Feb 29 Bilingualism

• Language Coactivation: Both languages are active and competing
• The 2000s marked a significant positive shift in the perception of bilingualism, recognizing its complexity and the benefits of bilingual education
• Early definitions of bilingualism were restrictive, highlighting proficiency in both languages as a criterion for true bilingualism
• The Traditional Story in Psycholinguistics

  Bilinguals have been considered a special group of language users, much like brain-damaged patients and children with language disorders
• Initial negative bias towards bilingualism, favoring monolingual education
• Bilinguals should be "functionally monolingual" in two languages

  • Equally fluent, ambilingual, equalingualism, balanced bilingual
• Late bilinguals


  • Learning the second language later than childhood
• Bilingualism in Canada

  • 18% of the population in Canada are bilingual in French-English
• Bilingualism in World

  • About 60% of the population are bilingual in the world
• Language Coactivation: simultaneous activation of two or more languages in the brain of bilingual or multilingual individuals during language processing
• The New Attitude on Bilingualism

  Greater plasticity than previously understood, language learning occurs at all ages, bilingualism provides a lens for examining neurocognitive processes, alters the structure and function of the mind, bilingualism is a consequential life experience
• Bilingualism in Montreal

  • 69.8% of Montreal's population is bilingual
• Learning two languages would be confusing (Hakuta, 1986)
• Introduction of the concept of bilingualism as a continuum rather than a binary condition
• Bilingualism in Quebec

  • 46.6% of Quebec's population is bilingual
• The critical period hypothesis suggested a narrow window for acquiring a second language without an accent or grammar deficiencies
• Even highly successful late L2 learners speak with an accent and appear to fail to acquire subtle aspects of the L2 grammar
• Discoveries about Bilingualism

  Language Coactivation: Both languages are active and competing, 2. Beyond Language Processing: Cognitive control, 3. Individual Differences: Not all bilinguals are the same
• Implications for Future Research

  1. The complexity and variability of bilingual experiences underscore the importance of nuanced, context-sensitive research approaches

  2. Future studies should explore the multifaceted nature of bilingualism, including how sociolinguistic contexts influence cognitive and linguistic outcomes

  3. There's a need for larger, more diverse study samples to better understand the broad spectrum of bilingualism and its impacts
• Factors influencing language coactivation

  • Age of second language acquisition
  • Proficiency levels
  • Social context of language use
• Language Coactivation

  • When bilinguals speak, listen, read, or write in one language, elements of their other language(s) are also activated to some extent
  • Both languages are active in a bilingual's brain, even when only one language is being used actively
  • Bilinguals process information from both languages simultaneously
  • Bilinguals experience facilitated processing for cognates, indicating interconnectedness of their language systems
• Factors affecting the effects of bilingualism

  • Age of second language acquisition
  • Language proficiency
  • Linguistic environment
• Beyond Language Processing

  • Bilingualism affects cognitive functions beyond language processing, including executive functions and attentional control
  • Bilingualism can lead to structural and functional brain changes, particularly in areas associated with cognitive control and flexibility
  • Debates exist on whether bilinguals have a cognitive advantage over monolinguals
• Levels of language processing where language coactivation occurs

  1. Lexical (word)

  2. Syntactic (sentence structure)

  3. Phonological (sound system)
• Individual Differences

  • The effects of bilingualism vary significantly based on factors like age of second language acquisition, language proficiency, and the linguistic environment
  • The social context in which bilingual individuals use their languages plays a crucial role in shaping their linguistic and cognitive experiences
  • Addressing the variability among bilinguals presents methodological challenges, emphasizing the need for nuanced research approaches that consider the spectrum of bilingual experiences
• Language Coactivation: simultaneous activation of two or more languages in the brain of bilingual or multilingual individuals during language processing
• A verbal paraphasia is when you substitute one word for a similar word and a phonemic paraphasia is when you swap or add speech sounds
• The English word "angel" is also a Dutch word that means "sting" - is an example of Interlingual homographs
• "Amy speaks a lot of non-words or invented words and people have a hard time understanding her" is an example of Wernicke's Aphasia
• "Daniel can understand what other people are speaking but he can only speak one syllable" is an example of Brocca's Aphasia
• "Emily can speak and can understand what other people are speaking but can't repeat words" is an example of conduction aphasia
• The phrase "We have more rules than examples, but somehow learn all the rules" is consistent with Poverty of the Stimulus Argument
• Poverty of the Stimulus Argument: suggests that the linguistic input children receive is too limited (impoverished) to explain their detailed knowledge of their native language's syntax

  • It supports the idea of innate grammatical structures that help children rapidly and accurately acquire their native language despite the limited and imperfect linguistic input they receive from the environment