What is bilingualism? ‘Bilingualism refers to the phenomenon of competence and communication in two languages.’ ~ Agnes Lam The ability to speak two languages The frequent use (as by a community) of two languages The political or institutional recognition of two languages (Merriam Webster Dictionary)

1. Name: Khalani Shabana M.
Semester 3
Paper No: 12 E.L.T.
Unit 4
Year 2013-14
Submit M. K. B. University
IS BILINGUALISM A SKILL OR LIMITATION?

2. • What is bilingualism?
• ‘Bilingualism refers to the
phenomenon of competence
and communication in two
languages.’ ~ Agnes Lam
• The ability to speak two
languages
• The frequent use (as by a
community) of two languages
• The political or institutional
recognition of two languages
(Merriam Webster Dictionary)
INTRODUCTION

3. • Do we compare
bilingual competences
with monolingual
competences?
• People often
compare
monolingual person
with bilingual
person.
MONOLINGUAL COMPETENCES NORMS

4. • Is the bilingual better at one
language than the other?
• If so then there is one
dominant language and
one non dominant
language and by dominant
language it is known as
dominant bilingually.
• It simply means one
language is dominating
over the other language.
RELATIVE COMPETENCES IN TWO LANGUAGES

5. • There are some people who
can speak two languages but
their limitation is that they can
perform in Second language
in particular domains only.
• Such as home and office
• Can we call a person who has
got the mastery over a
particular domain of language
bilingual?
DOMAINS

6. • Can we divide linguistic
components in smaller
components? LSRW Skills
• Such as Reading and
comprehension in one
language is possible, but
writing and speaking is
possible only in one
language. In certain
circumstances it is known as
receptive bilingualism
(having the ability to
understand both the
languages).
COMPONENTS

7. • Bidialectal abilities ~ Bidialectalism
• The phenomenon where by
someone can communicate in
more than two dialects of the
same language. e.g.
Cantonese and Putonghua for
a Chinese speaker.
• Biscriptual competence is the
ability to read more than one script
of the same language. e.g.
Chinese language can be written
both in the new simplified by script
and traditional complex script.
BIDIALECTALISM AND BISCRIPTUAL ABILITIES

8. • The issue regarding definition is
between bilingualism and
multilingualism because
bilingualism often includes
multilingual contexts.
• Patterns of Multilingualism are
similar with bilingualism. e.g.
individual in a society could be
dominant in dominant language
and another non dominant
language.
Bilingualism and
Multilingualism

9. • Linguists differ in the importance they accord to bilingualism.
• Disregarded bilingualism refers to monolingual speaker-
hearer competence in the language.
• The ultimate issue is with the contact of languages ‘the
ultimate locus of contact’.
• Psychological point of view of L1 and L2 Learners
simultaneous and successive bilingualism.
CONCLUSION