-
August
-
Five Star Movement
-
Washington Post
-
Edward Snowden
-
Language acquisition
-
British humour
-
Al Bano and Romina Power
-
Vladimir Putin
-
Artificial Intelligence
-
Artists and repertoire
-
Table tennis
-
List of Wikipedia controversies
-
Joke
-
Prince George of Cambridge
-
Giuseppe Ungaretti
-
International English
-
Mosquito
-
Flying saucer
-
Breakfast cereal
-
Bingo (UK)
-
Multilingualism
-
Religion in ancient Rome
-
Giallo
-
The Shock Doctrine
-
PDF (Portable Document Format)
-
Nazi plunder
-
Nanotechnology
-
Jennifer Lopez
-
Decline of Detroit
-
Firefox OS
-
Burj Khalifa (tallest building in the world)
|
WIKIMAG n. 9 - Agosto 2013
Multilingualism
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Multilingualism is the act of using
polyglotism, or using multiple
languages, either by an individual speaker or by a community of
speakers. Multilingual speakers outnumber
monolingual speakers in the world's population.[1]
Multilingualism is becoming a social phenomenon governed by the needs of
globalization and cultural openness.[2]
Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet,
individuals' exposure to multiple languages is becoming increasingly
frequent thereby promoting a need to acquire additional languages.
People who speak several languages are also called
polyglots.[3]
Definition
The definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the very
same way as the definition of language fluency. On one end of a sort of
linguistic-continuum, one may define multilingualism as complete
competence and mastery in another language. The speaker would presumably
have complete knowledge and control over the language so as to sound
native. On the opposite end of the spectrum would be people such as
tourists who know enough phrases to get around using the alternate
language.
Because of the lack of any true definition for multilingualism, it is
very difficult to define an individual as being multilingual. Having no
specification of how much knowledge of a language is required for a
person to be classified as bilingual makes it difficult for language
teaching institutions to teach languages to students to the point of
fluency. As a result, since most speakers do not achieve the maximally
ideal level, language learners may come to be seen as deficient and by
extension, language teaching may come to be seen as a failure.
Since 1992,
Vivian Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers fall
somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions. Cook calls these
people multi-competent.
Definition of
language
There is no clear definition of what it means to "speak a language".
A tourist who can handle a simple conversation with a waiter may be
completely lost when it comes to discussing current affairs or even
using multiple tenses. A diplomat or businessman who can handle
complicated negotiations in a foreign language may not be able to write
a simple letter correctly. A four-year-old French child would usually be
said to "speak French fluently", but it is possible that he cannot
handle the grammar as well as even some mediocre foreign students of the
language do and may have a very limited vocabulary despite possibly
having perfect pronunciation. On the other hand, it is quite common that
even very highly accomplished linguists may speak the language(s) of
which they are experts with a distinct accent and to have gaps in their
active vocabulary when it comes to everyday topics and situations.
Because the development of spoken fluency requires prolonged exposure
to a given language, claims of extensive polyglottism must generally be
understood to refer to the mastery of basic communicative skills along
with the grammatical rules and (possibly) an extensive vocabulary in the
target languages, rather than a near-native level of spoken fluency. In
historical times prior to audio and video recordings which can be used
to facilitate artificial language exposure, quite unusual circumstances
would have been needed for an individual to achieve high-level spoken
fluency in several languages. Although it is possible to learn the
grammatical rules and vocabulary of a language from books alone, such an
individual might not be able to communicate in the language at all,
neither understanding the language as it sounds spoken out loud nor
being able to produce the sounds him- or herself.
In addition there is no clear definition of what "one language"
means. For instance, scholars often disagree whether
Scots is a language in its own right or a dialect of
English.[4]
As another example, a person who has learned five different languages
such as
French,
Spanish,
Catalan,
Italian and
Portuguese, all belonging to the closely related group of
Romance languages, has accomplished something less difficult than a
person who has learnt
Hebrew,
Chinese,
Finnish,
Navajo, and
Welsh, none of which are remotely related to another.
