BILINGUALISM

A Paper Presented To Full Fill The Requirement The Task Of

Psycholinguistics Subject

Guided By :

Aisyah Sunarwan M.Pd

Presented By group 5

1. Asih Anggraini (2001050002)

2. Ayu Puspita Sari (2001050005)
3. Desta Putri Ramadani (2001050007)
4. Muhammad Djorgi (2001051025)
5. Shilvia Rahmah Janati Putri (2001051036)

ISLAMIC INSTITUTE OF METRO

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND ADUCATION
ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT
2022/2023
Table of Content

Table of Content.......................................................................................................I

INTRODUCTION...................................................................................................1

DISCUSSION..........................................................................................................2

1. Definition Bilingualism According to Experts.............................................2

2. Characteristics of Bilingual People...............................................................2

3. Factors that Influence Bilingualism..............................................................3

4. Types of bilingualism....................................................................................4

5. Example of Bilingualism..............................................................................5

CONCLUSION........................................................................................................6

REFERENCES.........................................................................................................7

I
INTRODUCTION

Bilingualism (multilingualism) refers to the coexistence of more than one

language system within an individual, as contrasted to monolingualism. The
question of how the two languages interact at the cognitive and behavioral levels
has been of long-standing interest to psycholinguists as well as to neurologists,
clinicians, and educators. There has been great anticipation that developments in
cognitive neuroscience could shed further light on important fundamental
questions in the understanding of bilingualism.

Bilingualism as an individual condition is nested within a distribution of

broader societal circumstances that cause language contact. There are many
different manifestations of this variability. Bilingualism may be the result of
growing up in a bilingual community, such as a bilingual neighborhood of an
immigrant community in New York. However, that is different from bilingualism
that results from growing up in an officially bilingual country such as Canada,
where its two official languages are separated by geographical regions.

Bilingualism that is accompanied by literacy in both languages is different

from bilingualism in which schooling is available in one language (the one that
also carries social prestige) but not the other. Although the interest of
the cognitive neuroscientist in bilingualism may be in understanding the neural
bases of the distribution of the two linguistic systems in the bilingual, the reality is
that research subjects and clinical patients invariably come from a sampling from
the social distribution. It is thus necessary to begin an understanding of
bilingualism from its social bases.1

K. Hakuta, in Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, 2009

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1
DISCUSSION

1. Definition Bilingualism According to Experts

a. Sociolinguistics In general, Bilingualism defined as the use of two

languages by a speaker in interaction with other people in turn. (Mackey
1962:12, Fishman 1975:73)

b. Bilingualism is the ability to speak two languages with equal or nearly as

good. Technically, this opinion refers to the knowledge of two languages,
how the level by one. (Robert Lado (1964-214)

c. Bilingualism is an alternate use of two languages. Formulate bilingualism

as a habit of using two or more languages by an individual (the alternative
use of two or more languages by the same individual). Expansion of this
opinion expressed by the level of bilingualism in terms of mastery of
grammatical elements, lexical, semantic, and style are reflected in the four
language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Mackey
(1956:155)

d. Bilingualism is the usage of two languages by a speaker or speech

community. Hartman and Stork (1972:27).

e. Bilingualism is the ability to use two languages equally well by a speaker.

Formulate bilingualism as equally good mastery of two languages or native
like control of two languages. Mastery of two languages with fluency and
accuracy are the same as native speakers is very difficult to measure.
Bloomfield (1958:56)2

2. Characteristics of Bilingual People

Although being bilingual means different things to different people, there

are some common characteristics among people who are bilingual. Not
everyone who is bilingual will share all of the traits listed below, but these
traits are common among bilinguals.

a. Bilinguals may mix their languages, inserting words from one language
when speaking another. For example, someone speaking Spanish may
include English words when speaking
b. Bilinguals may not be able to quickly transition from one language to
another. This has nothing to do with their ability to translate, but may

2
Hakuta, Kenji. i986. The Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism. New York:
Basic Books.

2
reflect on the difficultly of translating words as there may not be an exact
meaning for each word in the other language.
c. Bilinguals may be stronger in one language than the other. Both languages
may not be equally spoken throughout a person's life, for example, they
may speak one language at home and another at their place of
employment.
d. Bilinguals are often a part of a culture that utilizes two languages or a part
of two distinct cultures. For example, many Jewish homes have people
who may speak both Hebrew and English, or mixed-family homes may
have some people who speak Chinese and some who speak English.3

