BILINGUALISM ‘17 “MIDTERM SUMMARY”
1) Recent linguistic research (e.g. Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch 2002; Pinker & Jackendoff, 2005) differentiates between aspects of language that are special to language code (‘Narrow Language Faculty’, NLF) and the faculty of language in its entirety, including parts that are shared with other psychological abilities found elsewhere in cognition (‘Broad Language Faculty’, BLF).
Language is a system of signs operated by a conceptual base that is the reflection of the socio-cultural background in which the system of signs is put to use (Kecskes 2013)
2. Definition of bilingualism
Bloomfield: “Native-like control of two or more languages.
Kecskes: “Multilingualism (bilingualism) starts to develop when the Conceptual Base is affected by the emergence of the new language. There is hardly any balanced bilingualism because of the dynamism of bilingual development.
Titone (1972): “…the individual’s capacity to speak a SL while following the concepts and structures of that language rather than paraphrasing his or her mother tongue.”
3. Living in Tongues:
French = soul
English = world
My three languages revolve around and inform one another.
I have become permanently “other”.
Either I am at home everywhere or I am nowhere at all.
4. Bilingual Barrier
Why do Spanish speaker do less well than Russian and Chinese students?
- no academic background,
- problems with native tongue (Spanish)
- only Spanish BICS no CALP,
- use little English in class,
- less parental support
Theoretical background:
Jim Cummins: based on Canadian experience he advocated that children first should gain academic mastery of L1 and then switch to L2.
Problem in the U.S.: no valorization of students’ L1, no trained bilingual teachers, no appropriate textbooks.
5. Myths about bilinguals
Myth 1: people can’t learn languages properly after the ‘critical period’ for language acquisition.
Myth 2: bilingual children are less intelligent than monolinguals (or alternatively: bilingual children are more intelligent than monolinguals).
Myth 3: bilingual children are slowed down in their general cognitive development by the burden of handling two languages.
Myth 4: bilingual children speak a ‘mixed’ language in their first years and end up not speaking either language properly.
6. Sequential and simultaneous bilingualism
Sequential bilingualism occurs when a person becomes bilingual by first learning one language and then another.
Simultaneous bilingualism is a form of bilingualism that takes place when a child becomes bilingual by learning two languages from birth.
7.
8. Monolinguals as opposed to Multilinguals.
Monolinguals: Conceptual Base (CB) -------> L1
Multilinguals: Common Underlying Conceptual Base (CUCB) -------------> L1
---------------> L2
CB or CUCB (conceptualizer): concepts, images, preverbal thought, knowledge) + language channel(s) (formulator: lexicon + rules & articulator: system of sounds)
CUCB: declarative (encyclopedical) knowledge, images, concepts, preverbal thought
CUCB Model: concepts develop through two or more language channels
Multicompetence is a dynamically changing state of mind that is characterized by the development of one or more additional language faculties and a qualitative change in the conceptual system that serves as socio-cultural background knowledge for the use of more than one linguistic code system.
9. DEVELOPMENT IN THE DUAL LANGUAGE SYSTEM
n At a certain point of L2 development there is a qualitative change.
Additive period ----à Synergic period
Quantitative ---à Qualitative change
n Under extensive exposure to L2, proficiency improves, word-selection becomes close-to-native, conceptual fluency grows and thinking becomes possible in L2.
ADDITIVE
n The interaction of the two language channels results in the transfer of a sound pattern, lexical item or structure from one language system to another.
n No plural form after a number (Chinese, Spanish)
“There are three new student.”
n No distinction between subject and object pronouns (Chinese, Spanish)
“I gave the forms to she.”
SYNERGIC
n This is where the L2-àL1 influence becomes testable and code-switching becomes possible.
n L2 influence is cognitive and pragmatic rather than syntactic or lexical.
n Results: synergic concepts, code-switching, intercultural style
n The CUCB contains common concepts, culture-specific concepts, and synergic concepts. Common concepts that are attached to both cultures, and the difference between them occurs only at the lexical level. English words such as “salt,” “water,” “ocean,” and others usually have equivalents in most other languages.
n Culture-specific concepts: “tapa” and “flamenco” in Spanish, or “scones” and “pudding” in English, have a specific socio-cultural load attached to them. These concepts are usually not lexicalized in the other language; rather, they are borrowed when L2 is used.
Synergic concepts: Group of concepts that are lexicalised in both languages but have a different socio-cultural load in each language.
