REPUBLIC OF ALBANIA

UNIVERSITY ”FAN S. NOLI”, KORCE

FACULTY OF EDUCATION AND FILOLOGY
THE STUDY PROGRAM: ENGLISH LANGUAGE

PROJECT
Topic: Bilingualism, Multiculturalism.

Worked by: Anxhela Kodra Accept: Prf.Dr. Juliana Cyfeku

2016
Contents
1. What is Bilingualism?
2. Bilingualism as a process
3. How common is bilingualism?
4. Determinants of the need for bilingualism.
5. Types of bilingualism
6. Bilingual behaviour
7. Bilingual education
8. What is Multicultural Education?
9. Areas of multicultural education
10.Types of multicultural education programs
11.Common problems
12.Conclusion

1.What is Bilingualism?
It is not easy to formulate a generally accepted definition of bilingualism. Is a sociolinguistic
phenomenon that has received much scholarly attention, not only because of its importance in
communications but also because of political and demographic considerations that have led
many sociologists to brand some languages as major and others as minor in multiliguistic
settings. Bilingualism means different things to different people. For me is the use of two or
more languages by a person. While Bloomfield (1933:56) defined bilingualism as 'native-like
control of two languages'. However, this definition excludes many people who speak more than
one language but do not have 'native-like' control of one or both of their languages. A large
number of people who use two languages regularly may not have 'native-like' control of one of
their languages.

 Haugen (1953:7) suggests that oil bilingualism begins 'at the point where a speaker of
one language 0 M can produce complete, meaningful utterances in the other language'.
 Diebold (1961) has even suggested that bilingualism has commenced when a person
begins to understand utterances in a second language, but is unable to produce
utterances.

Degrees of bilingualism can be assessed in the individual's command of the four skills of
listening comprehension, speaking, reading comprehension and writing in each language.

2.Bilingualism as a process
To understand the process of bilingualism, it should first be understood that human beings
inherit the ability to speak, though they do not inherit the ability to speak a particular language.
A child therefore learns to speak the language of those who bring it up from infancy.

2016
The learning of a second and any subsequently acquired language is quite a different matter.
Except in case where the child’s parents / foster parents are bilingual, or from different
linguistic backgrounds, learning a second language becomes either a deliberate activity or one
imposed on the child by extraneous social, political or religious factors acting on him.

3.How common is bilingualism?

Bilingualism is present in most countries throughout the world, in all classes of society and in all
age groups. However, the importance of bilingualism in the world is not widely recognized,
particularly in countries which view themselves as monolingual.
In some border areas between two language groups, economic and social factors lead many people to
use more than one language on a regular basis. Thus, in Europe people who live near in a 3 Bilingualism
and bilingual education 3 country like Belgium may live in a Flemish speaking area and work in a French
speaking area. For people such as these, there is a practical need to speak both the language of the
region in which they live and the region in which they work.

4.Determinants of the need for bilingualism.

At both the individual and societal levels, the need for bilingualism might variously arise from
the following reasons:

Geographical Proximity: Geographical proximity of two communities naturally leads to the

need for communication among their members for purposes of trade as no community, it is
usually said, is an island. Since language might pose as a barrier to effective communication,
members of the two communities each learn the other’s language. This inevitably leads to
bilingualism. Furthermore, this proximity occasions exogamous marriages leading to the
creation of bilingual families.

Historical Factors: Historical events such as conquests and colonialism made the newcomers
wield much influence in all spheres of life. Since “the most powerful groups in any society are
able to force their language upon the less powerful”

Migration: Either collective or individual migrants fleeing from war or searching individual
attainment have settled in foreign linguistic communities. For purposes of communication and
job hunting, they have been compelled to learn the languages of host communities, thus
becoming bilingual.

Religion: Some religions like Islam consider the language of their sacred scriptures pure and
holy. As such, clerics in such religions have to learn the language in which the sacred books
were originally written.
Public / International Relations: In multilingual countries like Cameroon and Nigeria, need soon arises
for citizens to interact at the national level, implying the inevitability of a lingua franca. Whereas some
countries have adopted African languages along European ones for communication purpose.

2016
 5.Types of bilingualism
The study of bilingualism has tended to develop divisions that have had an important function in
drawing attention to various aspects of bilingualism.

