Lesson 2

Types of Bilingualism
Types of Bilingualism
• This lesson deals with the different approaches to the question of
bilingualism:
• Compound & co-ordinate bilingualism
• Simultaneous & successive bilingualism
• Additive & subtractive bilingualism
• Elite & folk bilingualism
• Balanced & dominant bilingualism
• Receptive & productive bilingualism
• Elective & circumstantial bilingualism
Co-ordinate Bilingualism
• The individual learns the languages separately, in separate environments,
and maintains this separation after mastering both.
• The co-ordinate bilingual stores information in separate linguistic tanks.
• Example:
-A student who speaks one language at home acquired via his/her parents and
the home environment and then learns a second language at school.
-He/She only speaks the second language at school in a classroom
environment and the language remains separate in his mind.
Compound Bilingualism
• There is no dividing line.
• The individual learns the languages in the same environment and context so
that he/she acquires one notion with two verbal expressions.
• They are often used concurrently or even interchangeably.
• There is a fused representation of the languages in the brain.
• The compound bilingual stores information centrally, i.e., in one tank.
• Examples:
-A child is brought up by bilingual parents
-A child is brought up by parents from two different linguistic backgrounds
Compound Bilingualism
Co-ordinate & Compound Bilingualism
Compound bilingualism Co-ordinate bilingualism
Has one semantic system but Has two semantic systems AND
two linguistic code two linguistic codes
Usually refers to someone whose Usually refers to someone whose
two languages are learned at the two languages are learned in
same time, often in the same distinctively separate contexts
context
Co-ordinate & Compound Bilingualism
Co-ordinate & Compound Bilingualism
• Compound ~ A = a or b

