Bilingualism.pptx

8/13/2019 Bilingualism.pptx

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BILINGUALISM


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Through much of the 20th century,

researchers, educators and policy makers

long considered a second language to be aninterference, cognitively speaking, that

hindered a childsacademic and intellectual

development.


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Interference becomes an advantage:

In a bilinguals 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 itscognitive muscles.


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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


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Bilingualism improves the brainsso-called executive

function a command system that directs theattention 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 likeremembering a sequence of directions while driving.


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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).


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Multilingualism within communities


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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.


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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 developby gradually accumulating dialectal differences until two dialects

cease to be mutually intelligible.

Language contact can occur at language borders and in a variety ofphenomena. The most common products are pidgins, creoles, code-

switching, and mixed languages.

Multilingualism anguage contact


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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, linguistsclassify the community according to the functional

distribution of the languages involved:


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Diglossia: Typical diglossic areas are those areasin Europe where a regional language is used in informal,

usually oral, contexts, while the state language is used inmore formal situations.

Some writers limit diglossia to situations where the

languages are closely related, and could be considereddialects 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 beencreated which we would like to call Middle Arabic or

Common Arabic.


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Status of Languages in The Gambia

(Population 1,782,893)

Language Status No. of Speakers

English National 1.000

Mandinka Wider communication 510.000

Nko Wider Communication No known L1 speakersWolof, Gambian Wider Communication 185.000

Pulaar Developing 295.000

Serahule Developing 166.000

Jola-Fonyi Vigorous 67.000Karon Vigorous, increasing, no monolinguals 6.000

Mandjak Vigorous 21.600

Maninkakan, Western Threatened 3.300


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Status of Languages in Haiti



French National (Statutory national

working language)

600

Haitian National (Statutory national

language)

6.960.000

Haitian Vodoun

culture language

Second language only No known L1

Speakers


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Status of Languages in Trinidad and Tobago



English National (De facto national language) 1.300.000

Spanish Educational 4.100

American sign language Developing

Trinidadian creole

French

Developing 3.800

Tobagonian Creole

English

Vigorous (De facto language of

provincial identity in Tobago)

300.000

T&T Sign Language Vigorous 2.000

Trinidadian Creole

English

Vigorous (De facto language of

national identity)

1.000.000

Hindustani, Caribbean Shifting (Ethnic population: East Indiansare 41% of the population)

15.600 In T&T


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Language Planning

Language planning is a deliberate effort to influence thefunction, structure, or acquisition of languages or

language variety within a speech community. It is often

associated with government planning, but is also usedby 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 possiblychanges for the benefit of communication.


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Language planning goals

Eleven Language Planning Goals have been recognized (Nahir

2003):

Language Purificationprescription of usage in order to

preserve the linguistic purity of language, protect languagefrom foreign influences, and guard against language deviation

from within.

Language Revivalthe attempt to turn a language with few orno surviving native speakers back into a normal means of

communication.


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Language Reform deliberate change in specific

aspects of language, like orthography, spelling, orgrammar, in order to facilitate use.

Language Standardization the attempt to garnerprestige for a regional language or dialect, transforming

it into one that is accepted as the major language, or

standard language, of a region


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Language Spread the attempt to increase the number of

speakers of one language at the expense of another

Lexical Modernizationword creation or adaptation

Terminology Unification development of unifiedterminologies, primarily in technical domains

Stylistic Simplification simplification of language usage inlexicon, grammar, and style


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Interlingual Communicationfacilitation of linguistic

communication between members of distinct speechcommunities

Language Maintenancepreservation of the use of a

groups native language as a first or second languagewhere pressures threaten or cause a decline in the

status of the language


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Auxiliary-Code Standardizationstandardization of

marginal, auxiliary aspects of language such as signsfor the deaf, place names, or rules of transliteration

and transcription


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Multilingualism

Language

Planning

Language death

?

Documents

Bilingualism.pptx