Multilingualism

Last updated

The frontage of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, with text written in eleven of South Africa's twelve official languages Constitutional Court South Africa.jpg
The frontage of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, with text written in eleven of South Africa's twelve official languages
A multilingual sign outside the mayor's office in Novi Sad, Serbia, written in the four official languages of the city: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Pannonian Rusyn Novi Sad mayor office.jpg
A multilingual sign outside the mayor's office in Novi Sad, Serbia, written in the four official languages of the city: Serbian, Hungarian, Slovak, and Pannonian Rusyn
A stenciled danger sign in Singapore written in English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay (the four official languages of Singapore) Quadrilingual danger sign - Singapore (gabbe).jpg
A stenciled danger sign in Singapore written in English, Chinese, Tamil, and Malay (the four official languages of Singapore)
The logo and name of the Swiss federal administration in the four national languages of Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh) Logo der Schweizerischen Eidgenossenschaft.svg
The logo and name of the Swiss federal administration in the four national languages of Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh)

Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called Bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. [1] [2] More than half of all Europeans claim to speak at least one language other than their mother tongue; [3] but many read and write in one language. Being multilingual is advantageous for people wanting to participate in trade, globalization and cultural openness. [4] Owing to the ease of access to information facilitated by the Internet, individuals' exposure to multiple languages has become increasingly possible. People who speak several languages are also called polyglots . [5]

Contents

Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is usually acquired without formal education, by mechanisms about which scholars disagree. [6] Children acquiring two languages natively from these early years are called simultaneous bilinguals. It is common for young simultaneous bilinguals to be more proficient in one language than the other. [7]

People who speak more than one language have been reported to be better at language learning when compared to monolinguals. [8]

Multilingualism in computing can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization. Due to the status of English in computing, software development nearly always uses it (but not in the case of non-English-based programming languages). Some commercial software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the English original.

History

The first recorded use of the word multilingual in the English language occurred in the 1830s. The word is a combination of multi- ("many") and -lingual ("pertaining to languages"). [9] The phenomenon of multilingualism is as old as the very existence of different languages. [10]

Today, evidence of multilingualism in an area includes things such as bilingual signs, which represent the same message in more than one language. Historical examples include glosses in textual sources, which can provide notes in a different language from the source text; macaronic texts which mix together two or more languages with the expectation that the reader will understand both; the existence of separate sacred and vernacular languages (such as Church Latin vs. common forms of Latin, and Hebrew vs. Aramaic and Jewish languages); and the frequency of linguistic borrowings and other results of language contact. [11]

Definition

A bilingual "no trespassing" sign at a construction site in Helsinki, Finland (upper text in Finnish, lower text in Swedish) Bilingual Finnish-Swedish construction area sign in Helsinki, Finland, 2022.jpg
A bilingual "no trespassing" sign at a construction site in Helsinki, Finland (upper text in Finnish, lower text in Swedish)

The definition of multilingualism is a subject of debate in the same way as that of language fluency. At one end of the linguistic continuum, multilingualism may be defined as the mastery of more than one language. The speaker would have knowledge of and control over the languages equivalent to that of a native speaker. At the opposite end of the spectrum would be people who know enough phrases to get around as a tourist using the alternate language. Since 1992, Vivian Cook has argued that most multilingual speakers fall somewhere between minimal and maximal definitions. Cook calls these people multi-competent . [12] [13]

In addition, there is no consistent definition of what constitutes a distinct language. [14] For instance, scholars often disagree whether Scots is a language in its own right or merely a dialect of English. [15] Furthermore, what is considered a language can change, often for purely political reasons. One example is the creation of Serbo-Croatian as a standard language on the basis of the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect to function as umbrella for numerous South Slavic dialects; after the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was split into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin. Another example is the historical dismissal of Ukrainian as a Russian dialect by the Russian tsars to discourage national feelings. [16] Many small independent nations' schoolchildren are today compelled to learn multiple languages because of international interactions. [17] For example, in Finland, all children are required to learn at least three languages: the two national languages (Finnish and Swedish) and one foreign language (usually English). Many Finnish schoolchildren also study further languages, such as German or Russian. [18]

In some large nations with multiple languages, such as India, schoolchildren may routinely learn multiple languages based on where they reside in the country.

In many countries, bilingualism occurs through international relations, which, with English being a global lingua franca, sometimes results in majority bilingualism even when the countries in question have just one domestic official language. This occurs especially in regions such as Scandinavia and the Benelux, as well as among Germanophones, but the phenomenon has also been expanding into some non-Germanic countries. [19]

Acquisition

One view is that of the linguist Noam Chomsky in what he calls the human language acquisition device—a mechanism that enables a learner to recreate correctly the rules and certain other characteristics of language used by surrounding speakers. [20] This device, according to Chomsky, wears out over time, and is not normally available by puberty, which he uses to explain the poor results some adolescents and adults have when learning aspects of a second language (L2).

If language learning is a cognitive process, rather than a language acquisition device, as the school led by Stephen Krashen suggests, there would only be relative, not categorical, differences between the two types of language learning.

Rod Ellis quotes research finding that the earlier children learn a second language, the better off they are, in terms of pronunciation. [lower-alpha 1] European schools generally offer secondary language classes for their students early on, due to the interconnectedness among neighboring countries with different languages. Most European students now study at least two foreign languages, a process strongly encouraged by the European Union. [21]

Based on the research in Ann Fathman's The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability, [22] there is a difference in the rate of learning of English morphology, syntax and phonology based upon differences in age, but the order of acquisition in second language learning does not change with age.

In second language class, students commonly face difficulties in thinking in the target language because they are influenced by their native language and cultural patterns. Robert B. Kaplan believes that in second language classes, foreign students' papers may seem out of focus because the foreign student employs rhetoric and sequences of thought that violate the expectations of the native reader. [23] Foreign students who have mastered syntactic structures have still demonstrated an inability to compose adequate themes, term papers, theses, and dissertations. Robert B. Kaplan describes two key words that affect people when they learn a second language. Logic in the popular, rather than the logician's sense of the word, is the basis of rhetoric, evolved out of a culture; it is not universal. Rhetoric, then, is not universal either, but varies from culture to culture and even from time to time within a given culture. [23] Language teachers know how to predict the differences between pronunciations or constructions in different languages, but they might be less clear about the differences between rhetoric, that is, in the way they use language to accomplish various purposes, particularly in writing. [24]

People who learn multiple languages may also experience positive transfer – the process by which it becomes easier to learn additional languages if the grammar or vocabulary of the new language is similar to those of the languages already spoken. On the other hand, students may also experience negative transfer – interference from languages learned at an earlier stage of development while learning a new language later in life. [25]

Translanguaging also supports the acquisition of new languages. It helps the development of new languages by forming connections from one language to another. Second language acquisition results in a lexical deficit. [26] [ further explanation needed ]

Receptive bilingualism

Receptive bilinguals are those who can understand a second language but who cannot speak it or whose abilities to speak it are inhibited by psychological barriers. Receptive bilingualism is frequently encountered among adult immigrants to the U.S. who do not speak English as a native language but who have children who do speak English natively, usually in part because those children's education has been conducted in English; while the immigrant parents can understand both their native language and English, they speak only their native language to their children. If their children are likewise receptively bilingual but productively English-monolingual, throughout the conversation the parents will speak their native language and the children will speak English. If their children are productively bilingual, however, those children may answer in their parents' native language, in English, or in a combination of both languages, varying their choice of language depending on factors such as the communication's content, context or emotional intensity and the presence or absence of third-party speakers of one language or the other. The third alternative represents the phenomenon of "code-switching" in which the productively bilingual party to a communication switches languages in the course of that communication. Receptively bilingual persons, especially children, may rapidly achieve oral fluency by spending extended time in situations where they are required to speak the language that they theretofore understood only passively. Until both generations achieve oral fluency, not all definitions of bilingualism accurately characterize the family as a whole, but the linguistic differences between the family's generations often constitute little or no impairment to the family's functionality. [27] Receptive bilingualism in one language as exhibited by a speaker of another language, or even as exhibited by most speakers of that language, is not the same as mutual intelligibility of languages; the latter is a property of a pair of languages, namely a consequence of objectively high lexical and grammatical similarities between the languages themselves (e.g., Norwegian and Swedish), whereas the former is a property of one or more persons and is determined by subjective or intersubjective factors such as the respective languages' prevalence in the life history (including family upbringing, educational setting, and ambient culture) of the person or persons. [28]

Order of acquisition

In sequential bilingualism, learners receive literacy instruction in their native language until they acquire a "threshold" literacy proficiency. Some researchers use age three as the age when a child has basic communicative competence in their first language (Kessler, 1984). [29] Children may go through a process of sequential acquisition if they migrate at a young age to a country where a different language is spoken, or if the child exclusively speaks his or her heritage language at home until he or she is immersed in a school setting where instruction is offered in a different language.

