Factors that make up bilingualism and its advantages and disadvantages
Introduction
It is not easy to delimit or specify the term bilingualism. As the first instance, with bilingualism various factors are linked from the historical, geographical, linguistic, sociological, psychological, political, and pedagogical point of view. When we cover the issue of bilingualism, reference can be made to an individual circumstance, it means, the relationship of a person with and in two languages or the social group that is linked using or not different languages.
In addition, by bilingual it can refer to the subject that maintains almost perfect domain of two or more languages, to the emigrant who achieves communication in a different language from the origin of origin (regardless of the degree that it has), the learning of new languages bringsI get multiple benefits and advantages to the development of people cognition, opening endless opportunities.
Developing
In the world bilingualism today is massively globalized, with a dominant and prevailing language such as English, including minority languages, but equally significant, which in every way are distributed worldwide. Being a bilingual person today means an important door of learning and knowing any existing language in the world.
During human evolution at some point, our brain became so moldable and complex that it came to have the ability to establish cognitive bases for the expansion of a linguistic system and everything that represents its possible variants, as well as the ability to learn them. This is explainable as follows:
With respect to all bilingual definitions, it is known that in bilingual people there is a dominant or maternal language, and a second language (being able to present also when there is more than one secondary language, or jump to the speech of multilingualism), being very strange that it is very strange thatIgnore this hierarchical distinction given between languages staggering within the term of bilingualism known as the ability or ability to master two languages or more.
Those ambilingual or equilibriums are practically non -existent. Therefore, in the vast majority of people who are bilingual they have their primary language (L1) and at least one secondary language (L2).
However, the terminology with which bilingualism can be defined has been a very controversial issue. Many authors tend to defend that this concept only occurs when a person is able to regulate or control those grammatical structures of L1 and L2, there are also bilingual definitions such as the ability to have the minimum competence of speech, as well as understanding, reading and readingwriting a language other than maternal.
Characteristic
There are multiple aspects that characterize bilingual people among them we have:
- Function: Those that bilingual provides to languages
- Interference: the point where bilingual separates those languages.
- Grade: It consists of the degree of competence that bilingual has.
- Alternation: way in which bilingual alternates languages.
Causes
Three are the main causes of the appearance of a bilingual society:
- Bilingualism as effects of international contacts.
- Bilingualism as effects from expansion processes and political unification.
- Bilingualism as effects of migratory movements.
Types of bilingualism
Among the types of bilingualism it is important to know the difference between additive bilingualism and extractive bilingualism.
This classification refers to those cases in which one language is able to complement the other thus constituting the first category, and those in which a language becomes able to replace the other. This replacement process would be understood from customs, habits and contexts linked to the use of languages that the same person can dominate, rather than from common biological structures in all people. If a language is prioritized more than another, it has more influence, it is heard more or simply there are no communicative situations in which one of the languages can be used, the unique management of one of the languages will end up decreasing. This mechanism is inexplicable by neuropsychological bases, but there is equally.
Another important section is simultaneous bilingualism and successive bilingualism. The first is a consequence of exposure to different languages during childhood, or initial growth stages, even in pre-linguistic stages of the first months of life. In the second, a language is learned when there is already a primary language based. These are construct facts to publicize the differences in the language domain 1 over language 2, these being more outstanding in cases of successive bilingualism.
The development of bilingualism
The lace between the primary and secondary language is carried out from the first exhibitions to speech. The first thing that arises is a Cross-Language phonology: that is, a phonology that uses a practically equal phoneme repertoire in both languages. Then there would be parallel development in terms of phonetics, morphology and syntax, and finally the consciousness of bilingual ability (and, therefore, ability to deliberately translate).
In later stages, making learning from the contextual use of different languages, the language is related to attitudes, affections, specific situations, etc. subconsciously. That is, it becomes a contextual tool. Therefore, for example, some people always speak in Catalan in academic contexts, although there is no written or unwritten norm that demands it. Do not forget that the acquisition and linguistic production is mediated by the environment, and it is in a certain context where a language is used.
The scientifically proven advantages of speaking several languages
There are many scientific evidence that indicate that at earliest ages the brain has greater plasticity, being more sensitive to the absorption and capture of external stimuli that produce changes in the nervous system. This plasticity leads to learning new languages much more easily (even critical periods are mentioned, developing a time threshold to which any language can be learned quickly), and this acquired learning leads to multiple advantages.
The main benefit of language learning in youth is not only based on rapidity with which they can begin to speak in another language: their ability to pronounce secondary language phonemes unlike successive bilinguals is also relevant. In general, the closer the birth and learning of a new language are in time, there will be less probability that the ability to differentiate and produce some more commonly used phonemes in that language has been lost. Adults on the other hand when learning a language, have skills that infants cannot have. Being the most obvious capacity and cognitive development, but they also have the possibility of self-motivation, and to want to learn deliberately. However, beyond the psychology of development, which allows learning of various languages is the need. For this reason, both simultaneous bilinguals, as well as the successive ones use languages responding to a specific context.
