BILINGUALISM DEFINED BY NON-

EXPERTS
Research essay


OCTOBER 10, 2014
DANIJELA MAJZELJ

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Introduction
A French proverbs says that a man who knows two languages is worth two men.
However, what is the in fact the definition of knowing two languages? What is the proficiency
that a learner has to attain to know a language? This has been a long-going debate among experts
in the linguistics field who study and examine bilingualism and multilingualism and on which this
research essay will be based upon. While the experts play a significant role in defining the terms, it
is also important to examine how the members of the general public perceive them. For this purpose
a short research was conducted in the form of a survey regarding peoples perception of
bilingualism. This essay will consist of the summary of data collecting, descriptions of the
participants and the results of the survey, which will then be followed by the discussion and
comparison of how experts and non-experts perceive bilingualism.

Methods
A questionnaire-based survey was conducted among 13 participants of Slovenian
nationality. The data was collected remotely (via e-mails) due to the lack of possibility to personally
talk to such a number of participants. The participants were instructed to answer in detail and
requested not to resort to any additional sources of information since the survey is interested in their
personal opinion. The questionnaire consisted of two sections: Section 1 was based on five open-
ended questions concerning bilingualism and multilingualism, while Section 2 consisted of
questions concerning the participants personal information.
The survey was conducted among bilinguals and multilinguals, of which 9 were students of
various fields of study, 2 were teachers of language, 1 was a person in retirement and 1 was a high
school student. The participants also differed in age, the youngest being 16 years old and the oldest
58. The most common age was 24 and 23. All questionnaires were thoroughly checked, translated
from Slovene into English and the answers of the participants grouped according to the number of
occurrence.

Results
The first question that the participants were faced with, was what it means to them to be
bilingual. The answers were grouped based on the similarity and were as following: 9 participants
(69%) said that bilingualism is a persons ability to speak 2 languages with a native-like
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proficiency. They most commonly mentioned examples were of people who had different-speaking
parents or had moved to a foreign country at a young age and therefore grew up with two
languages. 4 of the remaining participants (31%) answered that bilingualism is a persons ability to
speak two languages. Two of them claimed that the other language has to be of high proficiency,
while the other two had not made any comments on the proficiency a person was supposed to have.
Next, the participants were asked to answer what it means to them to be a native speaker.
The answers were again grouped according to their similarity. 10 participants (77%) answered that
a native speaker is a speaker of his mother tongue, a language that a person thinks and dreams in. 2
participants (15%) claimed that a native speaker is a person who has good communication and
speaking skills and 1 person (8%) said that a native speaker is a person who speaks in his or her
dialect. The reason why 3 participants provided a wrong definition of the term native speaker
might be, that the translation of the term in Slovene is similar to the English as a natural speaker,
which is why perhaps some participant have found this term confusing. However, the term in
English (native speaker) was also provided to them.
The third question dealt with the participants perception of whether they regarded
themselves as being monolinguals, bilinguals or multilinguals. The majority 8 participants (62%)
regarded themselves as being monolinguals, while 5 participants (38%) consider themselves as
being bilinguals or multilinguals. These answers contrast with answers to another question that the
participants were requested to answer: how many languages they are proficient in. All of the
participants answered that they are proficient in at least two languages. 6 participants (46%) said
that they were proficient in two languages, 3 participants (23%) claimed to be proficient in three
languages, another 3 participants (23%) in four languages and one person (8%) in five languages.
Given these results we can see that while all the participants are proficient in at least two languages,
the majority of them does not consider themselves to be bilinguals or multilinguals.
The participants were then asked whether or not they know any bilingual or multilingual
people and if they do, why they consider them as such. All 13 participants said they know at least
one bilingual or multilingual person, however their answers differed in the second question. 8
participants (62%) said that they regard these people as such because they were exposed to and
raised with at least two languages, 3 participants (23%) claimed that this was because they master
two or more languages, and 2 participants (15%) said that those people were bilinguals or
monolinguals because they can communicate in two or more languages.

