Tej K. Bhatia

Handbook of Second Language Acquisition

W.C. Ritchie and T.K. Bhatia, Second Language Acquisition: Introduction, Foundations, and Overview. Research and Theoretical Issues in Second Language Acquisition: K.R. Gregg, The Logical and Developmental Problems of Second Language Acquisition. Issues of Maturation and Modularity in Second Language Acquisition: L. White, Universal Grammar and Second Language Acquisition: Current Trends and New Directions. S. Flynn, A Parameter-Setting Approach to Second Language Acquisition. J. Schachter, Maturation and the Issue of Universal Grammar in Second Language Acquisition. F.R. Eckman, A Functional-Typological Approach to Second Language Acquisition Theory. B. McLaughlin and R. Heredia, Information-Processing Approaches to Research on Second Language Acquisition and Use. D. Preston, Variationist Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition. Second Language Speech and the Influence of the First Language: J. Leather and A. James, Second Language Speech. S. Gass, Second Language Acquisition and Linguistic Theory: The Role of Language Transfer. Research Methodology and Applications: D. Nunan, Issues in Second Language Acquisition Research: Examining Substance and Procedure. A. Sorace, The Use of Acceptability Judgments in Second Language Acquisition Research. Modality and the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition: M.H. Long, The Role of the Linguistic Environment in Second Language Acquisition. G.P. Berent, The Acquisition of English Syntax by Deaf Learners. The Neuropsychology of Second Language Acquisition and Use: L.K. Obler and S. Hannigan, Neurolinguistics of Second Language Acquisition and Use. Language Contact and its Consequences: R.W. Anderson and Y. Shirai, The Primacy of Aspect in First and Second Language Acquisition: The Pidgin-Creole Connection. S. Romaine, Bilingualism. H.W. Seliger, Primary Language Attrition in the Context of Bilingualism. T.K. Bhatia and W.C. Ritchie, Bilingual Language Mixing, Universal Grammar, and Second Language Acquisition. Glossary. Author Index. Subject Index.

The Bilingual Mind and Linguistic Creativity

The aim of this article is to focus on the two salient aspects of the capacity of the bilingual mind/brain, namely, its ability to maintain both language separation on one hand and language integration on the other. These two types of bilingual capacity result in language mixing, termed Code Mixing (CM) and Code Switching (CS) in socio-linguistic research. The article reveals various facets of bilingual creativity through language mixing as it manifests itself in the day-to-day verbal behaviour of a bilingual and in global advertising. The article argues that language mixing is essentially an ‘optimizing’ strategy which renders a wide variety of new meaning which the separate linguistic systems are incapable of rendering by themselves.

Bilingualism and Second Language Learning

Contrary to the most widely held beliefs in some monolingual societies, bilingualism is not a rare or unnatural phenomenon. This article presents a state-of-the art treatment of the various facets of bilingualism and second language learning. In addition to comparing and contrasting the key concepts of monolingual and bilingual language acquisition, salient features of bilingual verbal behavior are accounted for both on descriptive and explanatory grounds. Current trends and approaches in bilingual education and second language learning are also presented. Fundamentally, this article reveals that the task of defining and measuring bilinguals is so challenging that no single theory can account for the bilinguals, on one hand, and the mechanism of verbal language acquisition, on the other.

Literacy in Monolingual Societies.

The multidimensional and interdisciplinary research on literacy has progressed so rapidly that researchers have responded to its growth in a number of ways which includes the occasional production of bibliographies. The most recent book-length bibliography by Graff stresses the multifaceted aspect of the research, admitting at the same time that approaches to literacy are too ubiquitous to enumerate (1981b:8). Among the important approaches to literacy, the following are noteworthy: historical, anthropological, sociological, economic, demographic, developmental, psychological, and linguistic. All of these approaches have two properties in common: first, they directly or indirectly address themselves to the questions of acquisition of reading and writing skills in pre-literate and semi-illiterate societies; and second, they study literacy without any significant reference to the monolingual (henceforth, ML) or multilingual structure of a speech community. The second reason thus explains the dearth of studies. Literature focusing on literacy in ML or multilingual societies is negligible. With advances in the field of sociolinguistics, this aspect of literacy research is no longer virgin territory.

