Bilingualism

Question 1

bilingualism background

Answer 1

• At least 50% of world population speaks at least 2 languages
• • ~20% of Canadians
• • ~30% of Vancouverites

Question 2

Types of bilinguals

Answer 2

• “Simultaneous”/”crib” bilinguals: learn 2 languages from birth
• “Sequential” bilinguals: learn 1 language first, then a 2nd

Question 3

myths of bilingualism

Answer 3

• bilingual confusion

- bilingual delay

Question 4

myths: bilingual confusion

Answer 4

• do infants/children confuse their 2 languages?
• code-mixing seen as evidence of confusion
• evidence against: kids have ability to discriminate between languages; adjust languages depending on who they’re speaking with

Question 5

code-mixing/switching

Answer 5

• mixing words from 2 languages within a sentence/conversation (ex. Papa, sing me une chanson!)
• • Reasons: Modeling adult behaviour, filling lexical gaps (ie. When you don’t know the word), emphasis/humour
• However, both children and adults do it, and people don’t accuse adults of being confused
• Even kids who code-mix follow grammatical rules

Question 6

infants’ ability to discriminate between languages

Answer 6

• At birth, infants can discriminate between different languages (even if they haven’t been exposed to them)
• • Study: both monolingual and bilingual infants listen to English enough to habituate to it, then show dishabituation when Tagalog is played
• • Bilingual infants may even pay more attention to perceptual components
• – Evidence from visual speech -> before 6 months, both monolingual and bilingual babies can discriminate between visual English and visual French (showed by habituation/dishabituation)
• — By 8 months, only bilingual babies could discriminate (even if they didn’t speak English or French)

Question 7

infants’ ability to adjust their language

Answer 7

At 1-2 years, bilingual babies will adjust languages to the person they are speaking with (even if it’s their less dominant language)

Question 8

myths: bilingual delay

Answer 8

• Common fear for parents
• Bilingual adults -> slower in word-retrieval tasks and show more tip-of-the-tongues
• However, evidence of vocabulary delay depends on how you measure – ex. are you testing them in English, Spanish, or both? (ie. a vocab of 50 words in Spanish and 50 words in English is technically better than a 90-word English vocab)
• • Nowadays, we measure “conceptual” vocabulary rather than just labels (ie. Does the child understand the concept of dog, even if they only have a label for it in English?)

Question 9

Difficulties in studying bilingualism

Answer 9

• Possible confounds: SES, education
• • Ex. In Canada, bilinguals tend to be better educated -> higher SES
• • Ex. In the US, bilinguals tend to have lower education -> lower SES
• Different types of bilingual exposure (ie. 50/50, 80/20, etc); language dominance
• How similar/different are the languages?
• Difficult measurements: language input, vocab, etc

Question 10

Bilingual differences

Answer 10

• Bilinguals approach learning language differently
• Respond to specific language environment
• • ex. Mutual exclusivity; learning similar-sounding words

Question 11

Bilingual differences: Mutual exclusivity

Answer 11

• Notion that 1 concept = 1 label
• Not true for bilinguals/multilinguals -> bilinguals use a bit of mutual exclusivity; trilinguals do not
• Bilinguals who know 2 words for one concept (ie. Dog/perro) use less mutual exclusivity

Question 12

Bilingual differences: learning similar-sounding words

Answer 12

• Difficult for all infants
• Monolinguals take until 17 months to learn similar-sounding words; bilinguals take until 20 months
• • But, monolingual infants only succeeded in task when speaker was monolingual; and bilingual infants succeeded when speaker was bilingual -> shows that they respond in line with their environment; not truly a delay

Question 13

bilingual advantages

Answer 13

• knowing more than 1 language

- non-linguistic benefits (ie. executive function, perspective-taking, creativity)

Question 14

non-linguistic benefits: executive function

Answer 14

• Better effortful control and inhibition
• • Ex. Simon Task – bilinguals respond faster to both congruent and incongruent trials
• • Ex. Card Sorting Task – kids have difficulty forgetting the first rule they learned and switching to the next rule -> bilinguals are better able to ignore/inhibit the old rule to learn the new rule

Question 15

non-linguistic benefits: perspective-taking

Answer 15

• Children under 4-5 years struggle to take perspective of others (ex. Crayon box task; Sally-Ann task)
• • Generally, bilingual children do better on these tasks -> may be better at taking perspective of others

Question 16

why are there bilingual advantages?

Answer 16

• Switching between languages -> better perspective taking
• Simple exposure to multiple languages is enough to accrue benefits
• Early enrichment (language not necessarily the only thing that could provide advantages – similar early musical enrichment shows similar advantages)

Question 17

study: benefit of exposure to multiple languages, even without production

Answer 17

• babies who can’t produce speech still show benefits
• In experimental task, children in monolingual families who had exposure to other languages (ie. Through hearing people in the community) showed similar levels of advantages as bilinguals

Question 18

parent input

Answer 18

• “one-parent one-language”

- parental language mixing

Question 19

one-parent one-language

Answer 19

• ie. mom only speaks English to the child, dad only speaks French to the child
• Idea: to help children keep their 2 languages separate
• Not necessary, and may not be advantageous for learning minority language -> reduces potential input for that language
• • Ex. Study: children of 1 English-speaking parent and 1 Spanish-speaking parent showed reduced Spanish vocab
• “Both parent both-languages” may lead to more balanced bilingualism

Question 20

involuntary one-parent one-language: strategies to encourage language development

Answer 20

• If you live in a “one-parent one-language” household because only one parent is bilingual, strategies exist to encourage use of minority language
• ex. increasing quality and quantity of exposure
• ex. Minimal grasp strategy -> parent of minority language pretends they don’t understand majority language to encourage child to speak to them in minority language

Question 21

parental language mixing

Answer 21

• Mixed findings:
• • Some studies find correlation between code mixing and smaller vocabulary
• • Other studies find no relationship between code mixing and language development

Question 22

bilingual schooling: programs

Answer 22

• different programs, different goals
• • One-way immersion (ex. French Immersion)
• • Two-way immersion (ex. English-Spanish programs in the US; taught by a 50/50 mix of both native English and minority language speakers; for both native English and native Spanish speakers)
• • Developmental bilingual education (ex. For students who come to school knowing only their heritage language -> maintain heritage language while teaching them English; ie. for native Spanish speakers only)
• • Transitional bilingual education (ex. Starting off with education in heritage language, and reducing it over time until education is fully in English)

Question 23

bilingual schooling: outcomes

Answer 23

• Better reading/math achievement scores

- Proficiency in minority language: general good; better with higher % of instruction in that language

Question 24

early language exposure

Answer 24

• some say critical period ranges from 5-15; many agree that earlier is better, but that it’s never too late
• due to genetics and environment
• • biological changes during first 2 decades of life eventually result in reduced capacity for language learning
• • more language-rich environment early in life
• simultaneous bilinguals have better accents, vocab, and grammatical proficiency

Question 25

bilinguals and language difficulties, delays, and disorders

Answer 25

• bilinguals not more likely to have language difficulties, delays, or disorders
• children with language impairments, Down syndrome, and autism are not more likely to experience additional language challenges compared to monolingual kids with those impairments