Á þessari síðu fer fram eftirgrennslunarnám (PBL = Problem Based Learning)
í samvinnu allra þáttakenda í námskeiðinu. Þáttakendur eru beðnir að velta fyrir sér eftirfarandi vandamálum og spurningum og leita svara við þeim á Netinu, á bókasöfnum eða hjá einstaklingum sem hafa reynslu af móðurmálskennslu erlendis. Vinsamlegast sendið inn niðurstöðurnar af eftirgrennslan ykkar hér.
Þær verða síðan birtar á þessari síðu. Sendið einnig inn nýjar spurningar,
tillögur að umræðuefnum, greinar og ábendingar um fleiri tengla og rit.

• Hvernig er hægt að skilgreina tvítyngi?
• Hvernig og undir hvaða kringumstæðum verða börn tvítyngd?
• Eru einhver vandamál því samfara að barn verður tvítyngt?
• Hvernig kemur ójafnvægt tvítyngi fram hjá minnihlutahópum?
• Hvaða munur er á tvítyngi í mæltu hversdagsmáli og tvítyngi á rituðu máli á æðri skólastigum?
• Hvers vegna er tvítyngi talið óæskilegt í sumum þjóðfélögum?
• Hvernig þróast tvítyngi hjá íslenskumælandi börnum erlendis?
• Hvernig þróast tvítyngi hjá nábúabörnum á Íslandi?
• Hvaða áhrif hefur tvítyngi á þróun þjóðfélagsins?

Crawford, James: Bilingual Education History, Politics, Theory and Practice

Cummins:

Hyltenstam; Kenneth (red) (1996): Tvåspråkighet med förhinder?
Invandrar- och minoritetsundervisning i Sverige Lund Studentlitteratur

Krashen, Stephen:
Skutnabb - Kangas, Tove (1981): Tvåspråkighet Lund Liber läromedel

Vysotsky

"Definitions Relating to Bilingualism
bilingualism
     There are many definitions of bilingualism, some of them incorrect and based on myth. A person does not, for example, have to speak both languages with equal fluency to be a bilingual. It is very common for bilinguals, even those who have been bilingual since birth, to be somewhat "dominant" in one language. I (Cindy) define bilingualism simply as using two languages on a regular basis. There are other valid definitions of bilingualism, of course;
those who are interested in learning more are invited to skip ahead to the Books and Newsletters page and start reading some of the references mentioned there.

bilingual family
     Quite simply, a family in which most of the members are bilingual. There are many reasons why a family may choose to be bilingual, and someday they may even be covered on this Web page.

consecutive bilingualism
     Learning one language after already knowing another. This is the situation for all those who become bilingual as adults, as well as for many who became bilingual earlier in life. Sometimes also called successive bilingualism.

simultaneous bilingualism
     Learning two languages as "first languages". That is, a person who is a simultaneous bilingual goes from speaking no languages at all directly to speaking two languages. Infants who are exposed to two languages from birth will become simultaneous bilinguals.

receptive bilingualism
     Being able to understand two languages but express oneself in only one. This is generally not considered "true" bilingualism but is a fairly common situation worth naming here.

other definitions
     Other distinctions are drawn in the literature, for instance between so-called elitist and folk bilingualism, or between compound and coordinate bilingualism. These terms will be further explained on the Politics of Bilingualism page; the controversies connected with them make short definitions inadequate."

Further information about all of these myths can be found in the books listed on the Books and
Newsletters page.

     "Learning two languages confuses a child and lowers his intelligence."
     Old, poorly designed studies done primarily in the United States claimed to show that
     bilinguals had lower intelligence than monolinguals. Newer research has revealed several
     flaws in the studies. The most obvious flaw is that the bilingual children were recent
     immigrants, with poorer knowledge of English and more stressful life situations than their
     monolingual counterparts. Newer studies with more careful controls have shown that
     bilinguals are better at some specific tasks, such as language games, but that otherwise the
     differences between bilinguals and monolinguals are negligible.

