Charlotte Hoffmann

An introduction to bilingualism

Preface Introduction PART I: PSYCHOLINGUISTICS ASPECTS OF BILINGUALISM 1. Individual bilingualism 2. The study of bilingual children 3. Patterns of bilingual language acquisition 4. Aspects of bilingual competence 5. Features of bilingual speech 6. Cognitive and educational aspects of bilingualism 7. Sociocultural aspects of bilingualism PART II: SOCIOLINGUISTIC ASPECT OF BILINGUALISM 8. Societal multilingualism 9. Language choice, language maintenance and language shift 10. Language and national identity 11. Linguistic minorities 12. Case Study I: The Alsatians 13. Case Study II: The Catalans 14. Case Study III: Migrant workers in the Federal Republic of Germany Appendix References Subject Index Index of places, languages and people Author Index List of Maps

Towards a description of trilingual competence

Most studies involving trilingualism have been carried out within the theoretical framework of bilingualism research. No attempt has been made to delimit trilingualism as a concept in its own right, and often it has been assumed to be an extension of bilingualism. In young children, trilingual language acquisition largely follows the path of bilingual acquisition. With regard to language behavior there are again similarities, but certain differences can be observed. As an overview of studies of individual trilingualism, the present article aims to provide a framework for the discussion. Models of bilingual language competence serve as a starting point to an investigation of possible defining features of trilingual competence. Of particular interest are the pragmatic component of language competence; the trilinguals ability to make appropriate linguistic choices in monolingual/ bilingual/ trilingual communication modes; and observed codeswitching. The question of how and when a trilinguals languages become activated or deactivated leads to a consideration of language processing and metalinguistic awareness. In the absence of research involving trilinguals, bilingual models are examined with a view to pointing out possible similarities and differences. It is suggested that these are both of a quantitative and qualitative kind, and therefore trilingual competence is distinct from bilingual competence.

Language acquisition in two trilingual children

Abstract This article deals with the language development of two children, now aged eight and five, who acquired two languages, Spanish and German, simultaneously from birth, and a third, English, when very young. The different circumstances of the acquisition of the third language have resulted in distinct patterns of linguistic development and proficiency. The article first considers certain linguistic aspects of language development and goes on to take into account wider social and psychological factors which have influenced the childrens rate of acquisition, the proficiency attained and the communicative strategies employed. Reference is made to the largely similar acquisition of the phonological, grammatical and lexical systems of German and Spanish. This is followed by a brief outline of their acquisition of English, which followed a slightly different process in the case of each child. Mention is also made of the older childs experience of learning to read in her first two languages. The overall ...

Acquiring a third language: What role does bilingualism play?:

The aim of this theme issue is to add a further dimension to the language acquisition literature by providing some detailed accounts of third language acquisition as observed in bilinguals. The authors of the contributions all address the question of whether bilingualism plays an influential role when it comes to acquiring a third language and, if this is the case, what the nature of its mediating role is. Three of the contributions do this with regard to the acquisition of distinct competencies of a third language, whereas the fourth provides a comprehensive overview of issues raised in the literature on the subject. Third language acquisition is a very common phenomenon all over the world, in natural as well as formal contexts. It takes place in a large number of diverse sociolinguistic situations. One might think, for instance, of children growing up in multilingual communities in African countries where different family and tribal languages plus a lingua franca and / or a national language come together. Another example is that of the child of a bilingual family (speaking 2 languages that are not used in the wider community) who is exposed to a third language outside the home. In countries such as South Africa school is often the place where bilingual children acquire a third language that is also one of the national languages. In European countries there are established linguistic minorities that have achieved status and support for their languages, for instance in the N etherlands, Spain and F inland, and in these countries language policies include bilingual programs as well as foreign language programs which encourage the acquisition of a third language starting at primary school level. Of course, it is not only the children of older linguistic minorities who are exposed to a first foreign language at school. Especially in the countries of the European Union, new minorities are becoming established, frequently forming sizeable bilingual communities in predominantly urban areas. Whereas the children in most of the sociolinguistic contexts mentioned so far are likely to have two well established Introduction

The evolution of trilingual codeswitching from infancy to school age: The shaping of trilingual competence through dynamic language dominance:

This article reports on a study of the codeswitches produced by two children who acquired their three languages in early childhood. We compared formal and functional aspects of their switches recorded at two different stages of their development. Of particular interest was the consideration of sociolinguistic variables that have intervened in the childrens environment. We undertook a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the childrens codeswitches to ascertain the frequency of switching, the use of each of the three languages employed for switching and the linguistic complexity of the switches. We assumed that the sociolinguistic conditions that changed the linguistic landscape in which these children operated would be reflected not only in the development of each of their languages, but also in the kind of switches that they produced. We tried to establish whether it is the case that certain forms and functions of codeswitches constitute a “core” of trilingual language behavior while others are prone to change. Ultimately, our aim was to gain an insight into the specific trilingual language production processes over a given period of time that can shed light on the development and nature of trilingual competence.

