Concepts of Bilingualism

1. Content:
• Bilingualism
• Hypothesis of critical period
• language interference in bilingualism

3. • "Bilingual" refers to the ability of a person or a community to speak
and understand two different languages fluently. It indicates that an
individual or a group has the proficiency to communicate effectively
in both languages, whether it's their native language and another
language, or two foreign languages.
• Bilingualism can manifest in various ways. Some people grow up in
environments where two languages are spoken interchangeably, and
they learn both languages simultaneously from childhood. Others
might learn a second language later in life through education,
immersion, or other means. Being bilingual implies being able to
read, write, speak, and comprehend in both languages to a
significant degree.
• Bilingualism can offer several cognitive, cultural, and practical
benefits. It's associated with improved cognitive flexibility, problem-
solving skills, and multitasking abilities. It also facilitates
communication with a broader range of people and can open up
opportunities for work, travel, and cultural exchange.

4. • An individual can be considered bilingual when they have a
proficient and comfortable level of fluency in two different
languages. However, the exact criteria for being considered
bilingual can vary and are not always strictly defined. Here are a
few general guidelines that are often used to determine
bilingualism:
1.Fluency: Bilingual individuals can communicate effectively in
both languages across different contexts—speaking, listening,
reading, and writing.
2.Comfortable Use: Bilinguals can switch between languages
with ease and without confusion. They don't struggle to find
words or phrases in either language.
3.Native-like Proficiency: While it's not necessary to have
native-level proficiency in both languages, bilinguals typically
have a high level of proficiency in at least one of the languages,
often their first or dominant language.

5. 1.Cultural Understanding: Bilingual individuals often have a
good understanding of the cultural nuances, idioms, and social
norms associated with both languages.
2.Contextual Appropriateness: Bilinguals can use the
appropriate language in different situations and adapt their
communication based on the social and cultural context.
3.Linguistic Competence: Bilinguals have a solid grasp of the
grammar, vocabulary, and syntax of both languages.
4.Effective Communication: Bilinguals can convey complex
thoughts, ideas, and emotions in both languages without
significant limitations.

6. • It's important to note that bilingualism exists on a continuum.
Some people might be fully balanced bilinguals, meaning they
have equal proficiency in both languages. Others might be
dominant bilinguals, with one language being stronger than the
other. The level of proficiency can also depend on factors such
as when the languages were learned, the amount of exposure
to each language, and the individual's dedication to maintaining
their language skills.
• Overall, being bilingual is not an all-or-nothing concept. There
are varying degrees of bilingualism, and it's about having a
functional and practical ability to use two languages for effective
communication.

7. Bilingualism
• Language is a human-specific
mechanism. Language ability has
allowed us to transmit knowledge and
develop as a species. According to
Chomsky, one of the most famous
linguists today, who created a theory of
language that demonstrated a revolution
in this field of education, said that a man
has an innate ability to master a
language. The bilingual human brain has
several significant advantages, the use
of a second language increases the
activation of certain parts of the brain.

8. Bilingualism
Bilingualism refers to the ability to use
two languages in everyday life.
Bilingualism is common and is on the rise
in many parts of the world, with perhaps
one in three people being bilingual or
multilingual (Wei, 2000).

9. • Contact between two languages is typical in
regions of many continents, including Europe
(Switzerland, Belgium), Asia (India, Philippines),
Africa (Senegal, South Africa), and North
America (Canada). In the United States, a large
(and growing) number of bilinguals live in
California, Texas, Florida, New York, Arizona, and
New Mexico. In California, for example, by 2035,
it is expected that over 50% of children enrolled
in kindergarten will have grown up speaking a
language other than English (García, McLaughlin,
Spodek, & Saracho, 1995). Similarly, in some
urban areas of Canada such as Toronto, up to
50% of students have a native language other
than English (Canadian Council on Learning,
2008).

10. Collective or mass bilingualism
Collective or mass bilingualism has
been known ever since ancient
times when various people invaded
foreign territories and overwhelmed
local populations not only in size but
also in terms of language, culture
and civilization (the Roman Empire
and its countless colonies; likewise,
the British Empire and its colonies).

11. Collective or mass bilingualism
An important result of collective bilingualism
is the change in the physiognomy of a
language rather than its structure. This
means that the transformations suffered
by a language after the massive contact to
another, in spite of being touched on all
linguistic levels, do not affect the former’s
genetic and original structure. After all,
French and Romanian, for example, have a
different typological structure than Latin, yet
the result materialised into two independent
Romance languages.

12. Bilingualism brings negative consequences…
Early American literature has suggested
that bilingualism brings negative
consequences.
These studies administered standardized
IQ tests to immigrant students, and found
that bilingual children had lower scores
than native English monolinguals. It was
concluded that bilingualism confused and
lowered the mental ability of a child and
should be avoided. Bilingualism was then
a socially stigmatized trait. Advice offered
to parents at that time: Use only English
at home, even if they are not proficient
speakers of English.

13. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
In 1922, in “Tractatus Logico-
Philosophicus,” the philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein wrote, “The
limits of my language mean the
limits of my world.” The words
that we have at our disposal affect
what we see—and the more
words there are, the better our
perception. When we learn to
speak a different language, we
learn to see a bigger world.”
(The New Yorker, 2015).

14. Definition of bilingualism
A very broad definition of bilingualism is offered by
Grosjean (2008) who proposes that “bilingualism is
the regular use of two or more languages (or
dialects), and bilinguals are those people who use
two or more languages (or dialects) in their
everyday lives” (p. 10). Liebkind (1995) proposes
several conditions according to which a person may
be considered bilingual. Besides the criteria of
origin, language proficiency, and language function,
a crucial condition refers to attitudes as well: “if you
feel yourself to be bilingual and are identified as
bilingual by others” (p. 80).

15. The bilingual advantage
Many modern language researchers agree
with that premise. Not only does speaking
multiple languages help us to communicate
but bilingualism (or multilingualism) may
actually confer distinct advantages to the
developing brain. Because a bilingual child
switches between languages, the theory
goes, a child develops enhanced executive
control, or the ability to effectively manage
what are called higher cognitive processes,
such as problem-solving, memory, and
thought.

16. Do children forget their learned languages?

17. Ellen Bialystok´s research
In a set of experiments of the
psychologist Ellen Bialystok (2012) it was
showed that bilinguals did indeed
show enhanced executive control, a
quality that has been linked, among other
things, to better academic performance.
And when it comes to qualities like
sustained attention and switching
between tasks effectively, bilinguals often
come out ahead.

18. Hypothesis of critical period
• The critical period hypothesis says that
there is a period of growth in which full
native competence is possible when
acquiring a language. This period is
from early childhood to adolescence.
The critical period hypothesis has
implications for teachers and learning
programmes. Acquisition theories say
that adults do not acquire languages as
well as children because of external and
internal factors, not because of a lack of
ability.

19. Hypothesis of critical period
• Example
Older learners rarely achieve a
near-native accent. Many people
suggest this is due to them being
beyond the critical period.

20. • The critical period hypothesis or sensitive period
hypothesis claims that there is an ideal time window of brain
development to acquire language, after which further language
acquisition becomes much more difficult and effortful. It is the
subject of a long-standing debate in linguistics and language
acquisition over the extent to which the ability to acquire
language is biologically linked to age. The critical period
hypothesis is derived from the concept of a critical period in the
biological sciences, which refers to a set period in which an
organism must acquire a skill or ability, or said organism will not
be able to acquire it later in life

21. The critical period hypothesis
• The critical period hypothesis was first
proposed by Montreal neurologist Wilder
Penfield and co-author Lamar Roberts in
their 1959 book Speech and Brain
Mechanisms,and was popularized by Eric
Lenneberg in 1967 with Biological
Foundations of Language.

22. The critical period hypothesis
• The critical period hypothesis states that
the first few years of life is the crucial time
in which an individual can acquire a first
language, and that first-language
acquisition relies on neuroplasticity. If
language input does not occur until this
time, the individual will never achieve a full
command of language. There is much
debate over the timing of the critical period
with respect to SLA (second language
acquisition), with estimates ranging
between 2 and 13 years of age.
https://home.hellodriven.com/articles/ho
w-neuroplasticity-changes-the-brain/

23. The critical period hypothesis
The window for learning a second language never
completely closes, certain linguistic aspects appear to
be more affected by the age of the learner than others.
For example, adult second-language learners nearly
always have foreign accent, including some who display
perfect grammar. A possible explanation for why this
foreign accent remains is that pronunciation, or
phonology, is liable to be influenced by the critical
period.[The pronunciation of speech sounds relies on
neuromuscular function. Adults learning a new language
are unlikely to achieve a convincing native accent due to
the age of learning of the new neuromuscular functions,
and therefore pronunciations.

24. language interference in bilingualism
• By bilingualism or linguistic dualism we understand the ability of
an individual or of a community or population to make use of
two different linguistic systems in communication. Language
interference can be regarded as the transfer of elements of
one language into another at different linguistic levels.

25. GENERAL CATEGORIES OF INTERFERENCE BETWEEN
LANGUAGES
SUBSTRATUM Lexical interference, borrowings.
SUPERSTRATUM Phonological interference (sounds and sound
patterns)
ADSTRATUM Formation of words and phrases (false cognitive
forms)

26. Language interference
Language interference is the effect of
language learners’ first language on their
production of the language they are learning. It
means that the speaker’s first language
influences his/her second or and his/her
foreign language. The effect can be on any
aspect of language: grammar, vocabulary,
accent, spelling and so on. Language
interference is considered as one of error
sources (negative transfer). The greater the
differences between the two languages, the
more negative the effects of interference are
likely to be. It will inevitably occur in any
situation where someone has not mastered a
second language.”

