35.1764, Review: Bilingualism Matters: Garraffa, Sorace, Vender; Schwieter (tr.) (2023)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-35-1764. Thu Jun 13 2024. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 35.1764, Review: Bilingualism Matters: Garraffa, Sorace, Vender; Schwieter (tr.) (2023)

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Date: 14-Jun-2024
From: BrettC Nelson [brett.nelson at ucalgary.ca]
Subject: Applied Linguistics: Garraffa, Sorace, Vender; Schwieter (tr.) (2023)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/34.3571

TRANSLATOR: John W. Schwieter
AUTHOR: Maria Garraffa
AUTHOR: Antonella Sorace
AUTHOR: Maria Vender
TITLE: Bilingualism Matters
SUBTITLE: Language Learning Across the Lifespan
PUBLISHER: Cambridge University Press
YEAR: 2023

REVIEWER: BrettC Nelson

SUMMARY

“Bilingualism Matters: Language Learning Across the Lifespan” is a
translation of a work originally published in Italian, “Il Cervello
Linguistico” [The Linguistic Brain], by Garaffa, Sorace, and Vender
(2020). This book is composed of six chapters, each of which contains
a list of objectives for that chapter, body sections which discuss
research that has contributed to our understanding of various topics
in bilingualism, a summary section, and a list of discussion topics.
Each chapter also contains one or more focused “Bilingualism Matters”
sections that provide illustrative case studies or provide clarifying
details on points from the preceding section(s). There are nine
illustrative figures and numerous examples spread throughout the
chapters. Additionally, included as back matter are a glossary of key
terms, a references section, and a brief index.

The first chapter sets the stage for the rest of the book by defining
what bilingualism is and who is considered bilingual, setting a
usage-based (rather than competence-based) definition of a bilingual
as being anyone who uses two or more languages to communicate. This
chapter also previews the remaining chapters in the book, discussing
different stages of bilingualism and bilingual language acquisition,
linguistic phenomena specific to bilinguals, and the benefits of
bilingualism. Most importantly, this chapter establishes the main
ideas of the book, that bilingualism is diverse, that the bilingual
mind is more than the sum of two monolingual minds, and that
bilingualism presents many potential benefits for those who have the
opportunity to learn more than one language.

Chapter 2 begins by distinguishing childhood bilingual acquisition
from subsequent language learning in adulthood. While childhood
acquisition utilizes the same processes that all children use in
acquiring their first languages, adult learning is a different
experience, and one that may stop at lower proficiency levels for a
variety of reasons. The remainder of this chapter examines the
bilingual development of phonology, lexicon, and morphosyntax to help
answer two questions. First, is bilingualism a singular integrated
linguistic system, or is it composed of a separate linguistic system
for each language? Second, do humans have an innate predisposition or
preference for monolingualism or for multilingualism? The authors show
that bilinguals exhibit separate but interacting systems for each
language and that children are sensitive to multiple languages from
birth.

Chapter 3 explores the cognitive effects of bilingualism across the
life span. The authors begin by showing that rapidly switching between
two (or more) languages does have effects on several brain functions,
namely, executive control and working memory. Furthermore, bilingual
experiences promote an improved cognitive reserve, healthy aging, and
a reduction of negative effects of aphasia and stroke. Ultimately, the
authors promote the long-term cognitive benefits of bilingualism as an
incentive for parents to provide bilingual experiences for their
children and for adults to try learning a new language, claiming that
when learning additional languages “earlier is better, but late is
great, too”.

Next, in Chapter 4, the authors review the neurolinguistics of
bilingualism. They show that bilingual development is a neurological
process that is affected by both environmental and biological factors,
and specifically that there is a biological predisposition for
bilingualism but the ideal environment with minimum quality and
quantity of inputs is necessary for its development.

Chapter 5 surveys cases of atypical linguistic development to
determine its interactions with bilingual development. Contrasting
developmental disorders, including dyslexia, autism, and schizophrenia
from acquired disorders, such as aphasia, the authors repeatedly show
evidence that bilingualism is not less attainable for those children
affected by these disorders, but rather that bilingual experiences may
in fact help their linguistic, cognitive, and social development.