In simultaneous bilingualism, the native language and the community language are simultaneously taught. The advantage is literacy in two languages as the outcome. However, the teacher must be well-versed in both languages and also in techniques for teaching a second language.

The phases children go through during sequential acquisition are less linear than for simultaneous acquisition and can vary greatly among children. Sequential acquisition is a more complex and lengthier process, although there is no indication that non-language-delayed children end up less proficient than simultaneous bilinguals, so long as they receive adequate input in both languages. [30]

A coordinate model posits that equal time should be spent in separate instruction of the native language and the community language. The native language class, however, focuses on basic literacy while the community language class focuses on listening and speaking skills. Being bilingual does not necessarily mean that one can speak, for example, English and French.

Outcomes

Research has found that the development of competence in the native language serves as a foundation of proficiency that can be transposed to the second language – the common underlying proficiency hypothesis. [31] [32] Cummins' work sought to overcome the perception propagated in the 1960s that learning two languages made for two competing aims. The belief was that the two languages were mutually exclusive and that learning a second required unlearning elements and dynamics of the first to accommodate the second. [33] The evidence for this perspective relied on the fact that some errors in acquiring the second language were related to the rules of the first language. [33]

Another new development that has influenced the linguistic argument for bilingual literacy is the length of time necessary to acquire a second language. Previously, children were believed to have the ability to learn a language within a year, but today, researchers believe that within and across academic settings, the period is closer to five years. [34] [35] [ needs update? ]

An interesting outcome of studies during the early 1990s, however, confirmed that students who do complete bilingual instruction perform better academically. [34] [35] These students exhibit more cognitive flexibility, including a better ability to analyze abstract visual patterns. Students who receive bidirectional bilingual instruction where equal proficiency in both languages is required will perform at an even higher level. Examples of such programs include international and multi-national education schools.

In individuals

"Pvt. Lloyd A. Taylor, 21-year-old transportation dispatcher at Mitchel Field, New York City, who knows Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese, studies a book on Chinese. A former medical student at Temple University, he passes two hours a day studying languages as a hobby."
This picture was taken during World War II. "Pvt. Lloyd A. Taylor, 21-year-old transportation dispatcher at Mitchel Field, New York City, who knows Latin, Greek, Sp - NARA - 535873.jpg
"Pvt. Lloyd A. Taylor, 21-year-old transportation dispatcher at Mitchel Field, New York City, who knows Latin, Greek, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese, studies a book on Chinese. A former medical student at Temple University, he passes two hours a day studying languages as a hobby."
This picture was taken during World War II.

A multilingual person is someone who can communicate in more than one language actively (through speaking, writing, or signing). Multilingual people can logically speak any language they write in (aside from mute multilingual people [36] ), but they cannot necessarily write in any language they speak. [37] More specifically, bilingual and trilingual people are those in comparable situations involving two or three languages, respectively. A multilingual person is generally referred to as a polyglot, a term that may also refer to people who learn multiple languages as a hobby. [38] [39] Multilingual speakers have acquired and maintained at least one language during childhood, the so-called first language (L1). The first language (sometimes also referred to as the mother tongue) is acquired without formal education, by mechanisms heavily disputed. Children acquiring two languages in this way are called simultaneous bilinguals. Even in the case of simultaneous bilinguals, one language usually dominates over the other. [40]

In linguistics, first language acquisition is closely related to the concept of a "native speaker". According to a view widely held by linguists, a native speaker of a given language has in some respects a level of skill that a second (or subsequent) language learner cannot easily accomplish. Consequently, descriptive empirical studies of languages are usually carried out using only native speakers. This view is, however, slightly problematic, particularly as many non-native speakers demonstrably not only successfully engage with and in their non-native language societies, but in fact may become culturally and even linguistically important contributors (as, for example, writers, politicians, media personalities and performing artists) in their non-native language. In recent years, linguistic research has focused attention on the use of widely known world languages, such as English, as a lingua franca or a shared common language of professional and commercial communities. In lingua franca situations, most speakers of the common language are functionally multilingual.

The reverse phenomenon, where people who know more than one language end up losing command of some or all of their additional languages, is called language attrition. It has been documented that, under certain conditions, individuals may lose their L1 language proficiency completely, after switching to the exclusive use of another language, and effectively "become native" in a language that was once secondary after the L1 undergoes total attrition.

This is most commonly seen among immigrant communities and has been the subject of substantial academic study. The most important factor in spontaneous, total L1 loss appears to be age; in the absence of neurological dysfunction or injury, only young children typically are at risk of forgetting their native language and switching to a new one. [41] Once they pass an age that seems to correlate closely with the critical period, around the age of 12, total loss of a native language is not typical, although it is still possible for speakers to experience diminished expressive capacity if the language is never practiced. [42]

Cognitive ability

There is no evidence for a bilingual advantage in executive function and there is a small bilingual disadvantage in verbal fluency. [26] Some initial reports concluded that people who use more than one language have been reported to be more adept at language learning compared to monolinguals, [8] and this idea persisted in part due to publication bias. [43] Current meta-analyses find no effect. [44]

Individuals who are highly proficient in two or more languages have been reported to have a certain very marginally enhanced or no different executive function, [45] [46] and older onset for dementia. [47] [48] [49] [50] [51] More recently, however, this claim has come under strong criticism [52] [53] with repeated failures to replicate. [54] [55] [56] Yet, many prior studies do not reliably quantify samples of bilinguals under investigation. [57] An emerging perspective is that studies on bilingual and multilingual cognitive abilities need to account for validated and granular quantifications of language experience in order to identify boundary conditions of possible cognitive effects. [58] [59] [60] [61] Second language acquisition results in a lexical deficit due to second language acquisition [26] [ clarification needed ] and bilingualism results in decreased verbal fluency. [46]

Auditory ability

Bilingual and multilingual individuals are shown to have superior auditory processing abilities compared to monolingual individuals. [62] Several investigations have compared auditory processing abilities of monolingual and bilingual individuals using tasks such as gap detection, temporal ordering, pitch pattern recognition etc. In general, results of studies have reported superior performance among bilingual and multilingual individuals. Furthermore, among bilingual individuals, one's level of proficiency in one's second language was also reported to influence auditory processing abilities.

Economic benefits

Bilinguals might have important labor market advantages over monolingual individuals as bilingual people can carry out duties that monolinguals cannot, [63] such as interacting with customers who only speak a minority language. A study in Switzerland has found that multilingualism is positively correlated with an individual's salary, the productivity of firms, and the gross domestic production (GDP); the authors state that Switzerland's GDP is augmented by 10% by multilingualism. [64] A study in the United States by O. Agirdag found that bilingualism has substantial economic benefits, as bilingual people were found to earn around $3,000 more per year in salary than monolinguals. [65]

Psychology

A study in 2012 has shown that using a foreign language reduces decision-making biases. It was surmised that the framing effect disappeared when choices are presented in a second language. As human reasoning is shaped by two distinct modes of thought: one that is systematic, analytical and cognition-intensive, and another that is fast, unconscious and emotionally charged, it was believed that a second language provides a useful cognitive distance from automatic processes, promoting analytical thought and reducing unthinking, emotional reaction. Therefore, those who speak two languages have better critical thinking and decision-making skills. [66] A study published a year later found that switching to a second language seems to exempt bilinguals from social norms and constraints, such as political correctness. [67] In 2014, another study showed that people using a foreign language are more likely to make utilitarian decisions when faced with moral dilemmas, such as the trolley problem and its variations. Participants in this study chose the utilitarian option more often in the Fat Man dilemma when it was presented in a foreign language. For the related Switch Track dilemma, however, the use of a foreign language presented no significant influence on the choices participants made. The authors of this study surmised that a foreign language lacks the emotional impact of one's native language. [68]

Personality

Because it is difficult or impossible to master many of the high-level semantic aspects of a language (including but not limited to its idioms and eponyms) without first understanding the culture and history of the region in which that language evolved, as a practical matter an in-depth familiarity with multiple cultures is a prerequisite for high-level multilingualism. This knowledge of cultures individually and comparatively can form an important part of both what one considers one's identity to be and what others consider that identity to be. [40] [69] Some studies have found that groups of multilingual individuals get higher average scores on tests for certain personality traits such as cultural empathy, open-mindedness and social initiative. [70] [71] The idea of linguistic relativity, which claims that the language people speak influences the way they see the world, can be interpreted to mean that individuals who speak multiple languages have a broader, more diverse view of the world, even when speaking only one language at a time. [72] Some bilinguals feel that their personality changes depending on which language they are speaking; [73] thus multilingualism is said to create multiple personalities. Xiao-lei Wang states in her book Growing up with Three Languages: Birth to Eleven: "Languages used by speakers with one or more than one language are used not just to represent a unitary self, but to enact different kinds of selves, and different linguistic contexts create different kinds of self-expression and experiences for the same person." [74] However, there has been little rigorous research done on this topic and it is difficult to define "personality" in this context. François Grosjean wrote: "What is seen as a change in personality is most probably simply a shift in attitudes and behaviors that correspond to a shift in situation or context, independent of language." [75] However, the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, which states that a language shapes our vision of the world, may suggest that a language learned by a grown-up may have much fewer emotional connotations and therefore allow a more serene discussion than a language learned by a child and to that respect more or less bound to a child's perception of the world.