Furthermore, what is considered a language can change, often for
purely political purposes, such as when
Serbo-Croatian was assembled from
South Slavic dialects, and after the breakup of
Yugoslavia dissolved into
Serbian,
Croatian,
Bosnian and
Montenegrin, or when
Ukrainian was dismissed as a Russian dialect by the Russian
tsars to
discourage national feelings.[5]
Many small independent nations' schoolchildren are today compelled to
learn multiple languages because of international interactions. For
example in
Finland,
all children are required to learn at least two foreign languages: the
other national language (Swedish or Finnish) and one alien language
(usually English). Many Finnish schoolchildren also select further
languages, such as French, German or Spanish. In some large nations with
multiple languages, such as India, school children may routinely learn
multiple languages based on where they reside in the country. In major
metros of Central, South and East India, many children may be fluent in
four languages (the mother tongue, the state language, and the official
national languages, Hindi and English.) Thus a child of Gujarati parents
living in Bangalore will end up speaking his or her mother tongue
(Gujarati) at home and the state language (Kannada), Hindi and English
in school and his or her surroundings.
Multilingual
individuals
A multilingual person, in a broad definition, is one who can
communicate in more than one language, be it actively (through speaking,
writing, or signing) or passively (through listening, reading, or
perceiving). More specifically, the terms bilingual and
trilingual are used to describe comparable situations in which two
or three languages are involved. A multilingual person is generally
referred to as a
polyglot. Poly (Greek: πολύς) means "many", glot
(Greek: γλώττα) means "language".
Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one
language during childhood, the so-called
first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to
as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by
mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this
way are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous
bilinguals one language usually dominates over the other.
In linguistics, first language acquisition is closely related to the
concept of a "native speaker". According to a view widely held by
linguists, a native speaker of a given language has in some respects a
level of skill which a second (or subsequent) language learner can
hardly reliably accomplish. Consequently, descriptive empirical studies
of languages are usually carried out using only native speakers as
informants. This view is, however, slightly problematic, particularly as
many non-native speakers demonstrably not only successfully engage with
and in their non-native language societies, but in fact may become
culturally and even linguistically important contributors (as, for
example, writers, politicians and performing artists) in their
non-native language. In recent years, linguistic research has focused
attention on the use of widely known world languages such as English as
lingua franca, or the shared common language of professional and
commercial communities. In lingua franca situations, most speakers of
the common language are functionally multilingual.
Cognitive ability
Bilinguals who are highly proficient in two or more languages are
reported to have enhanced executive function[6][7]
and are better at some aspects of language learning compared to
monolinguals.[8]
Research indicates that a multilingual brain is nimbler, quicker, better
able to deal with ambiguities, resolve conflicts, and resist Alzheimer’s
disease and other forms of dementia longer.[9]
There is also a phenomenon known as distractive bilingualism
or semilingualism. When acquisition of the first language is
interrupted and insufficient or unstructured language input follows from
the second language, as sometimes happens with
immigrant children, the speaker can end up with two languages both
mastered below the monolingual standard.[citation
needed] Literacy plays an important role in the
development of language in these immigrant children.[citation
needed] Those who were literate in their first
language before arriving, and who have support to maintain that
literacy, are at the very least able to maintain and master their first
language.[citation
needed]
There is, of course, a difference between those who learn a language
in a class environment, and those who learn through total
immersion, usually living in the country where the target language
is the exclusive.
Without the possibility to actively translate, due to a complete lack
of any first language communication opportunity, the comparison between
languages is reduced. The new language is almost independently learned -
like the mother tongue for a child - with direct concept-to-language
translation that can become more natural than word structures learned as
a subject. Added to this, the uninterrupted, immediate and exclusive
practise of the new language reinforces and deepens the attained
knowledge.
