SANDRA DOMÍNGUEZ ESCOBAR
FRANCISCO TOMÁS Y VALIENTE- CASA DE LA MISEDICORDIAALCIRA/VALENCIA
PEC APLICACIONES DE LA TEORÍA SINTÁCTICA
1. Differences between language acquisition and language learning
Language acquisition is defined as the process by which humans acquire the capacity
to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and
sentences to communicate. Language acquisition is normally related to first-language
(L1) acquisition that is the infant’s acquisition of their native language. It is important to
highlight that children acquire language through a subconscious process during which
they are unaware of grammatical rules.
On the other hand, Language learning is the result of direct instruction in rules of
language. In this process learners are aware of the process, they have conscious
knowledge of the new language and they can talk about it.
This distinction between both Language acquisition and Language learning is important
because: children are still developing their brains with language acquisition whereas
adults have conscious minds with language learning, and adults have at least a first
language that orients their thinking and speaking.
The Critical Period Hypothesis holds that first language acquisition (L1) must occur
before cerebral lateralization is complete, at about the age of puberty. One prediction of
this hypothesis is that second language acquisition will be relatively fast, successful
and similar to first language only if it occurs before the age of puberty, after this age the
process would be considered language learning.
2. Bilingualism and types of bilingualism
Bilingualism is defined as the use or availability to use two languages, especially with
equal or nearly equal fluency.
The best age to start being bilingual and feel the positive bilingual effects would be
before the age of puberty. This does not mean that after this period a speaker would
not be able to be bilingual, but due to the language acquisition faculty of infants, they
can develop and dominate a second language (L2) easier than an adult who learns it.
There are different types of bilingualism:
-Coordinate bilingualism: assures that languages are learned in different conditions and
separate contexts which would imply that the languages are kept apart in mind.
-Compound bilingualism: arises when acquisition takes place in a situation in whitch
both languages are learned in the context and both meanings show a fused
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representation or meaning in the brain. This entails that the languages involved are
somehow interdependent.
-Sub-coordinate bilingualism: derives from the learning of one language first and the
learning of the other later.
It is important to know that there are different ways to became bilingual taking into
account the means of acquisition, and this would depend on whether each of the
languages was acquired as a mother tongue, a second language or a foreign
language.
2.1 Sequential Bilingualism and Simultaneous Bilingualism
Sequential Bilingualism occurs when a person becomes bilingual by first learning one
language and then another. Generally, the term sequential bilingualism applies only if
the child is approximately three years old before being introduced to the second
language. The child begins learning a second language after s/he has already figured
out the basic rules of their first language, and, this may affect his or her learning of the
second language.
Simultaneous bilingualism is the form of bilingualism that takes place when a child
becomes bilingual by learning two languages from birth. Both languages (L1 and L2)
are acquired as first languages. Children in active contact with two languages, since
early infancy, are potentially able to construct grammatical systems and thus, become
competent bilinguals. One of the most common situations of simultaneous bilingualism
is a "one-person, one-language" situation where each parent speaks their own native
language, or they experience a situation where both parents speak both languages.
The "one-person, one-language" is said to help children separate and learn the two
languages.
3. What are the positive and negative effects of Bilingualism?
There have been different studies about the bilingual phenomena and their positive and
negative consequences. Several studies in the first half of the last century appears to
show that bilingual children had lower IQs and they were outperformed by monolingual
children in both verbal and nonverbal intelligence tests. Most of those studies
concluded that bilingualism had a negative effect on the child’s linguistic, cognitive and
educational development.
However, through the last century, the opinions have changed and researchers have
found that bilingualism is a real asset for child. Many studies have came to the
conclusion that bilinguals are more sensitive to semantic relations between words, are
better able to treat sentence structure analytically, are better at rule-discovery tasks
and have greater social sensibility among other things.
The positive bilingual effects shown by bilinguals are found in certain metalinguistic
abilities, that is, the capacity to analyze different aspects of language (sounds, words,
syntax…) and if needed, to talk about these properties.
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Researchers have searched that the main advantages of bilingualism are:
-Being able to learn new words easily
-Playing rhyming games with words like “cat” / “hat”
-Breaking down words by sounds, such as C-A-T for cat
-Being able to use information in new ways
-Putting words into categories
-Coming up with solutions to problems
-Good listening skills
-Connecting with others
However, one domain where it would appear that bilinguals do less well than
monolinguals is in vocabulary tests such as choosing a picture that illustrates the word
spoken by the experimenter. This is not surprising due to bilinguals usually acquire and
use their language for different purposes, in different domains of life and with different
people. Bilinguals are constantly activating both languages in their brain, choosing
which to use and which to ignore, similar to a traffic light giving red or green light with
an specific purpose.
4. Examples of bilingual effects on grammatical structures.
When two languages are at the disposal of the bilingual speaker, there are sometimes
unintentional interferences between the two codes. A clear example would be a child
who receives a bilingual education and (s)he mix both languages and transfer words
from one into the other.
Another example would be code-mixing. It occurs when the interlocutors change from
one language to the other in the course of the conversation. Code-mixing is common in
the speech of immigrants. Spanish-speakers immigrants in the USA often use English
words or expressions when they speak Spanish.
Example of code-mixing: “La consulta era eight dollars”
Example of code-switching: “Are we having a despedida party?”
Tag-switching, the use of exclamations or tags form one language into an utterance in
other language, is one example of code-switching that can affect bilinguals:
“ESCUCHA, when I was young I used to be…”
Intersential switch like “I was talking with Paul yesterday Y ME DIJO stop thinking
about it…” would be another bilingual effect reflected in grammatical structure.
Intrasentential switch is another example due to the code-switch where both codes are
mixed within a sentence: “She was acting real IMPACIENTE, you know…”
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To sum up, L2 may influence L1 phonology, morphosyntax, lexis, semantics,
pragmatics and rethoric levels and vice versa and this inference depends on:
-Individual speaker facts (age, goals, attitudes)
-Sociolinguistic factors (context, language exposure, language prestige)
- Linguistic or psycholinguistic factors (language level, typological similarity)
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