In the CUCB of proficient bilinguals the two different socio-cultural loads are blended, which results in a conceptual domain that is not equal to the content of the conceptual domain in either language.
“market” ---”mercado” “lunch- almuerzo ”,
Wifeà kanai, okusan
10. Hall et al’s criticism
1) view of L1 and L2 language knowledge as distinct systems
2) presumption of qualitative distinction between monocompetence and multicompetence
3) assumption of homogeneity of language knowledge across speakers and contexts.
Problems with criticism
n 1) Ignores the fact that NOT ALL language knowledge of bi- or multilingual speakers derives from social-cultural experience of the use of L2 or Lx. Much of non-native speaker knowledge (especially in a foreign language environment) originates through studying the code (FLN) itself rather than emerging in lifelike social experience through language use.
n 2) Second or x language socialization and communicative experience differs greatly from first language socialization and communicative development (Kecskes 2003). L2 or Lx learners cannot go through the same stages of development as in L1 where language development and socialization in language go hand in hand.
n 3) Ignores the effect of L2 on L1. Bidirectional influence (Kecskes & Papp 2000; Noor 2007; Pavlenko & Jarvis 2002)
n 4) Ignores role of salience in language production and comprehension.
11. How do we learn a language?
0-6 PE: physical experience (concrete concepts)
7- on LE: language experience (abstract concepts)
A fully developed concept contains both the concrete and metaphorical aspects (hit, put, lunch, table, circle)
There are abstract concepts that do not originate in concrete concepts (happiness, math, competence)
Concepts are not learned but grow in L1
L2-FL; new concepts are usually learned
L2-SL; new concepts are either learned or grow
Reconceptualization: changing an existing concept, usually adding new information (lunch vs. comida; school –skola)
The age factor: 0-6, 6-12, 12----
Ages 7-8: Vygotsky: in school language becomes the main regulator of thinking
Ages 9-10: Piaget: students enter the period of formal operations (rely on language to gain new knowledge)
Ages 11-12: Basic cognitive development completed; basic linguistic development completed, articulatory based becomes less flexible
These different periods of development raise different problems for bilingual development.
12. Conceptual Fluency and Metaphorical Competence
CF: understanding how the target language encodes concepts. When speaking a SL the learner follows the concepts and structures of that language rather than paraphrasing his or her mother tongue.
There is no native-like competence because concepts are developed through more than one language
MC: idiomatic use of language, ability to understand and use of both literal and figurative language.
13. Development of bilingualism:
simultaneous - sequential
additive -subtractive
acculturation - deculturation
Reasons for code-mixing: underdeveloped CUCB
Reasons for code-switching: 1) conceptual (no equivalent concept, something can be expressed more properly in Lx than in Ly), 2) social (clarification, reinforcement, exclusion, change of attitude, social distance)
14. Semi-lingualism: neither of the language channels is fully developed.
Deficit view: the development of L2 skills necessarily involve a parallel decrease in L1 skills.
The same competence can not develop in both languages.
Benefit view; the development of L2 benefits and enriches L1 use.
15. Bilingualism and intelligence;
Gardner (2003) variety of intelligence: logical-math, verbal-linguistic, visual-spetial, musical, interpersonal, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist.
IQ tests in English
Cognitive differences between monolinguals and bilinguals are created not only by language but environment, schooling, language communities, etc.
Peal & Lambert (1962) positive effect of bilingualism.
16. Mental representation
Compound bilinguals (early) – coordinate bilinguals (late)
Separate storage hypothesis: two independent language storage and retrieval systems
Shared storage hypothesis: two languages are kept in a single memory store
Lexical representation is separate while conceptual representation is shared.
17. Bilingualism and brain
Lateralization: Left hemosphere: language processing, analytic thinking
Right hemosphere: pragmatics, feelings, emotion, creativity, social skills
18. Bilingualism and thinking:
convergent thinking ( one answer), divergent thinking (variety of answers)
creative thinking (flexibility, originality, elaboration [extra details])
bilingualism and metalinguistic awareness (vocabulary, treating language as an object of thought, cognitive control of linguistic processes)
Cognitive styles: Field dependent (see in wholes), Field independent (see in parts, analytic approach)
Maturity leads to more field independent approach.
Bilinguals: selective attention, more field independent
Metalinguistic awareness; thinking about and reflecting upon the nature and functions of language.