multilingualism

[Davida S Fromm]

Just to add a few comments on multilingualism:

First, I agree with most of what's been said by others about children
having no difficulty whatsoever learning more than one language from early
on.  I think the arguments and evidence on difference and delay, etc., are
complex and demand more discussion than possible in emails. But the bottom
line is that even where there may be initial differences across children
with distinct exposure to language X, the differences are usually subtle,
and in the end the differences get neutralized.  I also agree with others
that this is contingent, of course, on the child continuing to be exposed
to the languages in question.  (A child can't learn a language s/he is not
hearing.)

But what I wanted to bring up is that it is about time we turned these
issues on their head.  The discussions need to turn to how the MONOLINGUAL
child is at a disadvantage, not the bilingual/multilingual child.  Just to
list some areas where this is true:

1.  Easiest and most obvious: The monolingual ends up with only one
language, the bilingual with two or more.  In my mind, that is reason
enough to bring up a child bilingually, if one has that option. Others in
this discussion have already commented on the very considerable social,
political, economic, cultural, etc. advantages of knowing more than one
language, advantages that are on top of the linguistic advantages.

2.  The facility and fluency with which a child growing up bilingually
speaks those languages can rarely be gained by someone starting the second
language at a later stage in life.  Is there a single adult among us who
began a language in adolescence or adulthood that would not have preferred
to learn that language in childhood?  We are doing a disservice to our
children making them wait to learn a second language.

3.  As mentioned by others, the bilingual child gains metalinguistic
awareness earlier than monolingual children [i.e., one could say a
monolingual child is "delayed" in metalinguistic awareness].

4.  The bilingual child is opened to distinct ways of viewing and thinking
about the world according to the "packaging" offered by the language ?
crosslinguistic differences have been shown to affect what we
pay attention to, similarity judgments, and the like, as well as more
down-to-earth matters such as how violent a jury might view the actions of
a defendant in a trial to be (e.g., Luna Filipovic's work).

5.  There is considerable evidence on bilingual advantages on executive
function tasks ? sometimes they're faster, sometimes better/more accurate
on such tasks.  Again, the implication is that the monolingual is at a
disadvantage.

It is clear that a bilingual is not two monolinguals in one head.
Poor monolingual.  I think it often helps to draw analogies: Who has a
richer experience as a musician ? the person who can play 2 or 3 or more
instruments well, or the person who can only play one?  If a drummer can
bring enhanced sensitivities for rhythm to how s/he plays the guitar, does
this make him/her a worse guitar player than one who can only play the
guitar, or does it mean the "mono-guitar" player may be lacking some
richness that can only be gained by being "multi-musical"?

Ginny Gathercole

Professor, School of Psychology
Co-Director, ESRC Centre for Research on Bilingualism in Theory and
Practice
Bangor University
Wales





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