UNIT 1: THE BIILINGUAL PERSON

Intro
Originally bilingualism: linguistic problem: studied by linguists (methods, criteria,
rules…)
Now bilingualism: psychologists & neuroscientists & psycholinguists the way anguages
are learnt & impact on human mind.

- Bilingualism is for minorities

- Now: need to learn a foreign language to socialize in a wider world
- Being bilingual is becoming a European educational objective and socializing is
the key

Basic terminology in didactics and language learning

- Native language, mother tongue, heritage language
- Native speaker
- First language, second language, third language
- Foreign language
- La and Lb
- Dominant language
- Codeswitching
- TEFL
- SLA
- Learning vs acquisition
- Input
- Comprehensible input
- Fossilization
- Plurilingualism vs Multilingualism
- Ethnocentricity
- Language interference
- Translation equivalents
The concept of bilingualism
The term “bilingual” is ordinarily used to describe the speaking of two or more
languages quite well.
2 views:

 “Surviving” in a natural, daily act of communication is more than enough for a

person to be called bilingual

 Only highly skilled speakers can be called bilingual

The fair point is somewhere in the middle of these two positions Bilingualism is
the ability to speak more than one languages regardless of how skilled the speaker is.
*A monolinguist mentality considers language learning to be just active.

Passive conception of the language understands different languages with some

skills
Sesquilingual speaker bilingual in 2 or 3 languages. Understands 2, 3 or 4 other
languages related to the original 2 or 3.

CLIL (Content & Language integrated Learning) : Based on a passive

(sesquilingual) conception of plurilinguism in which students are presented contents in
a language that are not obliged to use actively in other contexts.
This is also the idea of the European Commision when supporting the idea of
considering the languages of Europe not as foreign to each other, because all of them
belong to the same Romance Germanic or Slavic origins.

Variables that must be taken into account

at the time of learning or teaching a new language

Related to the individual

 Language aptitude
-Ability to identify sounds

-Grammatical sensitivity

-Ability to identify patterns

-Ability to form & remember associations between stimuli

 Attitude towards learning

 Motivation (integrative or instrumental)

 Personality (extroversion or introversion)

 Age

 Cognitive and affective-emotional variables

Situational variables

 Socioeconomic status

 Cultural level (own and surrounding)

 Bilingual programmes

 Other types of sociolinguistic factors

Types of bilingualism (pag 20)

 Coordinated vs compound

 Balanced vs dominant

 Simultaneous vs consecutive

 Additive vs subtractive

The concept of biculturalism

Biculturalism when speakers feel some kind of identification with the values of the
linguistic community of the target language apart from their own
Monoculturalism speakers are only identified with one of the cultures
*Biculturalism & bilinguism are not necessarily found in the same person

Anomy the speaker feels stuck and anxious, with the impression of coming into
conflict with his own values. The speaker’s unable to react according to the common
use of the (other) community
Subtractive biculturalism Pressure effected on an individual or group to make
them abandon their own culture and adopt new values
Additive biculturalism New cultural values overlapped on the speaker’s existing
ones and both sets of values coexist in harmony
*The bicultural person is normally less ethnocentric and does not judge cultures in terms of
better/worse

What languages are used for

Complementary principle: Bilinguals usually acquire and use their languages for
different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people. Different aspects of
life often require different languages.
C.P consequences:

 The dominant language may change in a lifetime

 Bilinguals may not have all the domain-specific vocabulary and the discursive
and pragmatic references of a domain

 The myth that bilinguals are excellent translators

  Memory retrieval

 Language-dependent recall

The process of becoming bilingual (page 28)

 Early phonetic discrimination

 Comprehension

 The acquisition of vocabulary

-Differences between early bilinguals and monolinguals

-The acquisitions of both lexicons: first and second stages

-The production of equivalents in the second stage

-Consequences of the simultaneous acquisition of two codes

-Range and quality of the vocab in simultaneous bilinguals

 The morphosintactic development

 UNIT 2: ENGLISH AS A GLOBAL LANGUAGE

- By the first quarter of the 21st century, English will be used by around 2 billion
people all over the world.
- English implies:
1- An essential economic factor
2- A key concept as a language adopted for communication
- Penetrates areas others than business: education, communication, leisure.

Main notions related to the concept of “global language”

Global language
A language achieves a global status when “it develops a special role that I recognise in
every country”.
To become a global language, it is not enough to be the mother tongue of certain
number of countries. The same language has to be adopted by other countries as well,
and used in a variety of contexts. This process can be impulse in 2 different ways:
1- The language can be made the official language of a country to be used
compulsorily in official spheres.
2- A language can be considered a priority in terms of FLT (Foreign Language
Teaching)
A language becomes a global language not according to the number of people who
speak it but according to the LINK between this particular language and the
economic, technological and cultural power of the countries where it possesses
the status of mother tongue.

Lingua Franca
A lingua franca is a vehicular language which allows inter-comprehension among
people speaking different mother tongues, as a neutral language of which nobody can
claim ownership, but also the mother tongue of one of the parties in exchange.