Receptive
bilingualism
Receptive bilinguals are those who have the ability to understand a
second language but who cannot speak it or whose abilities to speak it
are inhibited by psychological barriers. Receptive bilingualism is
frequently encountered among adult immigrants to the U.S. who do not
speak English as a native language but who have children who do speak
English natively, usually in part because those children's education has
been conducted in English: While the immigrant parents can understand
both their native language and English, they speak only their native
language to their children. If their children are likewise receptively
bilingual but productively English-monolingual, throughout the
conversation the parents will speak their native language and the
children will speak English. If their children are productively
bilingual, however, those children may answer in the parents' native
language, in English, or in a combination of both languages, varying
their choice of language depending on factors such as the
communication's content, context, and/or emotional intensity and the
presence or absence of third-party speakers of one language or the
other. The third alternative represents the phenomenon of "code-switching"
(also styled "code switching"), in which the productively bilingual
party to a communication switches languages in the course of that
communication. Receptively bilingual persons, especially children, may
rapidly achieve oral fluency by spending extended time in situations
where they are required to speak the language that they theretofore
understood only passively. Until both generations achieve oral fluency,
not all definitions of bilingualism accurately characterize the family
as a whole, but the linguistic differences between the family's
generations often constitute little or no impairment to the family's
functionality.[citation
needed]
Receptive bilingualism in one language as exhibited by a speaker of
another language, or even as exhibited by most speakers of that
language, is not the same as
mutual intelligibility of languages: The latter is a property of a
pair of languages, namely a consequence of objectively high
lexical and grammatical similarities between the languages themselves (e.g.,
Iberian Spanish and Iberian Portuguese), whereas the former is a
property of one or more persons and is determined by subjective
or intersubjective factors such as the respective languages' prevalence
in the life history (including family upbringing, educational setting,
and ambient culture) of the individual person or persons in question.[10]
Personality
Because it is difficult or impossible to master many of the
high-level semantic aspects of a language (including but not limited to
its idioms
and eponyms)
without first understanding the culture and history of the region in
which that language evolved, as a practical matter an in-depth
familiarity with multiple cultures is a prerequisite for high-level
multilingualism. This knowledge of cultures individually and
comparatively, or indeed the mere fact of one's having that knowledge,
often forms an important part of both what one considers one's own
personal identity to be and what others consider that identity to be.[11]
Some studies have found that groups of multilingual individuals get
higher average scores on tests for certain personality traits such as
cultural empathy, openmindedness and social initiative.[12][13]
The idea of
linguistic relativity, which claims that the language people speak
influences the way they see the world, can be interpreted to mean that
individuals who speak multiple languages have a broader, more diverse
view of the world, even when speaking only one language at a time.[14]
Some bilinguals feel that their personality changes depending on
which language they are speaking;[15][16]
thus multilingualism is said to create multiple personalities. Xiao-lei
Wang states in her book Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to
Eleven: “Languages used by speakers with one or more than one language
are used not just to represent a unitary self, but to enact different
kinds of selves, and different linguistic contexts create different
kinds of self-expression and experiences for the same person.” However,
there has been little rigorous research done on this topic and it is
difficult to define “personality” in this context. Francois Grosjean
writes: “What is seen as a change in personality is most probably simply
a shift in attitudes and behaviors that correspond to a shift in
situation or context, independent of language.”[17]
Learning language
One view is that of the
linguist
Noam Chomsky in what he calls the human 'language
acquisition device '— a mechanism which enables an individual to
recreate correctly the rules (grammar) and certain other characteristics
of language used by speakers around the learner.[18]
This device, according to Chomsky, wears out over time, and is not
normally available by
puberty,
which he uses to explain the poor results some adolescents and adults
have when learning aspects of a
second language (L2).
If language learning is a
cognitive process, rather than a language acquisition device, as the
school led by
Stephen Krashen suggests, there would only be relative, not
categorical, differences between the two types of language learning.
