The world of second languages
Multilingualism refers to the ability to use two or more languages. (Some linguists and psychologists use bilingualism for the ability to use two languages and multilingualism for more than two, but we will not make that distinction here.) Monolingualism refers to the ability to use only one. No one can say for sure how many people are multilingual, but a reasonable estimate is that at least half of the world’s population is in this category. Multilingualism is thus by no means a rare phenomenon, but a normal and common occurrence in most parts of the world. According to François Grosjean, this has been the case as far back as we have any record of language use:
[B]ilingualism is present in practically every country of the world, in all classes of society, and in all age groups. In fact, it is difficult to find a society that is genuinely monolingual. Not only is bilingualism worldwide, it is a phenomenon that has existed since the beginning of language in human history. It is probably true that no language group has ever existed in isolation from other language groups, and the history of languages is replete with examples of language contact leading to some form of bilingualism. (1982:1)
Reporting on the more recent situation, G. Richard Tucker concludes that there are many more bilingual or multilingual individuals in the world than there are monolingual. In addition, there are many more children throughout the world who have been and continue to be educated through a second or a later-acquired language, at least for some portion of their formal education, than there are children educated exclusively via the first language. (1999:1)
Given the size and widespread distribution of multilingual populations, it is somewhat surprising that an overwhelming proportion of the scientific attention which has been paid to language acquisition relates only to monolingual conditions and to first language acquisition. While there are interesting similarities between L1 and L2 acquisition, the processes cannot be equated, nor can multilingualism be assumed to involve simply the same knowledge and skills as monolingualism except in more than one language. This point is made most cogently by Vivian Cook, who introduced the concept of multilingual competence (his term is “multi competence”) to refer to “the compound state of a mind with two [or more] grammars” (1991:112). This is distinguished from monolingual competence (or “monocompetence” in Cook’s terminology), which refers to knowledge of only one language.
L2 users differ from monolinguals in L1 knowledge; advanced L2 users differ from monolinguals in L2 knowledge; L2 users have a different meta linguistic awareness from monolinguals; L2 users have different cognitive processes. These subtle differences consistently suggest that people with multicompetence are not simply equivalent to two monolinguals but are a unique combination. (Cook 1992 :557)
One message from world demographics is that SLA phenomena are immensely important for social and practical reasons, as well as for aca demic ones. Approximately 6,000 languages are spoken in the world, with widely varying distribution, and almost all of them have been learned as second languages by some portion of their speakers. By the year 2000, the four most commonly used languages were Chinese, English, Spanish, and Hindi, which were acquired by over 2 billion as L1s and almost 1.7 billion as L2s, as shown in Table 2.1 (based on Zhu 2001 and Crystal 1997b).
Even just among these four numerically dominant languages, there is great variance. Chinese is an L1 for many more people than any other language, and English is by far the most common L2. The British Council has estimated that more than 1 billion people are studying English as an L2 (Cook 2002 :3), and the number may be closer to 1.75 billion if we include all varieties and functions of the language (McArthur 2001). In China alone this figure includes over 150 million English L2 learners, and millions more are being added as English instruction is further implemented at the primary level. There are now perhaps 15 million speakers of Chinese L2, but the increasing involvement and influence of China in international economic and political spheres is being accompanied by an increase in the election or need for people elsewhere to learn Mandarin Chinese, the official national language (different varieties, such as Cantonese and Taiwanese, are as different as German and Swedish). An indicator of this trend in the USA is that by 1998, the Modern Language Association reported that Chinese had become the sixth most commonly taught foreign language in US colleges and universities, and numbers are steadily growing. School districts around the country are also increasingly adding Chinese language courses to elementary and secondary curricula.
While multilingualism occurs in every country, for a variety of social reasons the distribution of multiple language use is quite unequal. In some countries, e.g. Iceland, very few people speak other than the nation al language on a regular basis, while in other countries, such as parts of west Africa, close to 100 percent of the speakers of the national language also speak another language. English L1 speakers often expect to be able to “get along” in English anywhere in the world they may travel for tour ism, business, or diplomatic purposes, and may be less likely to become fluent in other languages in part for this reason.