Hyperpolyglots and savants

Many polyglots know up to five or six languages, but the frequency of polyglotism drops off sharply past this point. [76] [39] Those who know more languages than five or six—Michael Erard suggests eleven or more, while Usman W. Chohan suggests six to eight (depending on proficiency) or more—are sometimes classed as hyperpolyglots. [77] [76] [78] Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti, for example, was an Italian priest reputed to have spoken anywhere from 30 to 72 languages. [39] [78]

The term savant, in a general sense, may refer to any individual with a natural or innate talent for a particular field; however, people diagnosed with savant syndrome are specifically individuals with significant mental disabilities who demonstrate certain profound and prodigious capacities or certain abilities far in excess of what would usually be considered normal, [79] [80] occasionally including a prodigious capacity for languages. Savant syndrome is almost always associated with an increased memory capacity of some sort, which can, for certain savants, aid in storing and retrieving knowledge of different languages. [81] In 1991, for example, linguists Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli described a man, named Christopher, who learned sixteen languages even with a non-verbal IQ between 40 and 70. Christopher was born in 1962, and he was diagnosed with brain damage approximately six months after his birth. [82] Despite being institutionalized because he was unable to take care of himself, Christopher had a verbal IQ of 89, could speak English with no impairment, and could learn subsequent languages with apparent ease. This facility with language and communication is considered to be unusual for most diagnosed with savant syndrome. [83]

Neuroscience

In communities

Croatian-Italian bilingual plate on a public building in Pula/Pola (Istria) Pola 07.jpg
Croatian-Italian bilingual plate on a public building in Pula/Pola (Istria)
A bilingual sign in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In Brussels, both Dutch and French are official languages. Brussels signs.jpg
A bilingual sign in Brussels, the capital of Belgium. In Brussels, both Dutch and French are official languages.
A multilingual sign at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier in Macau. At the top are Portuguese and Chinese, which are the official languages of Macau, while at the bottom are Japanese and English, which are common languages used by tourists (English is also one of Hong Kong's two official languages). Multilingual sign in Macau.png
A multilingual sign at the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Pier in Macau. At the top are Portuguese and Chinese, which are the official languages of Macau, while at the bottom are Japanese and English, which are common languages used by tourists (English is also one of Hong Kong's two official languages).
A caution message in English, Kannada and Hindi found in Bangalore, India MultilingualismEnglishKannadaHindi.jpg
A caution message in English, Kannada and Hindi found in Bangalore, India
The three-language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway station in Chennai (Madras). Almost all railway stations in India have signs like these in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language(s)). Trisulam railway station nameboard.JPG
The three-language (Tamil, English and Hindi) name board at the Tirusulam suburban railway station in Chennai (Madras). Almost all railway stations in India have signs like these in three or more languages (English, Hindi and the local language(s)).
Multilingual sign at Vancouver International Airport, international arrivals area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a video screen that rotates through additional languages. YVR intl arrivals signage 2.jpg
Multilingual sign at Vancouver International Airport, international arrivals area. Text in English, French, and Chinese is a permanent feature of this sign, while the right panel of the sign is a video screen that rotates through additional languages.
Multilingual sign at an exit of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay, Philippines. Three or four languages are shown: Japanese/Mandarin Chinese ("deguchi" or "chukou", respectively), English ("exit") and Korean ("chulgu"). While Filipinos themselves are anglophones, such signs cater to the growing number of Koreans and other foreigners in the country. SPM A7786.jpg
Multilingual sign at an exit of SM Mall of Asia in Pasay, Philippines. Three or four languages are shown: Japanese/Mandarin Chinese ("deguchi" or "chūkǒu", respectively), English ("exit") and Korean ("chulgu"). While Filipinos themselves are anglophones, such signs cater to the growing number of Koreans and other foreigners in the country.
Multilingual message at a public toilet in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines that prohibits foot washing. Text is written in six languages: English, Filipino, Cebuano, Chinese, Korean, and Russian, from top to bottom. Multilingual message at a comfort room in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines.jpg
Multilingual message at a public toilet in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, Philippines that prohibits foot washing. Text is written in six languages: English, Filipino, Cebuano, Chinese, Korean, and Russian, from top to bottom.
The name of a train found in South India written in four languages: Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and English. Boards like this are common on trains that pass through two or more states where the languages spoken are different. Quadrilingual Train Name written in Kannada-Hindi-Tamil-English.jpg
The name of a train found in South India written in four languages: Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, and English. Boards like this are common on trains that pass through two or more states where the languages spoken are different.
A trilingual (Arabic, English and Urdu) sign in the UAE in the three widely spoken languages in the UAE UAE signboard.jpg
A trilingual (Arabic, English and Urdu) sign in the UAE in the three widely spoken languages in the UAE

Widespread multilingualism is one form of language contact. Multilingualism was common in the past: in early times, when most people were members of small language communities, it was necessary to know two or more languages for trade or any other dealings outside one's town or village, and this holds good today in places of high linguistic diversity such as Sub-Saharan Africa and India. Linguist Ekkehard Wolff estimates that 50% of the population of Africa is multilingual. [84]

In multilingual societies, not all speakers need to be multilingual. Some states can have multilingual policies and recognize several official languages, such as Canada (English and French). In some states, particular languages may be associated with particular regions in the state (e.g., Canada) or with particular ethnicities (e.g., Malaysia and Singapore). When all speakers are multilingual, linguists classify the community according to the functional distribution of the languages involved:

Note that the terms given above all refer to situations describing only two languages. In cases of an unspecified number of languages, the terms polyglossia, omnilingualism, and multipart-lingualism are more appropriate.

Taxell's paradox refers to the notion that monolingual solutions are essential to the realization of functional bilingualism, with multilingual solutions ultimately leading to monolingualism. The theory is based on the observation of the Swedish language in Finland in environments such as schools is subordinated to the majority language Finnish for practical and social reasons, despite the positive characteristics associated with mutual language learning. [86] [87]

Interaction between speakers of different languages

Whenever two people meet, negotiations take place. If they want to express solidarity and sympathy, they tend to seek common features in their behavior. If speakers wish to express distance towards or even dislike of the person they are speaking to, the reverse is true, and differences are sought. This mechanism also extends to language, as described by the communication accommodation theory.

Some multilingual people use code-switching, which involves swapping between languages. In many cases, code-switching allows speakers to participate in more than one cultural group or environment. Code-switching may also function as a strategy where proficiency is lacking. Such strategies are common if the vocabulary of one of the languages is not very elaborated for certain fields, or if the speakers have not developed proficiency in certain lexical domains, as in the case of immigrant languages.

This code-switching appears in many forms. If a speaker has a positive attitude towards both languages and towards code-switching, many switches can be found, even within the same sentence. [88] If however, the speaker is reluctant to use code-switching, as in the case of a lack of proficiency, he might knowingly or unknowingly try to camouflage his attempt by converting elements of one language into elements of the other language through calquing. This results in speakers using terms like courrier noir (literally, mail that is black) in French, instead of the proper word for blackmail in French, chantage.

Sometimes pidgins develop. A pidgin is a fusion of two or more languages that is grammatically simplified but can be understood by native speakers of any of the original languages. Some pidgins develop into "real" creole languages (such as Papiamento in Curaçao or Singlish in Singapore), while others simply evolve into slangs or jargons (such as Helsinki slang, which remains more or less mutually intelligible with standard Finnish and Swedish).[ clarification needed ] In other cases, prolonged influence of languages on each other may have the effect of changing one or both of them to the point a new, non-creole language is born. For example, many linguists believe that the Occitan language and the Catalan language were formed because a population speaking a single Occitano-Romance language was divided by the political spheres of influence of France and Spain, respectively. Yiddish is a complex blend of Middle High German with Hebrew and also has borrowings from Slavic languages.

