childhood bilingualism 3rd year s2

8/10/2019 Childhood Bilingualism 3rd Year S2

1/4

1

Childhood Bilingualism:

Bilingualism is a broad term and has many forms and configurations. Often the term

bilingual is used loosely to incorporate multilingualism, as is clear from the introduction to a

section of a book by Bhatia and Ritchie (2006). Bhatia (2006) states that the investigation of

bilingualism is a broad and complex field, including the study of the nature of the individual

bilinguals knowledge and use of two (or more) languages (p. 5).

Cenoz, in her review (2005) of Bhatia and Ritchies book, states the editors make a

remark in the introduction about the use of the word bilingualism in the title of the book and

say that they do not exclude additional languages and that the chapters in the book include the

full range of multilingualism. However, the use of the term bilingualism is problematic

because the Latin prefix bi means two . . . (p. 638).

This use of the term does not appear to be the case in some of the psychological and

educational literature on bilingualism. For example, Edwards (2006) starts off his article on

the foundations of bilingualism by saying Everyone is bilingual. That is, there is no one in

the world (no adult, anyway) who does not know at least a few words in languages other than

the maternal variety. If, as an English speaker, you can say cestla vie orgracias orguten Tag

or tovarischor even if you only understand themyou clearly have some command of a

foreign tongue . . . The question, of course, is one of degree . . . (p. 7).

The concept of bilingualism is interpreted differently in the field of SLA versus fields such

as psychology and education. That is, SL researchers reserve use of the term for only those

that are truly, as shown through some linguistic measure, the equivalent of native speakers of

two languages.

Thus, from the perspective of second language researchers, bilingual is a difficult term. In its

strict meaning, it refers to someone whose language is in a steady state and who has learned

and now knows two languages. That is, bilingual refers to an end point; someone is

bilingual.

Children who learn more than one language from earliest childhood are referred to as

'simultaneous bilinguals',

Whereas those who learn another language later may be called 'sequential bilinguals'.


2/4

2

There is a considerable body of research on children's ability to learn more than one language

in their earliest years.

We sometimes hear people express the opinion that it is too difficult for children to cope with

two languages. They fear that the children will be confused or will not learn either language

well. However, there is little support for the myththat learning more than one language in

early childhood is a problem for children (Genesee, Crago, and Paradis 2004).

Although some studies show minor early delays for simultaneous bilinguals, there is no

evidence that learning two languages substantially slows down their linguistic development or

interferes with cognitive and academic development. Indeed many simultaneous bilinguals

achieve high levels of proficiency in both languages.

Early childhood bilingualism is a reality for millions of children throughout the world. Some

children learn multiple languages from earliest childhood; others acquire additional languages

when they go to school. The acquisition and maintenance of more than one language can open

doors to many personal, social, and economic opportunities.

Ellen Bialystok (1991, 2001) and other developmental psychologists have found convincing

evidence thatbilingualismcan havepositive effects.One can think of advantages in a numberof domains:

Communicative advantages:With regard to the first of these, some are fairly obvious,

including:

talking to immediate and extended family members.

One can imagine a situation in which families emigrate to a country where another language is spoken;

the children learn the new language and only barely understand the language of the parents, having become

fluent in the language of the new country, whereas the parents do not learn the language of the environment. The

communication gap widens with the unfortunate result of noncommunication between parents and children.

Beyond these instances of family communication, bilinguals, living in a world of regular language

monitoring, often show greater sensitivity to the communicative needs of others.

Cul tural/economic advantages:(having experience in more than one culture provides an

understanding to cultural differences among peoples. Further, it is obvious that economic advantages

abound in all areas of workfrom business to sales.


3/4

3

Cogni tive advantages:including divergent thinking1, creative thinking, and metalinguistic

awareness. Metalinguistic awareness is the ability to think about (and manipulate) language. In other

words, metalinguistic ability allows one to think about language as an object of inquiry rather than as

something we use to speak and understand language. Bialystok (2001a, 2001b) has found bilingual

children to have superior abilities in judging grammatical accuracy than monolingual children.

Limitationsthat may be observed in the language of bilingual individuals are more likely to

be related tothe circumstances in which each language is learned than to any limitation in the

human capacity to learn more than one language.

For example, if one language is heard much more often than the other or is more highly

valued in the community, that language may eventually be used better than, or in preference

to, the other.

There may be reason to be concerned, however, about situations where children are cut off

from their family language when they are very young. Lily Wong-Fillmore (1991) observed

that when children are 'submerged' in a different language for long periods in pre-school or

day care, their development of the family language may be slowed down or stalled before

they have developed an age-appropriate mastery of the new language. Eventually they maystop speaking the family language altogether.

Wallace Lambert (1987) called this loss of one language on the way to learning another

SUBTRACTIVE BILINGUALISM. It can have negative consequences for childrens self

esteem, and their relationships with family members are also likely to be affected by such

early loss of the family language. In these cases, children seem to continue to be caught

between two languages: they have not yet mastered the one language, and they have not

continued to develop the other. During the transition period, they may fall behind in their

academic learning. UnfortunateIy, the 'solution educators sometimes propose to parents is that

they should stop speaking the family language at home and concentrate instead on speaking

the school language with their children. The evidence suggests that a better solution is to

strive for ADDITIVE BILINGUALISMthe maintenance of the home language while the

second language is being learned. This is especially true if the parents are also learners of the

1The goal of divergent thinking is to generate many different ideas about a topic in a short period of time. It involves breaking a topic down into its various component parts in order togain insight about the various aspects of the topic. Divergent thinking typically occurs in a spontaneous, free-flowing manner, such that t he ideas are generated in a random, unorganizedfashion. Following divergent thinking, the ideas and information will be organized using convergent thinking; i.e., putting the various ideas back together in some or ganized, structured

way.


4/4

4

second language. If parents continue to use the language that they know best, they are able to

express their knowledge and ideas in ways that are richer and more elaborate than they can

manage in a language they do not know as well. Using their own language in family settings

is also a way for parents to maintain their own self-esteem, especially as they may be

struggling with the new language outside the home, at work, or in the community.

Maintaining the family language also creates opportunities for the children to continue both

cognitive and affective development in a language they understand easily while they are still

learning the second language.

As Virginia Collier (1939) and others have shown, the process of developing a second

language takes years. But teachers, parents, and students need to know that the benefits of

additive bilingualismwill reward patience and effort.

childhood bilingualism 3rd year s2

Documents