Key words: bilingualism, diglossia, minority and majority language
This paper summarizes the conception of bilingualism based on Jim Cummins’ (2001) article.
Currently, one of the major consequences of globalisation is the linguistic and cultural diversity in schools (Cummins, 2001). Indeed, many children are able to use more than one language, as they are bilingual. Hamers & Blanc (2000), define bilingualism as the state of a linguistic community in which the individuals are in contact with at least two languages.
Unfortunately, monolingualism is frequently seen as the norm thus leading to a negative social representation of bilingualism. According to Cummins (2001), in Toronto, Canada, the school system – generally speaking – gives to bilingual children the impression that if they want to be “accepted”, they need to stop speaking their first language. Similar postulates have been expressed by French researchers who have worked in diglossic sociolinguistic contexts in which a language can be considered as more socially and economically prestigious than the other one (Nocus et al., 2014). This can lead to a cognitive conflict which consists, on one side, to feel admiration and hostility towards the majority language, and on the other side, feel an affective attachment towards the first language altogether devaluing it (Nocus et al., 2014).
Fortunately, studies since the nineties have shown that being actively bilingual had positive effects on oral and written language development, due to the inter-languages transfers of various meta-linguistic and meta-cognitive capacities (Cummins, 2001; Nocus et al., 2014). Therefore, even if many professionals such as school teachers and speech therapists tend to assign a causality link between bilingualism and learning difficulties or speech delay, empirical researches show that the concept of the existence of a bilingual deficit is erroneous (Cummins, 2001; Nocus et al., 2014).
Consequently, bilingual parents should continue to speak their first language with their children if they wish to transmit it to them. Not sharing the same language as your child or vice-versa, can often cause a socio-emotional distance between the two parties (Cummins, 2001; Nocus et al., 2014). Putting aside the socio-linguistic status of the two languages, I think parents should persevere speaking their first language to their children, bearing in mind the positive effects of bilingualism, especially in terms of mental flexibility. Rather than seeing bilingualism as a menace or a slowing factor in bilingual children’s development, let’s embrace its contributions.
Bibliography
Cummins, J. (2001). La langue maternelle des enfants bilingues. ,15-18.
Hamers, J.F. & Blanc, M. (2000). Bilinguality and bilingualism. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press. 2nd Edition.
Nocus, I., Vernaudon, J., Paia, M. (2014). L’école plurilingue en outre-mer : Apprendre plusieurs langues, plusieurs langues pour apprendre. Presses Universitaires de Rennes.
Aubrey PHARLA, PEADID & Caroline SABBAGHA, PCPI