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Discussion
The research conducted on the 13 Slovenian participants has given us an insight into how
non-experts perceive the terms bilingualism and multilingualism. While we stumble upon various
definitions by experts in this area, we will for the purpose of conciseness examine only a few of
them in order to see which of the definitions match the participants answers the most and try to
find reasons as to why the participants answered the way they did.
Nowadays, we can find a definition of bilingualism online that says bilingualism is the
ability to speak two languages. It may be acquired early by children in regions where most adults
speak two languages. Children may also become bilingual by learning languages in two different
social settings. A second language can also be acquired in school. Bilingualism can also refer to the
use of two languages in teaching, especially to foster learning in students trying to learn a new
language (Merriam-Webster). However, various definitions of the term slowly developed through
time. In 1933, Bloomfield published his definition of the term bilingualism as a native-like control
of two languages. He had in his mind a balanced bilingual and saw bilingualism as a result of
immigration, travel or foreign study. Later, more definitions of bilingualism developed, for
example, Weinreich claimed that bilingualism is the practice of alternately using two languages
and Mackney claimed that bilingualism is the ability to use more than one language. These two
definitions are rather loose, since we have trouble determining what kind of a usage this is
knowing how to say hello in another language or perhaps writing and speaking in a high-
proficiency? Or even both? Haugen took a step further and described bilingualism as the point
where a speaker can first produce complete meaningful utterances in other languages. We can see
that the definitions range from Bloomfields clearly defined balanced bilingual to Weinreichs,
Mackneys and Haugens looser explanations of using two languages. In 1969, Macnamara
emphasized the importance of competence in sub-components such as speaking, writing, reading
and listening and said that he shall consider as bilingual a person who, for example, is an educated
native speaker of English and who can also read a little French. This means that bilingualism is
being treated as a continuum // which vary among individuals along a variety of dimensions.
(Macnamara in Hoffman, 1991).
After familiarizing ourselves with the various definitions by different experts, let us now
take a look at how non-experts, the participants in the survey, understand the term bilingualism.
The results of the survey have shown that the majority of the participants understand the term
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bilingualism as Bloomfield did the ability to speak two languages with a native-like proficiency,
which is a result of an upbringing of different-speaking parents or a result of immigration. The
obvious question is, why did the participants decide on such a rigid definition? The reasons may be
various. As the participants are all of Slovenian nationality, we have to first understand that
Slovenia has many bilingual areas close to the borders of neighboring countries, where people live
in national minorities, where the official language besides Slovenian is also Hungarian and Italian.
Hungarian and Italian have the status of official languages in the ethnically mixed regions along the
Hungarian and Italian borders, to the extent that even the passports issued in those areas are
bilingual. Since this is something that the Slovenian people are very familiarized with and are
taught in schools, this might be one of the reasons as to why the participants answered in such a
manner. Another reason to explain such answers would be their age and how they were taught about
this term in schools, since the results of the survey showed that the older the participants were, the
more they were prone to Bloomfields definition. Interestingly enough, we might assume that the
teachers or students of language were not so rigid with their definitions, since they studied the field
of language in greater detail. Surprisingly, the results have shown that among the two teachers of
language and two students of the field, all of them resorted to a variation of Bloomfields definition
of bilingualism. The four remaining participants resorted more to the variations of Weinreichs and
Mackneys definitions, since they answered that bilingualism is a persons ability to speak two
languages. Among them, two also commented on the proficiency that a person has to acquire to be
considered a bilingual person.
Regarding the knowledge of foreign languages, Slovenia is ranked among the top European
countries. The most taught foreign languages are English, German, Italian, French and Spanish. As
of 2007, 92% of the population between the age of 25 and 64 spoke at least one foreign language
and around 71.8% of them spoke at least two foreign languages, which was the highest percentage
in the European Union (Eurostat Newsrelease). This shows that monolinguals are a rare breed in
this country and it is interesting to see that even though the people have the knowledge of foreign
languages, they do not consider themselves as being bilinguals or multilinguals even though they
have a high proficiency in other languages and use them daily (which was seen in the case of the
teachers and the students of language).
The results of the survey have shown that non-experts perception of bilingualism mostly coincides
with Bloomfields definition and that peoples perception may slowly be changing according to
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their age, as the youngest participants have acquired a perception of the term that is not as rigid as
Bloomfields is.


References

"Eurostat Newsrelease." 24 September 2009. European Day of Languages. Document. 4 October
2014.
"hacker." Merriam-Webster.com. Merriam-Webster, 2011.
Web. 8 May 2011.
Hoffmann, Charlotte. An Introduction to Bilingualism. London: Longman, 1991.