27. Language interference
Marlin Dwinastiti (Dwinastiti, M, Language
Interference on
https://marlindwinastiti.wordpress.com/2013/
04/02/language-interference) suggests that
bilingualism is one of the major causes of
language interferences. He regards
interference as a negative aspect of
bilingualism. “When an individual’s
understanding of one language has an
impact on his or her understanding of
another language, that individual is
experiencing language transfer. There can
be negative transfers, otherwise known as
interference, when the understanding of one
language complicates the understanding of
another language.”

28. Language interference
Human learning is fundamentally a
process that involves making
mistakes. Latest studies in linguistics
have shown that when two languages
come into contact, they interfere with
each other phonologically,
syntactically and lexically. First
language interference influences in
learning the target language. It has
positive and negative aspects. The
greater is the difference between
languages, the more negative is the
effect of interference.

29. Bilinguarism
1) Bilingualism refers to the ability to use two languages in everyday life.
2) Collective or mass bilingualism has been known ever since ancient times
when various people invaded foreign territories and overwhelmed local
populations not only in size but also in terms of language, culture and
civilization .
3) A bilingual child switches between languages, it helps to manage
cognitive processes, such as problem-solving, memory, and thought
more effectively.
4) Hypothesis of critical period. (The critical period hypothesis states
that the first few years of life is the crucial time in which an individual
can acquire a first language, and that first-language acquisition relies
on neuroplasticity).
5) Language interference is a negative aspect of bilingualism.

30. Questions
1)Do you agree with Chomsky that second language acquisition increases the activation of
certain parts of the brain? Support your ideas.
2) Who wrote that “the limit of my language means the limit of my world”?
a) Ludwig Wittgenstein b) Ellen Bialystok c) Noam Chomsky
3) Who gave the following definition of bilingualism: “bilingualism is the regular use
of two or more languages (or dialects), and bilinguals are those people who use
two or more languages (or dialects) in their everyday lives”.
a) François Grosjean b) Mark Baker c) Noam Chomsky d) Karmela Liebkind
4) The transfer of elements of one language into another at different linguistic
levels is…
a) Language interference b) bilinguarism c) borrowings d) phonological
interference
5) The critical period hypothesis was first proposed by ..
a) Wilder Penfield b) Noam Chomsky c) Leo Vigotsky d) Eric Lenneberg

31. • Answer 1:
• Noam Chomsky's contributions to the field of linguistics have been significant, particularly his work on the theory of
Universal Grammar and language acquisition. However, the idea that second language acquisition directly and
uniformly increases the activation of certain parts of the brain is not entirely straightforward and is a topic of ongoing
research and debate.
• Chomsky's theories have emphasized the notion of a "critical period" during which language acquisition occurs more
readily and naturally. While this idea suggests that language acquisition might have specific neurological windows, it
doesn't necessarily imply that second language acquisition always leads to increased activation of certain brain parts.
Here are some points to consider:
1. Brain Plasticity: It's widely accepted that the brain exhibits a high degree of plasticity, especially during childhood.
Learning a second language during this period might indeed influence brain structures associated with language
processing, such as Broca's area and Wernicke's area. However, the degree of activation and the specific brain regions
involved can vary based on factors such as age of acquisition, proficiency, and individual cognitive differences.
2. Bilingualism and Brain Structure: Research in neuroimaging has shown that bilingual individuals might have
structural differences in certain brain areas. For instance, some studies suggest that bilinguals might have denser gray
matter in areas related to language processing and executive functions. However, the causal relationship between
these structural differences and bilingualism is still being explored.
3. Functional Activation: The extent to which second language acquisition leads to increased activation of specific brain
regions during language processing is a complex matter. While some brain imaging studies have indicated differential
activation patterns between monolinguals and bilinguals, the interpretation of these findings is nuanced. Activation
differences might stem from various factors, including language proficiency, language dominance, and cognitive
demands of the task.
4. Cognitive Benefits: Bilingualism has been associated with cognitive advantages, such as improved attention control
and cognitive flexibility. These benefits might indeed be reflected in brain activation patterns related to executive
functions and attentional control.
• In summary, while there is evidence to suggest that second language acquisition can influence brain structure and
function, the relationship is multifaceted. Brain activation patterns are influenced by various factors, including the age of
acquisition, proficiency level, cognitive demands, and individual variability. Therefore, while Chomsky's theories have
contributed to our understanding of language acquisition, the specifics of how second language acquisition impacts
brain activation require careful consideration of diverse factors and continued research in the field of neuroimaging and
cognitive neuroscience.

32. Questions
6) According to the hypothesis of critical period the first-language
acquisition relies on …
a) Neuroplasticity b) connection strength c) learning methids d)
organs of speech
7) According to Ellen Bialystok …
a) Bilinguals can switch between tasks effectively b)
bilingualism can confuse and lowere the mental ability