Life With Two Languages

by Grosjean, Francois

• ISBN13: 9780674530928
• ISBN10: 0674530926
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1984-03-01
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

Many people consider bilinguals to be exceptional, yet almost half the world's population speaks more than one language. Bilingualism is found in every country of the world, in every class of society, in all age groups. Life with Two Languages is the first book to provide a complete and authoritative look at the nature of the bilingual experience. Francois Grosjean, himself a bilingual, covers the topic from each of its many angles in order to provide a balanced introduction to this fascinating phenomenon. Grosjean discusses the political and social situations that arise when languages come into contact and the policies nations have established toward their linguistic minorities in the domains of education and governance. Of particular interest is his detailed account of the psychological and social factors that lead a bilingual to choose one of her languages when speaking to another bilingual or to use both languages in the fascinating phenomenon of code-switching. The author explains how children become bilingual as quickly as they become monolingual, describes the organization of languages in the bilingual brain, and examines the legacy of bilingualism on language, as exemplified in word borrowings. Above all, Life with Two Languages puts the emphasis on the bilingual person. In a series of first-hand reports scattered throughout the book, bilinguals tell what it is like to live with two languages and describe the educational and social experiences they have undergone. Written in a clear and informative style, Life with Two Languages will appeal to professionals and students in linguistics, education, sociology, and psychology, as well as to the more casually curious.

Table of Contents

Bilingualism in the World	1	(41)
The Extent of Bilingualism	2	(1)
National Patterns of Bilingualism	3	(21)
Language Policy and Linguistic Minorities	24	(6)
The Origins of Bilingualism	30	(6)
The Outcome of Bilingualism	36	(6)
Bilingualism in the United States	42	(71)
Language Diversity and Bilingualism	44	(13)
Aspects of the Life of Linguistic Minorities	57	(10)
Bilingual Education	67	(14)
Some Linguistic Minorities	81	(21)
Language Maintenance and Language Shift	102	(11)
Bilingualism in Society	113	(54)
Attitudes toward Language Groups and Languages	117	(10)
Language Choice	127	(18)
Code-Switching	145	(12)
Bilingualism and Biculturalism	157	(10)
The Bilingual Child	167	(61)
Becoming Bilingual	170	(9)
The Acquisition of Two Languages	179	(20)
Aspects of Bilingualism in the Child	199	(8)
Education and the Bilingual Child	207	(13)
The Effects of Bilingualism on the Child	220	(8)
The Bilingual Person	228	(61)
Describing a Person's Bilingualism	230	(10)
The Psycholinguistics of Bilingualism	240	(18)
The Bilingual Brain	258	(10)
The Bilingual as a Person	268	(21)
Bilingual Speech and Language	289	(54)
Speaking to a Monolingual	292	(16)
Speaking to a Bilingual	308	(24)
The Legacy of Bilingualism	332	(11)
References	343	(18)
Acknowledgments	361	(2)
Index	363