     "A child should learn one language properly first; then you can start teaching the
     other."
     As in the myth above, this is an old belief based on flawed research. Children who learn
     two languages in a loving, supportive environment learn them both well. Children who learn
     two languages in a stressful environment may have language development problems - but so
     will children learning only one langauge in that same sort of environment.

     "A child who learns two languages won't feel at home in either of them. She'll always
     feel caught between two cultures."
     Relatives, friends and strangers will often caution about the "identity problems" children may
     develop if their parents insist on maintaining a bilingual home. The children, they believe, will
     grow up without strongly identifying with either of the languages and, therefore, the groups
     that speak them. Adults who have themselves grown up bilingual, however, generally report
     when asked that they never had problems knowing what groups they were a part of. Some
     even find this concern to be rather bizarre.
     Children who feel accepted by both their cultures will identify with both. Unfortunately it
     happens that two cultures have such unfriendly relations that a child who should belong to
     both is instead shunned by both. This is not however a specifically bilingual issue.

     "Bilinguals have to translate from their weaker to their stronger language."
     The overwhelming majority of bilinguals can think in either of their two languages. They do
     not, as some monolinguals assume, think in one language only and immediately translate into
     the other language when necessary.

     "Children who grow up bilingual will make great translators when they grow up."
     By no means all bilinguals are good at translating. Nor have any studies shown that growing
     up bilingual gives one an advantage or a disadvantage over those who became bilingual as
     adults when it comes to translating. There are many other skills involved, and bilinguals, just
     like monolinguals, are too different to allow for easy generalizations.
     There is one important exception here, however. The sign language interpreters you may
     have seen on television or at public events are most often hearing children of Deaf parents,
     who grew up bilingual.

     "Real bilinguals never mix their languages. Those who do are confused
     'semi-linguals'."
     Bilinguals sometimes "mix" their languages, leading monolinguals to wonder if they are really
     able to tell them apart. Usually, the problem is not genuine confusion - that is, inability to tell
     the languages apart. Far more common problems are interference, when words or grammar
     from the one language "leak" into the other language without the speaker being aware of it -
     analogous to a slip of the tongue - or "code-switching", when the speaker more or less
     intentionally switches languages for effect - analogous to mixing jargon or slang in with
     standard speech.
     Many, if not most, bilingual children will use both languages at once during the early stages
     of their language development. Semi-lingualism is a far more serious, and relatively rare,
     situation that occurs when a child in a stressful environment is trying to learn two or more
     languages with very little input in any of them.

     "Bilinguals have split personalities."
     Some bilinguals do report feeling that they have a different "personality" for each language.
     However, this may be because they are acting according to different cultural norms when
     speaking each of their languages. When speaking English, they assume the cultural role
     expected of them in English-speaking society. This is different than the cultural role
     expected of them in German-speaking society, which they assume when speaking German.
     The change in language cues a change in cultural expectations.

     "Bilingualism is a charming exception, but monolingualism is of course the rule."
     No accurate survey of the number of bilinguals in the world has ever been taken; for fairly
     obvious practical reasons, it is likely none ever will be. But it is very reasonable to guess
     that over half the world's population is bilingual. Most of those who will read this live in
     countries where monolingualism is the rule, but are seeing a very unrepresentative sample of
     the world. See the section on "National versus Personal Bilingualism" on the Politics of
     Bilingualism page.

     "Be very careful; if you don't follow the rules exactly, your children will never
     manage to learn both languages!"
     Some people maintain that "the only way" to raise bilingual children is to follow one specific
     pattern, usually by speaking both languages in the home. Practical experience, on the other
     hand, has shown that children learn both languages regardless of the pattern of exposure, as
     long as that pattern is reasonably consistent (and perhaps even that is not a requirement!).
     More information can be found on the Practical Help page.

     "You'll never manage to make him bilingual now. People really can't learn a
     language after age X."
     Language learning is easier the younger you are when you start, and there are biological
     reasons why very few adults can learn to speak a new language with a native accent.
     However, people can learn valuable language skills at any age. Establishing a bilingual home
     when your first child is born, if not before, is the easiest for all, but it can be done later if
     you for some reason must do so.

