YEAR TWO Second Language Acquisition
#9: Bilingualism and Multilingualism
0. Multilingualism in the South Pacific - three exemplary quotations
The Pacific is linguistically the world's most diverse region. In Australia, Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia there are well over a
thousand languages (Lynch 1998: 23-27), representing about a fifth of the world's total. Some areas are more diverse than
others, with Vanuatu, for example, having a population of about 160,000 and more than 100 languages (Tryon 1979). The
average language there has little more than 1,500 speakers, and many are spoken by just two or three hundred people. The
largest languages in the Pacific, such as Fijian or Engan, have only two or three hundred thousand speakers, making them tiny in
world terms. (Crowley 1999: 81; emphasis added)
At independence in 1980 Vanuatu s Constitution declared that English, French and Bislama (Melanesian pidgin English) are
official languages, Bislama is the national language, and English and French are the principal languages of education. Also,
protection is guaranteed for the 105 Oceanic vernacular languages spoken by the Melanesian population (170,000). [& ] The
system of official trilingualism and the dual-language education system are grounded in historical circumstance, but today place
enormous strains on Vanuatu s infrastructure. (Early 1999: 13; emphasis added)
Papua New Guinea [& ] is an extreme but not unique example. Over 850 languages have been identified, with an average of 4500
speakers per language. Approximately half have less than 1000 speakers and considerably more have no written form. The
Melanesian region as a whole has one tenth of one percent of the world s population, but nearly a quarter of the world s
languages are spoken there [& ]. For the great majority of Melanesians, multilingualism is a way of life, but formal education is
only possible through a second language (English, French, a local language which happens to have a written form, or a lingua
franca such as Melanesian Pidgin or Bislama). Even when L1 literacy can be attained, the literature available in that language is
limited and the opportunities for extended or higher level education through that medium, non-existent.
(Johnson 1996: 106; emphasis added)
1. Languages in contact
As shown by the above excerpts, living with two or even more languages is by no means exceptional - over half the
world's population is bilingual or multilingual. For this reason, psycholinguists and sociolinguists have often studied
speech communities where more than one language is spoken. Such situations are referred to as languages in contact.
According to a definition expressed in the seminal work of Uriel Weinreich written over 50 years ago, "two or more
languages will be said to be in contact if they are used alternately by the same persons. The language-using individuals
are thus the locus of contact" (Weinreich 1953: 1; original emphasis). Four essential in-contact situations can be
distinguished on this basis (after Eastman 1975: 117):
żð bilingualism - the practice of alternatively using two languages
żð multilingualism - the practice of using alternatively three or more languages
żð diglossia - the practice by some speakers of using two or more varieties of the same language under different social conditions
of use, e.g. the "high" and the "low" variety (Ferguson 1959: 325)
żð code-switching - the practice of alternatively using two or more languages or dialects in one speech situation
2. Bilingualism - essential typologies
Weinreich's (1953) original typology divides bilingualism into three categories:
żð coordinate bilingualism - words from two languages are totally separated and have a specific meaning in each system
żð compound bilingualism  two sets of linguistic signs come to be associated with the same sets of meanings; in simple terms:
two words from two different languages have a common meaning
żð subordinate bilingualism  in this situation a speaker is proficient in his L1 and is in the process of learning L2; in this way, he
can take advantage of word translation
More recent taxonomies (e.g. Romaine 1995; Johnson & Johnson 1998), we distinguish the following types:
żð full bilingualism - applied to linguistic and communicative competence developed in both oral and written form in either
language
żð balanced bilingualism or ambilingualism - referring to a person s equivalent competence in both languages
żð dominant bilingualism - competence in L1 is superior to the competence in the other language
żð non-balanced bilingualism - when a speaker is fully proficient and fluent in the dominant language only
In keeping with the above, a person can be recognised as bilingually balanced but not necessarily fully bilingual if he or
she is not proficient in both literacy and oracy.
