Analysis and Discrimination of the Relevant Notions of Bilingualism and Bilinguals

科技信息人文社科Analysis and Discrimination of theRelevant Notions of Bilingualism and Bilinguals三峡大学外国语学院胡明勇[Abstract]This paper tries to analyze and disciminates in dctail the relevant concepts of bilingulimn and bilinguals on the basis of literacurereview. The purpose is to make readers have 2 clear undertanding of the basic theory and categorizations of bilingulisn and bilinguals.[Key Wordslbilingulisn bilingngs definition cssiaioni1. What is Bilingualism?5) Coordinate bilingualism and subordinate bilingualismCordinate bilingalim means the learming of two languages duringis estimated that over 50 per cent of the world population is bilingual (F abbro,hood. Subordinate bilingualism means the arquisition of two languagesat1999: 105). Most nations have speakers of more than one language. Hundreds a later stage, or subsequent mastery of a language other than LI (Lanza 2004).of mllions of prople the world over routinely make use of two or three or fourlangags in their daily lives (Sridhar, 20..， : :.nl..om.birth: in successive acquisition. on the other hand. the child acquires one lan-of which are even considered to be Contradirtory. A tynical ome of this kind is ., . . . ruLae from bith andlateron lee. at thestart ofesrhool learmea Sscrond lan-given bv Mackev (19621: "the alternative use of two or more languaprs bw the .Age is an important criterion for determinine the tyes of arquisition .Same individual. The word atermate' would seem to suggest that eithereachlanguage is used separately and/or in different situations or thal at any moment a eriterion must he established for differentiating between simultaneou andduring a cooversation a 'bilingual' speaker may switch from one language: to successive aquisition of two languages. McLaughlin (1978) set up an age cri-the other. Haugen (1956) defined 'bilingualism' 国‘-the ability to produce terion which has been adopted by many scholars: the acquisition of two lan-complete and meaningful tteranccs中' in the other language. Another one guages before the age of 3 is referred to a simultaneous acquisition whereasgiven by Bloomfield (2000: 56) is“native-like control of two languages'the introduction of the second language after the age of 3 is termed successiveBilingualism is both a social phenomenon and an individual phe-acquisition.nomenon. As a social phenomenon, it i perceived a a necessary language sit-刀) Primary bilingual and secondary bilingualuation for communication to take place between people of different nationali-Primary bilingual refers to' bilinguals' who have learned their secondties. As an individual phenomenon, it is considered as an individual ' s ahilitylanguage without receiving any systematic tuition. Serondary bhilingual refersto use two languages in his or her studying and working environment. Moso thase who rereived formal instruction in the second languageChinese people view bilingualism as the ability to use English in intemnational8) Strong form bilingual eduration and weak form bilingual educationshudying and working pnvironment.Bilingual education programs can be divided into strong forms and weak2. Classifications of bilingualim and bilingualsformns. They ate explirily definrd by Wang (2003:67). Strong formss of bilin-1) Individual bilingualism and societal bilingualismgual education are those prngrams which treat two languages as rqual The ob-It in necpssary to distinguish between individual hilingualism end sori- jeetive of atrong forms问not only to cultivate students into talents 财profres-etal bilingualism for any disrussion in the domain of bilingualism. A bilingual sionals who are proficient in bolh languages. and both cultures but also toindividual is someonp who haw the ability to communicate in two languages al- maintain the minority language and to ereate a bilingual and hieultural societaltermately. Surh an ahility or psycholopical slatle in the individual has ben re- environment. Weak forms of hilingual education are those programs whichferred to a bilinguality (Hamers and Blanc 2000). A bilingual soriety is one in prefer the use of majority language in the classroom rather than the minoritywhich two languages are userd for communication. In a bilingual society, it is anguage. Sometimes the minonity language is alowed in the casroom con -possible to have a large number of monolinguals (those who xpeak only one of lex, but the ulimate gal is the transition from the minority language to thethe two languages used in that soriety), provided that there are enough bilin- majority language. The objertive of weak forms of bilingual eduration in not toguals lo perform the functions reqpuiring bilingual compelence in that society.cultivate students into talents who are profirient in both languages and hoth2) Balanced bilingualism and non-alanceUdominant bilinguaismcultures, but to make students berome monolinguals or low-profiriency bilin-This type of classification attempts to describe the degree of competence guals and to help students to romplete the transition and assimilation into thein the two languagms. Generally speaking, halanced bilinguals refer to those mainstream language and the mainstream culture.who are approximately equally fluent in twn languages and non-balancedbilinguals are those who are more fluent in one of their languages. It is assi-Referencesfied by Fabbro (1999:109) as "a balanced bilingual is a subjret mastering the[1 ]Bloomfield, L. (2000 Languge [M ]. Bejing Foreign Languagetwo languagrs to the same extent, whereas a dominant bilingual is a subject Teaching and Research Press.who is more fluent in one language than in the other."[2]Fabbro, F.1999) The neurolingnisics of blngalim: an intro-3) Rereptive bilingualism and produrtive bilingualism[3 ]Haugen, E.(1956), Bilingualism in the Americas: 2 bibliography andten and/or read) a second languagr, but can not prnduce (epeak and wrin) a reseach guide. Pblication of the Anerican Dialect Society, No.26.serond language. Prnduetive bilingualism refers to those who rcan not only un-[4 Hamer, Josiane F. and Michel H. A. Blanc (20000 Bilingualiy andderstand (istern and/or read) but also produce (speak and/or write) a second Bilingualism, 2nd edition, xiv, 468 PP Cambridge University Press[5 ]Lambert, W. E. (1980). The social psychology of language. Inand maintained for a longer time. On the contrary, prodluctive akills of a SPC- CGiles, w. P. Robinson, and P. M. Smith (Eds). Language: Socal Psycho-ond language need more time and efort to develop and maintain. Produrtive logical[6]Lanza, E2000 Langyse mixing in infnt bingnaigm s soci-.bilingualism means higher profciency in a second language than rceptiveL6Janza, E.(2N4), Language muxing inuntants4) Additive bilingualism and subracive bilingualim[7]Mackey, W. F (1962. The decripion of bingulism. U] Cama-This kind of rassifiration is ilustrated by Richands (2002: 7), that is,additive bilingualism and subtractive bilingualism. The former is the form of[ 8 ]Mclaughlin, Barry. (1978), Second language acquisition in child-bilingual education in which the language of instruction is not the motherhood. Hilsdale, N]: L. Erlbaum Associates.tongue or home language of the children, and is not intended to replare it. In. 9 ]RichardsJ. C. et al. (2002). Longman dictionary of language teach-an additive bilingualism the first language is maintained and supported.ng and applied lineuisics I M 1. Beiline: Foreign Language Teaching andSometimes the mother tongue can be u9ed in the clasaroom in order to make中国煤化工the students understand. When the languag of instrurtion is likely to replaceiguaim[A]. InS. L. Mck-the children' % first language, we talk of subtractive bilingualism. In situationsics and Language Teachingof subtrartive bilingualism, students are instructed in both their mother tongue; ShanghHCN MH CGopedand a soond languagr. Eventully, however, instruction in the mother tongue[11 ]Wang. Binhua (2003). Bilingual education and bilingual instruc-ceases, with the sprond language becoming the sole medium of instruction an dtion. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press,2003.10.ultimately the only language of the students (Lambert, 1980).- 112-