Bilingualism

Defining Bilingualism

There is no single definition that does justice to the complex and dynamic nature of bilingualism, which is learned, shared, and constantly changing at the individual and societal levels. Research literature on the topic suggests a continuum in terms of levels of fluency. For example, in his classic 1933 book Language, Leonard Bloomfield postulated that a bilingual person must have native-like command of both languages. At the other extreme, Michael Halliday and Peter Stevens, in their 1964 book The Linguistic Sciences and Language Teaching, suggested that a person can be classified as bilingual at a minimal level if she or he is monolingual but uses a variety of styles of language, including language varieties and registers, to communicate successfully in two bilingual contexts. When considering bilingualism in terms of proficiency in understanding, reading, and writing as well as speaking, the process becomes even more difficult to measure, for the nature of language is to be in a constant state of change as circumstances at the individual and societal levels undergo both slow and rapid change. Linguists and applied linguists continue to present ways to gauge this fluid and organic process of being and becoming bilingual, which is akin to attempting to change a tire while the car is moving.

Historical Perspectives

Much of the interest in bilingualism in the United States is linked to the false premise that appeared in the bilingual research literature during the 1950s suggesting that bilingualism was detrimental to cognitive development in children. In the case of multilingual societies such as the United States, this theory implied that bilingual children from both stigmatized and nonstigmatized ethno-linguistic communities would experience school achievement deficits and thus would also join the lower classes of society. The research literature since that time has demonstrated the opposite—that bilingualism tends to promote cognitive flexibility and metalinguistic awareness and sophistication in children and adults, in addition to opening personal and professional opportunities in the interconnected global village. Bilingualism and multilingualism are more typical than monolingualism throughout the world.

The historical and contemporary phenomenon of bilingualism reveals that, at both the individual and societal levels, the United States has been and continues to be a cornucopia of language richness and complexity, including many indigenous languages and cultures. For instance, when the British acquired Manhattan Island in 1664, there were 18 different languages of European origin already spoken there. Further, it is estimated that at that time there were already approximately 500 Indian languages in North America. Given this multilingual context early in U.S. history, it is not surprising that bilingualism flourished and became an integral part of the ethnolinguistic landscape of the nation. Little is known about the challenges and opportunities that particular individuals and their families faced on becoming bilingual in the early part of U.S. history. What is known, however, is that language maintenance and shift occur because of the need to survive in a variety of sociolinguistic and political contexts. Bilingualism in the United States has tended to reflect the needs of individuals within ethnic enclaves as a means of surviving within the English-dominant society but also as way to bond and support their ethnolinguistic communities. Given the importance of bilingualism in society, one could ask why bilingualism has not received much affirmation in the United States. As Einar Haugen, an expert on Norwegian-English bilingualism in the United States, writes in his book The Norwegian Language in America: A Study in Bilingual Behavior (1969, p. 2), “Bilingualism has been treated as a necessary evil, a rash on the body politic, which time might be expected to cure without the need of calling in the doctors.” Researchers still do not have a good explanation as to why such an important topic like bilingualism has not received the scholarly attention that it undoubtedly merits. However, researchers know that bilingualism has and continues to play an important role in the sociocultural, academic, and political life of the United States.

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