Rod Ellis quotes research finding that the earlier children learn a
second language, the better off they are, in terms of
pronunciation. See
Critical period hypothesis. European schools generally offer
secondary language classes for their students early on, due to the
interconnectedness with neighbour countries with different languages.
Most European students now study at least two foreign languages, a
process strongly encouraged by the
European Union.[19]
Based on the research in Ann Fathman’s The Relationship between age
and second language productive ability,[20][21]
there is a difference in the rate of learning of English morphology,
syntax and phonology based upon differences in age, but that the order
of acquisition in second language learning does not change with age.
People who have Multilanguage background will find out their native
language would influence their second language in any other ages.
In
second language class, students will commonly face the difficulties
on thinking in the target language because they are influenced by their
native language and culture patterns. Robert B. Kaplan thinks that in
second language classes, the foreign-student paper is out of focus
because the foreign student is employing rhetoric and a sequence of
thought which violate the expectations of the native reader.[22]
Foreign students who have mastered syntactic structures have still
demonstrated inability to compose adequate themes, term papers, theses,
and dissertations. Robert B. Kaplan describes two key words that affect
people when they learn a second language.
Logic in
the popular, rather than the logician's sense of the word, which is the
basis of rhetoric, is evolved out of a culture; it is not universal.
Rhetoric, then, is not universal either, but varies, from culture to
culture and even from time to time within a given culture.[22]
Language teachers know how to predict the differences between
pronunciations or constructions in different languages, but they might
be less clear about the differences between rhetoric, that is, in the
way they use language to accomplish various purposes, particularly in
writing.[23]
Neuroscience
Various aspects of multilingualism have been studied in the field of
neuroscience. These include the representation of different language
systems in the brain, the effects of multilingualism on the
brain's structural plasticity,
aphasia
in multilingual individuals, and
bimodal bilingualisms (people who can speak one
sign language and one oral language). Neuroscientific studies of
multilingualism are carried out with
functional neuroimaging,
electrophysiology, and through observation of people who have
suffered
brain damage.
Centralization of Language areas in the Brain
Language acquisition in multilingual individuals is contingent on two
factors: age of the language acquisition and proficiency.[24][25]
Specialization is centered in the
Perisylvian cortex of the left hemisphere. Various regions of both
the right and left hemisphere activate during language production.
Multilingual individuals consistently demonstrate similar activation
patterns in the brain when using either one of the two or more languages
they fluently know.
[26] Age of acquiring the second-or-higher language, and
proficiency of use determine what specific brain regions and pathways
activate when using (thinking or speaking) the language. Contrast to
those who acquired their multiple languages at different points in their
life, those who acquire multiple languages when young, and at virtually
the same time, show similar activations in parts of
Broca’s area and left inferior frontal lobe. If the second-or-higher
language is acquired later in life, specifically after the
critical period, the language becomes centralized in a different
part of
Broca’s area than the native language and other languages learned
when young.[26]
Brain plasticity in multilingualism
A greater density of grey matter in the inferior parietal cortex is
present in multilingual individuals. It has been found that
multilingualism affects the structure, and essentially, the
cytoarchitecture of the brain. Learning multiple languages re-structures
the brain and some researchers argue that it increases the brain’s
capacity for plasticity.[27]
Most of these differences in brain structures in multilinguals may be
genetic at the core. Consensus is still muddled; it may be a mixture of
both—experiential (acquiring languages during life) and genetic
(predisposition to brain plasticity).[28][29]
Aphasia in
multilingualism
An abundance of insight about language storage in the brain comes
from studying bilingual/ mulilingual individuals afflicted with a form
of
aphasia. The symptoms and severity of
aphasia
in bilinguals/ mulitlinguals depend on how many languages the individual
knows, what order they have them stored in the brain, how frequently
they use each one, and how proficient they are in using those languages.[30]
Two primary theoretical approaches to studying and viewing bilingual/
multilingual aphasics exist—the localizationalist approach and the
dynamic approach. The localizationalist approach views different
languages as stored in different regions of the brain; and therefore, is
the reason why bilingual/ multilingual aphasics may lose one language
they know, but not the other(s).[31]
The dynamical theory approach suggests that the language system is
supervised by a dynamic equilibrium between the existing language
capabilities and the constant alteration and adaptation to the
communicative requirements of the environment.[32][33]
The dynamic approach views the representation and control aspects of the
language system as compromised as a result of brain damage to the
brain’s language regions.[34][35][36]
The dynamic approach offers a satisfactory explanation for the various
recovery times of each of the languages the aphasic has had impaired or
lost because of the brain damage. Recovery of languages varies across
aphasic patients. Some may recover all lost or impaired languages
simultaneously. For some, one language is recovered before the others.
