Language Dominance

Language dominance is often understood to refer to either one's current preference for a language, or the skill or amount of practice one has in a language. No single definition of dominance in language research exists, so many researchers propose their own, depending on their experiences, research purpose, or the population they are working with.

The concept of dominance, as discussed in this entry, is closely linked to the notion of proficiency, or how well one can speak and understand a language, although many agree that these two concepts are not the same. Language proficiency is often defined as the overall level of achievement and the competency of language use. It is the ability of a speaker to use the language in various situations. When a person speaks two languages with equal proficiency, the language skills are said to be balanced across the two languages and the person is a balanced bilingual. When skills in one language are stronger or the person is more proficient in using one language than another, this language is referred to as the dominant one. However, that is the extent of the agreement among language [Page 431]researchers. Even the idea of balance is debated because it is nearly impossible to make judgments concerning balance between two languages in every arena of life (e.g., family life, work, worship, dreams, intimate conversations).

On a more technical issue of what constitutes a dominant language, researchers and practitioners have many different views. Some believe that dominance is limited only to the exhibition of certain grammatical features while mixing languages. For example, if a child speaks English and Spanish, when mixing the two languages in a phrase with an article (or adjective) and a noun, they might unconsciously use a Spanish article and an English noun. That is because Spanish articles reflect gender and number and in this are more descriptive than are English articles. Scientists who believe in that view of dominance limit their view to certain grammatical features of the language and agree that a person can be proficient in both languages, but dominant in one only when using this particular grammatical feature.

Another view of dominance is that a language is dominant if and when its pace of development is faster than other languages one might speak. This happens if a person speaks one language more than another, as is often the case in immigrant communities where the emphasis is on English rather than on the native language.

The third view of dominance is that of relative proficiency. That means that language use depends on the situation and circumstance, on how and when the language is used. Scholars who hold this view may not label a language as dominant at all but, rather, talk about the ability of using languages in different circumstances. The proponents of this view would argue that bilingual speakers use their two languages for various purposes, in different circumstances and with different people. Because of that, dominance would depend on the relative use of language in an area. Those who hold this view argue that although a person is proficient in English when talking about her job, that does not mean that her English is dominant when she talks about other topics or matters such as politics or religion.

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