Co-ordinate and compound bilingualism (Ervin and Osgood (1954) )

Coordinate Bilingualism: In this type, the person learns the languages in separate
environments, and words of the two languages are kept separate with each word having its
own specific meaning.

Compound Bilingualism: Here, the person learns the two languages in the same context where
they are used concurrently, so that there is a fused representation of the languages in the
brain.
Simultaneous and successive bilingualism (McLaughlin (1984) )
When a child learns two languages simultaneously it is inappropriate to talk about the child's first and
second languages. Both languages are in effect first languages, although one may dominate in certain
situations or with certain people

When a language is acquired after the first language is established, it is a successive acquisition. In this
case, the first and second languages can be clearly differentiated and the added language is learned as a
second language.

Additive and subtractive bilingualism (Lambert (1975, 1977) )

Additive bilingualism develops when both languages and the culture associated with them bring
complementary positive elements to the child's overall development.

Subtractive bilingualism, however, develops when the two languages are competing rather than
complementary. Such competition occurs when the minority language is being replaced by the more
dominant and prestigious language of the majority group.

Elite and folk bilingualism (Skutnabb-Kangas (1981) )

Elite bilinguals, who acquired their second language through formal education with some opportunity
to use the language naturally. Elite bilinguals typically become bilingual through a free choice to learn a
language. Elite bilingualism has always been highly valued and considered a form of cultural enrichment
and a mark of learning and intelligence.

Folk bilinguals who acquired their second language through practical contact with speakers of that
language. Folk bilingualism, however, has frequently been stigmatized and has often been associated
with educational controversies related to the integration of minority children into the majority society. It
is not, however, the type of bilingualism or the way a language is acquired that are the cause of
problems in education for folk bilingual children but rather a combination of social and other factors.
Folk bilinguals are typically members of linguistic minority groups and are subject to strong external
pressure to learn the dominant language.

Balanced bilingualism (Haugen (1973))

2016
A balanced bilingual is an individual who has native-like competence in both languages. More
frequently, however, the term is used to refer to an individual who has roughly equal ability in both
languages

6. Bilingual behaviour
Bilingual people are known to show some of the following dominant traits, which are themselves subject
to different interpretations.

a) Interference: This occurs in a case where a speaker consciously or inadvertently brings in

pronunciation, sentence formation and vocabulary of the source language while using a target
language.

b) Code-switching: This occurs when a speaker drops into his target language a word or phrase from
his source language. This sometimes makes up for inadequacies, especially stylistic, in the first language.
This can be seen when the Franco-English bilingual wishes his guests “ Bon appetit”, an expression
considered absurd by users of English.

c) Translation: Since a bilingual person masters two mutually incomprehensible languages, he

becomes a translator.

Bilingualism in Education is generally a matter of public policy. Many critics, however, usually
hold that children brought up bilingually perform poorly in other subjects, as a greater amount
of mental effort has to be expended in the mastery of two languages.

7.Bilingual education aims to foster the child's abilities in both languages. Recent research in the
field of second language acquisition have shown that the first and second language are complementary
rather than mutually exclusive. Research has shown that time spent on the first language does not
detract from the development of the second language but rather that greater first language proficiency
results in more efficient second language development.
A fundamental assumption which underlies bilingual education is that skill and knowledge acquired in
one language are easily transferred to another. Thus, a child who learns about a scientific concept in
Albanian would be able to transfer this knowledge to English, or any other language, without having to
relearn the concept, as long as he/she has access to the available vocabulary.

Bilingualism incorporates proven cognitive advantages. Compared to monolingual children, bilingual

children are able to concentrate with greater ease and are less distracted. They develop divergent
thinking that produces original and less conventional solutions.

Multiculturalism
8.What is Multicultural Education?

Multiculturalism is the existence of multiple cultural traditions within a single country, usually
considered in terms of the culture associated with an aboriginal ethnic group and foreigner ethnic
groups

2016
Multicultural education describes a system of instruction that attempts to foster cultural pluralism and
acknowledges the differences between races and cultures. It addresses the educational needs of a
society that contains more than one set of traditions, that is a mixture of many cultures.
The goal of multicultural education is to help students understand and appreciate cultural differences
and similarities and to recognize the accomplishments of diverse ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic
groups. It is a practice that hopes to transform the ways in which students are instructed by giving equal
attention to the contributions of all the groups in a society.