In others, an involuntary mix of languages occurs in the recovery
process; the aphasic would intermix words from the various languages
he/she knows when speaking.[36]
PET scan studies on Bimodal Individuals
Neuroscientific research on Bimodal individuals—those who speak one
oral language and one sign language—has been carried out. Pet scans from
these studies show that there is a separate region in the brain for
working memory related to sign language production and use. These
studies also find that Bimodal individuals use different areas of the
right hemisphere depending on whether if they are speaking using verbal
language or gesticulating using sign-language.[37]
Studies with bimodal bilinguals have also provided insight into the
tip of the tongue phenomenon and into patterns of neural activity
when recognizing
facial expressions.[38][39]
The Executive Control System’s Role in Preventing Cross Talk
There are sophisticated mechanisms to prevent cross talk in brains
where more than one language is stored.[25]
The executive control system might be implicated to prevent one language
from interfering with another in multilinguals.The executive control
system is responsible for processes that are sometimes referred to as
executive functions, and among others includes supervisory
attentional system, or cognitive control. Despite the fact that most
research on the executive control system pertains to nonverbal tasks,
there is some evidence that the system might be involved in resolving
and ordering the conflict generated by the competing languages stored in
the mulitlingual’s brain.[40]
During speech production there is a constant need to channel attention
to the appropriate word associated with the concept, congruent with the
language being used. The word must be placed in the appropriate
phonological and morphological context.[41]
Multilinguals constantly utilize the general executive control system to
resolve interference/conflicts among the known languages, enhancing the
system’s functional performance, even on nonverbal tasks. In studies,
multilingual subjects of all ages, showed overall enhanced executive
control abilities. This may indicate that the multilingual experience
leads to a transfer of skill from the verbal to the nonverbal.[40]
There is no one specific domain of language modulation in the general
executive control system, as far as studies reveal. Studies show that
the speed with which multilingual subjects perform tasks,
with-and-without mediation required to resolve language-use conflict, is
better in bilingual than monolingual subjects.[41]
Health Benefits of Multilingualism and Bilingualism
Researcher Ellen Bialystok examined the effect of multilingualism on
Alzheimer’s disease and found that it delays its onset by about 4 years.
The researcher’s study found that those who spoke two or more languages
showed symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease at a later time than speakers of
a single language.[40]
Interestingly, the study found that the more languages the multilingual
knows, the later the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. Both bilingualism and
multilingualism aid in the building up of cognitive reserves in the
brain; these cognitive reserves force the brain to work harder—they
themselves, restructure the brain.[42]
Multilingualism and bilingualism lead to greater efficiency of use in
the brain, and organize the brain to be more efficient and conservative
in using energy. More research is required to determine whether if
learning another language later in life has the same protective effects;
nonetheless, it is evident from the variety of studies performed on the
effects of multilingualism and bilingualism on the brain, that learning
and knowing multiple languages sets the stage for a cognitive healthy
life.
Multilingualism within communities
The three-language ( Tamil,
English and
Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway
station in
Chennai, South India. Almost all railway stations in
India have signs like these in three or more languages
(English, Hindi and the local language).
