Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Bilingualism
Bilingualism
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
ms, por favor to native like competency
family
friendship
religion
employment
education
hobbies
politics, government, law
etc
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
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
situational
knowledge,
encyclopedia,
discourse, etc.
CONCEPTUALIZER
(message
generation)
FORMULATOR
(grammatical and
phonological
encoding)
LEXICON
SPEECHCOMPREHENSION
SYSTEM
ARTICULATOR
AUDITION
SPEECH
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
[cat]
[gato]
[cat]
[gato]
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
Childhood bilingualism
Raising bilingual children.
What factors influence childhood
bilingualism?
How do kids keep their languages
separate?
Does bilingualism have any cognitive
benefits?
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. Guaran)
Language Functions
Typically, the H variety in a diglossic situation
is perceived to be
more logical
more elegant
superior
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
Examples
German-speaking countries
Haiti
Arabic-speaking countries
Tanzania (vernacular, Swahili, English)