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    Multilingualism: Guadalupe Valdés Multilingualism in The World

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    Multilingualism is the norm globally, with most people speaking more than one language. However, monolingualism is often incorrectly believed to be more common. There are over 5,000 distinct languages spoken across only around 160 countries. Researchers have debated how to define bilingualism and multilingualism. Recently, a broader definition has emerged that views it as a common human ability to function, to some degree, in more than one language. Bilingual individuals exist on a continuum of competencies, from high proficiency in both languages to varying abilities depending on the context. They categorize types of bilinguals based on factors like their age of acquiring the second language and whether it was through formal education or growing up with

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    Multilingualism: Guadalupe Valdés Multilingualism in The World

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    Multilingualism is the norm globally, with most people speaking more than one language. However, monolingualism is often incorrectly believed to be more common. There are over 5,000 distinct languages spoken across only around 160 countries. Researchers have debated how to define bilingualism and multilingualism. Recently, a broader definition has emerged that views it as a common human ability to function, to some degree, in more than one language. Bilingual individuals exist on a continuum of competencies, from high proficiency in both languages to varying abilities depending on the context. They categorize types of bilinguals based on factors like their age of acquiring the second language and whether it was through formal education or growing up with

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    Multilingualism is the norm globally, with most people speaking more than one language. However, monolingualism is often incorrectly believed to be more common. There are over 5,000 distinct languages spoken across only around 160 countries. Researchers have debated how to define bilingualism and multilingualism. Recently, a broader definition has emerged that views it as a common human ability to function, to some degree, in more than one language. Bilingual individuals exist on a continuum of competencies, from high proficiency in both languages to varying abilities depending on the context. They categorize types of bilinguals based on factors like their age of acquiring the second language and whether it was through formal education or growing up with

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    115 views2 pages

    Multilingualism: Guadalupe Valdés Multilingualism in The World

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    api-27788847
    Multilingualism is the norm globally, with most people speaking more than one language. However, monolingualism is often incorrectly believed to be more common. There are over 5,000 distinct languages spoken across only around 160 countries. Researchers have debated how to define bilingualism and multilingualism. Recently, a broader definition has emerged that views it as a common human ability to function, to some degree, in more than one language. Bilingual individuals exist on a continuum of competencies, from high proficiency in both languages to varying abilities depending on the context. They categorize types of bilinguals based on factors like their age of acquiring the second language and whether it was through formal education or growing up with

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    http://www.lsadc.org/info/ling-fields-multi.

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    Multilingualism

    Guadalupe Valdés

    Multilingualism in the World

    Contrary to what is often believed, most of the world's population is bilingual or


    multilingual. Monolingualism is characteristic only of a minority of the world's peoples.
    According to figures cited in Stavenhagen (1990) for example, five to eight thousand
    different ethnic groups reside in approximately 160 nation states. Moreover, scholars
    estimate that there are over 5000 distinct languages spoken in that same small
    number of nation states. What is evident from these figures is that few nations are
    either monolingual or mono-ethnic. Each of the world's nations has groups of
    individuals living within its borders who use other languages in addition to the
    national language to function in their everyday lives.

    Definitions of Bilingualism and Multilingualism

    When people hear the term bilingual many imagine an individual who speaks two
    languages perfectly. For them someone who is 'truly' bilingual is two native speakers
    in one. They imagine that such a person can speak, understand, read, and write in
    two languages at the highest levels. For others, the term bilingual means something
    quite different. When newly arrived immigrant children entering U.S. schools, for
    example, are described as 'bilingual children,' the term is often used as a euphemism
    for 'poor' and 'uneducated'. In this case, newly arrived immigrant children do not yet
    function in two languages. They are monolingual speakers of their first language and
    not bilingual at all. The term bilingual here is used to convey a very different set of
    meanings from what linguists intend.

    Defining Multilingualism

    The question of how to define bilingualism or multilingualism has engaged researchers


    for a very long time. Some researchers have favored a narrow definition of
    bilingualism and argued that only those individuals who are very close to two
    monolinguals in one should be considered bilingual.

    More recently, however, researchers who study bilingual and multilingual communities
    around the world have argued for a broad definition that views bilingualism as a
    common human condition that makes it possible for an individual to function, at some
    level, in more than one language. The key to this very broad and inclusive definition
    of bilingualism is 'more than one'.

    From the perspective of this framework, a bilingual individual is not necessarily an


    ambilingual (an individual with native competency in two languages) but a bilingual of
    a specific type who, along with other bilinguals of many different types, can be
    classified along a continuum. Some bilinguals possess very high levels of proficiency
    in both languages in the written and the oral modes. Others display varying
    proficiencies in comprehension and/or speaking skills depending on the immediate
    area of experience in which they are called upon to use their two languages.

    According to this perspective, one admits into the company of bilinguals individuals
    who can, to whatever degree, comprehend or produce written or spoken utterances in
    more than one language. Thus, persons able to read in a second language (e.g.
    French) but unable to function in the spoken language are considered to be bilinguals
    of a certain type and placed at one end of the continuum. Such persons are said to
    have receptive competence in a second language and to be 'more bilingual' than
    monolinguals who have neither receptive nor productive abilities in a language other
    than their first. The judgment here is comparative: total monolingualism versus a
    minor degree of ability to comprehend a second language.

    Types of Bi- and Multilinguals

    Because there are very different kinds of bilinguals and multilinguals, much effort in
    the study of bilingualism has gone into developing categories which might make the
    measurement and description of these differences possible. The categories used to
    describe different types of bilinguals reflect different researchers' interests in focusing
    on specific aspects of bilingual ability or experience. Researchers concerned about the
    age of acquisition of bilingualism, for example, classify bilingual individuals as either
    early or late bilinguals and further subdivide early bilinguals into simultaneous
    bilinguals (those who acquired two languages simultaneously as a first language) or
    sequential bilinguals (those who acquired the second language (L2) after the first
    language (L1) was acquired). Researchers, on the other hand, concerned about the
    differences between persons who choose to study a second language and those who
    grow up in communities where several languages are spoken have used the terms
    elite, academic, and elective bilinguals for the former and natural, folk, and
    circumstantial bilinguals for the latter.

    The usefulness of these labels and categories clearly depends on the specific interest
    a researcher has in bilingualism. Meaningful comparisons of bilingual persons cannot
    generally be made unless attention is given to the differences and similarities between
    these individuals in terms of a number of key dimensions such as age of acquisition of
    the second language, circumstances in which the two languages are used, patterns of
    use of the two languages in the surrounding community, level of formal education
    received in each language, and degrees of proficiency.

    Suggested Readings

    Appel, R, and P. Muysken. 1987. Language contact and bilingualism. London: Edward
    Arnold.

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