Multilingual sign at
Vancouver International Airport, international arrivals
area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent
feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a
video screen that rotates through additional languages.
A Train name found in South India written in four languages:
Kannada, Hindi, Tamil and English. Boards like this are
common on trains which pass through two or more states where
the languages spoken are different.
Widespread multilingualism is one form of
language contact. Multilingualism was more common in the past than
is usually supposed[weasel words]:
in early times, when most people were members of small language
communities, it was necessary to know two or more languages for trade or
any other dealings outside one's own town or village, and this holds
good today in places of high linguistic diversity such as
Sub-Saharan Africa and
India.
Linguist Ekkehard Wolff estimates that 50% of the population of Africa
is multilingual.[43]
In multilingual societies, not all speakers need to be multilingual.
Some states can have multilingual policies and recognise several
official languages, such as Canada (English and French). In some states,
particular languages may be associated with particular regions in the
state (e.g., Canada) or with particular ethnicities
(Malaysia/Singapore). When all speakers are multilingual, linguists
classify the community according to the functional distribution of the
languages involved:
-
diglossia: if there is a structural functional distribution
of the languages involved, the society is termed 'diglossic'.
Typical diglossic areas are those areas in
Europe
where a
regional language is used in informal, usually oral, contexts,
while the state language is used in more formal situations.
Frisia
(with
Frisian and
German or
Dutch) and
Lusatia (with
Sorbian and German) are well-known examples. Some writers limit
diglossia to situations where the languages are closely related, and
could be considered dialects of each other. This can also be
observed in Scotland where in formal situations,
English is used. However, in informal situations in many areas,
Scots is the preferred language of choice. Similar phenomenon is
also observed in Arabic spoken region. The effects of diglossia
could be seen if you look at the difference between Written Arabic(Modern
Standard Arabic) and Colloquial Arabic. However, as time goes,
the Arabic language somewhere between the two have been created
which we would like to call Middle Arabic or Common Arabic. Because
of this diversification of the language, the concept of
spectroglossia[44]
have been suggested.
- ambilingualism: a region is called ambilingual if this
functional distribution is not observed. In a typical ambilingual
area it is nearly impossible to predict which language will be used
in a given setting. True ambilingualism is rare. Ambilingual
tendencies can be found in small states with multiple heritages like
Luxembourg, which has a combined Franco-Germanic heritage, or
Malaysia and
Singapore, which fuses the cultures of
Malays,
China,
and India.
Ambilingualism also can manifest in specific regions of larger
states that have both a clearly dominant state language (be it de
jure or de facto) and a protected minority language that
is limited in terms of distribution of speakers within the country.
This tendency is especially pronounced when, even though the local
language is widely spoken, there is a reasonable assumption that all
citizens speak the predominant state tongue (E.g., English in Quebec
vs. Canada; Spanish in Catalonia vs. Spain). This phenomenon can
also occur in border regions with many cross-border contacts.
- bipart-lingualism: if more than one language can be heard
in a small area, but the large majority of speakers are
monolinguals, who have little contact with speakers from
neighbouring ethnic groups, an area is called 'bipart-lingual'. An
example of this is the
Balkans.
N.B. the terms given above all refer to situations describing only
two languages. In cases of an unspecified number of languages, the terms
polyglossia, omnilingualism, and multipart-lingualism
are more appropriate.
Multilingualism between different language speakers
Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to
express solidarity and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in
their behavior. If speakers wish to express distance towards or even
dislike of the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and
differences are sought. This mechanism also extends to language, as
described in the
Communication Accommodation Theory.
Some multilinguals use
code-switching, a term that describes the process of 'swapping'
between languages. In many cases, code-switching is motivated by the
wish to express loyalty to more than one cultural group[citation
needed], as holds for many immigrant communities in
the New World. Code-switching may also function as a strategy where
proficiency is lacking. Such strategies are common if the vocabulary of
one of the languages is not very elaborated for certain fields, or if
the speakers have not developed proficiency in certain lexical domains,
as in the case of immigrant languages.