Finally, in Chapter 6, the authors examine how bilingualism and
society interact. The authors strive to provide reasons for the
discrepancy that typically developing bilingual children only acquire
all of their native languages 75% of the time, while 100% of
monolingual children acquire their native language to maximum
proficiency. Their reasoning is that the societal and familial
environments surrounding bilingual development may lead children to
abandon one of their languages, especially if it is a minority
language. The rest of this chapter examines the difficulty in
maintaining the balanced bilingual inputs and experiences necessary to
support development, while also addressing the positive
ethnolinguistic attitudes and pride that could support bilingual
development, but also warning of the negative attitudes and shame that
can hinder and even prevent that development.

EVALUATION

“Bilingualism Matters: Language Learning Across the Lifespan” serves
as an excellent starting point for researchers interested in various
aspects of bi- and multi-lingualism. Garaffa, Sorace, and Vender also
review a wide range of literature on the numerous topics that
intersect with bilingualism, admitting, where appropriate, that
research is still developing, and therefore our understanding of these
topics is changing. However the book is not overloaded with references
to advanced theories or research on bilingualism. Instead, it is quite
clear about its modest goals of exploration and discussion of the
topics in each chapter, making it easy for anyone to pick up and read
to learn more about how the bilingual mind works.

Therefore, this work may also be used as a resource for teaching an
introductory course on bilingualism. Although each chapter focuses on
a field of linguistic, psychological, or neurological study and its
intersection with bilingualism, at no point do the authors assume a
heavy background in those topics on the part of their readers. On the
contrary, the authors present a solid introduction to each field as
necessary to understand what they can reveal about bilingualism, while
the included glossary helps to bring non-experts up to speed with key
terms.

The book also acts as a resource for parents wondering about the
effects of bilingualism on their children’s long-term development.
Repeatedly, the authors provide evidence to support the idea that
bilingual exposure is an overwhelmingly positive experience for
children, and even for adults. I applaud their recommendations and
echo their desire for a higher valuation of bilingualism across
society.

Finally, I wish to highlight the portions of this book that discuss
cases of bilingualism involving a minority language, especially
Indigenous and racialized languages. While most of the examples the
authors give involve multiple majority languages or a majority
language and a minority Indo-European language, the authors do devote
some focused “Bilingualism Matters” sections to the bilingualism of
minority languages, setting them apart from global, majority languages
such as English, French, Italian, or Chinese.

In the final chapter, the authors emphasize that within families, the
most endangered language is always the minority language. This is
especially true when that minority language is an Indigenous or
racialized language. However, the consequences of society failing to
support bilingual development of Indigenous languages is dire: when
they are no longer transmitted, the “language disappears from the face
of the earth” (Hinton 2013: 3). Thus, the importance of supporting the
bilingual use of endangered and/or Indigenous languages must not be
understated. Not only is it important for the ethnolinguistic identity
of their speakers and families, but it is important for the continued
survival of worldwide linguistic diversity. I believe the authors
could have signaled this more explicitly and implicitly by including
more examples from those multilingual cases involving Indigenous and
endangered languages.

REFERENCES

Garraffa, Maria, Antonella Sorace & Maria Vender. 2020. Il cervello
linguistico. Rome: Carocci editore.

Hinton, Leanne. 2013. Language revitalization: an overview. In Leanne
Hinton & Ken Hale (eds.), The green book of language revitalization in
practice, 3 –18. Leiden: Brill.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

BrettC Nelson is a recent graduate of the doctoral program in
linguistics at the University of Calgary’s School of Languages,
Linguistics, Literatures & Cultures. Their research involves
multilingual language learning and the Indigenous languages of the
Americas, with their recent PhD thesis, titled “Learning the Sounds of
Silence: Adult acquisition of Kaqchikel plain and glottalized stop
consonants” intersecting those research topics.



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