Those who grow up in a multilingual environment acquire multilingual competence in the natural course of using two or more languages from childhood with the people around them, and tend to regard it as perfectly normal to do so. Adding second languages at an older age often takes considerable effort, however, and thus requires motivation. This motivation may arise from a variety of conditions, including the following:
• Invasion or conquest of one’s country by speakers of another language
• A need or desire to contact speakers of other languages in economic or other specific domains
• Immigration to a country where use of a language other than one’s L1 is required
• Adoption of religious beliefs and practices which involve use of another language
• A need or desire to pursue educational experiences where access requires proficiency in another language
• A desire for occupational or social advancement which is furthered by knowledge of another language
• An interest in knowing more about peoples of other cultures and having access to their technologies or literatures. (Crystal 1997b)
The numbers of L1 and L2 speakers of different languages can only be estimated. Reasons for uncertainty in reporting language data include some which have social and political significance, and some which merely reflect imprecise or ambiguous terminology. For example:
Linguistic information is often not officially collected
Census forms in many countries do not include questions on language background, presumably because there is no particular interest in this information, because it is impractical to gather, or because it is considered to be of a sensitive nature. In cases where responses concerning language would essentially identify minority group members, sensitivities can be either personal or political: personal sensitivities can arise if identification might lead to undesired individual, family, and community consequences; political sensitivities can be at issue if the government does not wish to recognize how many speakers of minority languages there are in order to downplay the political importance of a group, or in order to emphasize cultural/linguistic homogeneity and cohesion by not according recognition to cultural/linguistic diversity.
Answers to questions seeking linguistic information may not be reliable
Respondents may not want to be identified as speakers of a minority language. For instance, this was the case for a survey which was conducted several years ago for a rural school district in California. The survey was of parents with preschool children, asking them about the language(s) used at home in order to anticipate future English L2 instructional program needs. Many Hispanic parents insisted that they spoke primarily English at home even when they could only understand and respond to the interviewers when questions were asked in Spanish. Their linguistic “misrepresentation” was likely motivated by fear that lack of English would trigger further questions about their US citizenship (a reasonable concern on their part, although not the school’s intent). In other cases, respondents may say that they use the dominant language more than they actually do because they reject or are ashamed of their ethnic heritage and wish to assimilate, or because they are afraid of government oppression or social stigmatization. Others may similarly over-report dominant language use because they feel this is the appropriate answer to give official representatives, or in order to qualify for civil privileges, such as being allowed to vote.
On the other hand, respondents may over-report use of minority and ancestral languages because of pride in their heritage. There may also be over-reporting of minority language use in order to obtain more recognition, resources, or services for the groups with which they identify.
How questions are worded also commonly contributes to the unreliability and non-comparability of language data. For example, the following questions might all be intended to elicit the identity of speakers’ L1, but the same speakers might respond differentially depending on which question is asked:
• What is your native language?
• What is your mother tongue?
• What language did you learn first as a child?
• What language was usually spoken in your home when you were a child?
• What language are you most likely to use with family and friends?
• What is your strongest language?
There is lack of agreement on definition of terms and on criteria for identification It may be difficult for someone to answer the common census question, “What is your native language?” for example, if they acquired multilingual competence simultaneously in two languages. In this case, both are L1s, and either or both might be considered a “native language.” Such a question is also problematic for individuals whose language dominance (or relative fluency) has shifted from their L1 to a language learned later.
Another issue is the degree of multilingualism. What level of proficiency is needed before one claims to have multilingual competence, or to “know” a second language? Does reading knowledge alone count, or must one also be able to carry on a conversation? What about languages that have been learned only in relation to limited domains or for special purposes? Do claims of multilingualism require near-balance in ability to function in multiple languages, or does multilingual competence include even early stages of L2 learning (the view in much SLA research)?
Perhaps the most basic definitional basis for unreliability in statistics lies in the meaning of “language” itself, for what counts as a separate language involves social and political (as well as linguistic) criteria. For instance, religious differences and the use of different writing systems result in Hindi and Urdu being counted as distinct languages in India, although most varieties are mutually intelligible; on the other hand, mutually unintelligible “dialects” of Chinese (such as Mandarin and Cantonese) are counted as the same language when emphasis on nation al cohesion is desired. Similar examples arise when languages are reclassified, a process which may accompany political change. For instance, the demise of Yugoslavia as a political entity led to the official distinction as separate languages of Bosnian and Montenegrin, which had been categorized within former Serbo-Croatian (itself a single language divided into national varieties distinguished by different alphabets because of religious differences). Social status or prestige may also play a role, as in whether Haitian Creole is to be considered a separate language or a variety of French. The creole originated as a contact language between slaves who spoke African languages and French-speaking slave traders and colonists, evolving its own systematic grammar while incorporating vocabulary from French. Linguists classify the creole as a separate language because its grammar and usage are quite distinct from French. In contrast, some people disparage the creole as not a “real” language, but merely an inferior variety of French. Recognition of this and other creoles as full-fledged languages goes beyond linguistic consideration because such recognition strengthens the social identity and status of the people who speak them. There are also potentially important educational implications. For instance, when teachers recognize that native speakers of Haitian Creole are really learning a second language in acquiring French, they are likely to use different instructional methods. Thus, teachers no longer view their task as “correcting” or “cleaning up” their students’ “bad French,” and are more likely to feel that the second language can simply be added to the first rather than having to replace it. Regrettably, there is a common attitude among educators, sometimes pursued with almost religious fervor, that socially “inferior” or “uneducated” varieties of a language are a moral threat and should be completely eradicated.
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