Sunday 29 October 2017

Paper No: 12 English Language Teaching - 1

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Name: Mehta Kavita Dineshbhai
Course: M.A English
Semester: 3
Batch: 2016 – 2018
Roll No: 11
Enrollment No: 2069108420170020
Submitted to: S M T S.B Gardi
                        Department Of English
                         MK Bhav University.
Email id: kavitamehta164@gmail.com
Paper No: 12: English Language Teaching-1
Topic: Bilingualism

 

My Assignment’s


Bilingualism:


“Bilingualism range from a minimal proficiency in two languages, to an advanced level of proficiency which allows the speaker to function and appear as a native-like speaker of two languages. A person may describe themselves as bilingual but may mean only the ability to converse and communicate orally.”
What is bilingualism? :
                “Defining bilingualism in just a few words is not easy, as each individual has different bilingual characteristics.  There may be distinctions between ability and use of a language, or differences in proficiency between the two languages.”
                                                                                 Bilingualism refers to the phenomenon of competence and communication in two languages. A bilingual individual is someone who has the ability to communicate in two languages alternately. Such an ability or psychological state in the individual has been referred to as bilinguality. A bilingual society is one of in which two languages are used for communication. In a bilingual society, it is possible to have a large number of monolinguals (those who speck only one of the two languages used in the society), provided that there are enough bilinguals to perform the function between individual bilingualism and societal bilingualism.
Apart from bilingualism abilities involving two languages:
1)  Bidialectal
2)  Biscription
                 
Bidialectalism refers to the phenomenon whereby someone can communicate in more than two dialects of the same language. Example for, Cantonese and Putonghua for a Chinese speaker. Biscriptural competence is the ability to read more than one script of the same language, Example for: the Chinese language can be written both in the new simplified script and the traditional complex script.
BILINGUALISM AND MULTILINGUALISM:
                 The final definition issue concerns the relationship between bilingualism and multilingualism. Discussion of bilingualism often include multilingual context, because in many multilingual societies there are more bilingual than multilingual individuals. There are many pattern of multilingual based on various combination of bilingual competencies. For example, individuals in a multilingual society could be bilingual in the dominant language and the another non – dominant language. The non – dominant language may vary for individuals. Increasingly, however, with the recognition that many societies are multilingual. Multilingualism is often discussed as a phenomenon in its own right.
A multifaceted phenomenon, bilingualism requires multidisciplinary investigation for it to be more completely understood. In their attempt at linguistic representation, linguistic descriptions of languages have often disregarded bilingual. Until recently, lingual consideration, focusing instead on the monolingual speaker hearer competence in the language. Recently, however, with the emergence of sociolingualistic concerns in the late 1950s and the renewed interest in variation studies as a whole, language change arising from the use of two or more language in a society is now studies with greater vigor. Bilingualism is now directly linked with studies in contact linguistic. The bilingual individual is now recognized as the ultimate locus of contact and accepted as one of the agents of language change arising from contact situations.
Psycholinguistic studies of bilingualism have asked question such as:
·       How do we become bilingual?
·       How are the two languages represented in the           Bilingual brail?
·       What happen in real time when a bilingual communicates?
To the answer the question of how someone become bilingual. It is useful to draw a distinction between simultaneous and successive bilingualism.Simultaneous bilingualism refers to the acquisition of two languages at the same time, while successive bilingualism refers to the acquision of the one language after another. In the latter, the first language (L1) will have been established in some way before the learner is exposed to the second language (L2). To distinguish between the two, McLaughlin uses the operational definition that if two languages are acquired below three year old, then it is considered simultaneous bilingualism with both languages acquired as L1s; if the learner only starts learning the L2 after three tear old, then it is defined as successive bilingualism. The learner of the L2 in successive bilingualism is also referred to as second language acquisition.
Several governments around the world have attempted to provide bilingual education: Education using billings as media of instruction and having bilingualism as a goal of education. Educations are connected about the types of teaching programmes and classroom techniques that can facilitate the development of bilingual abilities. A whole range of bilingual education models is now available. Some of these models can encourage maintenance of the non dominant languages, while other are likely to lead to language shift. If becoming bilingual helps learner to developed positive attitude to their native languages and themselves, the phenomenon is called dditive bilingualism. If they develop negative attitude towards then own language in the process of becoming bilingual, then it is called subtractive bilingualism. Some researcher have related these positive and negative attitude cognitive advantages. In bilingual education , which in turn was the result of a mixture of interacting effects from post-war population movements, post colonial language policies and the the propagation of humanistic and egalitarian ideologies.
With population movement s occurring in various part of the world for two or three decades after the second World war, laws were passed in some countries to allow members of non- dominant groups to learn in their own languages while at same time trying to learn the dominant language. In America, the Bilingual Education Act was passed in 1968, while in Canada the Official Languages Act was adapted in 1969. Though not a center for immigration as America has been in recent decades, the People’s Republic of china has 55 minorities or non- dominant groups. Soon after the establishment of the present government in 1949. China passed legislation from the 1950s onwards to provide for education in the non dominant languages while encouraging, but not requiring, some of these speakers to learn Putonghua. The national mode of communication. Likewise, in multilingual India the three Language formula (the regional language and the mother tongue- Hindi or another India language – and English or a modern European language) was first devised in 1956 and modified in 1961. Similar events took place in other countries well in to the 1970s.
It is important to note the historical background to studies of bilingual education because it sheds light on their motivation and expected outcomes. Many of the early studies in bilingualism were case studies of particular countries or communities, involving an appreciation of history, politics and demography. The International Handbook of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, is one of the most comprehensive research efforts document the circumstances in countries such as China, India, South Africa, the UK. Other studies appearing from the 1980s include Paulson on Sweden, Shapson, and D’opration and Developnt countries and Baetens Beardsmore on Europe. As part of many pilot programmes in bilingual education, model for facilitating bilingual development in schools have been developed. A review of all the model developed shows that they hinge on two main issues:
·        Whether the non-dominant language is used as a medium of instruction.
·       Whether the non-dominant language is valued as a cultural asset worth acquiring for self.
These two parameters can be used to categories a whole range of bilingual education models. Four examples illustrate this.
1. The submersion model of bilingual education: the non-dominant language is neither valued nor used as a medium of instruction.
2. Transitional bilingualism: the non-dominant language is not used as a medium of instruction for a period but is not eventually valued as a target language.
3. Heritage language programmes: the non-dominant language is not used as a medium of instruction but is valued as a target language to be learned.
4. The language exposure time model the learner’s own language is valued as a target language and also used also used as a medium of instruction for some subjects.
Research in bilingualism in the 1980s, there are several introductory texts to the field such as Baetens Beardsmore, Alatis and Staczek, Cummins and swain, Baker and Hamers and Blanc.Other new books include Hoffman and in primary or secondary school setting, there is also a body of research for sub-areas, such as bilingualism and language contact, cognitive processing in bilinguals and even what parents can do at home to help children become bilingual.