3. Factors that Influence Bilingualism

People may become bilingual either by acquiring two languages at the

same time in childhood or by learning a second language sometime after
acquiring their first language.
Many bilingual people grow up speaking two languages. Often in
America such people are the children of immigrants; these children grow up
speaking their parents' native language in their childhood home while
speaking English at school. Many bilinguals, however, are not immigrants; it
is not uncommon for people born in the U.S. to speak English at school or
work and another language at home. Children can also become bilingual if
their parents speak more than one language to them, or if some other
significant person in their life (such as a grandparent or caretaker) speaks to
them consistently in another language. Sometimes a child will grow up in a
household in which each parent speaks a different language; in that case, the
child may learn to speak to each parent in that parent's language. In short, a
young child who is regularly exposed to two languages from an early age will
most likely become a fluent native speaker of both languages. The exposure
must involve interaction; a child growing up in an English-speaking household
who is exposed to Spanish only through Spanish-language television won't
become a Spanish-English bilingual, but a child who is regularly spoken to in
both English and Spanish will.
It is also possible to learn a second language sometime after early
childhood, but the older you get, the harder it is to learn to speak a new
language as well as a native speaker. Many linguists believe there is a 'critical
period' (lasting roughly from birth until puberty) during which a child can
easily acquire any language that he or she is regularly exposed to. Under this
view, the structure of the brain changes at puberty, and after that it becomes
harder to learn a new language. This means that it is much easier to learn a
second language during childhood than as an adult.
3
Linguistic Society of America Advancing the Scientific Study of Language since 1924

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In some countries, nearly everybody is bilingual or multilingual. In
parts of India, for example, a small child usually knows several languages. In
many European countries, children are encouraged to learn a second language
- typically English. In fact, the U.S. is quite unusual among the countries of
the world in that many of its citizens speak only English, and they are rarely
encouraged to become fluent in any other language.
4. Types of bilingualism

a. Early bilingualism - there are two types: simultaneous early bilingualism

and consecutive (or successive) early bilingualism.
Simultaneous early bilingualism refers to a child who learns two
languages at the same time, from birth. This generally produces a strong
bilingualism, called additive bilingualism. This also implies that the
child's language development is bilingual. Successive early bilingualism
refers to a child who has already partially acquired a first language and
then learns a second language early in childhood (for example, when a
child moves to an environment where the dominant language is not his
native language). This generally produces a strong bilingualism (or
additive bilingualism), but the child must be given time to learn the
second language, because the second language is learned at the same time
as the child learns to speak. This implies that the language development of
the child is partly bilingual.

b. Late bilingualism – refers to bilingualism when the second language is

learned after the age of 6 or 7; especially when it is learned in adolescence
or adulthood. Late bilingualism is a consecutive bilingualism which
occurs after the acquisition of the first language (after the childhood
language development period). This is what also distinguishes it from
early bilingualism. With the first language already acquired, the late
bilingual uses their experience to learn the second language.

c. Additive bilingualism and subtractive bilingualism – The term additive

bilingualism refers to the situation where a person has acquired the two
languages in a balanced manner. It is a strong bilingualism. Subtractive
bilingualism refers to the situation where a person learns the second
language to the detriment of the first language, especially if the first
language is a minority language. In this case, mastery of the first language
decreases, while mastery of the other language (usually the dominant
language) increases. These expressions and their associated concepts were
created by Wallace Lambert, the Canadian researcher who has been given
the title of “the father of bilingualism research”.

d. Passive bilingualism - refers to being able to understand a second

language without being able to speak it. Children who respond in a
relevant way in English when they are addressed in French could become

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passive bilinguals, as their mastery of oral expression in French
decreases.4

5. Example of Bilingualism

There are many examples of bilingualism around the world. It is possible

to find examples of almost any combination of languages, depending on the
circumstances under which people become bilingual. Additionally, there are
many celebrities who are bilingual and who use their bilingualism in many
ways. For example, the actress Natalie Portman is fluent in both English and
Hebrew, as she was born in Israel. Emma Watson speaks both French and
English, due to growing up in Great Britain and speaking French with her
grandmother. Mark Zuckerburg, the entrepreneur, is a native English speaker
and learned Mandarin to connect with his wife and her family. Shakira, the
Colombian singer, is not only bilingual, but multilingual; she can communicate
in her native Spanish and is fluent in English, Portuguese, French, and Italian.

4
Zentella, Ana Celia. 1997. Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New
York. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

5
CONCLUSION

In conclusion, learning and using a language is a complex process - it is one of

the most complex activities that a human being can do, and it involves many
levels. You have to work with sounds, syllables, words, grammar, sentences,
syntax. Not much is being done; in fact, it's all a processing task for a vast brain
network. These parts of the brain are suitable to replace the aging parts of the
brain that are showing signs of disease or suffering from neurological pathology.
As a result, we argue that learning a second language may be the optimal activity
for healthy aging.

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REFERENCES

Hakuta, Kenji.1986. The Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism. New

York: Basic Books.

Genesee, Fred. 1987. Learning through Two Languages: Studies of Immersion

and Bilingual Education. Rowley, MA: Newbury House.

Linguistic Society of America Advancing the Scientific Study of Language since

1924

Zentella, Ana Celia. 1997. Growing up Bilingual: Puerto Rican Children in New
York. Malden, MA: Blackwell.