Bilingual interaction can even take place without speakers switching between languages or fusing them together. In certain areas, it is not uncommon for speakers to use a different language within the same conversation. This phenomenon is found, amongst other places, in Scandinavia. Most speakers of Swedish, Norwegian and Danish can communicate with each other speaking their respective languages, while few can speak both (people used to these situations often adjust their language, avoiding words that are not found in the other language or that can be misunderstood). Using different languages is usually called non-convergent discourse, a term introduced by the Dutch linguist Reitze Jonkman.[ citation needed ] To a certain extent, this situation also exists between Dutch and Afrikaans, although everyday contact is fairly rare because of the distance between the two respective communities. Another example is the former state of Czechoslovakia, where two closely related and mutually intelligible languages (Czech and Slovak) were in common use. Most Czechs and Slovaks understand both languages, although they would use only one of them (their respective mother tongue) when speaking. For example, in Czechoslovakia, it was common to hear two people talking on television each speaking a different language without any difficulty understanding each other. This bilingualism still exists nowadays, although it has started to deteriorate since Czechoslovakia split up. [89]

Computing

Dual-language Hebrew and English keyboard Hebkeyboard.JPG
Dual-language Hebrew and English keyboard

With emerging markets and expanding international cooperation, business users expect to be able to use software and applications in their own language. [90] Multilingualisation (or "m17n", where "17" stands for 17 omitted letters) of computer systems can be considered part of a continuum between internationalization and localization:

Translating the user interface is usually part of the software localization process, which also includes adaptations such as units and date conversion. Many software applications are available in several languages, ranging from a handful (the most spoken languages) to dozens for the most popular applications (such as office suites, web browsers, etc.). Due to the status of English in computing, software development nearly always uses it (but see also Non-English-based programming languages), so almost all commercial software is initially available in an English version, and multilingual versions, if any, may be produced as alternative options based on the English original.

The Multilingual App Toolkit (MAT) [91] was first released in concert with the release of Windows 8 as a way to provide developers a set of free tooling that enabled adding languages to their apps with just a few clicks, in large part due to the integration of a free, unlimited license to both the Microsoft Translator machine translation service and the Microsoft Language Platform service, along with platform extensibility to enable anyone to add translation services into MAT. Microsoft engineers and inventors of MAT Jan A. Nelson and Camerum Lerum have continued to drive the development of the tools, working with third parties and standards bodies to ensure that broad availability of multilingual app development is provided. [92] With the release of Windows 10, MAT is now delivering support for cross-platform development for Universal Windows Platform apps as well as for iOS and Android apps.

Internet

English-speaking countries

According to Hewitt (2008)[ full citation needed ] entrepreneurs in London from Poland, China, and Turkey tend to use English for communication with customers, suppliers, and banks but their native languages for work tasks and other social purposes. Even in English-speaking countries, immigrants can often still use their mother tongue in the workplace thanks to the presence of other immigrants in that workplace who come from the same place. Kovacs (2004) describes this phenomenon in Australia with Finnish immigrants in the construction industry who spoke Finnish during working hours. [93] Although foreign languages may be used in the workplace, English is still a key working skill.

Asia

Many Asian companies, due to increasing globalization, have recently been focusing more and more on their employees' English proficiency. Especially in South Korea since the 1990s, Asian companies have lately used different English language tests to evaluate job applicants, and the standards for these tests continue to be raised. Meanwhile, Japan ranks 53rd out of 100 countries in 2019 EF English Proficiency Index, amid calls for this to improve in time for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.[ citation needed ][ needs update ]

Within multiracial countries such as Malaysia and Singapore, it is not unusual for one to speak two or more languages, albeit with varying degrees of fluency. [94] [95] [96] Some are proficient in several Chinese varieties, given the linguistic diversity of the ethnic Chinese community in both countries. In Singapore, bilingualism is embraced in the education system with English as the medium of instruction and the official mother tongue taught as a second language. [97]

Africa

In Africa, knowledge of English is important not only for multinational companies but also in the fields of engineering, chemistry, electricity and aeronautics. A study directed by Hill and van Zyl (2002) shows that in South Africa young black engineers used English most often for communication and documentation. However, Afrikaans and other local languages were also used to explain particular concepts to workers in order to ensure understanding and cooperation. [98]

Europe

A Welsh Government video of an English medium school in Wales, where introducing a second language (Welsh) has boosted the exam results

Languages that are used in multiple countries include:

English is a commonly taught second language at schools, so it is also the most common choice for two speakers, whose native languages are different. However, some languages are so close to each other that it is generally more common when meeting to use their mother tongue rather than English. These language groups include:

In multilingual countries such as Belgium (Dutch, French, and German), Finland (Finnish and Swedish), Switzerland (German, French, Italian, and Romansh), Luxembourg (Luxembourgish, French, and German), Spain (Spanish, Catalan, Basque, and Galician), and Malta (Maltese, English, and Italian), it is common to see people who have mastered two or even three of their country's chief languages.

Many minor Russian ethnic groups, such as Tatars, Bashkirs and others, are also multilingual. Moreover, with the beginning of the compulsory study of the Tatar language in Tatarstan, there has been an increase in knowledge of Tatar among the natively Russian-speaking population of the republic. [99]

Continued global diversity has led to an increasingly multilingual population. Europe has become an excellent model to observe this newly diversified culture. The expansion of the European Union with its open labour market has provided opportunities both for well-trained professionals and unskilled workers to move to new countries to seek employment. Political changes and turmoil have also led to migration and the creation of new and more complex multilingual workplaces. In most wealthy and secure countries, immigrants are found mostly in low-paid jobs but also, increasingly, in high-status positions. [100]

Music

It is extremely common for music to be written in whatever the contemporary lingua franca is. If a song is not written in a common tongue, then it is usually written in whatever is the predominant language in the musician's country of origin, or in another widely recognized language, such as English, German, Spanish, or French. [101]

The bilingual song cycles "there..." and "Sing, Poetry" on the 2011 contemporary classical album Troika consist of musical settings of Russian poems with their English self-translation by Joseph Brodsky and Vladimir Nabokov, respectively. [102]

Songs with lyrics in multiple languages are known as macaronic verse. [103]

Literature

Fiction

Multilingual stories, essays, and novels are often written by immigrants and second generation American authors. [104] [105] Chicana author Gloria E. Anzaldúa, a major figure in the fields Third World Feminism, Postcolonial Feminism, and Latino philosophy explained the author's existential sense of obligation to write multilingual literature. [106] An often quoted passage, from her collection of stories and essays entitled Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza , states:

"Until I am free to write bilingually and to switch codes without having always to translate, while I still have to speak English or Spanish when I would rather speak Spanglish, and as long as I have to accommodate the English speakers rather than having them accommodate me, my tongue will be illegitimate. I will no longer be made to feel ashamed of existing. I will have my voice: Indian, Spanish, white. I will have my serpent's tongue – my woman's voice, my sexual voice, my poet's voice. I will overcome the tradition of silence". [107]

Multilingual novels by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie display phrases in Igbo with translations, as in her early works Purple Hibiscus and Half of a Yellow Sun . However, in her later novel Americanah , the author does not offer translations of non-English passages. [107] The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros is an example of Chicano literature that leaves Spanish words and phrases untranslated (though italicized) throughout the text. [108]

American novelists who use foreign languages (outside of their own cultural heritage) for literary effect include Cormac McCarthy, who uses untranslated Spanish and Spanglish in his fiction. [109]

Poetry

Multilingual poetry is prevalent in the United States' Latino literature, where code-switching and translanguaging between English, Spanish, and Spanglish is common within a single poem or throughout a book of poems. [110] Latino poetry is also written in Portuguese and can include phrases in Nahuatl, Mayan, Huichol, Arawakan, and other indigenous languages related to the Latino experience. Contemporary multilingual Latino American poets include Giannina Braschi, Ana Castillo, Sandra Cisneros, and Guillermo Gómez-Peña. [111]

Film

The 2021 Indian documentary film Dreaming of Words traces the life and work of Njattyela Sreedharan, a fourth standard drop-out, who compiled a multilingual dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages: Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. [112] [113] [114] Travelling across four states and doing extensive research, he spent twenty five years [115] making this multilingual dictionary.

See also

Notes

Related Research Articles

In bilingual education, students are taught in two languages. It is distinct from learning a second language as a subject because both languages are used for instruction in different content areas like math, science, and history. The time spent in each language depends on the model. For example, some models focus on providing education in both languages throughout a student's entire education while others gradually transition to education in only one language. The ultimate goal of bilingual education is fluency and literacy in both languages through a variety of strategies such as translanguaging and recasting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Code-switching</span> Changing between languages during a single conversation

In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. These alternations are generally intended to influence the relationship between the speakers, for example, suggesting that they may share identities based on similar linguistic histories.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First language</span> Language a person is exposed to from birth

A first language (L1), native language, native tongue, or mother tongue is the first language a person has been exposed to from birth or within the critical period. In some countries, the term native language or mother tongue refers to the language of one's ethnic group rather than the individual's actual first language. Generally, to state a language as a mother tongue, one must have full native fluency in that language.