Multicultural education has a host of other gains and goals to be met:

 Promote civic good

 Right the historical record
 Increase self-esteem of non-mainstream students
 Increase diversified student exposure
 Preserve minority group culture
 Foster children's autonomy
 Promote social justice and equity
 Enable students to succeed economically in an integrated, multicultural world

The outcomes listed might require great investment or additional effort, from the teacher, to
ensure that the goals being sought after are met. Multicultural education, in its ideal form,
should be an active and intentional structure, rather than a passive, accidental approach. There
are infinite ways in which to assure that such an educational approach is purposeful and
successful.

9.Areas of multicultural education

One of the pioneers of multicultural education was James Banks, who believed all aspects of education
needed to be transformed in order to create a multicultural school environment. These aspects include
teaching methods, instructional materials, teacher attitudes, as well as the way the performance of
students is assessed. Banks described five areas of multicultural education in which teachers and
researchers are involved:

 Content integration: Concepts, values, and materials from a variety of cultures are included in
teaching.
 Knowledge construction: This belief asserts that all knowledge is created in the minds of human
beings and can, therefore, be challenged. A critical part of multicultural education, the idea that
knowledge is a human construct challenges teachers to alter their own perceptions of the world
before they can teach multiculturally.
 Equity pedagogy: Teachers must modify their methods of instruction by allowing for students'
cultural differences before they can encourage academic achievement.
 Prejudice reduction: Teachers must work to shift students' prejudices regarding race and
ethnicity. Prejudice reduction may also encompass teaching the tolerance of various religions,
sexual preferences, and disabilities.
 Empowering school culture: Schools must identify those aspects of education that hinder
learning and then empower families and students from all backgrounds, so that the full
development of students is achieved.

2016
10.Types of multicultural education programs
Multicultural education can also be roughly divided into three different categories:

 Content-focused: Their overall objective is to include subject matter in the curriculum about
various cultural groups in order to cultivate students' knowledge about these groups. Content
may include holiday celebrations, recognizing heroes from different racial and ethnic groups,
and focusing on the achievements of women and minorities. It may also include single-group
studies, for example, black, ethnic, or women's studies programs.
 Student-focused: In this type of approach, the curriculum may not be changed significantly.
Instead, the focus may be on aiding students in making the transition into the mainstream of
education. Student-focused programs can take many forms, including efforts to draw on
culturally-based learning styles and bilingual programs.
 Socially focused: These programs seek to reduce bias and increase cultural and racial tolerance.
Included here might be desegregation programs, programs designed to increase contact among
different races and cultures. Also, having teachers who are themselves members of minorities
would be encouraged.

Another important consideration in implementing multicultural education into the classroom is how
deep to infuse multicultural ideas and perspectives into the curriculum. There are four different
approaches or levels to curricular infusion. They are:

 The Contributions Approach

 The Additive Approach
 The Transformative Approach
 The Decision Making and Social Action Approach.

11.Common problems
There are many people who are either opposed to multicultural education or believe it has
numerous problems. Some feel that the idea of multicultural education tends to divide cultures
instead of building tolerance between them.
Others believe multicultural education interferes with a child expressing his or her own individuality, by
placing too much emphasis on ethnic or racial backgrounds

12.Conclusions
In this project we saw that we live in a universe of linguistic diversity with multiple
cultural traditions. I have explained here the definitions of bilingualism and multiculturalism, their
importance and types. Also the importance in education in order to understand in what kind of society
a person lives and what does it mean to be a bilingual.

Bibliography
1.Usmang Salle Leinyui : Bilingualism (http://www.translationdirectory.com/article419.htm)
2.Liddicoat, Anthony: Bilingualism: An Introduction.( http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED404847.pdf)
3.Wikipedia: Multicultural education(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multicultural_education)
4.Bilingualism - Young Children(http://developpement-langagier.fpfcb.bc.ca/en/bilingualism-young-
children) 5. Multicultural education/curriculum(http://www.healthofchildren.com/M/Multicultural-
Education-Curriculum.html

2016