Bilinguals and Bilingualism

Karen Chong Mei Teng Asah Arumugam Sharissa John Keats Ameera Akhtar

INTRODUCTION

Bilingual can be defined as the usage of at least two languages either by a group of speakers or by an individual.

this paper is to investigate closely the classification of bilinguals according to the degree of fluency and competence in the languages spoken, by age, context, or manner of acquisition of languages.

There are various degrees of bilingualism, and to be a bilingual you do not have to be equally fluent.

This paper is aimed to examine the linguistic research which is mainly focusing on sociolinguistic and language contact studies is to recognize the different types of bilinguals and bilingualism along with their main features.

This article mainly discuss on the importance of bilingualism and some careful planning and learning about bilingual language development.

bilingualism hypothesized in processing mechanism through compound, co-ordinate, and subordinate distinctions.

able to distinguish the difference of bilinguals and bilingualism by highlighting the main characteristics in order to obtain and apply an appropriate and precise methodology.

It depicts the main characteristics of the various types of bilingualism and highlights the multi-dimensionality of bilingualism.

LITERATURE REVIEW

ö (Thompson, 1952) wrote in summarizing this body of literature, “There can be no doubt that the child reared in a bilingual environment is handicapped in his language growth. One can debate the issue as to whether speech facility in two language is worth the consequent retardation in the common language of the realm”.

ö (McLaughlin, 1987) said that, second-language acquisition and first-language acquisition are apparently guided by common principles across languages and are part of the human cognitive system.

ö Rampton (1990) suggests replacing terms such as 'native speaker' and 'mother tongue' with language expertise, language affiliation and language inheritance.

ö Rosenberg (1996) stated that sequential or successive bilingualism happens when a child has one established language before learning a second language, whether in preschool or later (the age of three usually separates simultaneous and sequential language learning).

ö Baker (2000), Cummins (2000), and Skutnabb-Kangas (2000) stresses on the importance of the importance of bilingual children's mother tongue for their overall personal and educational development

ö Transfer across languages can be two-way

ö Baetens Beardsmore (1986), he stated that bilingualism is regarded as occurring on a continuum.

– 5 types of Classification of bilinguals.

Early and later bilinguals

Balanced and dominant bilinguals

Compound, coordinate, and

subordinate bilinguals

“folk” and “elite” bilinguals

Additive and subtractive bilinguals

ö Early and late bilinguals (Baetens Beardsmore (1986)) early bilingualism is defined as the acquisition of more than one language in the pre-adolescent phase of an individual attain native-like linguistic competence in both languages.Late bilingualism has been defined as the acquisition of one language before and the other language after the age of eight years old.

ö Balanced and dominant bilinguals (Peal and Lambert (1962))Balanced bilinguals- individual acquire similar degrees of proficiency and mastery in both languages equallyDominant bilinguals- individuals whom their proficiency in one language is higher than that in the other languages.

ö Compound, coordinate, and subtractive bilinguals (Weinreich (1953)compound bilinguals- one system of meaning for words which is used for both L1 and L2. coordinate bilinguals- one system of meaning is for words that the individuals know in the L1 and the other is for words they know in L2.subordinate bilinguals- linguistic codes of bilinguals’ second language are assumed to be understood and interpreted through their first language L1.

ö Folk and elite bilinguals (Fishman (1977) Folk bilinguals- language minority community whose own language does not have a high status in the predominant language society in which they dwell.Elite bilinguals- individuals who speak a dominant language in a given society and also those who can speak another language which provides them additional value and benefit within the society.

ö Additive bilinguals and Subtractive bilinguals (Lambert (1974)

Additive bilinguals- Bilinguals who can improve their L2 without losing their L1 proficiencySubtractive bilinguals- Those whose L2 is acquired or learned at the cost of losing their L1

METHODOLOGY

OBSERVATION# Observation is observing the action, statement, process of something or

someone. With observing you can have the ability to see or identify the

significant things that you want to identify by watching or listening

carefully of the subject in order to collect the data for your task.