A heritage language is a minority language learned by its speakers at home as children, and difficult to be fully developed because of insufficient input from the social environment. The speakers grow up with a different dominant language in which they become more competent. Polinsky and Kagan label it as a continuum that ranges from fluent speakers to barely speaking individuals of the home language. In some countries or cultures which determine a person's mother tongue by the ethnic group they belong to, a heritage language would be linked to the native language.

Language transfer is the application of linguistic features from one language to another by a bilingual or multilingual speaker. Language transfer may occur across both languages in the acquisition of a simultaneous bilingual, from a mature speaker's first language (L1) to a second language (L2) they are acquiring, or from an L2 back to the L1. Language transfer is most commonly discussed in the context of English language learning and teaching, but it can occur in any situation when someone does not have a native-level command of a language, as when translating into a second language. Language transfer is also a common topic in bilingual child language acquisition as it occurs frequently in bilingual children especially when one language is dominant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Language immersion</span> Use of two languages across a variety of educational subjects

Language immersion, or simply immersion, is a technique used in bilingual language education in which two languages are used for instruction in a variety of topics, including maths, science, or social studies. The languages used for instruction are referred to as the L1 and the L2 for each student, with L1 being the student's native language and L2 being the second language to be acquired through immersion programs and techniques. There are different types of language immersion that depend on the age of the students, the classtime spent in L2, the subjects that are taught, and the level of participation by the speakers of L1.

Monoglottism or, more commonly, monolingualism or unilingualism, is the condition of being able to speak only a single language, as opposed to multilingualism. In a different context, "unilingualism" may refer to a language policy which enforces an official or national language over others.

Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning—otherwise referred to as L2acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific discipline devoted to studying that process. This involves learning an additional language after the first language is established, typically through formal instruction or immersion. A central theme in SLA research is that of interlanguage: the idea that the language that learners use is not simply the result of differences between the languages that they already know and the language that they are learning, but a complete language system in its own right, with its own systematic rules. This interlanguage gradually develops as learners are exposed to the targeted language. The order in which learners acquire features of their new language stays remarkably constant, even for learners with different native languages and regardless of whether they have had language instruction. However, languages that learners already know can have a significant influence on the process of learning a new one. This influence is known as language transfer.

Sequential bilingualism occurs when a person becomes bilingual by first learning one language and then another. The process is contrasted with simultaneous bilingualism, in which both languages are learned at the same time.

Bilingualism, a subset of multilingualism, means having proficiency in two languages. A bilingual individual is traditionally defined as someone who understands and produces two languages on a regular basis. A bilingual individual's initial exposure to both languages may start in early childhood, e.g. before age 3, but exposure may also begin later in life, in monolingual or bilingual education. Equal proficiency in a bilingual individuals' languages is rarely seen as it typically varies by domain. For example, a bilingual individual may have greater proficiency for work-related terms in one language, and family-related terms in another language.

Language attrition is the process of decreasing proficiency in or losing a language. For first or native language attrition, this process is generally caused by both isolation from speakers of the first language ("L1") and the acquisition and use of a second language ("L2"), which interferes with the correct production and comprehension of the first. Such interference from a second language is likely experienced to some extent by all bilinguals, but is most evident among speakers for whom a language other than their first has started to play an important, if not dominant, role in everyday life; these speakers are more likely to experience language attrition. It is common among immigrants that travel to countries where languages foreign to them are used. Second language attrition can occur from poor learning, practice, and retention of the language after time has passed from learning. This often occurs with bilingual speakers who do not frequently engage with their L2.

Bimodal bilingualism is an individual or community's bilingual competency in at least one oral language and at least one sign language, which utilize two different modalities. An oral language consists of a vocal-aural modality versus a signed language which consists of a visual-spatial modality. A substantial number of bimodal bilinguals are children of deaf adults (CODA) or other hearing people who learn sign language for various reasons. Deaf people as a group have their own sign language(s) and culture that is referred to as Deaf, but invariably live within a larger hearing culture with its own oral language. Thus, "most deaf people are bilingual to some extent in [an oral] language in some form". In discussions of multilingualism in the United States, bimodal bilingualism and bimodal bilinguals have often not been mentioned or even considered. This is in part because American Sign Language, the predominant sign language used in the U.S., only began to be acknowledged as a natural language in the 1960s. However, bimodal bilinguals share many of the same traits as traditional bilinguals, as well as differing in some interesting ways, due to the unique characteristics of the Deaf community. Bimodal bilinguals also experience similar neurological benefits as do unimodal bilinguals, with significantly increased grey matter in various brain areas and evidence of increased plasticity as well as neuroprotective advantages that can help slow or even prevent the onset of age-related cognitive diseases, such as Alzheimer's and dementia.

Crosslinguistic influence (CLI) refers to the different ways in which one language can affect another within an individual speaker. It typically involves two languages that can affect one another in a bilingual speaker. An example of CLI is the influence of Korean on a Korean native speaker who is learning Japanese or French. Less typically, it could also refer to an interaction between different dialects in the mind of a monolingual speaker. CLI can be observed across subsystems of languages including pragmatics, semantics, syntax, morphology, phonology, phonetics, and orthography. Discussed further in this article are particular subcategories of CLI—transfer, attrition, the complementarity principle, and additional theories.

Neuroscience of multilingualism is the study of multilingualism within the field of neurology. These studies include the representation of different language systems in the brain, the effects of multilingualism on the brain's structural plasticity, aphasia in multilingual individuals, and bimodal bilinguals. Neurological studies of multilingualism are carried out with functional neuroimaging, electrophysiology, and through observation of people who have suffered brain damage.

Heritage language learning, or heritage language acquisition, is the act of learning a heritage language from an ethnolinguistic group that traditionally speaks the language, or from those whose family historically spoke the language. According to a commonly accepted definition by Valdés, heritage languages are generally minority languages in society and are typically learned at home during childhood. When a heritage language learner grows up in an environment with a dominant language that is different from their heritage language, the learner appears to be more competent in the dominant language and often feels more comfortable speaking in that language. "Heritage language" may also be referred to as "community language", "home language", and "ancestral language".

Multi-competence is a concept in second language acquisition formulated by Vivian Cook that refers to the knowledge of more than one language in one person's mind. From the multicompetence perspective, the different languages a person speaks are seen as one connected system, rather than each language being a separate system. People who speak a second language are seen as unique multilingual individuals, rather than people who have merely attached another language to their repertoire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Translingualism</span> Aspects relevant across several languages

Translingual phenomena are words and other aspects of language that are relevant in more than one language. Thus "translingual" may mean "existing in multiple languages" or "having the same meaning in many languages"; and sometimes "containing words of multiple languages" or "operating between different languages". Translingualism is the phenomenon of translingually relevant aspects of language; a translingualism is an instance thereof. The word comes from trans-, meaning "across", and lingual, meaning "having to do with languages (tongues)"; thus, it means "across tongues", that is, "across languages". Internationalisms offer many examples of translingual vocabulary. For example, international scientific vocabulary comprises thousands of translingual words and combining forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bilingual memory</span>

Bilingualism is the regular use of two fluent languages, and bilinguals are those individuals who need and use two languages in their everyday lives. A person's bilingual memories are heavily dependent on the person's fluency, the age the second language was acquired, and high language proficiency to both languages. High proficiency provides mental flexibility across all domains of thought and forces them to adopt strategies that accelerate cognitive development. People who are bilingual integrate and organize the information of two languages, which creates advantages in terms of many cognitive abilities, such as intelligence, creativity, analogical reasoning, classification skills, problem solving, learning strategies, and thinking flexibility.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese language in the United States</span> Chinese languages; the third-most spoken after English and Spanish

Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese among other varieties, is the third most-spoken language in the United States, and is mostly spoken within Chinese-American populations and by immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, especially in California and New York. Around 2004, over 2 million Americans spoke varieties of Chinese, with Mandarin becoming increasingly common due to immigration from mainland China and to some extent Taiwan. Within this category, approximately one third of respondents described themselves as speaking Cantonese or Mandarin specifically, with the other two thirds answering "Chinese", despite the lack of mutual intelligibility between different varieties of Chinese. This phenomenon makes it more difficult to readily identify the relative prevalence of any single Chinese language in the United States.

