Abstract: Research in Bilingualism
Bilingualism and Bilingual education have
their roots in the earliest records of human society. Bilingual tablets from
ancient Egypt such as the Rosetta stone, parchments and engravings from Greek
and Roman eras along with records well up until modern times indicate that
bilingualism was and is a common and widespread phenomenon, in fact most of the
world today is in some way bilingual. Historically as well as now the reasons
for Bilingualism are many. The contexts in which
people learn another language and their motivations, are diverse and
complicated. Whether a language is acquired out of necessity to survive or out
of a desire to expand ones horizons, will have a big influence on the
individuals involved and how that new language will effect
them.
The effects of bilingualism may seem
obvious at first glance, as either positive or negative, depending on personal
experience, however any simple conclusions are in reality very difficult to
make. Research into this area has attempted to investigate bilingualism with
respect to its cognitive, social and linguistic effects. In the later half of
this century research findings here have stirred up some heated debates. Any
kind of consensus has been very difficult to achieve, as results have often
been unreliable, inconsistent and contradictory.
The problem with Bilingual research begins
with definitions. What exactly is bilingualism? Who is bilingual? To what degree? Early definitions of bilingualism tended to
be quite narrow and based primarily on linguistic or structural aspects not
accounting for the vast individual, contextual and psychological differences
that greatly determine the nature of bilingualism and ultimately its effects on
the speaker. Bilingualism is not merely a condition involving persons with a
command of two languages as early definitions such as those by