• Coordinate ~ A = a and B=b

Co-ordinate & Compound Bilingualism
• The distinction between these two types of bilingualism involves a
difference in cognitive organisation of linguistic material in the brain.
• It does not indicate a difference in competence.
Task A
Are the following examples of co-ordinate or compound bilingualism?
1. A Cameroonian child learning English at school
2. While Ann was raised to speak English, her new position in Miami,
Florida would require she use the Spanish she had learned at school.
3. A two-year-old who is beginning to talk, his father is Welsh and his
mother is English
Simultaneous & Successive Bilingualism
Simultaneous Bilingualism
• Simultaneous bilingualism refers to the
acquisition of two languages at the
same time.
• The two languages must be acquired
before the age of three.
Simultaneous Bilingualism
• The simultaneous bilingual develops two or more language equally, or
nearly equally, through exposure and frequent opportunities to use
each language.
• Example: a 2-year-old Portuguese-speaking child who moves to
Australia & begins to acquire English would be considered to be
acquiring both languages simultaneously.
Successive Bilingualism
• Successive bilingualism refers to the acquisition of one language after
another.
• The learner starts learning the second language (L2) after the age of three.
• This is the situation for all those who become bilingual adults, as well as for
many who become bilingual earlier in life.
• Example: a Tagalog speaking child who moves to Australia from the
Philippines at the age of 4.5 will already have acquired a large amount of
Tagalog as a first language.
• When this child is exposed to English he/she will begin learning it as a
second language.
Simultaneous & Successive Bilingualism
• Simultaneous acquisition is not necessarily superior to successive
acquisition.
• Both patterns of acquisition can lead to bilingual competence.
• A child’s bilingual ability does not so much depend on how early a
language is introduced as on other factors:
-The relative prestige of the languages
-Cultural factors
-Opportunities for use
Simultaneous & Successive Bilingualism
• Examples:
-A child who acquires two languages simultaneously may lose one of
those languages when contact with that language is lost.
-A child who has acquired two languages successively but has continued
contact with both languages may become a balanced bilingual.
Task B
Are the following examples of simultaneous or successive bilingualism?
1. A child who learns two languages at home. One parent speaks one
language to the child, and the other parent speaks a different
language.
2. A child learns the language of the home, then goes to a nursery or
elementary school and learns a second language.
The Simultaneous Acquisition of
Bilingualism
• There are four basic dimensions along which the simultaneous
acquisition of bilingualism in childhood varies.
• These four dimensions may be translated into four questions.
1- What language(s) is each parent ABLE to
speak?
• In some family situations, the parents or guardians may both be
bilingual. That is, both parents may be able to speak both the
languages of the particular society.
• For example in the USA, the parents may both be able to speak
English and Spanish fluently.
• Alternatively, both parents may be monolingual with the child
acquiring the second language from relatives, neighbours and the local
community.
1- What language(s) is each parent ABLE to
speak?
• In other families, one parent may be practically bilingual, the other
monolingual.
• It is important when asking the question of what language or
languages each parent is able to speak, that consideration is given to
whether those languages are minority or majority languages.
2- What language(s) does each parent speak
to the child IN PRACTICE?
• While parents have the ability to speak both languages to their
children, there is often a conscious decision or a latent understanding
about which language to use with the child from birth upwards.
• A bilingual parent may choose to use both the languages with the
child.
• A mother, for example, may use both English and Spanish with the
child.
2- What language(s) does each parent speak
to the child IN PRACTICE?
• A different situation is when one parent speaks one language to the
child, the other parent speaks a different language.
• For example, the mother may speak Spanish to the child and the father
will speak English.
• A third circumstance is when bilingual parents both speak the minority
language to their children, leaving the child to learn the majority
language outside the home.
3- What language(s) do other family members
speak to the child?
• There are families where both parents use the same language in
speaking to their children, but where the children speak to each other
in the ‘outside’ language (Baker, 2000b).
• For example, with recent immigrants, the parents speak the heritage
language; the children speak to each other in the language of the street,
school and television.
• Playing with neighborhood children, making friends in and out of
school with majority language speakers and use of the mass-media
may create bilingualism in the child.
3- What language(s) do other family members
speak to the child?
• An alternative scenario is when the grandparents and other relations
use a different language with the child than the home language.
• For example, Chinese children in the USA may speak English at home
and at school, but acquire at least a passive understanding of
Cantonese or Mandarin through regular visits to extended family
members.
4- What language(s) does the child
experience in the community?
• Even before the age of three, the language experience with neighbours,
networks of friends, local community and the nursery school maybe a
particularly important part of becoming bilingual (Cummins, 1991b).
• Sometimes a child may experience both the languages of home in the
outside world.
4- What language(s) does the child
experience in the community?
• Alternatively, the child raised monolingually might pick up a second
language outside the home.
• For example, children whose parents speak Spanish to them in the
home may attend an English medium nursery school and become
bilingual in that way.
The Sequential Acquisition of Bilingualism
• The sequential acquisition of bilingualism takes us into the field of
second language acquisition.
• Such acquisition may be through formal or informal means;
-informally through street, nursery school and community
-formally through school, adult classes and language courses
• There is no single ‘best’ route by which learners, young or old,
become competent in a second language.
• There are a variety of informal and formal educational means of
acquiring proficiency in a second language.
Informal Second Language Learning
• Bilingualism is often achieved through the informal acquisition
processes of the street and screen, neighborhood and newspaper.
• A child sometimes rapidly acquires a second or third language in
addition to that of the home without planning or intent by parents.
• Peers in the street, cartoons and shows on television are two examples
of language influences that may informally lead to bilingualism in the
child and teenager.
Formal Second Language Learning
• Where a second language is not acquired in the community (natural
second language acquisition), the school has been the major institution
expected to produce second language learning.
• Through second language and foreign language lessons, via language
laboratories and computer-assisted language learning, drill and
practice routines, immersion classes, drama and dance, the initial
stages of monolingualism to bilingualism may occur.
Additive and Subtractive Bilingualism
Additive Bilingualism
• Additive bilingualism: the learning of a second language does not
interfere with the learning of a first language.
• Both languages are well-developed.
• Acquisition of a second language is treated as an asset.
Subtractive Bilingualism
• Subtractive bilingualism: the learning of a second language interferes
with the learning of a first language.
• The second language replaces the first language.
• The bilingual loses fluency of a first language when acquiring a
second language.
• Special heritage language schools can help children maintain the
language and culture of their parents.
Additive and Subtractive Bilingualism
• Additive or subtractive bilingualism is related to the different status
associated with the two languages in a society.
• Example: subtractive bilingualism results when a child is educated in
the more prestigious language without appropriate support for his/her
home language in the education programme.
Additive and Subtractive Bilingualism