Translanguaging is a term that can refer to different aspects of multilingualism. It can describe the way bilinguals and multilinguals use their linguistic resources to make sense of and interact with the world around them. It can also refer to a pedagogical approach that utilizes more than one language within a classroom lesson. The term "translanguaging" was coined in the 1980s by Cen Williams in his unpublished thesis titled “An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Methods in the Context of Bilingual Secondary Education.” Williams used the term to describe the practice of using two languages in the same lesson, which differed from many previous methods of bilingual education that tried to separate languages by class, time, or day. In addition, Vogel and Garcia argued that translanguaging theory posits that rather than possessing two or more autonomous language systems, as previously thought when scholars described bilingual or multilingual speakers, bilinguals and multilingual speakers select and deploy their languages from a unitary linguistic repertoire. However, the dissemination of the term, and of the related concept, gained traction decades later due in part to published research by Ofelia García, among others. In this context, translanguaging is an extension of the concept of languaging, the discursive practices of language speakers, but with the additional feature of using multiple languages, often simultaneously. It is a dynamic process in which multilingual speakers navigate complex social and cognitive demands through strategic employment of multiple languages.

References

  1. Tucker, G. Richard (1999), A Global Perspective on Bilingualism and Bilingual Education (PDF), Carnegie Mellon University, archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2019, retrieved 8 May 2018
  2. Valdés, Guadalupe (2012). "Multilingualism". Linguistic Society of America. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  3. "Europeans and their languages, a survey co-ordinated by the European Commission" (PDF). European Commission. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 February 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  4. "The importance of multilingualism". multilingualism.org. Archived from the original on 28 August 2010. Retrieved 16 September 2010.
  5. "Polyglot". Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. Thefreedictionary.com. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
  6. Kennison, Shelia M. (30 July 2013). Introduction to language development. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. ISBN   978-1-4129-9606-8. OCLC   830837502.
  7. Taeschner, T. (1983). The Sun is Feminine: A Study on Language Acquisition in Bilingual Children. Springer Series in Language and Communication. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. p. 4. ISBN   978-3-642-48329-5. OCLC   858927749. Archived from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  8. 1 2 Kaushanskaya M, Marian V (2009). "The bilingual advantage in novel word learning". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 16 (4): 705–710. doi: 10.3758/PBR.16.4.705 . PMID   19648456.
  9. "multilingual, adj. & n." . Oxford English Dictionary. 2023. Retrieved 30 December 2023.
  10. King, Lid (2018). "The Impact of Multilingualism on Global Education and Language Learning" (PDF). 4. Retrieved 30 December 2023. The world has always been multilingual
  11. Chapelle, Carol A., ed. (30 January 2013). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics (1 ed.). Wiley (published 2013). pp. 2526–2531. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0511. ISBN   978-1-4051-9473-0.
  12. "Multi-competence definition". viviancook.uk. Archived from the original on 22 October 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  13. Paradowski MB, Bator A (2016). "Perceived effectiveness of language acquisition in the process of multilingual upbringing by parents of different nationalities". International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 21 (6): 1–19. doi:10.1080/13670050.2016.1203858. S2CID   148407626.
  14. Cook, Vivian (2008). Second Language Learning and Language Teaching. Hodder Education. ISBN   978-0-340-95876-6.
  15. A.J. Aitken in The Oxford Companion to the English Language, Oxford University Press 1992. p.894
  16. Ems Ukaz
  17. "Writing With English As A Second Language". Foreign-Language.org. Archived from the original on 21 April 2015.
  18. Korhonen, Muusa (22 January 2022). "Foreign Languages in Finland's Educational System". The New Federalist. Archived from the original on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 22 January 2022.
  19. "English as a second language: Who in Europe speaks it best?". Europe Language Jobs. 31 July 2018. Archived from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  20. Santrock, John W. (2008). Bilingualism and Second-Language Learning. A Topical Approach to Life-Span Development (4th ed.) (pp. 330–335). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
  21. "Most EU students learn two foreign languages: Study". EurActiv. 28 September 2009. Archived from the original on 13 January 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  22. Fathman, Ann (1975). "The Relationship Between Age and Second Language Productive Ability". Language Learning. 25 (2). Wiley: 245–253. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1975.tb00244.x. ISSN   0023-8333.
  23. 1 2 Kaplan, Robert B. (1966). "Cultural thought patterns in intercultural education". Language Learning. 16 (1–2): 1–20. doi:10.1111/j.1467-1770.1966.tb00804.x.
  24. Gadda, George (1994). "Writing and Language Socialization Across Cultures: Some Implications for the classroom". In Peitzman, Faye; Gadda, George (eds.). With Different Eyes: Insights into Teaching Language Minority Students Across the Disciplines. Addison-Wesley. pp. 43–56. ISBN   978-0-8013-1282-3.
  25. Pavlenko, Aneta (2 June 2015). "Can a second language help you learn a third?". Psychology Today: Life as a Bilingual. Archived from the original on 26 April 2023. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  26. 1 2 3 Bylund, Emanuel; Antfolk, Jan; Abrahamsson, Niclas; Olstad, Anne Marte Haug; Norrman, Gunnar; Lehtonen, Minna (1 June 2023). "Does bilingualism come with linguistic costs? A meta-analytic review of the bilingual lexical deficit". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 30 (3): 897–913. doi:10.3758/s13423-022-02136-7. ISSN   1531-5320. PMC   10264296 . PMID   36327027.
  27. Nakamura, Janice (1 September 2019). "Receptive bilingual children's use of language in interaction". Studies in Language Sciences. 18. The Japanese Society for Language Sciences: 46–66. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022.
  28. "Ethnologue report for language code: spa". Ethnologue.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2010. Retrieved 10 July 2010.
  29. Weitzman, Elaine. "One Language or Two? Home Language or Not? Some Answers to Questions about Bilingualism in Language-Delayed Children". hanen.org. The Hanen Centre. Archived from the original on 30 May 2009. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  30. Gass, Susan M. (2008). Second Language Acquisition: An Introductory Course. Routledge. ISBN   978-0805854985.
  31. "Developing Native Language Literacy in Language Minority Adults". ericdigests.org. Archived from the original on 24 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  32. Trudell, Barbara (May 2005). "Language choice, education and community identity". International Journal of Educational Development. 25 (3): 237–251. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2004.08.004. Archived from the original on 19 July 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2019.; cited in "The perils of learning in English". The Economist. 21 February 2019. Archived from the original on 23 February 2019. Retrieved 24 February 2019. Research demonstrates that children learn more when they are taught in their mother tongue than they do when they are taught in any other language. In a study of children in the first three years in 12 schools in Cameroon, those taught in Kom did better than those taught in English in all subjects. Parents might say that the point is to prepare children for the workplace and that a grasp of English is more use than sums or history. Yet by year five, the children taught in Kom outperformed English-medium children even in English. Perhaps this is because they gain a better grasp of the mechanics of reading and writing when they are learning the skills in a language they understand.
  33. 1 2 Hakuta, Kenji (1990). "Language and cognition in bilingual children" (PDF). In Padilla, Amado M.; Fairchild, Halford H.; Valadez, Concepcion M. (eds.). Bilingual education: issues and strategies. California: Sage Publications. pp. 47–59. ISBN   0-8039-3638-9. OCLC   20453990. ERIC   ED329635. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  34. 1 2 Collier, Virginia P. (1992). "A Synthesis of Studies Examining Long-Term Language Minority Student Data on Academic Achievement". Bilingual Research Journal. 16 (1–2). Informa UK Limited: 187–212. doi:10.1080/15235882.1992.10162633. ISSN   1523-5882.
  35. 1 2 The Ramírez report:
  36. Wallesch, Claus W. (1990). "An early detailed description of aphasia in a deaf-mute: Anton leischner's "die 'aphasie' der taubstummen" (1943)". Aphasiology. 4 (5): 511–518. doi:10.1080/02687039008248790. a congenitally deaf-mute trilingual (sign language, Czech and German) patient