From a visitor to the Cheyenne language site, David Rider of Xavier University in
Louisiana, comes these observations on the effect of bilingualism (or
multilingualism, for that matter, which is common, for instance, in Europe):

The limited research on bilingualism with which I am familiar, from the
standpoint of a psychologist who teaches human development, suggests that there
are no negative consequences for children who speak two languages. The
research deals mainly with kids whose parents are of one language at home and
their school teaches English. Some people fear that teaching children another
language at home may interfere with their learning English in schools. I know
people with such fears. No research that I am aware of supports those fears. You
might have a look at the following articles:

Brislin, R. (1993). Culture's influence on behavior. Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt
Brace Jovanovich.

Diaz, R. M. (1983). "Thought and two languages: The impact of bilingualism on
cognitive development." Review of Research In Education 10: 23-54.

Fillmore, L. W. (1989). "Teachability and second language acquisition." In M.L.
Rice & R. L. Schiefelbusch (Eds.), The teachability of language. Baltimore: Paul
H. Brooks.

Hakuta, K., & Garcia, E. E. (1989). "Bilingualism and education." American
Psychologist 44:374-379.

On January 14, 1998, Professor Rider added the following:

The most important thing to consider is that it is the quality of bilingual education
that counts most in facilitating cognitive development: Quality of each of the two
or more languages that the child learns. Children who learn a second language, or
who grow up with two different languages, where one language does not replace
the other but supplements the other show the greatest benefits. One of Diaz'
conclusions is that higher degrees of bilingualism (i.e., the more competent in
each language the child becomes) are associated with greater cognitive flexibility
and improved concept formation. Why this is so remains speculative, but it
probably is related to the fact that, with two distinct languages in a child's
repertoire, the child has different frames of reference for concepts; different ways
of looking at things in the world provided by the different languages.

A recent study by Kimbrough Oller (1995: Early speech and word learning in
bilingual and monolingual children: Advantages of early bilingualism; a paper
presented at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of
Science, Atlanta) compared groups of children who grew up with both Spanish
and English versus children who spoke only English. The bilingual group actually
spoke better English than the English-only group. These results apply only to
children who learn Spanish and English simultaneously at a young age.

In contrast, another a recent study by Grace Yeni-Konshian (1995: What
happens to our first language when we learn a second language? Paper presented
at the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science,
Atlanta) looked at children who moved to the United States from Korea between
the ages of 2 and 24 years. For children who began speaking English between the
ages of 6 and 8 years, they were proficient at neither Korean nor English. So the
message is, early bilingual education is good, later education is not so good.

I am not bilingual. But friends of mine who are (mostly friend who speak English
and a Native American language, although I know a couple of English/Spanish
speakers, too) proficient at more than one language tell me that moving in and out
of two or more languages is like moving in and out of two different worlds.
Speaking one language amounts to thinking in one way; speaking another
language means thinking in another way. Cognitive skills are measured almost
exclusively in terms of verbal functioning. And that is probably why children
proficient in multiple languages show cognitive benefits, while children NOT
proficient in multiple languages (but only marginally competent) do not show
cognitive benefits.

We would welcome references to other literature on this topic, to be added to this
       page. Please email other references or comments to Wayne Leman.

          Return to the main page of the Cheyenne Language Web Site

     Coping with the Challenge of Raising
                     Bilingual Children

Dear Parents, Guardians and Teachers of Bilingual Children,

We know that raising bi(multi-)lingual children is a rough and often frustrating path to follow with
new challenges and disappointments waiting for you at every turn. This can also at times seem to
be a very lonely path. That's why we encourage you to try to build a support network around you,
a network that will be there to sooth your frustration and doubts as well as help you carry out this
difficult task successfully.

We have decided to stand by the parents who have the chance and also the determination to
enrich their children's life with the wealth of more than one language and more than one culture, to
become a part of this network.Therefore, we are offering the following pages as a contribution to
support your decision and determination.