Balancing Language Planning and Language Rights: Catalonia's Uneasy Juggling Act

In the 1980s, language planning in Catalonia was carried out against a background of general consensus that major language recovery measures were needed in order to improve the linguistic and sociolinguistic situation of Catalan. Demographic and social conditions favoured language reforms aimed at making Catalan the official language of the autonomous region of Catalonia, promoting its use in public and in the education system. Non-Catalans, too, supported these language policies as the use of Castilian (Spanish) was not restricted. This paper discusses the language planning measures resulting from the 1998 Law of Catalan. Catalonia seems to have reached a point where language recovery and language promotion come up against an evolving sociolinguistic situation marked by changed demographic conditions and social attitudes. The debate about the 1998 Law of Catalan demonstrates that popular consensus can no longer be relied upon. Instead, conflicting views are being voiced as the promotion of Catalan above Castilian has come to be seen as an infringement of the language rights of non-Catalans. Public discourse has become more polemical, bipartisan and politicised. The question arises as to how far a region within a multilingual member state of the EU can go in promoting monolingual language policies.

Multilingualism: Globalisation, language spread and new multilingualisms

Postmodernity is the age of the multilingual speaker. David Graddol (2006) Introduction In Chapter 1 we took a historical perspective to language contact and much of the discussion entailed an examination of factors that had contributed towards the spread of certain languages in the past. For example, conquests, religious crusades and colonisation led to the establishment of languages such as Arabic in parts of Africa and Spanish in Central and South America. By the eighteenth century, a whole range of political, economic and social developments that had been set in motion earlier started to gather momentum, most notably large-scale migration, overseas trading in commodities and slaves, the establishment of overseas colonies and plantations, and the beginning of missionary activities, all of which were to have far-reaching linguistic consequences. English was transported around the globe, to America and the West Indies, to Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Indian subcontinent, as well as many of the islands in the Pacific Ocean. Wherever it was taken, it added another sociolinguistic layer to an already highly multilingual linguistic landscape. Other European languages, too, were spread beyond Europe as a result of colonial practices, although their trajectories followed a different course than English. In many instances, indigenous languages became threatened and, of those that have been able to survive, many are today seriously endangered. Postcolonialism brought new linguistic challenges to newly independent states. In most cases, these states were not in a position to shake off the linguistic legacy bequeathed by the former dominant powers, as there were persuasive political arguments in favour of maintaining an official position for the former colonial language. At the same time, there was also a strongly perceived need to promote one or more indigenous languages that would symbolise independent nationhood. Nowadays a disproportionately high percentage of foreign aid from former colonising countries continues to be given to former dependencies, which helps maintain linguistic ties.

Multilingualism: Multilingual language competence and use

D’you know what, ‘te’ is a letter in German and it’s a word in Spanish. That’s funny. Luis (6 years, incipient trilingual) Introduction We have argued earlier that individual multilingualism is a very diverse phenomenon. Adults and children have different ways of becoming multilingual and developing multilingual competence. At the same time, multilingual language use – which, on the one hand is the outcome of multilingual competence and on the other is the driving force that refines this competence – is determined by a range of factors relating to why, where, how, about what and with whom one is communicating. We have thus concluded that different types of multilinguals and various ways of developing or acquiring multilingualism provide a range of ways to define and classify multilingual individuals. Such a classification is a rather complex task because multilingualism is dynamic – and not only at its inception, since it changes across the multilinguals’ lifespan depending on linguistic needs and opportunities within social and personal contexts. In the previous chapter we laid out the general issue of who is regarded as multilingual, how children become trilingual, the different research perspectives taken in particular studies concerning the development of trilingualism in infancy, and how formal education can generate trilingualism. Unlike the general concepts and ideas underlying Chapter 5, in this chapter we delve into more specific matters concerning the question: how do trilinguals do it (acquire and use three languages)? How can we explain it? What is the evidence we have? Knowledge of the processing and use of languages in trilinguals provides a window to understanding language processing in general and the limits of cognitive capacities where language load is concerned. The multilingual’s lifelong use of different languages and the pattern of mixing or switching between these can be taken as illustrative evidence to distinguish the various types of language behaviour and linguistic competence that are different from monolingual output.