Download
1 / 21
290 likes | 689 Views
Bilingualism. T hrough much of the 20th century, researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development . Interference becomes an advantage:
E N D
Through much of the 20th century, researchers, educators and policy makers long considered a second language to be an interference, cognitively speaking, that hindered a child’s academic and intellectual development.
Interference becomes an advantage: In a bilingual’s brain both language systems are active even when he is using only one language. It forces the brain to resolve internal conflict, giving the mind a workout that strengthens its cognitive muscles.
Advantages of being bilingual: • improves cognitive skills not related to language. • shields against dementia in old age. • Bilinguals are more skilled than monolinguals at solving certain kinds of mental puzzles
Bilingualism improves the brain’s so-called executive function — a command system that directs the attention processes that we use for planning, solving problems and performing various other mentally demanding tasks. These processes include ignoring distractions to stay focused, switching attention wilfully from one thing to another and holding information in mind — like remembering a sequence of directions while driving.
The bilingual experience appears to influence the brain from infancy to old age. (and there is reason to believe that it may also apply to those who learn a second language later in life).
Multilingualism within communities Multilingualism was more common in the past than is usually supposed. 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 own town or village, and this holds good today in places of high linguistic diversity such as Sub-Saharan Africa and India.
Multilingualism Language contact Language contact occurs when two or more languages or varieties interact. In present-day areas such as Sub-Saharan Africa, where there is much variation in language over short distances. When speakers of different languages interact closely, it is typical for their languages to influence each other. Languages normally develop by gradually accumulating dialectal differences until two dialects cease to be mutually intelligible. Language contact can occur at language borders and in a variety of phenomena. The most common products are pidgins, creoles, code-switching, and mixed languages.
In multilingual societies, not all speakers need to be multilingual. Some states can have multilingual policies and recognise several official languages, such as Canada (English and French). • When all speakers are multilingual, linguists classify the community according to the functional distribution of the languages involved:
Diglossia: Typical diglossic areas are those areas in Europe where a regional language is used in informal, usually oral, contexts, while the state language is used in more formal situations. Some writers limit diglossia to situations where the languages are closely related, and could be considered dialects of each other. This can also be observed if you look at the difference between Written Arabic (Modern Standard Arabic) and Colloquial Arabic. However, as time goes, the Arabic language somewhere between the two have been created which we would like to call Middle Arabic or Common Arabic.
Status of Languages in Haiti (Population 9,719,932)
Status of Languages in Trinidad and Tobago (Population 1,346,350)
Language Planning Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence the function, structure, or acquisition of languages or language variety within a speech community. It is often associated with government planning, but is also used by a variety of non-governmental organizations, and even individuals. The goals of language planning differ depending on the nation or organization, but generally include making planning decisions and possibly changes for the benefit of communication.
Language planning goals Eleven Language Planning Goals have been recognized (Nahir 2003): Language Purification – prescription of usage in order to preserve the “linguistic purity” of language, protect language from foreign influences, and guard against language deviation from within. Language Revival – the attempt to turn a language with few or no surviving native speakers back into a normal means of communication.
Language Reform – deliberate change in specific aspects of language, like orthography, spelling, or grammar, in order to facilitate use. Language Standardization – the attempt to garner prestige for a regional language or dialect, transforming it into one that is accepted as the major language, or standard language, of a region
Language Spread – the attempt to increase the number of speakers of one language at the expense of another Lexical Modernization – word creation or adaptation Terminology Unification – development of unified terminologies, primarily in technical domains Stylistic Simplification – simplification of language usage in lexicon, grammar, and style
Interlingual Communication – facilitation of linguistic communication between members of distinct speech communities Language Maintenance – preservation of the use of a group’s native language as a first or second language where pressures threaten or cause a decline in the status of the language
Auxiliary-Code Standardization – standardization of marginal, auxiliary aspects of language such as signs for the deaf, place names, or rules of transliteration and transcription
Multilingualism ? Language Planning Language death
