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Bilingual - two monolinguals in one person?

I strongly recommend the work and research of Francois Grosjean to anyone who would like to understand what a holistic approach to bilingualism is. Grosjean is a Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Language and Speech Processing Laboratory at the University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland). In 1998, he cofounded the journal Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. I have recently read an interview with Grosjean, in which he talks about his own bilingualism, its influence on his research and his friendship with Einar Haugen. What is more important, however, Grosjean briefly describes his approach to bilingualism presented in “Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism”.
Grosjean defines bilingualism as the use of two (or more) languages in one's everyday life, at the same time not knowing two or more languages equally well and optimally, as most laypersons tend to think. Strangely enough, I must admit that the concept of bilingualism as ambilingualism (balanced bilingualism) is extremely strongly rooted in me and so is it in the vast majority of my university colleagues, both in Poland and Spain .Another point emphasized by Grosjean, which again many people seem to be unaware of, is that bilingualism is a very widespread phenomenon and is the norm in today's world (and not the exception). The older perspective on bilingualism (the monolingual view) has had numerous negative consequences, one of which is that bilinguals are very critical of their own language competence and do not consider themselves bilingual. Grosjean claims that the bilingual should be studied as a separate entity in itself and not always in comparison with the monolingual. Bilingual use their languages for different purposes, in different domains of life, with different people. As a result the needs and uses of the two languages are usually quite different and therefore, bilinguals are seldom equally or completely fluent in their languages. According to Grosjean most laypersons still adhere to the monolingual view and the problem is that such a way of thinking, as he points out, would leave half of world’s population without a label. In other words, the monolingual view would refer to a very rare type of people. Don’t forget about that when you think about your bilingualism!

Good news for bilinguals!

Something for a change before I continue with the definitions of bilingualism. It seems that there is a growing base of research on the effects of bilingualism on the brain and it receives a lot of media attention, at least in comparison to other aspects of bilingualism. I have lately come across an article on BBC website from 2004, which describes the research carried out at York University (Canada) by Ellen Bialystok and her team, published in the APA journal Psychology and Ageing. It turns out that bilingualism may protect against senile dementia. This would corroborate the results of a different study (published in Psychologia), conducted also in Canada, at the Rotman Research Institute. According to that investigation, using two languages on a daily basis (knowing two languages would not be enough) may delay the onset of Alzheimer’s and dementia. If you are interested in the details, I encourage you to watch a video on the study.

Are you bilingual enough?

How bilingual do you have to be to have the privilege of calling yourself a bilingual? It is surprising how many people with a near-native command of their L2 wouldn’t identify themselves as bilinguals. Why is it so? What conditions do you have to fulfill in order to be a “real” bilingual? Many people think that bilinguals are those who acquired their L2 naturally in a bilingual family and hence, their second language is perfect, indistinguishable form their L1, especially in terms of phonological features. Others claim that only those who acquired their L2 in a formal context by means of instruction are entitled to receive the label bilingual. What about the rest of L2 speakers (I am pretty sure this wouldn’t be a small group), who acquired their second language in a variety of other contexts, especially mixed contexts? Do they speak one language, one and a half language or no language whatsoever? Moreover, are bilinguals’ languages the same, that is, are they equally competent in both languages?This leads us to the basic question: who is a bilingual? Don’t expect me to provide you with the answer; I am just a greenhorn. Soon you will see how intricate this task turned out to be even for renowned scholars.