• To what extent should context be taken into account?

• What is the ultimate value of having a consistent definition of what it means to be bilingual?

How common is bilingualism?

• Worldwide there are ca. 5,500 languages, and ca 192 countries in the world = 29 times more languages than countries!

• San Diego City Schools (SD Unified) has some 60 languages besides English spoken as a primary home language.

• 28.4% of SD Unified students are classified as English learners.

Other countries

• South Africa: 11 official languages (5 most common are IsiZulu (23%), Isixhosa (18%), Afrikaans (14.5%), Sepedi (9%), and English (8.5%)

• India: 15 languages classified as major languages, some 387 in total.

• Kenya has some 61 languages• Papua New Guinea has some 823

languages

Is the bilingual brain different?

• Where are the different languages stored? Is there a single, overarching grammar, or are there sub-divisions?

• Brain regions: stimulation to left hemisphere language areas causes deficits to both languages, but in some areas one language may be more affected than another.

bilingual brain

• Aphasia: Stroke victims with left hemisphere lesions may experience different effects:– both languages impaired.– one language impaired, other unaffected.– one language recovers quickly, the other lags

behind.

Bilingual Processing

• How do bilinguals effect language choice?– Maintain use of one language (L1 or L2)– Switch between languages

CONCEPTUALIZER(message

generation)

FORMULATOR(grammatical and

phonological encoding)

ARTICULATOR

LEXICON

AUDITION

SPEECH-COMPREHENSION

SYSTEM

SPEECH

situational knowledge,encyclopedia, discourse, etc.

Levelt's speech production model

the model

Situational Knowledge

• Who are the interlocutors? What are their language abilities?

• How well does the speaker control both languages?

• What is the purpose/topic of the discourse?

Other components• conceptualizer: formulation of a preverbal

message, the output consists of all the information needed by the formulator to convert the communicative intention into speech.

• formulator: converts preverbal message into a ‘speech plan’, selecting lexical items and phonological sequence.

• articulator: converts the speech plan into instructions for actual speech

Adapting the model to bilingualsSeveral factors must be taken into account

when adapting this model to account for bilingual speech behavior.

• L2 knowledge is typically incomplete (there are typically fewer words & rules available to the speaker).

• L2 speech is less automatic, more attention has to be paid to execution.

• L2 speech carries a trace of L1

What does the bilingual lexicon look like?

• one system or two?

• one system more efficient than having to (de)activate whole systems.

• one system better accounts for rapid switches

[cat] [gato] [cat] [gato]

Maintaining the same language: the Subset Hypothesis

• words, syntactic rules, phonemes from a given language form a subset of the total system.

• Each subset can be activated independently.

• Subsets are formed and maintained by the use of words in specific contexts.

• In monolinguals subsets may be formed for different styles and registers.

Switching: Differential activation

• Searching the lexicon does not necessarily target or activate just one meaning.

• Context of language use may make some meanings more available than others.

• Some features of the preverbal message may be more important than others. Many features of concepts may overlap. Context may promote or demote some features in prominence.

other considerations

• Even highly proficient bilinguals need more time to retrieve words (up to 150 ms). the Non-native speaker has to balance the ‘need for speed’ (2-5 words per second) with other communicative goals.

• Language cues from the conceptualizer may exceed capabilities of the L2 formulator

Aside: speed of processing

• Passive vocabulary of a first year university student? maybe 75,000 words?

• Active lexicon considerably smaller, at maybe 30,000 words.

• Average rate of speech is about 150 words per minute (peak ca 300 wpm)

• 200-400 ms to choose a word when we speak (wrong choice made maybe 1/1000)

Reasons for Code switching?

• a meaningful discourse strategy– word or phrase has no straightforward

equivalent in LX.– domain of language use

• result from a lack of knowledge.

Some examples of code switching

• Wij zijn gewoon hetzelfde als babamiz annemiz.

‘We’re just the same as our parents.

• Maar dat is toch weer köy, hè.

‘But that is again backwardish, boorish

L2 words may express emotional value, or a more precise concept.

• Eh, Mom, ¿cómo se come la eggplant?

• No tienen miedo a la vida, you know? They risk their life on anything.

• A: Cada día se lleva su coffe pot upstairs.

B: ¿Y qué tiene que me lleve mi coffe pot upstairs?

Code Switching sites• Selection of lexical items: conceptual

mismatch between concept and word in LX may cause choice of another word or phrase from another language.

• Structural sites:– most common between coordinated sentences.– less likely between sentence and subordinate

clause– least likely within a PP, or between subject and

predicate

Childhood bilingualism

• Raising bilingual children.

• What factors influence childhood bilingualism?

• How do kids keep their languages separate?

• Does bilingualism have any cognitive benefits?

Raising bilingual children

• Children who begin acquiring a second language by the age of about 7 years tend to acquire native-like grammatical competency, given sufficient L2 input.

• Acquisition setting, amount of input, etc. generally lead to one language becoming the dominant one.

• One parent, one language a typical approach, but…

Important factors to consider

• Amount and type of input. – who is the primary care giver?– how much input does each parent give?– what other languages is the child exposed to?

• Interaction or separation of the two systems.– in what domains does the child encounter L2?– what is the status of L1/L2 in society?

Important factors to consider

• social and psychological factors.– prestige of the languages being learned.– institutional support.– social value of bilingualism.– cultural affinity.– relationship to parents/care givers.– extent to which parents’ languages are

present in the community.

Keeping languages separate

• Dominant model for raising bilingual children is ‘one parent, one language’.

• People who report using this strategy, however, often mix languages (interaction with community, with spouse, extended family, teachers, etc.)

• Parents’ languages may play less of a role in traditional societies, industrial societies.

limitations to one parent, one language

• strict separation of languages not always feasible, nor is it always a natural way of using language.

• there is no hard evidence that children with mixed input acquire their languages any slower.

• children don’t rely (only) on parental cues, but rely on UG to perform tacit structural analyses of syntax, phonology, etc.

Stages of acquisition

• Bilingual children seem to have separate grammars by the age of 2-2;6

• Bilingual children seem to undergo the same stages of acquisition as monolingual children (babbling, 1 word, 2 word, multiword stages, morpheme order, vocabulary development [including 18 month explosion)

Cognitive effects?

• Results of studies are mixed, though there are some claims:– increases cognitive flexibility?– easier to engage in abstract thought?– facilitates development of reading skills?– higher sensitivity to word form as distinct from

word meaning?

Diglossia

• Simultaneous use of 2 (or more) language varieties in distinct social domains within the same speech community.

• The languages may be related (Classical vs. colloquial Arabic, High German vs. Swiss German), or they may be unrelated (Spanish vs. Guaraní)

Language Functions

• Typically, the H variety in a diglossic situation is perceived to be – more logical– more elegant– superior

• The H variety is usually also standardized (formal grammars, classroom instruction)

• Acquired later• Typically has a literary heritage

Functions of

• H variety used in more formal situations:– sermons– political speeches– university lecture– news broadcasts– newspaper editorial– most poetry and literature

Functions of L

• L variety used in more personal settings:– instructions to waiters, servants, workmen– conversations with family, friends– folk literature (fairy tales, folk tales, songs,

light verse)– soap operas, talk shows

• Use of L in inappropriate situations can be a serious social gaffe.

Examples

• German-speaking countries

• Haiti

• Arabic-speaking countries

• Tanzania (vernacular, Swahili, English)