Repblica Bolivariana de Venezuela

Universidad Pedaggica
Experimental Libertador
Instituto Pedaggico de Barquisimeto
Dr. Lus Beltrn Prieto Figueroa.

The Bilingualism

Participantes:
Jos Riera
Ingls 5LE02
Prof. Chinger Zapata

Barquisimeto, 11 de Junio de 2012

Jos: Por qu los nios no se mueren de hambre en el desierto?

John: No tengo idea
Jose: because the sand which (sandwich) is there
John: ha ha ha what a bad joke.
Speaking two languages is a practice that is becoming in something
extremely necessary. In fact, to have the ability of communicate with people
around the world, is an issue that everybody should consider, especially those who
plan to live in countries with languages other than their own. In other words,
bilingualism is a complex phenomenon that must be studied from the social view.
Bilingualism is a complex cognitive process, it could be studied from
different components of language, however, the best way to study this
phenomenon, is from a social perspective. According to Romaine (1989),
Bilingualism is not a unitary phenomenon and depends on a variety of social
factors which must be taken into account to estimate the abilities of bilingual
speakers. In fact, the socio-cultural area determines the bilingual aspect of the
members in a community, in which the population is integrated by different races.
For this reason, in the border between Mexico and The United States of America,
it has been extremely necessary to use both languages: English and Spanish.
Actually, these residents have developed, leaning on linguistic processes like
calque and borrowing among others, another kind of language which blends the
two most used languages, and it is called Spanglish. The complexity of this
cognitive process is studied by both linguistics and sociolinguistics experts around
the world.
The social aspect of the bilingualism has some specific characteristics to
consider. First, the geographical aspect makes a big difference which language
must be used to communicate, That is, people living or visiting a country with
language different from them, need to know the language of the other country.
Next, immigration is another very important characteristic of this phenomenon
countries like USA, Germany, France, among others, have had to adapt to this
reality. Finally, the most important aspect of this linguistic phenomenon is the
social network which you are living to. Hispanic people living in the U.S.A, have
to deal with different environments and different places, like the work and home;
this condition determines the necessity to speak English and Spanish or like in
many cases Spanglish. Supporting this, Blanc & Hammer, (1987), exposed, The
relevance of a network, centred on the individual, lies in the fact that, on the one
hand, it provides the child with functional and formal language behaviour
model(s) as well as shared schemata; and, on other hand, it transmits to the child
the system of social values, attitudes and perceptions relating to the language(s)
and their users. All these characteristics make of bilingualism a social
phenomenon.
Nowadays, the classification of bilingualism has been perfectly divided,
according to sociolinguistics in two types, individual and collective or social. The
individual bilingualism, as Gutierrez Gutierrez (2009) defines it as, "The ability to
use interchangeably with the same jurisdiction and in the same situations two

different languages ". In other words, individual bilingualism is the capacity to use
the language according to the situation or geographic place. Moreover, Sigun and
Makey (1986) defines collective or social bilingualism as ".... the fact that in a
society or a social group or social institution determined could use two languages
as a means of communication". This means that in any place where there is a
group of people that are communicating with each other, exists a social
bilingualism. To sum up, the classification of bilingualism seen from the social
prospective depends of the number of people who are together in a specific place
or in a specific circumstance communicating.
To summarize, bilingualism has its roots in the interaction between people
from two different cultures and languages. For this reason, in the U.S.A. Spanish
people have developed a new kind of language to communicate, that is, the
Spanglish. It has some specific characteristics that have to be considered when it
is studied. Aspects like, immigration, business, geographical and social networks
are some of them. Finally, bilingualism has been seen from the sociolinguistics as
individual or collective matter depending of the point of view of the study. Taking
all this into account, bilingualism is a social phenomenon.

REFERENCES
Romaine, S. (1989). "Bilingualism", Basil Blackwell, Oxford Nueva York.
Hammers, J. & Blanc, M. (1989). Bilinguality and Bilingualism. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Gutirrez Gutirrez, A. (2009). El Bilingismo y la sociedad.
www.eumed.net/rev/cccss/03/apgg.htm
Sigun, M. & Mackey, W. (1986). Educacin y bilingismo. Madrid:
Santillana/UNESCO.