This code-switching appears in many forms. If a speaker has a
positive attitude towards both languages and towards code-switching,
many switches can be found, even within the same sentence.[45]
If, however, the speaker is reluctant to use code-switching, as in the
case of a lack of proficiency, he might knowingly or unknowingly try to
camouflage his attempt by converting elements of one language into
elements of the other language through
calquing.
This results in speakers using words like courrier noir
(literally mail that is black) in French, instead of the proper word for
blackmail, chantage.
Sometimes a
pidgin language may develop. A pidgin language is basically a fusion
of two languages, which is mutually understandable for both speakers.
Some pidgin languages develop into real languages (such as
papiamento at
Curaçao)
while other remain as slangs or jargons (such as
Helsinki slang, which is more or less
mutually intelligible both in Finnish and Swedish). In other cases,
prolonged influence of languages on each other may have the effect of
changing one or both to the point where it may be considered that a new
language is born. For example, many linguists believe that the
Occitan language and the
Catalan language were formed because a population speaking a single
Occitano-Romance language was divided into political spheres of
influence of France and Spain, respectively.
Yiddish language is a complex blend of
Middle High German with
Hebrew and borrowings from Slavic languages.
Bilingual interaction can even take place without the speakers
switching. In certain areas, it is not uncommon for speakers each to use
a different language within the same conversation. This phenomenon is
found, amongst other places, in
Scandinavia. Most speakers of
Swedish and
Norwegian, and
Norwegian and
Danish, can communicate with each other speaking their respective
languages, while few can speak both (people used to these situations
often adjust their language, avoiding words that are not found in the
other language or that can be misunderstood). Using different languages
is usually called
non-convergent discourse, a term introduced by the
Dutch linguist Reitze Jonkman. To a certain extent this situation
also exists between
Dutch and
Afrikaans, although everyday contact is fairly rare because of the
distance between the two respective communities. The phenomenon is also
found in
Argentina, where
Spanish and
Italian are both widely spoken, even leading to cases where a child
with a Spanish and an Italian parent grows up fully bilingual, with both
parents speaking only their own language yet knowing the other. Another
example is the former state of
Czechoslovakia, where two languages (Czech
and
Slovak) were in common use. Most Czechs and Slovaks understand both
languages, although they would use only one of them (their respective
mother tongue) when speaking. For example, in Czechoslovakia it was
common to hear two people talking on television each speaking a
different language without any difficulty understanding each other. This
bilinguality still exists nowadays, although it has started to
deteriorate after Czechoslovakia split up[citation
needed].
Japanese, English, and Russian sign in Northern Japan
Multilingualism at the linguistic level
Models for native language literacy programs
Sociopolitical as well as socio-cultural identity arguments may
influence native language literacy. While these two camps may occupy
much of the debate about which languages children will learn to read, a
greater emphasis on the linguistic aspects of the argument is
appropriate. In spite of the political turmoil precipitated by this
debate, researchers continue to espouse a linguistic basis for it. This
rationale is based upon the work of Jim Cummins (1983).
Sequential model
In this model, learners receive literacy instruction in their native
language until they acquire a "threshold" literacy proficiency. Some
researchers use age 3 as the age when a child has basic communicative
competence in L1 (Kessler, 1984).[46]
Children may go through a process of sequential acquisition if they
migrate at a young age to a country where a different language is
spoken, or if the child exclusively speaks his or her heritage language
at home until he/she is immersed in a school setting where instruction
is offered in a different language.
The phases children go through during sequential acquisition are less
linear than for simultaneous acquisition and can vary greatly among
children. Sequential acquisition is a more complex and lengthier
process, although there is no indication that non language-delayed
children end up less proficient than simultaneous bilinguals, so long as
they receive adequate input in both languages.
