I strongly recommend the work and research of Francois Grosjean to anyone who would like to understand what a holistic approach to bilingualism is. Grosjean is a Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). In 1998, he cofounded the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. I have recently read an interview with Grosjean, in which he talks about his own bilingualism, its influence on his research and his friendship with Einar Haugen. What is more important, however, Grosjean briefly describes his approach to bilingualism presented in “Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism”.
Grosjean defines bilingualism as the use of two (or more) languages in one's everyday life, at the same time not knowing two or more languages equally well and optimally, as most laypersons tend to think. Strangely enough, I must admit that the concept of bilingualism as ambilingualism (balanced bilingualism) is extremely strongly rooted in me and so is it in the vast majority of my university colleagues, both in Poland and Spain .Another point emphasized by Grosjean, which again many people seem to be unaware of, is that bilingualism is a very widespread phenomenon and is the norm in today's world (and not the exception). The older perspective on bilingualism (the monolingual view) has had numerous negative consequences, one of which is that bilinguals are very critical of their own language competence and do not consider themselves bilingual. Grosjean claims that the bilingual should be studied as a separate entity in itself and not always in comparison with the monolingual. Bilingual use their languages for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people. As a result the needs and uses of the two languages are usually quite different and therefore, bilinguals are seldom equally or completely fluent in their languages. According to Grosjean most laypersons still adhere to the monolingual view and the problem is that such a way of thinking, as he points out, would leave half of world’s population without a label. In other words, the monolingual view would refer to a very rare type of people. Don’t forget about that when you think about your bilingualism!
Grosjean defines bilingualism as the use of two (or more) languages in one's everyday life, at the same time not knowing two or more languages equally well and optimally, as most laypersons tend to think. Strangely enough, I must admit that the concept of bilingualism as ambilingualism (balanced bilingualism) is extremely strongly rooted in me and so is it in the vast majority of my university colleagues, both in Poland and Spain .Another point emphasized by Grosjean, which again many people seem to be unaware of, is that bilingualism is a very widespread phenomenon and is the norm in today's world (and not the exception). The older perspective on bilingualism (the monolingual view) has had numerous negative consequences, one of which is that bilinguals are very critical of their own language competence and do not consider themselves bilingual. Grosjean claims that the bilingual should be studied as a separate entity in itself and not always in comparison with the monolingual. Bilingual use their languages for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people. As a result the needs and uses of the two languages are usually quite different and therefore, bilinguals are seldom equally or completely fluent in their languages. According to Grosjean most laypersons still adhere to the monolingual view and the problem is that such a way of thinking, as he points out, would leave half of world’s population without a label. In other words, the monolingual view would refer to a very rare type of people. Don’t forget about that when you think about your bilingualism!
No comments:
Post a Comment