dominant language

[Ekaterina Smyk]

Well, it seems to me that a speaker can be considered as “always” more
proficient in the dominant language only if dominance is defined based on a
relative proficiency in two languages. However, if language proficiency is
considered as a distinct construct (e.g., as a level of linguistic
attainment), then the relations between dominance and proficiency can vary.
For example, a speaker may be dominant in L2, but be more proficient in L1.
There are numerous operational definitions of language dominance and
proficiency so I am sure some people may disagree with me. I would be very
interested in hearing other opinions as well.
Katya


On Fri, Mar 26, 2010 at 12:43 PM, Bruno Estigarribia <brunilda at gmail.com>wrote:

> Forgive the silly question. This is not my field but the following struck
> me as counterintuitive so I want to make sure this is what was intended:
>
> "For example, in order to be a highly proficient in a certain language a
> speaker does have to be dominant in that language."
> Isn't the converse more intuitively sensible? You can, I guess, be highly
> proficient in two languages but (I want to say, by definition almost), only
> dominant in one of them. Am I missing something (perhaps in the literature)
> that contradicts this?
> Just curious.
> Bruno
> --
> Bruno Estigarribia
> Research Assistant Professor
> 364A Davie Hall, CB #3270
> Department of Psychology - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
> Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270
> USA
>
>  The first question here is how language dominance is defined. Sometimes
>> language dominance is used interchangeably with language proficiency due to
>> a definition of language dominance in terms of the relative proficiency in
>> two languages. However, these two constructs can be distinguished in terms
>> of psycholinguistic properties (See Birdsong (2006) Dominance, proficiency,
>> and second language grammatical processing in /Applied Psycholinguistics/).
>> Often language dominance implies the superior performance on measures of
>> fluency, speed, automaticity, and accuracy in processing. For example, in
>> order to be a highly proficient in a certain language a speaker does have to
>> be dominant in that language. In addition, assessment of language dominance
>> is frequently based on the underlying assumption of uniform superior
>> performance in the dominant language. However, dominance in one aspect of
>> the language does not necessarily imply dominance in others.
>>  Katya
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 25, 2010 at 7:40 AM, Maja Roch <majaroch at gmail.com <mailto:
>> majaroch at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>    Hello,
>>    is anybody familiar with some possible criteria to be adopted for
>>    establishing a dominant language of a bilingual child?
>>    Best regards,
>>    Maja Roch
>>
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