                     When one more components in two languages become fused in to one code for communication, then there is change in the linguistic system themselves this phenomenon is called language conversation. The systematic merging of forms between languages which are in the same geographical speech area or sprachbund. Complete merging of two languages may result in mixed languages may result in mixed languages such as pidgins mixed languages with no native speaker or creoles. It is possible therefore that societal bilingualism over time may give rise to the emergence of a mixed language which in turn may become the common mode of communication.
                  Another approach to the study of language mixing is to consider what happen in the bilingual’s brain. One of the first attempts was Weinreich’s delmeation of bilingual memory organization. In weinreich’s model there are three types of bilingual memory systems:
1.  Coexistent bilingualism
2.  Merged bilingualism
3.  Subordinative bilingualism
In the first type, the two language are kept separate , in the second the representation of the two languages are integrated in to one system, in the last ,L2 is based on the representation of L1.It has been postulated that the way the memory organize the two languages is related to how they are acquired. In the first type , the languages are kept apart in the memory system because they are learned in different environments in the second type, bilingual have acquired the languages while using them interchangeably, in the last, L2 is lerned on the basis of L1. Ervin and Osgood refer to the first as co-ordinate bilingualism and the second as compound bilingualism. They consider the third type as a form of the second type since the mental representation of L2 are based on L1 and are therefore not separately stored.
Conclusion:
            The multifaceted nature of the phenomenon of bilingualism need to be fully appreciated for any pedagogical programme designed to foster bilingual development to succeed. To study bilingualism is to study the interaction between linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, pedagogy and the real world of language politics and policy. To be able to appreciate such interaction in changing times and adjust classroom practice in the light of changes is the hallmark of a professional language teacher.
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