# OBSERVATION fall under QUALITATIVE method

type

s

Casual and Scientific observation

Natural Observation

Subjective and Objective observation

Participant and Non Participant observation

Direct and Indirect observation

Controlled and Non Controlled observation

Structured and Unstructured observation

Natural Observation

Participant observation

# We choose this two type of observation because of this type of

observation is easy for us to collect data that we need.

# Using natural observation we can observe our subject in a any

place and can be oberserve in normal setting. This method have do

not change the behavior of the contestant and we will have zero

effort to change the behavior. We collect the data using participant

observation, where we observe our subject to get the information

that we need.

QUESTIONNAIRE

Questionnaire is one of the method used to collect data. Using this method, we can acquire the evidence that we need from a numerous number of people that become our subject. Most people had a busy day even for student, by using this method we can save time and people can take part by answering the question.

Type of Questionnaires

Structured disguised

questionnaire

Structured non disguised

questionnaire

Non structured disguised

questionnaire

Non structured non disguised questionnaire

The arrangement of the question are listed in a pre-arranged order and the subject does not know the purpose of this survey.

The arrangement of the question are listed in a pre-arranged order and the respondent know the purpose of this survey.

The arrangement of the questions are not structured and the facilitator can ask questions in any sequence freely. Respondents do not know the purpose of this survey.

The arrangement of the questions are not structured and the facilitator can ask questions in any sequence freely. Respondents know the purpose of this survey.

Types of Questions

Closed ended

questions

Open ended

questions

We choose

Structured- disguised

questionnaire

Closed ended questions

Data collected

STRENGTH AND WEAKNESSESAn Investigation through Different Types of Bilinguals and Bilingualism (Karen)

Strength

The way individual acquire each language, the skills such as reading, writing, speaking, and understand of speech, and bilinguals’ repertoire of domain-related rules of language choice are mentioned.

Weakness

The nature of bilinguals is not explain in detail. Such as the performance of the bilingual in certain internal functions is not discussed.

Bilingual Children's Mother Tongue: Why Is It Important for Education?(Amie)

STRENGTH

1) Discuss about how bilingualism has positive effects on children's linguistic and educational development and how the level of development of children's mother tongue is a strong predictor of their second language development.

2) mention about how promotion of mother tongue in school helps to develop student ability in acquiring school language.

WEAKNESS

Does not explain in detail about the type of bilingualism such as compound bilinguals and co-ordinate bilinguals and also about code mixing and code switching which is very curial to know about this for the reader to know, what type of bilingual and problem that occurs when people have bilingual language in order to understand more about this topic.

Raising Bilingual Children (Asha) &Bilingualism in Education (Shasha)

STRENGTH

1) Contain adequate information, arguments, explanation, descriptions, definitions and examples that very helpful for the readers.

2) Use clear and useful language that provides simple opportunity for the readers to comprehend the text comprehensibly.

3) choices of vocabulary and sentence pattern are not complicated and most importantly author avoid ambiguity that enable the readers identify the abstract meaning of the intended information clearly.

CONCLUSION

# All these articles provides a clear and precise description of the types and the characteristics of various bilingualism.

# The bilinguals were classified according to the distinction between the degree of fluency and competence in the languages spoken.

# Knowing two or more languages truly gives kids so many advantages in life.

# Bilingual kids have the advantage of knowing two cultures, of being able to communicate with a wider variety of people, and of possible economic advantages in their future.

# Research has even shown advantages in thinking skills among bilingual individuals

# But deciding to raise bilingual kids is a decision that should be carefully considered as it affects children for the rest of their lives.

APPENDIX – JOURNAL and ARTICLE

APPENDIX - QUESTIONNAIRE

SAMPLE OF ANSWERED QUESTION

APENDIX - PICTURE