We are convinced that the benefits of bilingualism far outweigh the difficulties presented by the
process, so we encourage you to contact us with any ideas, questions, information, doubts...
regarding the issues of bilingualism:

     Greek Language Resources
     1032 Irving Street, Ste. 602
     San Francisco, CA 94122-2200

     FAX:   415 - 564.6983

     E-MAIL: langfr@greeklang.com

TUTORIALS IN BILINGUALISM

Psycholinguistic Perspectives

edited by
Annette M.B. de Groot
University of Amsterdam
Judith F. Kroll
Pennsylvania State University

The past fifteen years have witnessed an increasing interest in the cognitive study of the bilingual.
A major reason why psychologists, psycholinguists, applied linguists, neuropsychologists, and
educators have pursued this topic at an accelerating pace presumably is the acknowledgment by
increasingly large numbers of language researchers that the incidence of monolingualism in
individual language users may be lower than that of bilingualism. This alleged numerical imbalance
between monolinguals and bilinguals may be expected to become larger due to increasing
international travel through, for instance, tourism and trade, to the growing use of international
communication networks, and to the fact that in some parts of the world (i.e., Europe), the
borders between countries are effectively disappearing.

In addition to the growing awareness that bilinguals are very common and may even outnumber
monolinguals, there is the dawning understanding that the bilingual mind is not simply the sum of
the cognitive processes associated with each of the two monolingual modes, and that the two
languages of bilingual may interact with one another in complicated ways. To gain a genuinely
universal account of human cognition will therefore require a detailed understanding of language
use by both pure monolinguals as well as bilinguals, unbalanced and balanced, and of the
representations and processes involved.

These two insights, that bilingualism is a common human condition and that it may influence
cognition, were presumably instrumental in putting bilingualism on the agendas of many
researchers of cognition and language in recent years. But other reasons may have played a role
too: The study of bilingualism also provides a unique opportunity to study the relation between
language and thought. A final reason for the growing interest in this area of research is the
awareness that bilingualism may confer the benefit of broadening one's scope beyond the limits of
one's own country and culture.

Taken together, the chapters included in the present volume represent a comprehensive and
interrelated set of topics that form the core of contemporary research on the psycholinguistics of
bilingualism. The issues raised within this perspective not only increase our understanding of the
nature of language and thought in bilinguals but also of the basic nature of the mental architecture
that supports the ability to use more than one language.

audience:
Scholars interested in language cognitive science, especially applied linguists, psycholinguists and
cognitive psychologists; a supplemental text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses
in psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology or language acquisition; a required text for upper-level
undergraduate and graduate courses in bilingualism or second language acquisition.

Contents: Preface. A.M.B. de Groot, J.F. Kroll, Introduction. Part I: Second Language
Acquisition. B. Harley, W. Wang, The Critical Period Hypothesis: Where Are We Now? N.C.
Ellis, N. Laporte, Contexts of Acquisition: Effects of Formal Instruction and Naturalistic
Exposure on Second Language Acquisition. N. Segalowitz, Individual Differences in Second
Language Acquisition. B. MacWhinney, Second Language Acquisition and the Competition
Model. Part II: Representation, Comprehension, and Production in Two Languages. M.
Chapnik Smith, How Do Bilinguals Access Lexical Information? J.F. Kroll, A.M.B. de Groot,
Lexical and Conceptual Memory in the Bilingual: Mapping Form to Meaning in Two Languages.
N. Poulisse, Language Production in Bilinguals. F. Grosjean, Processing Mixed Language:
Issues, Findings, and Models. A.Y. Durgunoglu, Bilingual Reading: Its Components,
Development, and Other Issues. Part III: The Consequences of Bilingualism for Thought and
for Special Forms of Language Processing. V. Cook, The Consequences of Bilingualism for
Cognitive Processing. R. Dufour, Sign Language and Bilingualism: Modality Implications for
Bilingual Language Representation. M. Paradis, The Cognitive Neuropsychology of Bilingualism.