Summary of Grosjean Interview 2002

Title: AnInterviewwithFrancoisGrosjeanonBilingualism Author: JuditNavracsics,VeszpremUniversity,Hungaryaskedthe questions.2002 Source:Anumberofpublicationsincludethisinterview.Itisavailable at:http://www.francoisgrosjean.ch/interview_en.html Main questions: Whatisbilingualism? Whatdoweneedtoknowaboutbilingualstoeffectivelytest/examine orstudythem? Whatdoesitmeanwhenbilingualsrestructurelanguage? Whatisthecomplementaryprinciple;howdoesitrelateto bilingualism? Whatdoestheconceptlanguagemodemean;howdoesitrelateto bilingualism? Whatisinference;howdoesitrelatetobilingualism? Whataremixing,codeswitching,andborrowing;howdotheyrelateto bilingualism? Whatisthebilingualmodeloflexicalaccess? Some background ideas: Childrenneedcommunityoreducationalsupportorothermotivating factorstoacquireaminority/secondlanguageanduseitnaturally.For examplelivinginanEnglishorotherdominantlanguageenvironment canmakeitverydifficulttobecome/bebilingual. Bilingualismisextremelywidespreadandisthenorm,notthe exception,intodaysworld.

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Summary of Grosjean Interview 2002

Main comments and conclusions: Bilingualismmeanspeopleusetwolanguagesordialectsintheir everydaylife.Abilingualisrarelyequallyorcompletelyfluentinthe twolanguages.Bilingualsusetwolanguagesseparatelyortogetherfor differentpurposes,indifferentareasoflife,withdifferentpeople (complementaryprinciple).Theymayuseonelanguageforsomeareas oflife,theotherlanguageforotherareas,andtwoormorelanguages foryetotherareas.Bilingualscommunicatedifferentlythan monolinguals. Bilingualismappliestodeafpeople.Theonlywayadeafchildcan meettheirneedstocommunicate,gainknowledge,andbeapartofthe hearinganddeafworldistobecomebilingualinsignlanguageand speech. Thelayperson/monolingualviewofbilingualismoftenisthatpeople arebalancedandequallyfluentintwolanguagestwomonolinguals inoneperson.Bilingualsmayadoptthisviewandbelittletheir bilingualismbecausetheydonotmasterbothlanguagestothesame level. Peoplebecomebilingualformanydifferentreasons:economic, educational,political,religiousmigration;nationalismandfederalism; educationandculture;tradeandcommerce;intermarriage.Peoplethat havecontactwithtwoormorelanguagesbecomecompetentintheir languagestofulfiltheirvariouslinguisticneeds. Thecomplementaryprinciplestates:Bilingualsusuallyacquireand usetheirlanguagefordifferentpurposes,indifferentdomainsoflife, withdifferentpeople.Differentaspectsoflifenormallyrequire differentlanguages.Bilingualsrarelyhavethesamefluencyintheir twolanguages,theyusetwolanguagesforallareasoflifeandoftenuse bothlanguagesatthesametime. Bilingualschangetheirlanguageskillsovertimeastheirenvironment andtheneedsforparticularlanguageskillschange.
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Summary of Grosjean Interview 2002

Thecomplementaryprinciplehelpsusunderstandwhyregular bilingualsarenotusuallyverygoodtranslatorsandinterpreters.They lackvocabularyinvariousdomainswork,religion,politics,sports, etc.eventhoughsomemayappeartobefluentintheirtwolanguages. Restructuringlanguageisaphasebilingualsgothroughasthey acquireanewlanguageand/orlosethefirstone,beforetheyreacha stablelevelofbilingualism. Bilingualshavespecificspeakingandhearinglanguageskillsequalto, butdifferentfrommonolinguals;theyarenotthesumoftwoormore completeorincompletemonolinguals. Languagemoderelatestowhenandhowabilingualusestheir languages.Intheireverydaylives,bilingualsareatvariouspointsona continuumthatbringonaparticularlanguagemode.Atoneendofthe continuumbilingualsareinatotallymonolingualmode, communicatingwithmonolinguals.Onlyoneofthelanguagesis active.Attheotherendofthecontinuumtheyareinatotallybilingual mode,communicatingwithbilingualswhosharetheirlanguages.Both languagesareactive,althoughnotequally.Besidesthetwoendpoints, bilingualsareoftenatsomeotherpointalongthecontinuum. Interferencehappensinmonolingualmode.Duetotheinfluenceofthe otherlanguage,abilingualdeviatesfromthelanguagetheyareusingat thattime:speaking,writing,orsign.Werecognizetwokindsof interference: i) Staticinterferencesreflectpermanenttracesofthedeactivated languageontheactiveone. ii) Dynamicinterferencesincludeshorttermeffectsontheactive languagesuchashowtopronounceawordorongrammar. Mixingisacovertermforcodeswitchingandborrowing;bothusually happeninbilingualmode.Oncebilingualschooseabaselanguage, theybringintheotherlanguageinvariousways.Codeswitching combinestwolanguages.Bilingualsshifttotheotherlanguagefora word,aphrase,orasentence.
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Summary of Grosjean Interview 2002

Borrowingintegratesonelanguageintoanotherintwoways.First, bilingualsmayadapttheformandcontentofawordorexpressioninto thebaselanguagethelanguagethebilingualisspeakingatthetime. Thisiscalledaloanwordorborrowing.Second,bilingualsmaytakea wordinthebaselanguageandextenditsmeaningtocorrespondtothat ofawordintheotherlanguage.Ortheymayrearrangewordsinthe baselanguagealongapatternfromtheotherlanguage,creatinganew meaning.Thisiscalledaloanshift. TheBilingualModelofLexicalAccess(BIMOLA)assumestwothings: i) Bilingualshavetwoindependent,interconnectedlanguage networks. ii) Inmonolingualmode,bilingualsstronglyactivateonelanguage networkandweaklyactivetheother;inbilingualmode, bilingualsactivebothlanguagenetworks,butonemorethanthe other. Totest/evaluatebilingualsortostudythemweneedtotakeinto accountfactorssuchas:
Thecomplementaryprinciple. Whetherpeopleareinalanguagerestructuringstageorhave

reachedastablelevelofbilingualism.
Theareasoflife/domainwheretheyusethelanguages,the

purposesofthelanguages.
Thelanguagemodethepersonisinwhentheyaretestedor

studied.

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