Cultural Anthropology
It is an anthropological branch that is mainly located in the study of the human being through its culture, being understood as a set of beliefs, norms, customs, myths, and values that direct and control the behavior of people.
This originates from the premise that people are social animals, which supports that we live in groups, through which individual visions of each can be shared, which is established in their behavior and their way of thinking. These being once shared and assimilated jointly by the group as a whole, they constitute the culture.
There are many differences between cultural anthropology and social anthropology. The latter does focus on the form of organization of a society, such as its social structure, while cultural anthropology focuses on culture properly, leaving aside the form of social organization. Cultural anthropology, coupled with social, is based mainly on participating observation as the method for studying habits, customs, and traditions of a culture. In this way, the anthropologist can acquire information about the ethnic group that is both studying. The researcher on the other hand is linked to the culture participants to study and, at the same time, these individuals accepting the presence of the anthropologist and can accept it as a new member.
Culture, anthropologically speaking, has a much broader concept. This term has become increasingly abstract by findings that have been carried out in areas such as primatology, biology, neuroscience and other related sciences linked to nature, because anthropology is not only based on terms originated from sciencessocial and human.
Some researchers focus on the attributes that people obtain in a specific society, a specific cultural tradition instead of a product of biological inheritance. The difficulty of children to absorb any cultural tradition depends on their learning ability, especially among humans. Based on cultural learning, people create, remember and process ideas. They understand and apply specific symbolic meaning systems.
The anthropologist Clifford Geertz defined culture as an idea based on learning and cultural symbols.
Culture is also observed since children pay attention to the things around them, they usually do not change their behavior just because others suggest it, but due to their own perception and knowledge about how their culture grows and developsThey will identify with good or bad attitudes.
The characteristic of culture is the ‘registration components, plans, procedures, rules, instructions, which specialists call behavior control’. In certain traditions, people absorb this knowledge through the practice and self-cultivation of them. The individual progressively internalizes the system of meaning and symbol that has been established in advance. They handle cultural systems to define their world, express their feelings and expose judgments. The system can help guide their behavior and perceptions throughout their lives.
Through the conscious and unconscious learning process, and with all others, all, internalize immediately, or integrating cultural traditions training process. Culture directly exemplifies, as a father teaches their children to say “thanks’ due to some favor or benefit received.
Scholars in anthropological science agree that cultural learning is much more elaborate among human beings and that all individuals preserve a large cultural amount.
For (White, 1959, P. 3.) Culture consists of instruments, tools, utensils, clothing, ornaments, customs enculturation that is a process through which culture is learned and transmitted through generations. Also as a symbol of something, verbal or nonverbal, which represents something else … institutions, beliefs, rituals, games, works of art, language, among others.
Cultures are diverse more isolated. Throughout human history, the links between groups have been provided by cultural practices such as marriage, kinship, religion, commerce, travel, exploration and conquest. At present, as described here, members of local cultures and communities must not only take care of their own customs, but also the government must raise laws that respect good traditions so that they can last over time.
conclusion
From the academic point of view of bilingualism, this will depend mainly on the nature of the discipline that addresses it. For example, psycholinguists focus their attention largely to the mental and cognitive skills of people who know more than 1 language. Sociolinguists have seen much more interest in classifying social groups regarding the configuration of languages related to domination, prestige and other characteristics from the institutional and sociological perspective.
The compression capacity of the minds of human beings to acquire knowledge of more than one language can be understood as an advantage and as a limitation. Without a doubt it is an advantage that leads the person to expand new ways of thinking, feeling and even the ability to solve problems. There is even talk of advantages for the brain beyond the linguistic context.
In cultural anthropology they are related to the subject and identity, and society are not clearly differentiable, although we frequent the correlation of each other as different phenomena is analyzed. On the contrary, each one represents an aspect of human life. These are related and depend on each other. They investigate different conceptual ideas to explore the essence of human behavior. Individuals cannot last outside of culture and society, and the latter can only obtain reality in the personality and behavior of the individual.
Culture spreads in society. When paying attention, listening, speaking and interacting with other people beliefs, values, memories and expectations link people who grow in the same culture and at the same time unify it to provide common experiences. Although a culture constantly changes certain beliefs, values, world visions and practices
Bibliography
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- Slideshare. (s.F.). Obtained from bilingualism: https: // is.Slideshare.net/lolmon53/work-of-bilinguism-52177001
- Tizana, a. (3 of 5 of 2016). Psychology and mind. Obtained from https: // psychologiaymente.com/Psychology/Que-Is-Bilinguism
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