BilingualismAccording to Harley, (1995) cited by Maki Nomura, (2003) the term bilingualism refers to “the use of two languages by an individual or a speech community”. He also points out that “it is not necessary for them to be equally fluent, but at least they should be very competent in the foreign language”. This is to say, being bilingual means being able to interact with people in more than one language. This interaction implies the capability to produce and understand a word, a sentence or a discourse in any of the languages shared by the participants. According to Weinreich, (1953) there are three types of bilingualism. Each type depends on the way in which the languages are learned. These types are compound, coordinate and subordinate bilingualism.

Construct analysis (not strong enough)

• Author 1 (chronologically ordered): 1st definition.– Expansion of the term. (same author)

• Contrastive sentence or writers understanding

• Author 2 (Variation of the term)

According to Harley, (1995) cited by Maki Nomura, (2003) the term bilingualism refers to “the use of two languages by an individual or a speech community”. He also points out that “it is not necessary for them to be equally fluent, but at least they should be very competent in the foreign language”. This is to say, being bilingual means being able to interact with people in more than one language. This interaction implies the capability to produce and understand a word, a sentence or a discourse in any of the languages shared by the participants. According to Weinreich, (1953) there are three types of bilingualism. Each type depends on the way in which the languages are learned. These types are compound, coordinate and subordinate bilingualism.

Bilingualism

There is not a generally accepted definition of bilingualism; instead there are several definitions that describe this phenomenon. Mackey (1968, cited by Romaine, 1995, p. 555) considers bilingualism as simply the alternate use of two or more languages. Likewise, Weinreich (1953, cited by Baetens, 1986, p. 5) states that “the practice of alternatively using two languages is called bilingualism and the person involved, bilingual. Whereas Haugen (1953, cited by Romaine, 1995, p. 56) maintains that bilingualism begins when the speaker of one language can produce complete meaningful utterances in the other language. Conversely, bilingualism is defined by Spolsky (1998) as the ability or knowledge developed by people in a language different from their mother tongue. These abilities can diverge from limited skills of language used in specific contexts to a strong mastery of both languages

Construct analysis (stronger but not enough)

• Introductive sentence (denotes writers understanding and revised literature)

• Author 1 (chronologically ordered): 1st definition.

• Author 2 (consolidate author´s 1 definition)• Author 3 (expand the definition)• Author 4 (deepen the element writers want to

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Bilingüismo es un término que ha sido discutido por varios años en el campo de las lenguas por sus múltiples definiciones. Lo primero que se debe caracterizar es el bilingüismo de una persona, es decir como un individuo, o el bilingüismo que caracteriza un grupo social, región o país. Establecer una definición única de bilingüismo sería limitante y arbitrario ya que podría excluir otras distinciones que son propias del concepto. Históricamente, primero se enmarca primera definición de Bloomfield (1933, pp 55-56) quien define bilingüismo desde la perspectiva del "control casi nativo de dos lenguas". Según Baker (2006, p6), esta definición es maximalista y resulta ser limitada en el sentido que no se distingue que significa "control" o cuál sería la referencia para determinar "nativo". Por otro lado está a definición de Diebold (1964) quien habla de una definición donde la persona tiene un bilingüismo incipiente ya que cuenta con habilidades básicas en la segunda lengua, es decir que el individuo conoce ciertas frases o saludos. Estas dos definiciones dan un margen muy amplio o restringido de lo que un "bilingüe" por excluir o incluir muchos posibles perfiles que se podrían considerar o no bilingües.

Otra definición que ha sido cuestionada, es la que Thiery (1978) postula en el sentido de considerar a un "verdadero bilingüe" como alguien que es reconocido por los miembros de las dos comunidades con el mismo nivel social y cultural (p.146). Grosjean (1982, p232) cuestionó la definición en el sentido que los "verdaderos bilingües" que Thiery estudió habían aprendido la lengua antes de los catorce años de edad, hablaban las lenguas en casa, se habían cambiado de una comunidad de lengua a otra y habían sido enseñados en las dos lenguas.

BILINGUALISM

Definitions Key word

Bloomfield (1933, p55-56)

Baker (2006, p6)

Diebold (1964)

Thiery (1978, p146)

Grosjean (1982, p232)

Control - Native

Incipient bilingualism

True bilingual