  37. Aleccia, JoNel (6 November 2013). "Speaking a second language delays dementias, even in the illiterate, study finds". NBCNews.com. NBCUniversal. Retrieved 26 September 2023. in a population where even illiterate people reaped the benefits of being bilingual
  38. Krzeminska, Marta (19 July 2016). "The cult of the polyglot". Archived from the original on 6 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  39. 1 2 3 Erard, Michael (2012). Babel No More: The Search for the World's Most Extraordinary Language Learners. Free Press. ISBN   978-1-4516-2825-8.
  40. 1 2 Hult, Francis M. (2014). "Covert bilingualism and symbolic competence: Analytical reflections on negotiating insider/outsider positionality in Swedish speech situations". Applied Linguistics. 35 (1): 63–81. doi: 10.1093/applin/amt003 .
  41. Schmid, Monika S.; Dusseldorp, Elise (2010). "Quantitative analyses in a multivariate study of language attrition: The impact of extralinguistic factors". Second Language Research. 26: 125–160. doi:10.1177/0267658309337641. S2CID   36475272.
  42. Bylund, Emanuel (2009). "Maturational Constraints and First Language Attrition". Language Learning. 59 (3): 687–715. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9922.2009.00521.x.
  43. Donnelly, Seamus; Brooks, Patricia J.; Homer, Bruce D. (27 February 2019). "Is there a bilingual advantage on interference-control tasks? A multiverse meta-analysis of global reaction time and interference cost". Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. 26 (4): 1122–1147. doi: 10.3758/s13423-019-01567-z . ISSN   1531-5320. PMID   30815795.
  44. Lehtonen M, Soveri A, Laine A, Järvenpää J, de Bruin A, Antfolk J (April 2018). "Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review" (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 144 (4): 394–425. doi:10.1037/bul0000142. hdl:10810/26594. PMID   29494195. S2CID   4444068.
  45. "APA PsycNet". psycnet.apa.org. Retrieved 8 July 2023.
  46. 1 2 Lehtonen, Minna; Soveri, Anna; Laine, Aini; Järvenpää, Janica; de Bruin, Angela; Antfolk, Jan (April 2018). "Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review". Psychological Bulletin. 144 (4): 394–425. doi:10.1037/bul0000142. hdl: 10810/26594 . ISSN   1939-1455. PMID   29494195. S2CID   4444068.
  47. Bialystok E, Martin MM (2004). "Attention and inhibition in bilingual children: evidence from the dimensional change card sort task". Dev Sci. 7 (3): 325–39. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2004.00351.x. PMID   15595373. S2CID   1510311.
  48. Bialystok E, Craik FI, Grady C, Chau W, Ishii R, Gunji A, Pantev C (2005). "Effect of bilingualism on cognitive control in the Simon task: evidence from MEG". NeuroImage. 24 (1): 40–49. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.09.044. PMID   15588595. S2CID   32548028.
  49. Kluger, Jeffrey (18 July 2013). "How the Brain Benefits from Being Bilingual". TIME. Archived from the original on 21 July 2013.
  50. Atkinson AL (2016). "Does Bilingualism Delay the Development of Dementia?". Journal of European Psychology Students. 7 (1): 43–50. doi: 10.5334/jeps.375 .
  51. Skibba, Ramin (2018). "How a second language can boost the brain". Knowable Magazine. doi: 10.1146/knowable-112918-1 . S2CID   189556357. Archived from the original on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 4 January 2019.
  52. Yong, Ed (10 February 2016). "The Bitter Fight Over the Benefits of Bilingualism". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 11 February 2016. Retrieved 11 February 2016.
  53. Lehtonen, Minna; Soveri, Anna; Laine, Aini; Järvenpää, Janica; de Bruin, Angela; Antfolk, Jan (April 2018). "Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review" (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 144 (4): 394–425. doi:10.1037/bul0000142. hdl:10810/26594. PMID   29494195. S2CID   4444068. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 23 January 2021.
  54. de Bruin, Angela; Treccani, Barbara; Della Sala, Sergio (January 2015). "Cognitive Advantage in Bilingualism: An Example of Publication Bias?" (PDF). Psychological Science. 26 (1): 99–107. doi:10.1177/0956797614557866. hdl: 20.500.11820/1c7d702a-90a7-484d-9d2a-d5841d4a1f49 . PMID   25475825. S2CID   13721983. Archived (PDF) from the original on 22 April 2020. Retrieved 6 December 2019.
  55. Paap, Kenneth R.; Johnson, Hunter A.; Sawi, Oliver (August 2015). "Bilingual advantages in executive functioning either do not exist or are restricted to very specific and undetermined circumstances". Cortex. 69: 265–278. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2015.04.014. PMID   26048659. S2CID   25008687.
  56. Gullifer JW, Titone D (2020). "Characterizing the social diversity of bilingualism using language entropy" (PDF). Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 23 (2): 283–294. doi:10.1017/s1366728919000026. S2CID   150591937. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  57. Surrain S, Luk G (March 2019). "Describing bilinguals: A systematic review of labels and descriptions used in the literature between 2005–2015". Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 22 (2): 401–415. doi:10.1017/S1366728917000682. ISSN   1366-7289. S2CID   149426763.
  58. Beatty-Martínez AL, Navarro-Torres CA, Dussias PE, Bajo MT, Guzzardo Tamargo RE, Kroll JF (2020). "Interactional context mediates the consequences of bilingualism for language and cognition". Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 46 (6). American Psychological Association: 1022–1047. doi:10.1037/xlm0000770. eISSN   1939-1285. ISSN   0278-7393. PMC   7117987 . PMID   31580119.
  59. Gullifer JW, Chai XJ, Whitford V, Pivneva I, Baum S, Klein D, Titone D (August 2018). "Bilingual experience and resting-state brain connectivity: Impacts of L2 age of acquisition and social diversity of language use on control networks" (PDF). Neuropsychologia. 117: 123–134. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.04.037. eISSN   1873-3514. ISSN   0028-3932. PMC   6086747 . PMID   29727624. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  60. Gullifer JW, Titone D (October 2020). "Engaging proactive control: Influences of diverse language experiences using insights from machine learning" (PDF). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 150 (3): 414–430. doi:10.1037/xge0000933. eISSN   1939-2222. ISSN   0096-3445. PMC   7954783 . PMID   33001688. Archived (PDF) from the original on 28 November 2021. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  61. Sulpizio S, Maschio ND, Mauro GD, Fedeli D, Abutalebi J (2020). "Bilingualism as a gradient measure modulates functional connectivity of language and control networks". NeuroImage. 205: 116306. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116306 . hdl: 10037/18728 . PMID   31654763. S2CID   204837800.
  62. Kumar K, Raghavan S, Kalaiah M (2020). "A comparison of temporal processing and spectral processing abilities of monolingual, bilingual and multilingual children". International Journal of Audiology. 59 (7): 501–505. doi:10.1080/14992027.2020.1720921. PMID   32022604. S2CID   211037029.
  63. Chohan, Usman W. (2021). The New Economy and Languages: HYPIA in Neoliberalism. Archived 28 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine . The Papers of the International Association of Hyperpolyglots (HYPIA). Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Accessed 15 February 2021.[ self-published source ]
  64. Grin, François; Sfreddo, Claudio; Vaillancourt, François (2013). Economics of the multilingual workplace. [S.l.]: Routledge. ISBN   978-0-415-85106-0.
  65. Agirdag, O. (2014). "The long-term effects of bilingualism on children of immigration: student bilingualism and future earnings". International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. 17 (4): 449–464. doi:10.1080/13670050.2013.816264. S2CID   27479622.
  66. Boaz Keysar; Sayuri L. Hayakawa; Sun Gyu An (18 April 2012). "The Foreign-Language Effect: Thinking in a Foreign Tongue Reduces Decision Biases". Psychological Science. 23 (6): 661–668. doi:10.1177/0956797611432178. PMID   22517192. S2CID   1397617.
  67. Gawinkowska M, Paradowski MB, Bilewicz M (2013). "Second language as an exemption from sociocultural norms. Emotion-Related Language Choice revisited". PLOS ONE. 8 (12): e8122. Bibcode:2013PLoSO...881225G. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081225 . PMC   3859501 . PMID   24349044.
  68. Costa, Albert; Foucart, Alice; Hayakawa, Sayuri; Aparici, Melina; Apesteguia, Jose; Heafner, Joy; Keysar, Boaz (23 April 2014). "Your Morals Depend on Language". PLOS ONE. 9 (4). Public Library of Science (PLoS): e94842. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...994842C. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094842 . ISSN   1932-6203. PMC   3997430 . PMID   24760073.
  69. Halwachs, D.W. (1993). "Polysystem, Repertoire und Identität" [Polysystem repertoire and identity]. Grazer Linguistische Studien (in German). 39–40: 71–90. Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 12 June 2021.
  70. Dewaele, J.; Li Wei (2012). "Multilingualism, empathy, and multicompetence" (PDF). International Journal of Multilingualism. 9 (4): 352–366. doi:10.1080/14790718.2012.714380. S2CID   32872300. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2013.
  71. Dewaele, J. (2007). "The effect of multilingualism, socio-biographical, and situational factors on communicative anxiety and foreign language anxiety of mature language learners" (PDF). International Journal of Bilingualism . 11 (4): 391–409. doi:10.1177/13670069070110040301. S2CID   51402969. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 August 2017. Retrieved 9 July 2019.