Besides, we can also speak of:
żð societal bilingualism żð individual bilingualism
In this regard, Johnson & Johnson (1998) state:
Whether or not a country is officially bilingual has little to do with whether an individual is bilingual or whether that country has
many individual bilinguals. That is to say, a bilingual country is a political concept recognizing the use of two languages within
that country; but they may not be used in the same place, for example Canada with French and English in geographically
separate areas, or Belgium with Walloon (French) and Flemish (Dutch) separated by a line on the map, apart from the city of
Brussels. A bilingual individual may or may not live in an officially bilingual country and may not be bilingual in the official
languages of that country - many bilinguals in Toronto probably speak English alongside Chinese, Japanese or Italian rather than
French. Nor is the official language necessarily spoken as a first language by many of its inhabitants; Singapore has English as
the official L1, Mandarin Chinese, Bahasa Malaysia and Tamil as the mother tongues of its citizens. (pp. 30-31).
Furthermore, with reference to very young bilinguals, we can distinguish:
żð simultaneous bilingualism - applying to concurrent acquisition of two language systems
żð sequential bilingualism - in which the acquisition of L1 and L2 is ordered
Finally, with reference to the age variable, we can distinguish between early bilinguals (uninstructed very young learners)
and late bilinguals (tutored learners  older children, adolescents and adults receiving formal language instruction in
formal educational settings).
3. Problems with defining L1 and L2
Valdés (2005: 414) holds that "although absolutely equivalent abilities in two languages are theoretically possible, except
for rare geographical and familial accidents, individuals seldom have access to two languages in exactly the same contexts
in every domain of interaction" (emphasis added). Cook (2002: 4), on the other hand, rejects the term bilingual, pointing
out that it has "contradictory definitions and associations in both popular and academic usage". Instead he suggests the
term L2 user, which designates an individual who has knowledge of and uses a L2, rather than being a L2 learner, whose
task of acquisition is perceived as not finished.
4. A Continuum of L1/L2 users (Valdés 2005: 413)
Monolingual Monolingual
A Ab Ab Ab Ab Ab AB aB aB Ba Ba Ba Ba Ba B
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REFERENCES AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Cook, V. J. 2002. "Background of the L2 user". In Cook, V. J. (Ed.), Portraits of the L2 User. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. 1 28.
Crowley, T. 1999. "Review article: Linguistic diversity in the Pacific". Journal of Sociolinguistics 3/1: 81-103.
Early, R. 1999. "Double trouble, and three is a crowd: Languages in education and official languages in Vanuatu". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural
Development 20/1: 13-33.
Eastman, C. M. 1975. Aspects of Language and Culture. San Francisco: Chandler & Sharp Publishers.
Ferguson, C. A. 1959. "Diglossia". Word 15: 325-340.
Gafaranga, J. 2007. Talk in Two Languages. Basingstoke, Hants.: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnson, K. & Johnson, H. 1998. Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Blackwell.
Johnson, R. K. 1996. "Discovering successful second language teaching strategies and practices: from programme evaluation to classroom experimentation.
Response to Merrill Swain". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 17/2-4: 105-113.
Lotherington, H. 1998. "Trends and tensions in post-colonial language education in the South Pacific". International Journal of Bilingual Education and
Bilingualism 1/1: 65-75
Lynch, J. 1998. Pacific Languages: An Introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press.
Matras, Y. 2009. Language Contact. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Myers-Scotton, C. 2006. Multiple Voices: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Pavlenko, A. (Ed.), 2009. The Bilingual Mental Lexicon: Interdisciplinary Approaches. Bristol: Multilingual Matters
Romaine, S. 1995. Bilingualism. Second Edition. Oxford: Blackwell.
Tryon, D. T. 1979. "The language situation in the New Hebrides". In Wurm, S. A. (ed.) New Guinea and Neighboring Areas. A Sociolinguistic Laboratory. The
Hague: Mouton. 11-31.
Valdés, G. 2005. "Bilingualism, heritage language learners, and SLA research: Opportunities lost or seized?" The Modern Language Journal 89/3: 410-426.
Walters, J. 2005. Bilingualism: The Sociopragmatic-Psycholinguistic Interface. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Weinreich, U. 1953. Languages in Contact. The Hague: Mouton.