27.1486, Review: Lang Acq; Socioling: Austin, Sánchez, Blume (2015)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1486. Tue Mar 29 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.1486, Review: Lang Acq; Socioling: Austin, Sánchez, Blume (2015)

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Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2016 16:18:48
From: Alicia Assini [alicia.assini at gmail.com]
Subject: Bilingualism in the Spanish-Speaking World

 
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/26/26-2285.html

AUTHOR: Jennifer  Austin
AUTHOR: María  Blume
AUTHOR: Liliana  Sánchez
TITLE: Bilingualism in the Spanish-Speaking World
SUBTITLE: Linguistic and Cognitive Perspectives
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2015

REVIEWER: Alicia Alexandra Assini, University of Texas at Austin

Reviews Editor: Robert Arthur Cote

SUMMARY

This new book, “Bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking world: Linguistic and
cognitive perspectives,” co-authored by Jennifer Austin, Judy Blume, and
Liliana Sánchez , addresses linguistic and cognitive approaches to
bilingualism, particularly with reference to the Spanish-speaking world. In
it, the authors provide a general introduction to bilingualism and the many
ways in which bilingualism affects societies and individuals. This work is
structured to build on foundational knowledge of earlier chapters for the
subsequent elaboration of more advanced topics and areas in which further
research is needed. The authors’ purpose extends beyond offering a general
introduction to bilingualism, to discussing the competing theoretical
assumptions about linguistic and cognitive consequences of bilingualism for
societies and speakers. In addition, the authors seek to remedy a failing they
perceive in extant studies of bilinguals, namely, the focus on highly literate
educated professionals. By furnishing readers with case studies about
bilingual Spanish in diverse contexts, make the case that the Spanish-speaking
world presents an incredibly rich set of communities that can provide
opportunities for research of more diverse bilingual populations. They call
for further studies in more diverse bilingual communities in order to reach
trustworthy conclusions about the cognitive and linguistic effects of
bilingualism. 

The content of the book is organized into an introduction and three main
chapters. In the introduction, the authors review pertinent terminology and
specify the terms they will implement for the succeeding chapters. Chapter 1
addresses the question of how to define a bilingual speaker. Chapter 2
approaches bilingualism from the cognitive viewpoint and discusses
experimental methods employed, whereas Chapter 3 reviews specific language
outcomes in lexical, syntactic, and morphological storage and access among
Spanish-Quechua, Basque-Spanish, and English-Spanish bilingual speakers. Each
chapter is discussed in greater detail below.

The Introduction is an extensive section of the book in which the authors
consider many foundational elements of the study of bilingualism. The chapter
is divided into major sections that inform the reader about i) basic
terminology in the study of bilingualism and second language learning, ii) the
effects of language contact, iii) the extent of bilingualism in the world, iv)
pidgins and creole languages, v) the relevance of studying bilingualism and L2
acquisition, and vi) specific examples of Spanish-language contact and
bilingualism. The chapter is especially helpful as the authors include a
grammatical description of the primary languages they want to focus on in this
book—Spanish, Quechua, Basque, and English—and ample discussion of societal
bilingualism on the diverse perspectives adopted in bilingual education. 

Chapter 1, “What does it mean to be bilingual?” undertakes the important and
challenging task to of defining who is considered a bilingual speaker and what
approaches researchers pursue to determine bilinguality of an individual. The
chapter is further separated into ten sections and up to three subsections
within each section. Early sections define bilingualism, organize competing
and contrasting theories of how to determine proficiency of bilinguals, and
lay out the challenges associated with the classification of bilingual
speakers. The authors present reasons why it is essential to specify how we
characterize bilinguals and proficiency, and they point to research
impediments caused by not having a clear method for identifying bilinguals.
While some of these difficulties are due to competing theories about
bilingualism, others arise because bilingualism is inherently complex and
because there exists a diverse community of bilingual speakers with levels of
proficiency that fall along a continuum. In order to carry out studies that
offer findings that are reliable and replicable, it is imperative that
classification of bilingual speakers and proficiency assessment be consistent
within studies and that the methodology for this classification be clearly
provided. Additional sections in this chapter address the distinction between
first- and second-language learners, and the authors devote ample discussion
the critical period hypothesis, a controversial topic in bilingualism. The
discussion of first language acquisition incorporates seminal studies on
language development in children deprived of language exposure in order to
disseminate and support research in the area of the critical period
hypothesis. 

Chapter 2, “Bilingual brains, bilingual minds,” approaches bilingualism from
the cognitive perspective and presents experimental approaches to the research
of cognitive activity bilingual and monolingual speakers. The first section
describes where language centers are located in the brain and provides
introductory detail about experimental neuroimaging techniques for testing and
researching the reflexes of bilingualism on the brain. The methods discussed
include fMRI, MEG, PET, and EEG, and the advantages and disadvantages to each
method are concisely explained. The authors highlight the differences between
the monolingual’s and bilingual’s brain, including discussion and research
about grey matter density and cortical activation while performing linguistic
tasks. They also explain the neurolinguistic and neurological repercussions of
bilingualism on morphological, phonlogical, lexical, and syntactic processing.
Findings from seminal works in these areas are presented along with more
recent research, and the authors include proposed research topics for future
analysis in these fields. The chapter ends with a final section that is
concerned with the effects of bilingualism on literacy and concludes with a
discussion of aphasia and first language attrition of both children and
adults.