  72. Grosjean, François. "Life as a Bilingual". Psychology Today.[ verification needed ]
  73. Tokuhama-Espinosa, T., ed. (2003). The Multilingual Mind: Issues Discussed By, For, and About People Living with Many Languages. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers. ISBN   9780897899185.
  74. Wang, X. (2008). Growing up with three languages: Birth to eleven. Briston, United Kingdom: Multilingualism Matters. ISBN   978-1-8476-9106-4.
  75. Grosjean, François (1996). "Living with two languages and two cultures". In I. Parasnis (ed.). Cultural and Language Diversity and the Deaf Experience. Cambridge University Press. pp. 20–37. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139163804.003. ISBN   978-0-521-45477-3.
  76. 1 2 Chohan, Usman W. (2021). "Who Is a Hyperpolyglot?". Archived 6 February 2021 at the Wayback Machine . Linguistic Anthropology eJournal. Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Accessed 7 February 2021.[ self-published source ]
  77. Steinmetz, Katy (30 January 2012). "Are You A Hyperpolyglot?: the secrets of language superlearners". Time. Archived from the original on 2 February 2012.
  78. 1 2 Hudson, Richard (2008). "Word grammar, cognitive linguistics, and second language learning and teaching" (PDF). In Peter Robinson; Nick Ellis (eds.). Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. New York: Routledge. pp. 99–123. doi:10.4324/9780203938560-13. ISBN   9780805853513. Archived (PDF) from the original on 25 November 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2019.
  79. Miller, LK (1999). "The savant syndrome: Intellectual impairment and exceptional skill". Psychological Bulletin. 125 (1): 31–46. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.125.1.31. PMID   9990844.
  80. Bolte, S (2004). "Comparing the intelligence profiles of savant and nonsavant individuals with autistic disorder". Intelligence. 32 (2): 121. doi:10.1016/j.intell.2003.11.002.
  81. Treffert, Darold A. (27 May 2009). "The savant syndrome: an extraordinary condition. A synopsis: past, present, future". Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 364 (1522): 1351–1357. doi:10.1098/rstb.2008.0326. PMC   2677584 . PMID   19528017.
  82. Bates, Elizabeth (September 1997). "On Language Savants and the Structure of the Mind Review of: The Mind of a Savant: Language Learning and Modularity by Neil Smith and Ianthi-Maria Tsimpli, 1995". International Journal of Bilingualism . 1 (2): 163–179. doi:10.1177/136700699700100204. S2CID   142262640.
  83. Smith, Neil; Tsimpli, Ianthi Maria (August 1991). "Linguistic modularity? A case study of a 'Savant' linguist" (PDF). Lingua. 84 (4): 315–351. doi:10.1016/0024-3841(91)90034-3.
  84. Wolff, Ekkehard (2000). Language and Society. In: Bernd Heine and Derek Nurse (Eds.) African Languages – An Introduction, 317. Cambridge University Press.
  85. M.H. Bakalla (1984), Arabic Culture Through Its Language and Literature, Kegan Paul International, London, ISBN   978-0-7103-0027-0
  86. Valkonen, Eero (2020). En- eller tvåspråkiga lösningar?: diskursanalys om användning av begreppet 'den taxellska paradoxen' i Vasabladets debattinlägg 2013–2018 [Monolingual or bilingual solutions?: discourse analysis on the use of the term 'Taxell's paradox' in Vasabladet's debates 2013–2018] (Bachelor thesis) (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 9 August 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  87. Finnilä, Heidi (12 September 2014). "Taxell om sin paradox" [About Taxell's paradox]. yle (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  88. Poplack Shana (1980). "Sometimes I'll start a sentence in Spanish y termino en español": toward a typology of code-switching". Linguistics. 18 (7/8): 581–618. doi:10.1515/ling.1980.18.7-8.581. hdl: 10315/2506 . S2CID   201699959.
  89. Musilová, Květa (2003). "Vývojové tendence v komunikaci Čechů a Slováků po rozdělení ČSFR" [Developmental trends in communication between Czechs and Slovaks after the division of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic]. In Lotko, Edvard; Fiala, Jiří.; Hádková, Marie (eds.). České, polské a slovenské jazykové a literární souvislosti: sborník referátů z mezinárodního odborného semináře uspořádaného u příležitosti sedmdesátin prof. PhDr. Edvarda Lotka, CSc., na filozofické fakultě univerzity Palackého v Olomouci dne 20. února 2002[Czech, Polish and Slovak linguistic and literary contexts: a collection of papers from an international professional seminar organized on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Prof. Edvard Lotek PhD CSc, At the Faculty of Arts of Palacký University in Olomouc on 20 February 2002] (in Czech). Olomouc: Palacký University. pp. 223–229. ISBN   80-244-0628-4. OCLC   84662327.
  90. Dedić, N.; Stanier, C. (2016). An Evaluation of the Challenges of Multilingualism in Data Warehouse Development. 18th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems – ICEIS 2016. p. 196.
  91. "The New Reynell Developmental Language Scales". oro.open.ac.uk. 22 April 2011. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  92. "Jan Nelson (Microsoft): The Multilingual App Toolkit Version 3.0". YouTube. 23 June 2014. Archived from the original on 16 December 2015. Retrieved 21 December 2015.
  93. Kovács, M. (2004). "Australiansuomalaiset kielenvaihdon kynnyksellä" [Australian Finns on the verge of language shift](PDF). Virittäjä (in Finnish). 108 (2): 200–223. ISSN   0042-6806. Archived from the original on 6 February 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2022.
  94. Lew, Josh (28 June 2014). "9 of the world's most multilingual countries". Treehugger. Dotdash Meredith. Archived from the original on 25 May 2023.
  95. Platt, John T. (December 1977). "A model for polyglossia and multilingualism (with special reference to Singapore and Malaysia)". Language in Society. 6 (3): 361–378. doi:10.1017/s0047404500005066. JSTOR   4166945. S2CID   145669949.
  96. Lim, Lisa (2012). "English and Multilingualism in Singapore". Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Wiley Online. doi:10.1002/9781405198431.wbeal0373. ISBN   978-1-4051-9473-0.
  97. Sim, Cheryl. "Bilingual Policy". National Library Board. Singapore Infopedia. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  98. Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise (March 2013). "Multilingualism in the Workplace". Annual Review of Applied Linguistics. 33. Cambridge University Press: 162–189. doi:10.1017/S0267190513000123. ISSN   0267-1905. S2CID   145761597.
  99. Khabibrakhmanovna, Sharipova Nailya (2004). Dvuyazıçiye v Tatarstane [Bilingualism in Tatarstan] (PhD Science thesis) (in Tatar). Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
  100. Gunnarsson, Britt-Louise (2014). "Multilingualism in European Workplaces". Multilingua. 33 (1–2): 11–33. doi:10.1515/multi-2014-0002. S2CID   144233073.
  101. Maxwell, Christine (26 November 2012). "The Last Lingua Franca: English Until the Return of Babelby Nicholas Ostler". World Englishes. 31 (4): 559–561. doi:10.1111/j.1467-971x.2012.01784.x. ISSN   0883-2919. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023.
  102. Kogan, Julia (2013). Troika, Russia's Westerly Poetry in Three Orchestral Song Cycles (CD). ASIN   B005USB24A.
  103. Harvey, Carol J. (1978). "Macaronic Techniques in Anglo-Norman Verse". L'Esprit Créateur. 18 (1): 70–81. JSTOR   26280874.
  104. "Second-Generation Americans". Pew Research Center's Social & Demographic Trends Project. 7 February 2013. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  105. "Second Generation Stories | Literature by Children of Immigrants". Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  106. Lunsford, Andrea A.; Ouzgane, Lahoucine (1 January 2004). Crossing Borderlands: Composition and Postcolonial Studies. University of Pittsburgh Pre. ISBN   978-0-8229-7253-2.
  107. 1 2 Fowler, Yara Rodrigues (17 April 2019). "Top 10 bilingual books". the Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  108. "Hispanic Heritage Month: Recommending Latin American Women Authors". The New York Public Library. Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  109. Munoz, Mary Elizabeth. Thinking in Uno and Reading en Otro: Codeswitching in American Novels (Thesis). Texas AM International University.
  110. Pérez, Rolando (2020). "The Bilingualisms of Latino/a Literatures". In Stavans, Ilan (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Latino Studies. Oxford University Press. pp. 281–306. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190691202.013.31. ISBN   978-0-19-069120-2 . Retrieved 4 November 2020.
  111. Stavans, Ilan, ed. (2011). The FSG book of twentieth-century Latin American poetry: an anthology (1st ed.). New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux. ISBN   978-0-374-10024-7. OCLC   650212679. Archived from the original on 6 April 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  112. "82-year-old Kerala man's Dictionary is in the four Dravidian languages. 25 long years to compile". Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  113. "83-YO Kerala School Dropout Creates Unique Dictionary in 4 South Indian Languages". 31 December 2020. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  114. Sajit, C. p. (30 October 2020). "For Keralites, door opens to three other Dravidian languages". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  115. "The Man Who Wrote A Dictionary In Four Languages – Silver Talkies". silvertalkies.com. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 7 March 2022.

Further reading