Emerging trilingual literacies in rural India: linguistic, marketing, and developmental aspects

This paper examines emerging forms of multilingualism and multiliteracy in rural India (where the term ‘literacy’ is used broadly here to include digital media literacy and marketing literacy as well as literacy in the traditional sense of the knowledge of a writing system). Here forces of globalization and digital communication have created unique communication circumstances that have a serious bearing on our understanding of multilingualism and on theoretical and practical issues concerning literacy in developing and rural societies. The newly emerging form of bimodal communication (man-machine and verbal-visual) is a product of a new village institution called an e-Choupal, a meeting place housing a computer with Internet access, where local farmers meet to learn about developments in farming, crop prices, etc., on the basis of contact with the world beyond the village through the use of computers. Traditionally, communication between members of the rural population and members of the mainstream population has been limited to the use of a mainstream variety – in this case, either Indian English or Standard Hindi – rather than the nonmainstream varieties of the rural population. In many cases in this as well as in other societies, this circumstance has lead to an instance of subtractive bilingualism in which the rural varieties have become less used and, eventually, extinct. In an e-Choupal, the local rural dialect plays a central role in communication between the manager of the e-Choupal and the e-Choupals rural clientele, thus providing a case of additive multilingualism for the rural population through which the rural varieties will play a major role and will therefore have a chance to avoid extinction. Not only does the use of the local variety improve accuracy of communication, it also creates a high level of trust between the manager and the clientele based on shared sociolinguistic identity. This shared identity leads to a high level of success in the functioning of the e-Choupal as a center for the diffusion of innovations as predicted by Rogers’ general framework for the study of such centers; the paper proposes an analysis in terms of this framework. In addition, we analyze this case in terms of three contemporary theoretical research traditions – Social Identity Theory, Communication Accommodation Theory, and Markedness Theory.

Reaching the Unreachable: Resolving Globalization vs. Localization Paradox

Due to globalization and the need to seek out new markets (sometimes labelled as business to 4-billion [B2-4B]), rural marketing is gaining new importance in India as well as across the globe. This article examines three facets: the marketing, linguistic and advertising of these markets. Our study shows that global companies are engaged in devising new strategies to market their products. Indian media planners have pioneered new media forms (for example, Video Vans) combining conventional and non-conventional advertising to meet the challenge of reaching rural India. The result is that messages are customized effectively to meet their audiences’ regional sensibilities and tastes. The main focus of this study is on the analysis of the messages in the ‘unconventional’ media and wall advertising. We base our study on an empirical investigation of over 2,000 ads in rural settings. The ads include commercial, social and service advertisements. The findings indicate that the advertisers favour the ‘cooperative’ view as opposed to the ‘competitive’ view. They mix languages and scripts to optimize the strength and appeal of their messages. The strengths and limits of the ‘standardization’ versus ‘adaptation’ strategies are accounted for with special reference to the structural properties of wall ads. The directions for future research are outlined.

On the Predictive Role of the Recent Theories of Aspiration

The purpose of this study is to examine the predictive power of recent theories of aspiration. These theories (lag of voicing) predict that aspirated sounds will be perceived as unaspirated in word-final position, as in the case of Korean stops. Contrary to the predictions of these theories, our experiment showed that in final position in Hindi stops, such a neutralization between unaspirated and aspirated stops was absent. What is even more interesting is that the intelligibility of aspirated sounds in Hindi was the highest on the perception scale while unaspirated had a lower rank.

Religious-colonial models of language and early Hindi grammars

Abstract A reexamination of the early Hindi grammars reveals that they follow a unique model of language which can best be characterized as the religious-colonial model. The grammars depart from the perception of language embodied in the traditional prescriptive grammars. Compromising between the sociological and a purely linguistic view of language, the grammars are sometimes delinquent in presenting an accurate description of the language. However, treated as socio-historical data, they constitute a rich storage of sociolinguistic information which awaits exploitation by linguists working in the area of socio- and psycholinguistics in general and Hindi linguistics in particular.

Computer-based Hindi pedagogy

ConclusionAlthough most of the technical and methodological problems have been solved and encouraging results have been registered in the form of student evaluation of our project, the project is still in the development stage. Perhaps it should be added that even in its advanced stages, it will never be able to replace a human instructor; the only thing it can do is successfully exploit the complementary abilities of man and machine.

‘America’ in Indian Advertising: Change and Impact

Abstract The aims of this article are threefold: One, to focus on the advertising and marketing communications situating the presence of the USA in India. Two, to address three issues concerning the where, how, and impact dimensions of marking the US presence in Indian advertising. In that process an attempt will be made to integrate three aspects of advertising, namely: marketing, media, and linguistics. Three, to account for US corporate culture as it manifests itself in advertising. Central to our discussion are two product types: consumer products (e.g. Coke, Pepsi, Kellogg’s cereals, or Cadbury’s chocolates) and socially-sensitive, or ‘taboo’, products (e.g. condoms, alcohol, and breath fresheners).