Bilingual model
In this model, the native language and the community language are
simultaneously taught. The advantage is literacy in two languages as the
outcome. However, the teacher must be well-versed in both languages and
also in techniques for teaching a second language.
Coordinate model
This model posits that equal time should be spent in separate
instruction of the native language and of the community language. The
native language class, however, focuses on basic literacy while the
community language class focuses on listening and speaking skills. Being
a bilingual does not necessarily mean that one can speak, for example,
English and French.
Outcomes
Cummins' research concluded that the development of competence in the
native language serves as a foundation of proficiency that can be
transposed to the second language — the common underlying proficiency
hypothesis. His work sought to overcome the perception propagated in the
1960s that learning two languages made for two competing aims. The
belief was that the two languages were mutually exclusive and that
learning a second required unlearning elements and dynamics of the first
in order to accommodate the second (Hakuta, 1990). The evidence for this
perspective relied on the fact that some errors in acquiring the second
language were related to the rules of the first language (Hakuta, 1990).
How this hypothesis holds under different types of languages such as
Romance versus non-Western languages has yet to undergo research.
Another new development that has influenced the linguistic argument
for bilingual literacy is the length of time necessary to acquire the
second language. While previously children were believed to have the
ability to learn a language within a year, today researchers believe
that within and across academic settings, the time span is nearer to
five years (Collier, 1992; Ramirez, 1992).
An interesting outcome of studies during the early 1990s however
confirmed that students who do successfully complete bilingual
instruction perform better academically (Collier, 1992; Ramirez, 1992).
These students exhibit more cognitive elasticity including a better
ability to analyse abstract visual patterns. Students who receive
bidirectional bilingual instruction where equal proficiency in both
languages is required perform at an even higher level. Examples of such
programs include international and multi-national education schools.
Multilingualism in computing
Dual language
Hebrew and English keyboard
Multilingualisation (or "m17n") of computer systems can be considered
part of a continuum between
internationalization and localization:
- A localised system has been adapted or converted for a
particular locale (other than the one it was originally developed
for), including the language of the user interface, input, and
display, and features such as time/date display and currency; but
each instance of the system only supports a single locale.
- Multilingualised software supports multiple languages for
display and input simultaneously, but generally has a single user
interface language. Support for other locale features like time,
date, number and currency formats may vary as the system tends
towards full internationalisation. Generally a multilingualised
system is intended for use in a specific locale, whilst allowing for
multilingual content.
- An internationalised system is equipped for use in a range of
locales, allowing for the co-existence of several languages and
character sets in user interfaces and displays. In particular, a
system may not be considered internationalised in the fullest sense
unless the interface language is selectable by the user at runtime.
Translating the user interface is usually part of the
software localization process, which also includes adaptations such
as units and date conversion. Many software applications are available
in several languages, ranging from a handful (the
most spoken languages) to dozens for the most popular applications
(such as
office suites,
web browsers, etc.). Due to the status of
English in computing, software development nearly always uses it
(but see also
Non-English-based programming languages), so almost all commercial
software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual
versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the
English original.
Internet
Multilingualism in music
It is extremely common for music to be written in whatever the
contemporary
lingua franca is. If a song is not written in a common tongue, then
it is usually written in whatever is the predominant language of the
musician's country of origin, or in another largely-recognized language,
such as German, Spanish, or French.[citation
needed]
The bilingual song cycles "there..." and "Sing, Poetry" on the 2011
contemporary classical album
Troika consist of musical settings of Russian poems with their
English self-translations by
Joseph Brodsky and
Vladimir Nabokov, respectively.[47]
Songs with lyrics in multiple languages are known as
macaronic verse.
See also
Policies and
proposals
Education
Other
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Further reading
External links
International Journal of Bilingualism
International Journal of Bilingualism International Symposium on
Bilingualism
International S
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