Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
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Mother tongue
In other words: native language, first language, dominant language We can clarify the issue with the help of 4 criteria: o Origin: the language/s learnt first, or in which the first longlasting verbal contacts happened o Identification: by the speaker) External: the language one is identified with (this is decided by other people) o Competence: the best-known language o Function: the most-used language o Monolingualism: o people who speak only one language o living in a community that speaks that same language the four criteria are all met by the one language Bilinguals and multilinguals o About half of the world grows up speaking more than one language o They can have more than one mother tongue o their mother tongue can change during their lifetime Internal: the language one identifies with (this is decided
Language rights
Human rights include the right to use ones mother tongue, because language and identity are closely linked. However, this right is often violated: minority groups are not always allowed to use their own language in public administration or in education. Thats a problem of the society Allowing the use of minority languages in education and in official situations is of course more expensive some countries restrict the use of minority languages as a matter of official policy. The official language policy of the European Union: linguistic and cultural diversity is good and should be maintained. All the 23 languages of the member countries are official languages in the Union. Documents must be translated into all the 23 languages
Language choice
Bilinguals can often choose which language to use Their choice may depend on many things o language proficiency o the including prestige of the language or of its users o the relationship between the participants o in a speech event etc There are various domains of use (family, workplace, public life, school etc.) (spheres of life)
When bilinguals decide to speak only one of their languages, they activate that language and deactivate the other one. In this case they are in the monolingual mode. When they are in a situation where both their languages may be used they switch to the bilingual mode, i.e. both their languages are activated. However, even in the monolingual mode they may be influenced by the other language, and code switching may appear. (You may also use some English words when you are speaking Hungarian!) Code switching is a natural contact effect.
Cognitive disadvantage
o Peal and Lambert came to the opposite conclusion: bilingualism is linked to some cognitive advantage. o Bilinguals scored significantly higher on most measures of verbal and nonverbal intelligence. o Bilingual children who have developed both their languages have a better understanding of language, increased language awareness, and are able to use language more effectively. Bilinguals have advantages in mental flexibility and concept formation, memory, language awareness, and creativity. o Recently discovered positive effects: cognitive decline in old age is slower in bilinguals.
Natural acquisition
o Bilingual children often struggle to achieve their full potential in school. Despite the potentially positive effects of bilingualism, bilingual children may score lower in various tests. o Children seem to pick up basic conversational skills with ease this can be mistakenly interpreted by teachers / parents as native-like language skills appropriate for their age group. o However, school subjects in a second language require academic language skills. o Numerous studies have confirmed that learning academic language skills takes significantly longer. o These issues need to be addressed in curriculum design and teaching practice. o Natural acquisition needs no support: academic language skills does