 They are transitory and unstable, but they are always connected to power and
prestige

 Their status invariably changes

 The geographical extent to which a lingua franca can be used depends only on
political factors
If one language spreads massively at the expense of the others, it is not only those
other languages that risk being downgraded, but also the cultures and values
expressed through them.
English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), as a use of English, is not to be distinguished from
the pedagogic subject EFL.
ELF: aim to communicate with other non-native speakers
EFL: aim native-speaker targeted
*You may be using ELF or EFL depending on whom are you speaking to and for what purpose

*Distinction – language- nationalistic function vs nationist function

English as a global language

The general consideration of English as a global language and lingua franca through a
twofold dimension:

- Its geo-historical evolution: English started its spreading process with

the 1st voyages to America, Asia and the Antipodes. It continued with the
colonial development of the 19th century in Asia and the South Pacific and
gained special status once it was adopted as the official language of states
which had reached independence.

Leith tries to describe the sequential process of colonization leading to the

establishment of English as a main language in the British colonies:

 Initial stage:
- Marked by the original settlement of English speakers
- Replacement of the pre-colonial settlement by the colonial one
- The settlers had little interest in the languages of original inhabitants
- No linguistic contact with the colonised people was established

 Incoporation
- Formation of the “British Empire” 19th century
- Colonial settlers minority but maintained the power
- Allowed native population to learn English as a second language
- Official education policies imposed the position of English as a superior
language and means of communication, setting aside local languages
  Nationalistic reaction
- It sometimes led to independence of the former British colonies 20 th century
- Standardisation of the pidgins (Created as languages of trade during the 18th
and its evolution as creoles)
- The leading position of USA explain the preeminent situation of English
nowadays as Britain is not a world power any more.
- USA 70% all English mother-tongue speakers, powerful economic and cultural
expansion, English main vehicular element.

- The socio-cultural explanation which considers the way people

use and even depend on English all over the world

 English is the language of international diplomacy

 English is used as the working language in many international organizations

 English radio programmes are received by 150 million people over 120
countries

 Some 75% of the world’s mail and electronically stored info. is in English

 English dominates popular culture and the entertainment industry

 English is universal in many academic disciplines, workplaces etc

 English lingua franca of air traffic control, airports, hotels…

 English is more widely taught as a foreign language than any other language

Theoretical models of English worldwide spread

Braj Kachru circular pattern of 3 concentric circles which represent the different
ways in which the languages have been acquired and are used today
- Inner circle: places where English is the 1st language (original English
metropolis and primary areas of colonial expansion)
- Middle circle: Earlier phases of the spread of English in non-native contexts,
where English is an institutional component, important statues as a second
language
- Outer circle: Countries which recognise the importance of English as an
international language although they have not been colonies nor does English
have any special administrative statues.
Moag life cycle of non-native Englishes 5 processes
- Transportation: English arrives in a place where it has not been spoken before
and remains
- Indigenisation: The new variety of English starts to reflect the local culture and
becomes different
- Expansion in use: English used in an increasing number of situations and for
more purposes
- Institutionalisation: Use of the local variety as a language learning model in
school
- Decline in use

Schneider identifies 5 phases in the cycle of English spread

- Foundation: English begins to be used in a country where, previously, it was
not spoken.
- Exonormative stabilisation: The spoken variety is similar to the variety
imported by the settlers.
- Nativisation: Establishment of a new identity with the union of the previous
varieties and gives way to the most important changes in English language
itself.
- Endonormative stabilisation: The new variety becomes gradually accepted
as the local model
- Differentiation: The new variety has emerged and reflects local identity and
culture.

The repossesion of the English language

- Consequence of the aforementioned worldwide spread of English.
- Implies that English is not the sole property of the native English speaking
countries
- Those other countries using English have introduced changes
- “Loss of ownership”. It may arouse some negative feelings, especially in Britain
as some instances may claim a kind of historical right upon the language.
- The new varieties of English are known as New Englishes
New Englishes

 Plurality of the varieties of English

 The term stresses the idea of no national standard authority is to be considered

as a referential point in language use

 Other term for New Englishes (more flexible): English Language Complex
(ELC)

 Another “slippery” term: nativeness

 Kachru distinguishes between:

- Genetic nativeness
- Functional nativeness

 The subsequent colonial expansion and evolution of the colonised countries

produced the formation of the “New Englishes” (Schneider)

*Linguistically speaking, New Englishes present a variety of changes at different

levels

Phonological
- Avoid final fricatives
- Reduction of final consonant clusters (think, stop…)
- Use of syllable-based rhythm

Grammatical
- Absence of past tense marking
- Regularization of the difference between countable/uncountable

Discourse
- Use of the invariant “is it” tag
- Topic fronting
Spanglish
Close contact between some languages and English has created hybrids such as
Franglais, Japlish, Spanglish etc. Code-switching is the most significant trait of these
hybrid languages. Spanglish is a clear example of this.
The linguistic variations to be found in Spanglish are based on different
elements:
- Calques: translations of entire words or phrases from one language into
another
- Semantic extension: Speakers of the originating language use a word which is
similar to one in the second language in place of the translation, with a similar
or not so similar, meaning.
- Emergence of new verbs: telefonear (telephone+ar), lunchear (lunch+ar),
parquear (park+ar) twittear, watchear etc
- Loan words: they occur in any language due to the presence of items or ideas
not present in the culture before, such as modern technology. Taipear (to type),
líder (leader)