Week 1

BIL60804 ISSUES IN
BILINGUAL AND
MULTICULTURAL
EDUCATION
BILINGUALISM
 The field of bilingualism is interdisciplinary
in nature. It cannot be described solely
within the science of linguistics (Mackey,
1968).
 Exp. Psychology – effects on mental
processes; sociology – element in culture
conflict and the consequences of
bilingualism as a societal phenomenon;
education – tied to language education,
language planning and public policy.
Bilingualism
 Bilingualism is not a
phenomenon of language but
of its use (Mackey, 1968)
Research in
Bilingualism
 Early research – concerned mostly with
the degree of bilingualism and the
problem of how to measure language
proficiency objectively.
 Focused on quantitative aspects of
bilingualism, those which are easily
measured. Exp. Size of vocabulary,
control of morphology, etc.
Common Topics of Research in
Bilingualism
 (i). Linguists study code-switching
or alternation between languages
– discourse, pragmatic,
grammatical/syntactic aspects,
etc.
 (ii). Sociolinguists study the function
of languages in communities where
two (or more) languages co-exist –
language choice, language
standardization, minority languages,
education policies, language
planning, etc.
 (iii). Bilingualism in education concerns
teachers, parents, and policy makers, as
well as scientists, scholars and researchers
in the field of education.
 The issue of bilingual education is closely
related to the reasons why and the societal
circumstances under which children
become bilingual.
 (iv). Research on bilingualism in the field
of psychology and psycholinguistics has
focused mostly in the following aspects:
 - mental representation underlying the
competence of a bilingual speaker (in
which language he/she thinks);
 - language-specific effects on brain
organisation;
 - relationship between language and
thought;
 - language interference and ways to
avoid it.
 - possible links between language
and intelligence.
Current Research
 (i). Determining the influence of
bilingualism on the entire
cognitive process.
 Exp. the effect of bilingualism on
the cognitive content, the thinking
process, and on intelligence.
 (ii). Finding out whether
bilingualism had negative (or
positive) effects on
intelligence.
What is Bilingualism?
 Defining the term “bilingualism” is a very
difficult thing to do and there are
variations in its definition among
scholars throughout the century.
 Generally, however, they have
depended on a variety of criteria,
characterized in terms of degrees which
can be measured.
 In terms of categories:
 - complete, partial, incipient,
passive, home, school, and
community, etc.;
 In terms of dichotomies:
 - compound vs. coordinate,
horizontal vs. vertical, individual
vs. societal, etc.
Definition (Bloomfield)
 Bloomfield (1935:56) defines
bilingualism as “…control in a
native-like manner of two
languages”.
Definition (Siguan and Mackey)

 Siguan and Mackey (1987) propose

that a person should be called
bilingual when, in addition to his first
language, he is similarly proficient in
another language and has the ability
to use either of them to equal effect in
any circumstances.
Balanced Bilingual
 The term “balanced bilingual” is frequently
encountered in the literature on
bilingualism.
 While some writers (e.g. Haugen, 1973)
use it as a synonym of equilingual,
most researchers use “balanced
bilingualism” in a different sense which
does not imply perfect mastery of both
languages (e.g. Peal & Lambert, 1962).
 Balanced bilinguals in this sense
are bilinguals who are roughly
equally skilled in their two
languages, i.e. a balance exists
between the two.
 According to Saunders (1988), someone
who could pass for a native in both
languages would be considered a
balanced bilingual, but so too would
someone whose performance in one
(or both) of his languages was less
than perfect, so long as his ability in
both was roughly equal.
 However, Siguan and Mackey
(1987) stress that the perfectly
“balanced bilingualism” does not
exist in practice.
 Even balanced bilinguals are usually
“dominant” or more proficient, in one of
their two languages, although they may
not be dominant in the same
language in all areas, as there may
be domains of situations in which
bilinguals usually use only one of
their two languages.
Definition (Macnamara)
 Macnamara (1969) uses the term
“bilingual” to describe persons
who could speak, write,
understand or read a second
language, even to a minimal
degree.
Definition (Muller et al.)
 Muller, et al. (1981) define bilingualism
as the alternate use of two languages in
the same individual.
 The word “alternate” suggests that either
each language is used separately and in
different situations, or that at any
moment during a conversation a
bilingual speaker may switch from one
language to the other.
Definition (Saunders)
 According to Saunders (1988),
bilingualism simply means having
two languages, and is often used
in literature to mean the same as
multilingualism, that is, having
more than two languages.
 Bilinguals
can be ranged along a
continuum from the rare equilingual (having
an exactly equal command of two
languages) who is indistinguishable from a
native speaker in both languages at one
end, to the person who has just begun to
acquire a second language at the other
end, or monolingual (having very little
proficiency in more than one language).
Description of
Bilingualism
 Romaine (1995) cites the work of Mackey
(1967) who suggest that there are four
questions which a description of
bilingualism must address:
 (i). Degree – concerns aspects of
proficiency;
 (ii). Function – focuses on the uses a
bilingual speaker has for the languages and
the different roles they have in the
individual’s total repertoire;
 (iii). Alternation – the extent to which
the individual alternates between the
languages;
 (iv). Interference – the extent to which
the individual manages to keep the
languages separated, or whether they
are fused.
Questions
 Do you consider yourself and/or people
known to you as ‘bilingual’?
 Would you describe yourself, or someone
known to you, as ‘balanced’ in their
languages?
 Which language or languages do you think
in? Does this change in different contexts?
 In which language or languages do you
dream, count numbers, pray and think
aloud?
Handout
 Read the article and discuss:
“What do we mean when we talk about
bilingualism?”
- Griffith University