IB A-2 English Name:_______________________

Sociolinguistics, by Bernard Spolsky

Chapter 5: Bilingualism

Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are the heart of this little book, for our class. The basic concepts and ideas presented here will be the basis for bigger and more detailed discussions of these issues. The first concept is bilingualism.

Along with “baby talk,” what are some social rules about language that must be learned to be successfully socialized?

How can it be said that a child who grows up bilingually masters three distinct varieties of language?

How much of a second language does a person have to have to be called bilingual?

What is a balanced bilingual? (You might also encounter the term “equilingual” in articles.)

What kinds of things are important in considering the way each language was acquired by a bilingual person? Why is that important?

What are the four skills of language that may vary in a bilingual person?

What’s the difference between what a bilingual person prefers to do in each language, and what s/he can do in each language?

Read about domains (pages 46-47), including the chart of domain examples (page 47), and describe why domains are important in discussing a person or group’s bilingualism.

What’s the difference between performance and competence in a language?

What’s the difference between a compound bilingual and a co-ordinate bilingual? What factors in language learning could make this difference?

What is interference?

How does word borrowing come about?

After reading pages 49 and 50, you should be able to define code switching. What are some reasons people code switch?

Now, think about these issues in terms of yourself as a bilingual person.

1, How many languages would you say you speak? read? understand? How do you rank your fluency in each language?

2. How and when did you learn your Spanish? Your English? Any other language(s) you have to some degree?

3. What do you prefer to do in each language, and what can you do in each language?

4. In what domains do you use which language? Under what circumstances do you use one language or the as your own choice, and is it sometimes not your choice or against your will?

5. Rate yourself in terms of performance and competence in each language.

6. Can you think of examples of interference that would be common for students at EBV learning English at school without speaking it at home?

7. Can you think of word and term borrowings, from English into Spanish or Spanish into English, around EBV, around Maracaibo, around Venezuela, in Spanish and English generally, in your home or school? With other languages you’re familiar with?

8. When and why (the important and harder part is the “why”) do you find yourself code switching, in the middle of a sentence or conversation with another bilingual person?