The third and final chapter in this book, “Bilingual development and bilingual
outcomes,” is devoted to the acquisition of the bilingual lexicon and
bilingual syntax and discusses the effects of bilingualism in Spanish-speaking
bilingual communities. It is in this chapter that the authors provide the most
in-depth presentation of the effects of bilingualism on speakers of Spanish
who are in contact with Quechua, Basque, and English. Furthermore, they
introduce the linguistic effects of language contact, such as language
transfer and cross-linguistic influence at the syntax-discourse level, and the
potential grammatical changes that can be affected by bilingualism on both of
the speaker’s languages. The last section addresses the grammatical influences
of Quechua on the Spanish of speakers in the Andes, then in turn the case of
Euskera and Spanish in Spain, and finally Spanish and English in the United
States.

EVALUATION

Austin, Blume, and Sánchez have authored a well-researched book that
successfully furnishes readers with a comprehensive yet concise introduction
to bilingualism from linguistic and cognitive perspectives. The introduction
and three chapters of the book are well-structured and employ a level of
technical terms and concepts appropriate for newcomers to the fields of
bilingualism and Hispanic linguistics. However, the suggestion —implicit in
the title and explicit in the authors’ assertion in the introductory chapter—
that this book focuses specifically on bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking
world does not correspond with the majority of the studies and data presented
throughout the book. For instance, the first two chapters, which focus
primarily on foundational concepts and theory in bilingualism and second
language acquisition, require the authors to present seminal works in these
subfields, many of which were not conducted on Spanish-speaking populations .
Of course, the authors could not accomplish the goals of these first two
chapters without including these seminal studies, but the result is that a
significant portion of these chapters do not include discussion about
Spanish-speaking bilingual communities. In fact, in the central sections of
the book, it is possible to forget that a major goal of this monograph is
precisely to discuss bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking world. The book is
best appreciated as reflecting the authors’ intention to integrate what is
known of linguistic and cognitive aspects of bilingualism into a general
introduction to bilingualism while simultaneously demonstrating that bilingual
communities and individuals in the Spanish-speaking world are an excellent
resource for future research.

An additional critique of the book is its scope. Austin, Blume, and Sánchez
set for themselves the difficult task of providing an introduction to
linguistic and cognitive facets of bilingualism and emphasizing special cases
of bilingualism in the Spanish-speaking world. Unfortunately, too many topics
are presented, some of which do not directly support the authors’ main goals.
As an example, the introduction includes a thorough description of different
types of bilingual education, primarily focusing on programs in the United
States. While bilingual education contributes to the discussion of bilingual
speakers and their linguistic development, it is not fundamental to the main
goals of the authors. In fact, the large section devoted to the description of
each type of bilingual education program introduces another variable
surrounding studies in bilingualism, namely, the social and political
components at play in this complex issue, which detracts from the focus on the
linguistic and cognitive aspects. 

The book’s main strength is that it delivers a complete work that is both a
broad and yet detailed introduction to bilingualism. Austin, Blume, and
Sánchez are successful in integrating competing and varying theories of the
most seminal researchers in linguistics and cognitive psychology. As different
topics and findings are presented in the book, the authors point out the areas
in which further research is needed. Explicit suggestions for future research
serve as a motivational tool for the reader. In addition, including the major
pertinent studies that have been conducted in the field of linguistics
encapsulates in one location reference material that will be useful resources
for readers as they embark on future projects in the field of bilingualism.
While Austin, Blume and Sánchez do not explicitly state the intended
readership for their book, an appropriate audience would be students pursuing
post-secondary studies in linguistics and psychology, either at the
undergraduate or graduate level. The introduction and first chapter have a
linguistic focus, and chapters two and three develop in greater detail the
cognitive experimental methods and effects of bilingualism. Thus, students
will gain sufficient foundational knowledge to employ in designing
experimentally sound linguistic and cognitive studies in bilingualism.

In conclusion, this volume provides a general introduction to bilingualism
from the linguistic and cognitive perspectives, while emphasizing advantages
of Spanish-speaking bilingual communities for the future pursuit of research
in this field. At times social perspectives of bilingualism enter into several
sections, but overall, this does not detract from the authors’ achieving their
objectives with this publication.


ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Alicia Assini is a PhD student in Spanish Linguistics at the University of
Texas at Austin. She has a Master of Arts in Spanish Linguistics from
Middlebury College and Master of Science in Multilingual Computing and
Localisation from the University of Limerick (Ireland). Her areas of interest
include language contact and variation and Spanish-English bilingualism in the
United States, specifically in New Mexico. Another area of research interest
is in language revitalization and maintenance of Native North American
languages, predominantly of the Iroquoian langauges.





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